Replies

Utopian movements always build a facade of altruism to help them seize power, but once in power their true totalitarian brutal nature emerges. No sadistic tyrant or bloodthirsty dictator in recent history came to power telling people of the horrors that would ensue, but rather told their people that they were going to put right some terrible wrong. They also find some group to marginalize and direct peoples animosity towards (the Jews, the Kulaks, the rich etc.).

Regarding the Second World War, there's a somewhat recently published book by Timothy Snyder titled Bloodlands - Europe Between Hitler and Stalin which does an excellent job of revealing the vileness of both the Communists and the Nazis. Rather than focusing on the Jewish Holocaust, it tells (comprehensively) the story of the greater number of people who were starved and slaughtered in the "death zone" between their opposing armies. When the war ended, "those bloodlands fell behind the iron curtain, leaving their history in darkness." I recommend it.

Thank you.

I've read good reviews about Bloodlands. Another recently published book that has received critical acclaim is Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956 by Anne Applebaum (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 2012).

Thanks for reminding me about “Bloodlands.” I remember reading the review of it in the Wall Street Journal last October and put it on my Amazon Wish List. I just ordered it after your recommendation.

I just finished “The Venona Secrets” and started “The Founder’s Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms” by Stephen Halbrook. The genocides in Europe last century sure do drive home the importance of the Second Amendment.

The fact is that Hitler and Stalin both greatly admired each other, despite being bitter enemies....Hitler would go out of his way to insult Churchill and FDR, but he never personally directed insults towards Stalin personally.