Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin.

If I were a benevolent dictator (and how could it be otherwise?), I’d make everyone read Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. Snyder’s work is too important to gather dust; it must be on the move, it must pass from hand to hand until we’ve all read it. From cover to cover. Why? As Confucius once wrote, “Study the past if you would divine the future.” Is this our only chance? Perhaps, but we won’t know until and unless we read Bloodlands.

This is not an easy read; in fact, together with Iron John by Robert Bly and Franz Kafka’s Diaries (bad literature notwithstanding), it’s the most difficult book I’ve read. And yet, not only do I recommend it; I dare you, gentle reader, to delve into the Bloodlands as if your salvation depended on it. Because it does.

Revisit a part of Central Europe marked out by today’s Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, and the Baltic Republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia where the savagery of Nazi and Soviet totalitarian systems collided in a mortal struggle, leaving behind a land of utmost destruction and devastation.

Cast aside Hollywood images of valiant German soldiers or Mosfilm’s images of liberating Russian troupes that linger in your memory. Rather, read Snyder’s account from the hell of Bloodlands and learn what people had gone through as Hitler and Stalin justified their means by creating monstrously efficient killing machines that devoured millions of innocent people, often with no trace. Learn of people’s desperate struggle to survive, of people trapped by history with no exit.

Only when you reach the back cover, you can curse this book and/or send this reviewer to hell. Yes, Snyder’s work cannot be loved, only cherished, as an oyster cherishes a pearl, born of tears and pain.

I’ll understand, for I am from the Bloodlands. Read, gentle reader, so we’ll know how to prevent another country from rising against humanity. Ever. Read.

                  ~ Leszek C, Central Library