Hell had a home on earth, and that was Latvia in the 1940s, probably the most crimson patch in the so-called "bloodlands" between Hitler and Stalin. Rather than just a moralistic expose of "totalitarian crimes," the author has done a meticulous job of social analysis, delineating who supported which invader and why. Ironically the local nationalists were more blood-thirsty than the Nazis, who drew back at the excesses of their erstwhile collaborators. Focusing on the mixed ethnic/religious region of Latgalia, the reader must sometimes close his eyes at the kaleidoscope of ethnic politics and class interest than swirled in this tight corner. How dizzying it must also have looked to its would-be conquerors, hoping to exploit its class and ethnic antagonisms only to be turned and hamstrung by them. Essential reading for anyone seeking in-depth understanding of the time and place, without the sweeping generalizations of Timothy Snyder's "Bloodlands."
