Between Stalin and Hitler (Basees/Routledgecurzon Series on Russian and East European S) [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

Little has been written on the history of the Second World War on the experience of collaboration and resistance of the Baltic States. The struggle between Nazism and communism was at its sharpest in Latvia, where Latvians were fighting in the Latvian SS Legion as well as in the Latvian Division of the Red Army, hence making it a civil war. Covering the horrors that took place in Latvia from the beginning of the Second World War until 1947, this book focuses on the heart of the twentieth century: Stalinist industrialisation, collectivisation and political annihilation; Nazi expansionism and genocide; with in addition local nationalism, local nationalist rivalries, and local anti-Semitism. The author traces the developments in once particular region of Latvia, Daugavpils. There, the dilemma Hitler or Stalin, the ideological struggle of fascism or communism was more acute than anywhere else in Europe since the population was actively involved in establishing both.

Little has been written on the history of the Second World War on the experience of collaboration and resistance of the Baltic States. The struggle between Nazism and communism was at its sharpest in Latvia, where Latvians were fighting in the Latvian SS Legion as well as in the Latvian Division of the Red Army, hence making it a civil war. Covering the horrors that took place in Latvia from the beginning of the Second World War until 1947, this book focuses on the heart of the twentieth century: Stalinist industrialisation, collectivisation and political annihilation; Nazi expansionism and genocide; with in addition local nationalism, local nationalist rivalries, and local anti-Semitism. The author traces the developments in once particular region of Latvia, Daugavpils. There, the dilemma Hitler or Stalin, the ideological struggle of fascism or communism was more acute than anywhere else in Europe since the population was actively involved in establishing both.

A graduate of the University of Sussex, Geoffrey Swain studied for his PhD at the London School of Economics under the guidance of Professor Leonard Schapiro.