In Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, Timothy Snyder, a historian specializing in Central and Eastern European history and the Holocaust, offers a groundbreaking examination of the pogroms and mass killings perpetrated by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union before and during World War II. Published in 2010 by Basic Books, this seminal work explores the geopolitical, ideological, and military confrontations between Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union that led to the deaths of approximately 14 million non-combatants in the region Snyder designates as the “Bloodlands”—spanning from central Poland to western Russia, through Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic States. Snyder navigates the complex historical narratives, shedding light on the human cost of totalitarian ambitions. The book belongs to the genre of historical non-fiction, focusing on European history, genocide studies, and political ideologies. While discussing themes such as The Dehumanization Integral to Totalitarian Regimes, The Complexity of Memory and Victimhood, and The Interplay between Ideology and Violence, the book has received multiple awards including the Cundill Prize Recognition of Excellence (2011), Le Prix du livre d’histoire de l’Europe (2013), the Moczarski Prize in History (2010), the American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Award (2011), and the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought (2013).

This guide refers to the 2010 Basic Books e-book edition.

Content Warning: Bloodlands contains detailed descriptions of violence, genocide, and suffering.

Summary

“Bloodlands” refers to the parts of Eastern Europe that were affected by both the Holocaust and Stalin’s purges in rapid successions. Snyder details the atrocities committed by both Hitler and Stalin between 1930 and 1945, including some lesser-known historical events. The account begins with the Second Ukrainian Famine, a program designed by the Soviet government, to punish farmers in Ukraine for their frequent revolts against collectivization.

The famine is caused by a combination of mismanagement of the new collective farms and increasingly harsh food requisitioning programs that soon left Ukrainian farmers with nothing to eat, all their food either remaining unharvested or being transported to other parts of the Soviet Union. During the height of the famine in 1932-1933, as many as seven million people die. This also coincides with Hitler’s rise to power in Germany, an event that helps conceal the extent of the famine on the national stage.

In 1939, Hitler and Stalin enter into an alliance. Stalin, recognizing that war is soon to break out in Europe, wants to keep Russia neutral, hoping to swoop in and take over after Germany, France, and Britain fight. Hitler proposes that Germany and the Soviet Union divide Eastern Europe between the two of them. In the years that follow, the Soviet Union suffers several embarrassing military defeats, caused by a recent purge of the military that results in a shortage of trained officers.

In 1941, Hitler breaks the alliance with the Soviet Union, sending Nazi troops into Eastern Europe. During the first months of the year, the Nazis achieve major victories in Ukraine but are halted when they reach Moscow. Soviet prisoners of war in Nazi custody are systematically starved and executed en masse. According to Snyder, about 57% of Soviet POWs were killed, in contrast to 4% of American and British POWs. Five percent of the Soviet POWs were Jewish.

In addition to mistreatment of the Soviet POWs and Jewish citizens rounded up from conquered Soviet territories, the Nazis also use a Hunger Plan designed by Herbert Backe. Under this program, food is routinely denied to civilians in German-occupied territories. About 4.2 million people die due to severely reduced food rations. However, in most areas, the Germans are unable to confiscate all the food or keep people in cities from stealing. They do cut off the grain supply from Ukraine that leads to food shortages throughout the Soviet Union.

Jewish civilians in occupied Ukraine and Poland also suffer under the Nazi occupation. While Nazi activities in Poland are well documented, Snyder discusses occupied Ukraine, where the entire Jewish population of Kiev was marched into the woods and executed. Many of these people had escaped the famine of the early 1930s, as well as regular Soviet purges of ethnic minorities in the region.

At the same time, the Eastern European regions in question are also subject to regular purges from the Soviet government. Artists, intellectuals, and ethnic minorities are especially vulnerable to being sentenced to forced labor or executed outright. Between 1937 and 1938, 400,000 Soviet citizens are executed, mostly criminals or people with anti-Soviet sympathies. There is also a similar program in Poland designed to wipe out all Polish resistance. Under this program, officers are given a quota of people to arrest, and fear being arrested themselves if they do not meet it.

Citizens of Belarus are especially emblematic of the conflict. By 1942, only half of the pre-war population of the country remains. Those who are still there are forced to side with either the Soviets or the Nazis and then to commit regular atrocities against those enlisted on the other side.

Finally, Allied forces begin talking about attacking the Nazis from the Western Front. Stalin, now a member of the Allies, pushes hard for this so that Russia and the other Allies can trap the Germans between East and West. In 1944, this goes into effect in the form of the Normandy landings. Throughout the next year, the Nazis are systematically pushed out of the Eastern European territories, until the war ends in 1945.

The account as related in Bloodlands ends here, though Joseph Stalin continued to be the leader of the Soviet Union until 1953, with several more minor purges occurring in the region in the intervening years.