Between 1914 & 1945 European society was in almost continuous upheaval enduring two world wars the Russian Revolution the Holocaust & the rise & fall of the Third Reich. In his remarkably ambitious & powerful narrative historian Robert Gellately argues that these tragedies are all inextricably linked & that to consider them as discrete events is to misunderstand their entire genesis & character. Crucially Gellately makes clear how previous studies comparing the Soviet & Nazi dictatorships are fatally flawed by neglecting the importance of Lenin in the unfolding drama & in his rejection of the myth of the good Lenin creates a ground-breaking account of all three dictatorships. The result is a monumental work of history.