BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Kerli and Hannah

Apologies to Milan Kundera for borrowing from the title from his literary masterpiece, which explores artistic behaviour during the Prague Spring with an intellectual and philosophical vigour, that apparently is untranslatable. Kundera is on record saying Hollywood’s version of The Unbearable Lightness of Being with Daniel Day-Lewis had little if nothing in common with his book, which was written in 1982, but only published, with Kundera’s approval in the Czech Republic in the original Czech in 2006. Kundera has remarked that the movie had very little to do with either the spirit of the novel or the characters in it.

Yet after listening to the feather-brained Kerli’s now officially, (as of yesterday) released single “Zero Gravity”, and seeing the brand new video, courtesy of Õhtuleht (link below) I found no other words to describe this vapid paean to all that Hollywood in its brainwashing fervour holds dear.

What is truly a weightless number was actually already on the air, if you will excuse the attempt at humour, already last year. Kerli performed “Zero Gravity” at Vabaduse laul, Freedom song, in Tallinn, along with other English language numbers (that August 20th festival marked 20 years of reindependence from Soviet occupation for the younger set). The 25 year-old from Elva apparently has very few Estonian selections in her repertoire. So a young man, who greeted my news about Kerli’s release by beginning to sing the song, tells me.

I’ll leave the blatant anti-Christian symbolism in the video for others to comment on, but it is there – just as it was when Kerli first came to my attention with her initial attempt at swaying young minds with the help of superficial America and Hollywood. That was with the release of “Walking on Air”, which demonstrated more musical and lyrical fluff coupled with mind control symbolism.

Deportations, a centuries-old terror mechanism used both by the Russian and Soviet governments

Deportations, whether perpetrated by Russians or Soviets have been in their arsenal of rule by terror for centuries. They have always represented an attempt to violently remove those whom the authorities have deemed disloyal, distrusted, a political rival etc. This forced resettlement of millions of children, women and men has led to predictable human misery and immortality.

Soviet rule over the Baltic states was a classical colonial occupation complete with armed resistance, economic exploitation and foreign settlement. One should note here that Moscow’s continual denial and rejection of the actuality of the occupation has never been challenged seriously by the international community in a manner with which holocaust deniers have been universally condemned.

Deportations in Estonia can be traced back to the 1500’s: Russia’s Ivan IV deported some of Tartu’s rebellious German population to Russia in 1572; from 1701 to 1708 the armed forces of Peter I deported some 10,000 Estonians to Siberia; in 1708 a large portion of Germans in Tartu were deported to the Vologda region; in the same year nearly 1400 Germans from Narva were deported to various destinations in Russia. Only 700 made it back; in 1781 Catherine II ordered Swedish families in Hiiumaa to be deported to the southern Steppes of Russia. The above are just examples of the numerous deportation operations carried out in the Baltic states.

Let freedom sing

Sacred ground

That’s what our guide, Magrit, calls the vast open-air theater on the outskirts of Tallinn, the ancient capital of the tiny Baltic nation of Estonia. Here, in the late 1980s, Estonians gathered by the thousands to sing patriotic songs and express their deep disdain for their Soviet rulers. Finally, in 1991, the “Singing Revolution” triumphed, and Estonia became free.

Our trip to Tallinn coincides with a national celebration in that theater, marking 20 years of independence. As we enter the grounds, someone hands us small paper versions of the Estonian flag — horizontal bands of black, white and blue — and we edge our way into the vast crowd and find a spot on the grass. Extended families, including seniors in lawn chairs and babies in arms, are everywhere. A local band is playing a fast-paced tune — who knew that a violin and an accordion could be so stirring? — and folks all around us are waving flags and white balloons. We join in eagerly, hoisting our little pennants on their wooden sticks, sharing briefly in this moment of national exhilaration.

Between songs, a huge screen projects images of Estonians offering their observations on the meaning of independence. An athlete urges expatriates to “come back home [on] a ship of songs.” A poet suggests that “survivors are messengers” and that “through them I can remember the future.” A woman says simply: “Something wonderful has happened here. A miracle, really.”

Then Brainstorm, a rock band from the neighboring country of Latvia, plays a tune with the recurring refrain, “That’s all we have.” I think the singer is talking about love, but he could mean the land.

Or liberty

Russia dismayed by U.S. statement on 1944 Tallinn air raid

Moscow has condemned a statement by the U.S. Embassy in Estonia that called the Soviet air attack on Nazi-held Tallinn in 1944 an act of "foreign occupation," the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

“It is regrettable that American diplomats in Tallinn are once again conniving in the attempts by certain powers in the Baltic States to distort the historic truth and set the Russian and Estonian people at loggerheads,” the ministry said in a statement.

Russia's reaction came after the U.S. Embassy in Estonia issued a statement on March 9 announcing a ceremony commemorating the 1944 Soviet bombing of Tallinn that called the attack “tragic both in its devastating loss of life and its military inefficacy.”

Over 300 Soviet bombers raided Tallinn on March 9, 1944 in an attempt to destroy the Nazi forces occupying the city. However, the bombing mainly claimed the lives of civilians, killing over 500 people and injuring almost 700.

The attack, seen by many Estonians as an act of Russian aggression, remains one of the most controversial issues in the history of the World War II.

The U.S. statement also said the bombing failed to “break the spirit of the Estonian people,” a phrase that Moscow views with “condemnation and outrage.”

It argues the attack has been “taken out of the historical context” and that the bombing was part of Soviet military actions to liberate the Baltic States from Nazi troops, the Foreign Ministry said.

Dina Danilova

Estonia strives to shake off Soviet energy dependence

The three Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were always undigested morsels in the maw of the USSR.

Liberated by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles into independence, the three nations enjoyed freedom until the cynical Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of August 1939 assigned them to the Soviet sphere of influence between Hitler and Stalin.

Subsequently absorbed by the USSR, the states were “liberated’ by the Nazis in their 1941 Soviet invasion plan Operation Barbarossa, only to be “re-liberated” in 1944 by the Red Army.

They remained under Soviet thralldom until the late 1980s, when “reformist” Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev’s twin policies of “glasnost” (“openness”) and perestroika (“reconstruction”) were taken seriously by citizens of the three republics, whose stroppiness helped encourage other Soviet citizens to end Lenin’s grand experience in coercing peoples to a better future in December 1991.

But, as the old pop song puts it, “breaking up is hard to do,” and Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia have remained tied to Russian energy exports even as they have joined both the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO).

So, how to break the last (energy) umbilical cord to Moscow, subject to the whims of state-owned natural gas monopoly Gazprom?

In Estonia’s case, find other energy suppliers beyond the Russian Federation.

Let's Go : Music from the Baltic

Cantus will perform “The Singing Revolution,” an inspiring story of music and revolution in the Baltic States.

In 1989 the people of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia joined hands in a peaceful revolution of song to gain their independence from the Soviet Union. Cantus shares this inspiring story and the music of the Baltic states.

Time: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 15
Cost: Adults $25; students $10
Location: The Cowles Center, 528 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis

Time: 8:30 p.m. Friday, March 23
Cost: Adults $25; students $10
Location: Colonial Church, 6200 Colonial Way, Edina

Info: cantussings.org or (612) 435-0055

Read more: Chanhassen Villager - Let s Go Music from the Baltic

Historic Centre of Tallinn

Tallinn is an outstanding and exceptionally complete and well-preserved example of a medieval northern European trading city. It retains the salient features of this unique form of economic and social community to a remarkable degree.

Archaeological investigations have shown that a fort on the limestone plateau of Toompea and a trading post and harbour at its foot, on the Viking route to Constantinople, have existed since the 10th-11th centuries. With the expansion of Baltic trade, the settlement known at that time as Lyndanise (Reval in German, Kolyvan in Russian) was occupied in 1219 by troops of Waldemar II of Denmark, who strengthened the fortifications on Toompea and built the first church.

After coming under direct papal jurisdiction in 1226-27, the town was divided into two parts: the fortress (castrum ) and the lower town (suburbum ). In 1230 the order invited 200 German merchants from Gotland to Tallinn, where they settled around a new church dedicated to St Nicholas, alongside the existing Estonian, Scandinavian and Russian trading posts. In 1248 Tallinn adopted the Lübeck statute, becoming a full member of the Hanseatic League in 1285. Its prosperity was reflected by its rapid growth in the 14th century: work began on the massive town wall in 1310, enclosing an area laid out according to the characteristic Baltic trading pattern with radiating streets. Along with the territory of northern Estonia, the town was sold to the Livonian Order, and it was the latter that was responsible for rebuilding the castle on Toompea as one of the strongest in the region.

With the fall of Visby in 1361 the importance of Tallinn increased substantially. The 15th century saw the transformation of the town, with the construction of a new town hall and other public buildings and the rebuilding of the merchants' wooden houses in stone. It was annexed by Sweden in 1561, and it was Swedish architects who were responsible for the reconstruction of the Toompea area after a disastrous fire in 1684 and for the addition of a system of bastions to the fortifications. In 1710 the town surrendered to the troops of Tsar Peter I, entering into a half-century of commercial and cultural stagnation, but this came to an end when its role as a provincial administrative centre was confirmed, with the castle as its seat. The town was heavily bombed in 1944. The church of St Nicholas and the area around it suffered grave damage.

Call for Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian communities.....

Members of the European Parliament with the Unitas Foundation and NGO TuliPisar invite Baltic communities across the world to hold commemoration events on March 25th, the launch day of the 1949 March deportations.

Soviet mass deportations from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are among the most disheartening events in the history of the Baltic States. During Stalin’s rule, more than 150 000 people were forcefully taken to Siberia, thousands not even surviving the road there. Since 2010, commemoration events have been held in Estonia and by Estonian communities in more than 10 countries. On March 25th 2012, thousands of candles will again be lit in memory of the deportees. Among others, the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Members of the European Parliament are hosting a commemoration event in Brussels.

Baltic communities across the world are invited to join the initiative and hold remembrance events around March 25th, regardless of format. The Unitas Foundation and NGO TuliPisar would be delighted to receive a notification from the organisers of such events at anna.karolin@unitasfoundation.org. Additionally, please visit www.unitasfoundation.org/remem... for a free information kit on Soviet deportations from the Baltic States.

If you wish to contribute to the success of these events in other ways, kindly visit the http://www.unitasfoundation.or... to make a small donation or contact us.
Please join us in keeping alive the memory of people who endured inequitable suffering and perished to no avail.

Fury of Moscow over bid to call Estonian SS soldiers 'freedom fighters'

Estonia has caused outrage with plans to honour hundreds of Nazi collaborators. The EU country is expected to give official ‘freedom fighter’ status to veterans of the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division. Several hundred who fought in the Estonian SS gather annually to commemorate their role in battles against Soviet forces.

The division was founded in 1944 by the occupying Nazis. The veterans say they allied with the Nazis to defend their country from the Soviets but anti-Nazi campaigners claim the troops were involved in war crimes against civilians. Johan Backman, of World without Nazism, said: ‘The Estonian SS legionaries did not fight for Estonia. They fought for Hitler.’ Russia described the move as ‘blasphemous and unacceptable.

Several hundred men who fought in the Estonian SS still gather every year to commemorate their role in battles against Soviet forces.

The division was founded in 1944 by the occupying Nazis - three years after Germany launched Operation Barbarossa and invaded Russia with the most powerful invasion force in history. More than three million German troops attacked in three parallel offensives. Despite warnings that Germany could not fight a war on two fronts, Hitler saw the Russian invasion of Romania in 1940 as a threat to his Balkan oil supply and invaded with 3,000 tanks, 2,500 aircraft and 7,000 artillery pieces.

The Red Army was disorganised and the Germans were able to push 300 miles into Russia before the winter hit and the advance slowed. The war on the Eastern Front went on for four bloody years and arguably resulted in the eventual defeat of the Nazis.

Through the Baltic States in a 2011 Jaguar XJ

All politics is local. So Congressman Thomas P. O'Neill, the late Democratic power broker, once famously observed. Although the legendary New England buttonholer's succinct aphorism originally concerned an election he'd lost in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the 1930s, his words continue to resonate.

As they did recently when I set off by Jaguar XJ from a rock-music festival in Latvia to catch up with Toomas Hendrik Ilves, president of Estonia, the smallest, most northern, and most thriving of the three former Soviet republics on the Baltic Sea. Ilves and I once had a political connection, and while it had been some time ago, it was very local. How's that?

The Jaguar part is easy: the carmaker sent an XJ -- my current favourite luxury touring sedan -- overland from its German headquarters, through Poland, to meet us in Riga, Latvia, a handsome port city at the mouth of the Daugava River. From Riga, we would drive an hour to Salacgriva to catch my musical charges, the band OK Go, who were performing at the Positivus Festival, a multiday, open-air rock event. Then it was on to Estonia, where we'd spend a few nights in Pärnu, a sleepy seaside retreat on the Gulf of Riga, before heading to the country's capital, the quaint, walled city of Tallinn. Afterward, we'd travel back to Latvia for a few days of castle hopping before rounding out our whirlwind, 1000-mile Baltic tour with twenty hours in Lithuania, birthplace of my paternal grandmother.

Many surprises lay in store for our intrepid trio of English speakers -- me, photographer Martyn Goddard, and my bon vivant college chum, Richard Hart, a former New Orleanian who, like us, enjoys new places, strong drink, and four square meals a day. Eastern Europe gets a bad rap in the United States, even among those who've never been there, so a little look at the facts, up close and personal, couldn't hurt. Among the things we didn't anticipate: the natural beauty and abundance of unspoiled lands, the quality of the roads, and the general ease of transit.

The people look great, too: fit, well-dressed, handsome. Then there was the unexpected appeal of the architecture, along with the hospitable kindness of persons who once lived behind the Iron Curtain, individuals who we in the West were taught to imagine as grim, boring, and unfriendly, but who proved anything but. Still, for sheer improbability, the Estonian president's story gave everything and everyone else a run for their money.

Expedition Nets remains of 6 ships + fighter plane

In the course of a joint Estonian-Swedish expedition this summer, maritime archeologists located the previously-unmapped remains of six ships in the West Estonian Archipelago and the Gulf of Riga.

Although already known to local fishermen and divers, by far the largest underwater object previously unmapped was the wreck of the German cargo steamer SS Meyersledge 15 meters below the surface near the island of Kihnu. According to unconfirmed records, the 63-meter long steamer was sunk by the Soviet Air Force three miles off the coast of Kihnu on September 24, 1944.

"In the Suur Katel Bay [off the Saaremaa coast], we discovered remains of two ships that we are currently working to identify, and an Il-2 plane," Maili Roio, advisor at the Heritage Board and head of the underwater expedition, told Meie Maa. The Il-2 was a Soviet ground-attack fighter used during World War II. Unfortunately, underwater visibility was extremely low at the time of the expedition, Roio said, therefore the archeologists could only retrieve sonar data rather than optical images.

The day the Soviet Union let the Baltic countries go

The collapse of the Soviet Union : 20 years on

Twenty years ago, on September 6, 1991, the Soviet Union recognized the independence of the Baltic republics: Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The empire was breathing its last, many of its agencies were idling and decisions which would have caused an outcry before were made routinely and without much ado. The recognition of the three Baltic countries' independence was sealed by a resolution of the USSR State Council, which did not survive long in the deep shadow of the Politburo and Secretariat of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee.

The Soviet Union pulled out of the Baltics without ceremony - a classic case of "French leave." Yet it was a highly significant move, which complicated the work of the commissions later set up in the Baltic counties to calculate the damage caused by the Soviet occupation. It also complicated the simplistic historical revisionism of the Baltics' post-Soviet authorities, according to which the Soviets were no better than the Nazis and left them no hope of independence.

It appears that the Soviet Union was better, as it did finally, after 50 years, recognize the independence of the three Baltic countries. This created a solid foundation for Russia's relations with them. The policy of President Boris Yeltsin, who supported the independence of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia long before it was officially recognized, no longer clashed with the legislation of the Soviet Union, whose legal successor Russia is.

Estonia Marks 20 Years of Independence From U.S.S.R.

TALLINN — Seventy thousand people flocked to the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the restoration of Estonian independence Saturday, while on Sunday the people of Estonia paid homage to Iceland, the first country to recognize the Baltic republic in 1991, with an Iceland Day festival.

Sinead O’Connor and Kerli, Estonia’s best-known international pop singer, were among 16 acts from both Estonia and abroad who participated in the six-hour Song of Freedom concert on the site where many events of the Singing Revolution, as Estonia’s struggle for liberation in the late 1980s and early 1990s is called, took place.

The Congress of Estonia and Estonian Supreme Council officially restored the Republic of Estonia by a joint vote on Aug. 20, 1991, a day after Soviet party hard-liners had staged a coup in Moscow while Soviet armored troop carriers were on their way to storm Tallinn’s strategic objects.

“We wanted to share this day with our friends from abroad,” said Helen Sildna, chief organizer of both events.

“So far, the tradition of celebrating August 20 had been Estonian national singing; there were a lot of national songs, and it was also a sing-along event that people could join in with. But this time it was a bit of a new concept that we wanted to focus on our friends.

“The way the program came together was by combining artists and musicians who already have a special relationship with Estonia, such as [Finnish accordion player] Kimmo Pohjonen, [Latvian indie-pop band] Brainstorm and [Norwegian folk singer] Mari Boine.”

To have O’Connor headlining the event had a special meaning, as the Irish singer — along with English rock band The Cure — was denied an entrance visa in 1990 when the Soviet authorities were putting pressure on the rebellious republic, preventing her from performing at the Rock Summer festival held at the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn as scheduled.

Pre-Viking ship Baltic's oldest known sail boat

A pre-Viking age ship dating from 750 AD has Estonian researchers convinced they have found one of the first vessels ever to sail on the Baltic Sea.

Researchers at a dig on Estonia's Saaremaa island confirmed the 17-metre-long (55.7-foot) ship used as a burial tomb for warriors had a keel, a device commonly used on sailing vessels to keep them upright in the water by counter-balancing the force of the wind on sails.

So now we have evidence it used sails, said Tallinn University Professor Juri Peets, who is directing the excavation on the island village of Salme where the burial site was discovered last year.

Our ship dates from the year 750 AD ... here in the Baltic Sea region, this is without a doubt the oldest sailing ship that has been found, Peets told local media.

With archeologist's having discovered evidence of broken and chipped bones, they say the 35 the men buried in the vessel appear to have been warriors fallen in battle who were laid to rest in the middle part of the ship in several layers, covered with their shields.

Estonia marks 20 years of "Singing Revolution"

Tens of thousands of people gathered Saturday at Lauluväljak which played a pivotal role in Estonia gaining independence from the USSR 20 years ago, after nearly five decades of occupation

Estonians gathered en masse at the stage _ near the sea just off the center of capital Tallinn _ in the late 1980s and early 90s to protest Soviet rule by singing patriotic songs in a movement that became known as the Singing Revolution.

Saturday's concert, dubbed "The Song of Freedom", pays tribute to Estonia's peaceful struggle to free itself from Soviet repression and was aimed to recapture the unique spirit of 20 years ago through contemporary pop and rock music.

Organizers say up to 70,000 were expected to show up to listen to Estonia's first-tier artists and international acts such as Irish singer Sinead O'Connor and Latvian band Brainstorm.

Baltic and Nordic foreign ministers joined Saturday's Aug. 20 celebration of Estonian independence in the wake of a failed Kremlin coup in 1991. Neighbor Lithuania had already declared independence, and Latvia followed suit one day after.

Estonia's pianos increasingly symbolic of post-Soviet transformation

The meteoric comeback of Estonia's handcrafted concert pianos has come to symbolize the tiny Baltic state's transformation from a Soviet Republic to proud member of the European Union.

When Joseph Stalin turned 70 in 1948, every Soviet Republic was forced to present him with a gift.

Estonia, a tiny republic on the northeastern shore of the Baltic Sea chose to pay tribute with a grand piano handmade by Ernst Hiis, the master craftsman who was trained by Steinway in Hamburg.

Stalin liked the sound so much he ordered Hiis to be the sole manufacturer of concert grand pianos for the entire Soviet Union.

Hiis' company, Estonia Piano, thrived in the Soviet era. But when the union disintegrated, so too did its only market. By 1995, production had fallen to 50 pianos a year, down from 500 in the heyday of communism.

The company faced a grim future, until a 27-year-old Estonian pianist who'd recently graduated from New York's Juilliard School of Music came along with a vision: Buy the company and restore it to its previous grandeur.

"I had the feeling I could do something about this," says Indrek Laul, an Estonian native who shares his time between Tallinn and the United States. He based his strategy on quality. "I felt sure that if we could produce a better piano, we would succeed."

Historic submarine lifted for new museum

Preparations for the opening of North Europe’s biggest new maritime museum are well underway in Estonia with the world’s oldest in the water submarine having been lifted to land.

The legendary Estonian submarine Lembit was hauled from the water at its home port in Tallinn as it is prepared to become the centrepiece at the new maritime museum at the Seaplane Harbour (Lennusadam). The unique museum will be opened at the former seaplane hangars in 2012.

Lembit is the only warship in Estonia’s pre-war fleet to survive intact. It is the crown jewel of Estonia’s military history, being in excellent condition and offering a glimpse of state of the art technology in the 1930s.

Having made its maiden voyage almost 75 years ago, Lembit was hauled to dry land on special air cushions in one of the most complicated water engineering operations ever to be carried out in Estonia. Once on land, the submarine’s interior is being thoroughly restored to give visitors an opportunity to see the submarine as it was in its heyday.

Estonia’s two identical submarines, Lembit and Kalev, were built at the British Vickers-Armstrongs shipyards in Barrow-in-Furness and made their maiden voyage on 7 July 1936. The ships reached Estonia in the summer of 1937 after thorough trials at sea and the training of the crew.

History enthusiast discovers rare film footage

A nearly 100-year-old film reel showing the 1917 German naval and land operation to conquer the western Estonian islands was discovered on the Internet auction site eBay by Vahur Kuhlberg, a collector of antique photographs and documents.

According to ETV, the footage of operation Albion clearly shows 25,000 German troops accompanied by 300 ships in their efforts to occupy Estonia's largest island, Saaremaa, which belonged to Tsarist Russia at the time.

Historian Ago Pajur noted that operation Albion has left its mark on history as the largest and most successful landing operation of World War I. "I had no clue that a film was made about it," he said.

Kuhlberg bought the film for a substantially high price from a Belgian vendor, who said he had obtained it from the former German Nazi Party's school archives. 

After the footage arrived to Estonia, it was immediately taken to restorer Jaak Elling, who said that it was in surprisingly good shape. The reel was probably a copy made from the original footage in 1930, but that does not detract from its substantive value, said Elling.

In the past Kuhlberg has found other rarities by browsing the Internet, such as pencil drawings by the Baltic-German artist Wilhelm Stavenhagen, 18th-century silversmith’s beakers and antique photographs of Estonian manors.  

Ingrid Teesalu

The Singing Revolution has been accepted for national television broadcast ...

Dear TSR Friends,

We are very excited to announce that The Singing Revolution has been accepted for national television broadcast across the United States on PBS stations. This is yet another benchmark for the film’s reach, and it has all happened with the support of friends like you. Thank you. We now have the opportunity to share this story with millions more people.

And once again we need your help.  We need underwriting sponsors to maximize the number of people who will see The Singing Revolution. Underwriting support allows us to hire a marketing service that specializes in reaching PBS programming executives. This service means the difference between playing on a small number of stations versus reaching most of the U.S.

If you know of a group, business, organization, or individual that would be in a position to financially sponsor the film, please pass this information on to them or contact us directly. We need to raise $100,000, and sponsorships of $25,000 or more will receive on-air promotion at the beginning and end of the program.

How Stalin and Hitler enabled each other’s crimes

Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. By Timothy Snyder. Basic Books; 524 pages; $29.95. Bodley Head; £20. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk 

IN THE middle of the 20th century Europe’s two totalitarian empires, Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union, killed 14m non-combatants, in peacetime and in war. The who, why, when, where and how of these mass murders is the subject of a gripping and comprehensive new book by Timothy Snyder of Yale University.

The term coined in the book’s title encapsulates the thesis. The “bloodlands” are the stretch of territory from the Baltic to the Black Sea where Europe’s most murderous regimes did their most murderous work. The bloodlands were caught between two fiendish projects: Adolf Hitler’s ideas of racial supremacy and eastern expansion, and the Soviet Union’s desire to remake society according to the communist template. That meant shooting, starving and gassing those who didn’t fit in.

Just as Stalin blamed the peasants for the failure of collectivisation, Hitler blamed the Jews for his military failures in the east. As Mr Snyder argues, “Hitler and Stalin thus shared a certain politics of tyranny: they brought about catastrophes, blamed the enemy of their choice, and then used the death of millions to make the case that their policies were necessary or desirable. Each of them had a transformative Utopia, a group to be blamed when its realisation proved impossible, and then a policy of mass murder that could be proclaimed as a kind of ersatz victory.”