Adolf Hitler (Vol. 3)

With a long delay, Joachim Fest’s book reaches the Russian reader. It had to rest on shelves in special archives for years, like most Western works about fascism. Back then, recognition itself was dangerous. For all the distinctiveness of the brown-and-red totalitarianism, the similarity of structures and leaders was simply too obvious.

Nowadays, readers’ attention will likely be drawn to striking analogies and parallels between Weimar Germany and modern Russia. A socio-economic crisis, a vacuum of power, corruption, collective rage, politicization, the loss of a sense of security—this is fertile ground for fascism. Let’s not forget that fascism itself was a revolt “for the sake of order.”

Our own harsh experience pushes us to look anew at many books and concepts we used to treat with arrogant criticism. And Fest’s book, without a doubt, belongs to the category of works with which it is necessary to become acquainted in order to shape our historical self-awareness, political and spiritual culture—and therefore to develop immunity against fascist and any totalitarian infection.