Perspectives on the Entangled History of Communism and Nazism

Klas-Göran Karlsson is professor of history at Lund University.Johan Stenfeldt holds a PhD in history from Lund University. Ulf Zander is professor of history at Lund University.

Putting the Communist and National Socialist dictatorships side by side as twin models of twentieth-century dystopia has always raised awkward questions about comparability and moral equivalence. The editors and contributors in this fine volume are all too aware of the intellectual challenges involved in equating or comparing the two systems and have provided here a sophisticated and nuanced assessment of their entanglement, not only at the level of historical experience but in terms of the meaning now ascribed to them in historical memory. This is an important milestone in developing a fuller understanding of the special place Communism/National Socialism occupies in contemporary historical culture.

• Introduction, Klas-Göran Karlsson, Johan Stenfeldt, and Ulf ZanderChapter One: The Evil Twins of Modern History?: Patterns of Communism-National Socialism Entanglement, Klas-Göran KarlssonChapter Two: Making Sense of Inhumanity: On the Treatment of an Open Wound in Our History Culture, Jörn RüsenChapter Three: The Dystopian Trilemma: The Guiding Potential of the Nazi-Communist Equalization and Strategies Used When Questioning It, Johan StenfeldtChapter Four: The Intertwined History of Political Violence in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany: The Case Study of Helmut Weiss, Anton Weiss-WendtChapter Five: Herbert Norkus and Pavel Morozov as Totalitarian Child Martyrs: A Study of Political Religion, Johan DietschChapter Six: Communism’s Compelling Grasp: Enduring the Gulag and Enduring Loyalty, Nanci AdlerChapter Seven: The Lontsky Street Prison Memorial Museum: An Example of Postcommunist Holocaust Negationism, John-Paul HimkaChapter Eight: Writing History, Denying the Past?: On Revisionism, the Holocaust and Soviet Terror, Maria Karlsson