Winston Churchill by Tariq Ali

Author:Tariq Ali
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Verso Books

9

The War in Europe: From Munich to Stalingrad

The golden fruits

Of Stalingrad’s toil:

Peace, contentment, highest honor.

And behind every window

Rustles news

About our joyous future.

Anna Akhmatova, ‘The Victory’ (May 1944)

A long night slowly enveloped Europe after the fascist triumphs in Italy, Germany and Spain. All that democratic Europe’s ruling classes could see, however, was false dawns. Self-deception was widespread. In an entry on 6 July 1938, the conservative diarist Harold Nicolson noted:

Chamberlain (who has the mind and manner of a clothes brush) aims only at assuring temporary peace at the price of ultimate defeat … We have lost our will-power, since our will-power is divided. People of the governing classes think only of their own fortunes, which means hatred of the Reds. This creates a perfectly artificial but at present most effective secret bond between ourselves and Hitler. Our class interests, on both sides, cut across our national interests. I go to bed in gloom.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.