Winston Churchill: His Times, His Crimes by Tariq Ali

Author:Tariq Ali [Ali, Tariq]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Presidents & Heads of State, History, Europe, Great Britain, 20th Century, Political Science, World, European
ISBN: 9781788735773
Google: MOhOEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Verso Books
Published: 2022-05-10T21:08:13+00:00

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.

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