Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56

At the end of the Second World War, the Soviet Union found itself occupying half of Europe. Occupation swiftly became control and, in Churchill's words, an iron curtain descended across the continent. Drawing on recently released archives and interviews with participants, Pulitzer Prizewinning historian Applebaum offers a sobering lesson in how and why societies succumb to totalitarianism, explaining in chilling detail how the Soviets eliminated all opposition, converting the institutions of a dozen states into instruments of their power.