'When Stalin says "dance", a wise man dances'

This is the story of a marriage of convenience between democracy and totalitarianism, which will end in divorce, and decades of deaf clashes with some tense paroxysmal episodes like the Berlin crisis (1961) and Cuba ( 1962).

But we are not there yet early 1945; Allies gather in Yalta, and from the first pages of the book, the author takes us back in the political and military context of the conference. He continues his story with the same talent: the book ends with the analysis of the consequences of the atomic bombing on Japan. Meanwhile, things are degraded between the Western camp and the USSR, almost by force of circumstances; once negated German threat, burst incompatibilities between the two systems in the open. Michael Dobbs joined also the thesis that the "Cold War" has become rather it was intended. With a relentless reminder: before the "iron curtain" falls on Europe, USA and Great Britain had knowingly established links with one of the most inhumane regimes in modern history, to defeat a second: the Third Reich. The story of the atrocities committed by Stalin us is almost surreal, as it is beyond comprehension: torture, mass executions are common tools for this fascinating character of darkness, nothing less than criminal.

The psychopath Stalin, Roosevelt crossed with the pragmatic idealism, the faltering giant Churchill, Truman, based on the decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki: their personality, their intentions, their actions are portrayed in such a way that the reader grasp perfectly the course of events, which is partly the personalities of these Detat men, but also the constraints they face with their talents and limitations. The author articulates the story with great, citing anecdotes, details that speak volumes. "When Stalin told you to dance," said one Soviet at the Yalta conference, "Well, you dance." In these few words tragicomic, is camped a culture, that of totalitarianism that will emerge in Eastern Europe.

The book provides a solid base and accessible to locate in what looks like an implacable geostrategic mechanics, affordable English. Michael Dobbs control very well about it, and, to me it seems, skillfully combines a pleasant journalistic style and relevant academic analysis. We can then advise reading the book Anne Applebaum "Iron Curtain - Europe crushed the East, 1944-1956", translated by Grasset in 2014, which recounts the events in a direct line with those described in "Six months in 1945 ".