A must read for anyone interested in real history, Stalin's War of Extermination is based on newly released Soviet documents. You think Socialism is not so bad? Read this book. This book documents the total power the Soviet Government had over their own people and how Russians were murdered by the tens of millions by their own government. Stalin's two big tools were "brutal terror" and "shameless propaganda." Soviet soldiers were forbidden to surrender in battle because the Soviets feared that those who did surrender would join the Germans in their supposed campaign to destroy Communism in Russia. Thus all Soviet soldiers who had been captured for any reason were murdered by the NKVD upon their return. Even millions of Russian civilians in areas which were overrun by German forces and then later recaptured by Soviet Armies were killed or sent to the Gulag. All this was nothing to Stalin who had starved 7 to 9 million Ukranian farmers to death during the government induced famine of 1932-33 (p. 197) and who had purged millions of other Soviet citizens and soldiers. Hand in hand with this terror went endless propaganda. For example, Soviet murders of thousands of Polish officers in the Katyn forest were blamed on the Germans; a lie that was continued up until 1992 when Boris Yeltsin finally released the documents showing the guilt of the Soviet government. (p. 209) To back up these lies "witnesses" were produced. Author Joachim Hoffman sums the situation up well by stating, "Anyone who did not believe the propaganda experienced the terror." (p. 331) Think you can rest easy now that Soviet Communism has "collapsed?" Think again. Author Hoffman touches on the complicity of the West with Soviet genocide and crimes against humanity. For example, France and England declared war on Germany supposedly because of Germany's invasion of Poland. Yet when the Soviet Union also attacked Poland two weeks later and overran the eastern half of the country no one even seemed to notice