The Russian Roots of Nazism by Michael Kellogg

I had never thought to find the link between German right wing movements and white emigres within Germany and Europe and what impact they had on the future Nazi Party and Hitler. This book was an unexpected find and a pleasant one at that. Not too difficult to read, somewhat repetitive but at the same time this makes it easier to keep track of all the 'characters' that the reader is introduced to.

There is an excellent analysis on how the white emigres affected Hitler and his party and how without them Hitler might not have turned east or if he did might have done some things quite differently. What surprised me most was that before 1919 Hitler did not really say or write anything anti-semitic, in fact at times he defended Jews and even spoke like a socialist from time to time, which to a degree is less surprising since the Nazi party was a socialist party.

I was also interested to learn of the assassination attempts undertaken by these white emigres against both Soviet politicians and German ones as well. Bottom line is that there is a lot of information here put into a context I never thought existed before, the book is expensive but in my opinion worth the money for the input it provides and the new view I now have of how Hitler came about with some of his ideas regarding Jews, Bolsheviks, and the Soviet Union.