The world is just a barrel organ, which the Lord God turns himself.

We all have to dance to the tune, which is already on the drum.

Reinhard Heidrich, on his deathbed, quoting the libretto of an opera composed by his father, Richard Heidrich.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Music The Episode 364, The Man with the Iron Heart.

Spring of 1942 was an interesting time in Europe.

The past winter had seen two dramatic events that had cast the Second World War in an entirely new light.

The first was the Axis declarations of war that brought the United States into the conflict.

The second was the stubborn refusal of the Soviet Union's

Red Army to collapse under the German Blitzkrieg the way it was supposed to.

Not only had the Soviet Union withstood Operation Barbarossa, becoming the first

European country not to collapse upon being invaded by the Wehrmacht,

but the Russian winter offensive had actually pushed the German army back,

something that hasn't been seen since 1918.

What did these new events portend for the future of the war?

First and foremost is the nature of the anti-access alliance, now dubbed the United Nations.

There were 26 declared members of the United Nations, including the Big Four, the United States,

the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China.

But have you noticed that one of these things is not like the others?

On this list of nations, the Soviet Union stands out like, well, like a Bolshevik at a Royal Garden Party.

The Soviet Union had been the ideological enemy

of all the other nations on this list

...