'Iron Curtain' reveals E. Europe's devastation  LAURA
IMPELLIZZERI Associated Press Published:   Writing from the
multiple vantage points of individuals across Eastern Europe
rather than the perspective of governments and political
leaders, Anne Applebaum sheds long overdue light on the
devastation experienced across the region after World War II.
Traditional accounts don't misunderstand this history. It's well
known how brutal and destructive Stalinism was. But Applebaum,
who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2004 for "Gulag: A History," studied
newly public archives and interviewed more than 80 survivors;
she also read numerous diaries and personal accounts of the
decade following the division of Europe. Her resulting account
-- centered on East Germany, Poland and Hungary -- is singularly
detailed, compelling and graphic.  By paying meticulous
attention to individual experience, Applebaum offers a unique
window into the mechanics of Stalinism's spread -- and how
little it had to do with ideology and how much with s