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Crucibles of Power
Smolensk under Stalinist and Nazi Rule
-
Michael David-Fox
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2025
About this book
An illuminating new history of World War II–era Smolensk, a region at the crossroads of the two great dictatorships of the twentieth century.
During the Cold War, the Smolensk Archive held the only collection of Communist Party documents available to Western scholars, becoming the foundation for generations of scholarship on Soviet history. Crucibles of Power returns to the Smolensk Region with fresh eyes and fresh sources. Prizewinning historian Michael David-Fox traces the experiences of Smolensk residents between the interwar years and the end of World War II, a period during which the city and region passed from Stalinist rule to Nazi occupation and back. The result is a revelatory examination of choice and power under dueling forms of murderous totalitarianism.
Exploring the life-and-death decisions of a fascinating cast of characters—from young women in the Communist Youth League to a defense lawyer during Stalin’s Great Terror who became Smolensk’s collaborationist mayor during the German occupation—David-Fox shows how deeply the Stalinist and Nazi regimes relied on the cooptation of average citizens motivated by greed and need, but always within the orbit of ideology. Challenging today’s Russian nationalist narrative of heroic WWII resistance, he finds that large numbers of Russians aided the Nazi occupation of Smolensk in order to protect themselves, secure their own self-interest, or pursue vendettas against a Soviet state they found no less corrupt or oppressive than its German foe.
At a time when much of the world is tilting away from liberal democracy and toward authoritarianism, Crucibles of Power masterfully unravels the threads of dictatorial rule. Smolensk emerges as a laboratory for understanding the mechanics of both outright coercion and subtler forms of power, as well as the enabling behavior of ordinary citizens acquiescing to extraordinary crimes.
Reviews
Through diaries, memoirs and other documents illuminating the lives of individual Soviet citizens, Mr. David-Fox evokes the turbulent experience of what he calls ‘the crucial elements of choice, decision making, and agency.’
-- Gary Saul Morson Wall Street Journal
-- Gary Saul Morson Wall Street Journal
[An] important book…compelling.
-- Francine Hirsh Times Literary Supplement
-- Francine Hirsh Times Literary Supplement
A detailed examination of the tragic history of the western Soviet territories that swapped hands between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany twice between 1941 and 1943.
-- Maria Lipman Foreign Affairs
-- Maria Lipman Foreign Affairs
David-Fox offers a sophisticated new way to study authoritarian states…what makes the study truly pathbreaking is its focus on autobiographical sources, incorporating the stories of a wide range of witnesses and participants. This allows him to examine how ‘microdoses of power’ shaped the lives of the residents of this region…By focusing on the exercise of power and the fraught choices facing those caught within its grip, David-Fox teaches us important lessons about life in authoritarian societies.
-- Alan Barenberg Los Angeles Review of Books
-- Alan Barenberg Los Angeles Review of Books
An unusually deep and textured view of the development of the Smolensk region during the 1930s and World War II…will be extremely valuable to any student or scholar interested in the brutal war and
occupation on the eastern front.
-- Norman M. Naimark Russian Review
Meticulously researched with new material from Russian archives, this book engagingly and expertly explores the many facets of the Smolensk Archive.
-- Jacqueline Parascandola Library Journal (starred review)
-- Jacqueline Parascandola Library Journal (starred review)
An unsettling look at dictatorial rule…Invaluable insights into two genuine dystopias.
-- Kirkus Reviews
-- Kirkus Reviews
In this examination of the Smolensk Archives, which laid the foundation for American understandings of Soviet power, Michael David-Fox offers a much more complicated and comprehensive presentation of Soviet power relations than previously available. Crucibles of Power is a masterpiece of historical analysis and narration, and a sterling example of how new methodologies and new archives can come together to change our understanding of the past.
-- Serhii Plokhy, author of The Gates of Europe
-- Serhii Plokhy, author of The Gates of Europe
With the erudition of a historian and the acuity of a master storyteller, David-Fox puts us in the company of people who lived then and there. An essential book for anyone curious about life under totalitarian power.
-- John Connelly, author of From People into Nations
-- John Connelly, author of From People into Nations
Smolensk is a kind of sacred land for American historiography. Drawing on a huge amount of new material from Russian archives, this book examines Smolensk primarily during World War II, when the inhabitants of this westernmost region of Russia had to endure two changes of power and compare the effects of Nazism and Stalinism on their own skin. Crucibles of Power will appeal not only to professional historians but also to a much wider range of readers.
-- Oleg Budnitskii, author of Russian Jews Between the Reds and the Whites, 1917–1920
-- Oleg Budnitskii, author of Russian Jews Between the Reds and the Whites, 1917–1920
An examination of power dynamics in radically illiberal regimes, Crucibles of Power is a masterful study of a past full of unsettling resonances with the present. Deeply theorized yet fluently written, this book guides us through the histories of Stalinism, Nazism, the Holocaust, and World War II in Russia’s Smolensk Region.
-- Mark Edele, author of Russia’s War against Ukraine
-- Mark Edele, author of Russia’s War against Ukraine
A true tour de force. This book deserves to be read by anyone interested in the war in the East, Soviet rule, or the twentieth century more broadly.
-- Peter Holquist, author of Making War, Forging Revolution
-- Peter Holquist, author of Making War, Forging Revolution
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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CONTENTS
vii -
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NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION
ix -
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Prologue The Captured Archive
1 -
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Introduction
8 -
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1 An Epicenter of the Stalin Revolution
36 -
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2 Colonizing the Countryside
62 -
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3 The Enemy Within
89 -
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4 Regime Change 1941
123 -
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5 Murder and Humiliation
162 -
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6 Partisans Come to Power
203 -
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7 Collaboration and the Russian Question
239 -
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8 Sex Crimes and a Clash over Civilization
280 -
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9 Soviet Power Returns
314 -
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Epilogue Afterlives
349 -
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Archival Abbreviations
375 -
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Notes
377 -
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Acknowledgments
445 -
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Index
447
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
January 29, 2025
eBook ISBN:
9780674298187
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9780674298187
Keywords for this book
soviet history; stalinism; nazi occupation; nazism; totalitarianism; dictatorship; antisemitism; holocaust; wartime studies; world war II; authoritarianism; regional history; smolensk; soviet politics; occupation studies; resistance movements; collaboration history; civilian experience; eastern front; russian studies; vladimir putin; abwehr; cold war; belarus; fascism; political power; social history; military occupation; wartime society; soviet union; nazi germany; operation barbarossa; wartime politics; minsk; great terror; nkvd; political control; power dynamics; ideology; political violence; judeo-bolshevism; social control; wartime governance; collective farms; communist party; komsomol; vasilii kozubskii; dimitrii popov; anthony beevor stalingrad; richard j. evans; timothy snyder bloodlands; sheila fitzpatrick everyday stalinism; anne applebaum iron curtain; richard overy russia's war; catherine merridale ivan's war; karel berkhoff harvest of despair; sheila fitzpatrick michael greyer beyond totalitarianism; andrei ludenkov; nikolai alferchik; auschwitz; yitzhak arad; erich von dem bach-zelewski; herbert backe; battle of moscow; battle of stalingrad; battle of smolensk; lavrentii beria; bolshevik revolution; briansk; capitalism; death camps; forced deportation; elsi eichenberger; espionage; nikolai ezhov; merle fainsod; germany; russia; pow camps; mikhail gorbachev; great patriotic war; reinhard heydrich; heinrich himmler; hitler; russian army; forced industralization; lazar kaganovich; nuremberg trials; wilhelm Keitel; new economic policy; operation reinhard; operation typhoon; power relations; propaganda; psychological warfare; red army; aleksandr tvardovskii; vichy france; vlasov movement; andrei vlasov; war myths; soviet history; stalinism; nazi occupation; nazism; totalitarianism; dictatorship; antisemitism; holocaust; wartime studies; world war II; authoritarianism; regional history; smolensk; soviet politics; occupation studies; resistance movements; collaboration history; civilian experience; eastern front; russian studies; vladimir putin; abwehr; cold war; belarus; fascism; political power; social history; military occupation; wartime society; soviet union; nazi germany; operation barbarossa; wartime politics; minsk; great terror; nkvd; political control; power dynamics; ideology; political violence; judeo-bolshevism; social control; wartime governance; collective farms; communist party; komsomol; vasilii kozubskii; dimitrii popov; anthony beevor stalingrad; richard j. evans; timothy snyder bloodlands; sheila fitzpatrick everyday stalinism; anne applebaum iron curtain; richard overy russia's war; catherine merridale ivan's war; karel berkhoff harvest of despair; sheila fitzpatrick michael greyer beyond totalitarianism; andrei ludenkov; nikolai alferchik; auschwitz; yitzhak arad; erich von dem bach-zelewski; herbert backe; battle of moscow; battle of stalingrad; battle of smolensk; lavrentii beria; bolshevik revolution; briansk; capitalism; death camps; forced deportation; elsi eichenberger; espionage; nikolai ezhov; merle fainsod; germany; russia; pow camps; mikhail gorbachev; great patriotic war; reinhard heydrich; heinrich himmler; hitler; russian army; forced industralization; lazar kaganovich; nuremberg trials; wilhelm Keitel; new economic policy; operation reinhard; operation typhoon; power relations; propaganda; psychological warfare; red army; aleksandr tvardovskii; vichy france; vlasov movement; andrei vlasov; war myths
