Crucibles of Power
Smolensk under Stalinist and Nazi Rule
Published on 4. February 2025
Book
Hardback
480 pages
978-0-674-24746-8 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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 / Votes
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 * 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 * 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) * An unsettling look at dictatorial rule...Invaluable insights into two genuine dystopias. * 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 <i>The Gates of Europe</i> 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 <i>From People into Nations</i> 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 <i>Russian Jews Between the Reds and the Whites, 1917-1920</i> 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 <i>Russia's War against Ukraine</i> 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 <i>Making War, Forging Revolution</i>More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
7 Karten
7 Maps
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 48 mm
Weight
880 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-674-24746-8 (9780674247468)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Michael David-Fox is the author or editor of fifteen books, including Crossing Borders: Modernity, Ideology, and Culture in Russia and the Soviet Union and Showcasing the Great Experiment: Cultural Diplomacy and Western Visitors to the Soviet Union, 1921-1941. He is Director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies and Professor of History at Georgetown University.