Book Discussion: Crucibles of Power: Smolensk under Stalinist and Nazi Rule, by Michael David Fox

Session Submission Type: Book Discussion Roundtable

Brief Description

Michael David-Fox's Crucibles of Power: Smolensk under Nazi and Soviet Rule (Harvard UP, 2025) examines the biographical trajectories of inhabitants of the Smolensk Region during the Stalin Revolution, collectivization, the Great Terror, three years of Nazi occupation, and the return of Soviet power A key focus of the work is a study of individual choice and power during the alternation of two radically dictatorial regimes in the three years between 1941 and 1943. Intended as a new kind of entangled history, the work cross-fertilizes three fields (the study of Stalinism, Nazi German occupation on the Eastern Front during World War II, and the Holocaust) with an array of new Russian-language and German archival sources. The book highlights a significant group that has not been given as much attention as it deserves: ordinary people, far from the halls of power, who in an hour of crisis reached out to grab a slice of power for themselves. The roundtable will discuss the disturbing and profound questions of survival, collaboration, and commitment this book raises--and the contemporary resonance of such questions.

Sub Unit

• History: 1900-1945

Chair

• Peter Isaac Holquist, U of Pennsylvania

Roundtable Speakers

• Michael David-Fox, Georgetown U

• Nicole Eaton, Boston College

• Jochen Hellbeck, Rutgers, The State U of New Jersey

• Benjamin I Nathans, U of Pennsylvania

• Timothy Snyder, Yale U