Book manuscript: Crucibles of Power: Smolensk Under Stalinist and Nazi Rule

As a visiting scholar at ZZF I will be completing two projects. The first is a book manuscript entitled Crucibles of Power: Smolensk Under Stalinist and Nazi Rule. This is a 9-chapter study of Smolensk oblast' from the beginning of the Stalin period in the late 1920s through the German occupation in WWII, ending after the re-Sovietization of the Smolensk region after 1943. It is a study of power and power relations through the prism of a wide range of individual biographies on both sides of the regime changes of 1941 and 1943. The book, for which I completed research in archives in Moscow and Smolensk as well as U.S. and German repositories, is under contract with Harvard University Press. As each chapter contains material on both the Soviet and the German side, I will be especially interested in receiving feedback from colleagues in Germany.
 

International, collaborative research project: Revolutionary Experiences Compared: Russia/USSR and China under Communist Rule

The second focus of my time at ZZF will be an international, collaborative research project, of which I am co-organizer with Dr. Juliane Fürst, entitled "Revolutionary Experiences Compared: Russia/USSR and China under Communist Rule." It involves an international team of 22 scholars in history and related fields, half in Chinese and half in Russian/Soviet studies. The project has been running since 2019 and we will have a final conference in early June, 2023. My own contribution is to organize the section on "Cultural Revolution," as well as to write introductory and commentary pieces for the chapter on Cultural Revolution for the book. 

During his stay at ZZF Potsdam Michael David-Fox researches in Dep. I: Communism and Society.