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 ruleInvaluable 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 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 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, 19171920 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 Russias Smolensk Region. -- Mark Edele, author of Russias 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