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Abstract:
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Life in the 1930s and the limits of Stalinist civilization -- Hopes and fears: popular responses to the invasion -- Facing annihilation -- The ghost of hunger -- "More meat, milk, and bread than in the Stalinist kolkhoz": life in the de-collectivized village -- Religious revival and the Pskov Orthodox mission -- Relating to German and Soviet power -- Hopes and fears, revisited: the end and aftermath of occupation -- Conclusion
"In this compelling account of life and death in a Russian province under Nazi occupation, Johannes D. Enstad challenges received wisdom about Russian patriotism during World War II. With the benefit of hindsight, we know how hopelessly destructive Germany's war against the Soviet Union was. Yet ordinary Russians witnessing the advancing German forces saw things differently. For many of them, having lived through collectivization and Stalinist terror in the 1930s, the invasion created hopes of a better life without the Bolsheviks. German policies on land and church helped sustain those hopes for parts of the population. Drawing on Soviet and German archival sources as well as eyewitness accounts, memoirs, and diaries, Enstad demonstrates the impact of Nazi rule on the mostly peasant population of northwest Russia and offers a reconsideration of the relationship between the Soviet regime and its core Russian population at this crucial moment in their history."--Provided by publisher
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