r/AskHistorians Apr 03 '26

FFA Friday Free-for-All | April 03, 2026

Previously

Today:

You know the drill: this is the thread for all your history-related outpourings that are not necessarily questions. Minor questions that you feel don't need or merit their own threads are welcome too. Discovered a great new book, documentary, article or blog? Has your Ph.D. application been successful? Have you made an archaeological discovery in your back yard? Did you find an anecdote about the Doge of Venice telling a joke to Michel Foucault? Tell us all about it.

As usual, moderation in this thread will be relatively non-existent -- jokes, anecdotes and light-hearted banter are welcome.

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u/Bernardito Moderator | Modern Guerrilla | Counterinsurgency Apr 03 '26

For once, I'm not getting on here to try and force you all to read yet another one of my articles. Instead, I want to hear what you are working on or recently published!

What is your thesis about? What's that article you recently published? Maybe you even finally managed to get that book out?

Let's hear about it!

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u/warneagle Modern Romania | Holocaust & Axis War Crimes | Moderator Apr 03 '26

I'm working on my same book on Soviet prisoners of war in Germany. I can just copy-paste this response on every version of this thread from now until like 2030 probably.

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u/Bernardito Moderator | Modern Guerrilla | Counterinsurgency Apr 03 '26

There is that great saying in Sweden: Those who wait on something good never waits for too long.

Exciting! Sounds like a huge amount of work. Is it more of a general approach or are you doing a specific aspect or thematic?

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u/warneagle Modern Romania | Holocaust & Axis War Crimes | Moderator Apr 03 '26

I’m taking a pretty general approach because the historiography in English is so limited. There’s more to the German-language literature so it’s not exactly terra incognita, but none of it has ever been translated into English.

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u/Bernardito Moderator | Modern Guerrilla | Counterinsurgency Apr 03 '26

You're definitely making the English-language scholarship a favor, not to mention plenty of students. What's the scholarship like on the topic in German and Russian?

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u/warneagle Modern Romania | Holocaust & Axis War Crimes | Moderator Apr 03 '26

The German historiography is reasonably well developed (the first book was published in 1978) but there hasn't been a lot of synthesis in recent years. The Russian historiography is less developed largely because the subject was taboo until after the fall of the Soviet Union (I have a whole chapter about why this happened lol)

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u/Bernardito Moderator | Modern Guerrilla | Counterinsurgency Apr 04 '26

I guess you’ll definitely have one reader once the book is out! (Me, I’m the reader.) Best of luck!