Nicolas Werth French historian and Sovietologist Country: France

1. Nicolas Werth: French Historian of the USSR
2. Academic Journey
3. Research and Publications
4. Role in the Black Book of Communism and Research Collaborations

Nicolas Werth: French Historian of the USSR

Nicolas Werth is a French historian and Sovietologist, known for his expertise on the history of the USSR. Born to Alexander Werth, an Anglo-Russian journalist who lived in the USSR during the war, Nicolas Werth grew up speaking Russian.

Academic Journey

Werth graduated from the École Normale Supérieure in Saint-Cloud with a degree in history. He taught in French secondary schools and abroad, including in Minsk, New York, Moscow, and Shanghai. From 1985 to 1989, he served as Cultural Attaché at the French embassy in Moscow.

Research and Publications

Joining the National Center for Scientific Research in 1989, Werth dedicated his first book, "Être communiste en URSS sous Staline," to Soviet history. His research interests focused on social history, particularly the relationship between power and society during the 1920s.

Werth rejected the traditional divide between "totalitarianism" and "revisionist" schools of Sovietology, arguing for a synthesis in light of the USSR's collapse and access to archives. His social history approach led him to sympathize more closely with "revisionist" historians.

Role in the Black Book of Communism and Research Collaborations

Werth contributed to the USSR section of the "Black Book of Communism." He has been an active participant in the seminar "Soviet History: Sources and Methods" at the EHESS since 1997. Werth is also a member of the editorial boards of the journals "Twentieth Century: Historical Review" and "Cahiers du Monde Russe."