The Silent Steppe by Mukhamet Shayakhmetov

“Maclean was one of the great characters of the 20th century. Early in the book, when the political persecution is just getting going, he's at a trial and notes how everyone was astonished by the proceedings: 'some even dared to laugh.' It's a tragic tale, the lack of comprehension of the Kazakh herders at what the Soviet bureaucratic state was up to painful to read. He manages to survive both the Kazakh famine and the Great Patriot War, fighting in the army at Stalingrad. By 9 he is acting as the man in the family, going long distances on horseback on his own to get food for his father in prison. He is just 7 years old when Stalin's campaign to dispossess the kulaks reaches Altai in 1929, netting first his uncle and then his father. Born in 1922, Mukhamet Shayakhmetov's life revolves around his 'aul', the traditional Kazakh family grouping that is both abstract and the collection of yurts that moves around between winter and summer-with herds of camels, horses, cattle and sheep. This is a firsthand account, matter-of-fact in tone, by a Kazakh herder of his life growing up in 20th century Kazakhstan. The Silent Steppe: The Story of a Kazakh Nomad Under Stalin by Mukhamet Shayakhmetov Stalin was an avid reader and had a library of more than 20,000 books many have his jottings in the margins. In Stalin’s Library and Stalin’s Scribe you can his relationship to culture and Russia’s literary world. In Simon Sebag-Montefiore’s Young Stalin you can find the man behind the monster and understand something of what formed him and what drove him (he even trained briefly as a priest). Stalin's personality can be explored through Milovan Djilas’ first-hand account of Stalin’s ‘court’. For a novel laying bare how Stalin maintained control, British historian and Russia specialist Orlando Figes recommends The First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

The classic Eastern Approaches, by British diplomat Fitzroy Maclean, gives a firsthand description of life in Moscow during Stalin's show trials. His legacy continues to haunt Russia, long after the collapse of communism, with President Vladimir Putin openly admiring his strong-man political character.Īnne Applebaum’s Gulag: A History explores the structure of the system of mass incarceration and terror through which he ran the Soviet Union.

Born Joseph Dzhugashvili in Georgia, then a part of the Russian Empire, in 1878, he remains the epitome of the dictator able to transform their country through violence and sheer political will. Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953 and as one of the great political monsters of the 20th century-responsible for millions of unnecessary deaths-he's also a subject of fascination with a lot of books written about him.

Foreign Policy & International Relations.

The Silent Steppe by Mukhamet Shayakhmetov