The Silent Steppe

This is a first hand account of the genocide of the Kazakh nomads in the 1920s and 30s Nominally Muslim, the Kazakhs and their culture owed as much to shamanism and paganism as they did to Islam Their ancient traditions and economy depended on the breeding and herding of stock across the vast steppes of central Asia, and their independent, nomadic way of life was anathema to the Soviets Seven year old Shayakhmetov and his mother and sisters were left to fend for themselves after his father was branded a kulak well off peasant and thus class enemy , stripped of his possessions, and sent to a prison camp where he died In the following years the family traveled thousands of miles across Kazakhstan by foot, surviving on the charity of relatives Told with dignity and detachment, this central Asian Wild Swans awakens the reader to the scale of suffering of millions of Kazakhs, and also astonishes and inspires as a most singular survivor s tale. New Read Kindle ePUB The Silent Steppe Author Mukhamet Shayakhmetov – kino-fada.fr If you ve followed my blog for a while, you may know that I am originally from Kazakhstan And the older I get theI get interested in the history of my people And when it comes to history, I think most of us want to look beyond the facts and figures It s the same with my people s history What I want to learn is their culture, their philosophy, as well as the historical events that shaped the Kazakh people into what they are today In order to truly understand the Kazakh history, you hav If you ve followed my blog for a while, you may know that I am o...This is no literary masterpiece, so my rating reflects the contents rather than purely being about the style of the writing This is a profoundly moving, personal account of the tragedy of the Kazakh nomads and the problems brought about by forced collectivisation The writing style is actually fairly flat, almost impassive at times which is probably a good thing as otherwise the book might be a painful read As it is, it is informative and haunting The author does not have a flair for writin This is no literary masterpiece, so my rating reflects the contents rather than purely being about the style of the writing This is a profoundly moving, personal account of the tragedy of the Kazakh nomads and the problems brought about by forced collectivisation The writing style is actually fairly flat, almost impassive at times which is probably a good thing as otherwise the book might be a painful read As it is, it is informative and haunting The author does not have a flair for writing although it is a translation, so for Russian readers the original may be better , but he has a story to tell which is fascinating although tremendously sad.This book should be read by anyone who is interested in Soviet history or in Central Asia especially the vast lands of the Steppe It should also be read by anyone who feels calmly confident that their way of life is f...The author lays out a personal perspective on early Soviet times through WW2 in Kazakhstan He doesn t present big ideas or theories exploring why Kazakhs responded in the manner they did to collectivization but rather shares his experiences His experiences, repeated hundreds of thousands times over by the whole population in Kazakhstan, and millions over throughout the Soviet Union, is why the story is interesting The general story is not unique, but his experiences and sharing of it are I The author lays out a personal perspective on early Soviet times through WW2 in Kazakhstan He doesn t present big ideas or theories exploring why Kazakhs responded in the manner they did to collectivization but rather shares his experiences His experiences, repeated hundreds of thousands times over by the whole population in Kazakhstan, and millions over throughout the Soviet Union, is why the stor...Kazakhstan During that period the population of indigenous Kazakhs fell by approximately 1.2 million from death by starvation It was the first time I had seen grown ups drying inconsolably, and it upset and baffled me Contrary to the established Western idea of women in oriental countries, they enjoyed extensive rights, and often become the head not onl...The pattern of our year was dictated by the needs of our herds and flocks , 7 August 2015This review is from Silent Steppe Hardcover Until reading this work, I had never thought of how Stalin s policies impinged on the nomadic peoples of Central Asia In this memoir, written by the son of a traditional Kazakh herding aul community , we follow his life from childhood in the 20s a life of migration, of clan solidarity and traditional ways, to Stalin s disastrous enforced collectivisation The pattern of our year was dictated by the needs of our herds and flocks , 7 August 2015This review is from Silent Steppe Hardcover Until reading this work, I had never thought of how Stalin s policies impinged on the nomadic peoples of Central Asia In this memoir, written by the son of a traditional Kazakh herding aul community , we follow his life from childhood in the 20s a life of migration, of clan solidarity and traditional ways, to Stalin s disastrous enforced collectivisation in the early 30s With a combination of corruption, ill management and and drought, there was a mass famine, which the author on...This is a biography of a man who lived through the collectivisation of the land of kazak nomads under Stalin 1.75 million, almost half the population died of starvation or imprisonment in 1932 3 alone It is a story that no one in the west seems to know I would give in 5 for information and historical insight, but the style is a memoir and lacks the skill of s professional writer The man is not a writer,k he was a teacher and he wanted his grandchildren to know his story and the story of hi This is a biography of a man who lived through the collectivisation of the land of kazak nomads under Stalin 1.75 million, almost half the population died of starvation or imprisonment in 1932 3 alone It is a story that no one in the west seems to know I would give in 5 for information and historical insight, but the style is a memoir and lacks the skill of s professional writer The man is not a writer,k he was a teacher and he wanted his grandchildren to know his story and the story of his people and I would definitely recommend it It also provides insight into the 2nd world war from the Russian side So many people perished The author lost his own father after he was declared an enemy of the people because he was a Kulak and was banished to a mine and lived in appalling solace like conditions The sadness is palpable but also the spirit and sense of hope and insight into people s be...The book is let down a little by the very dry factual style in which it is written It is informative about an area of the world and a way of life which has been little documented.There are areas of the world where the traditional way of life is nomadic pastoralism herding animals between grazing areas depending on rainfall, season, etc This activity has often been practised for millennia in those areas, which are always sparsely populated arid grassland or frozen tundra These habitats are no The book is let down a little by the very dry factual style in which it is written It is informative about an area of the world and a way of life which has been little documented.There are areas...This is a first hand account of the genocide of the Kazakhs during the collectivization terror enforced by Stalin in the 1930s, which resulted in wide spread famine and the death of one quarter of this indigenous nomadic herding population.At one point while reading I threw the book across the room and sobbed, but it was worth every tear.This story is not to be missed It has a triumphant and happy ending It s good to know that going in, because the ugly horrible truths that you read will be di Th...There aren t very many books in English that come out of Central Asia, particularly from this period Mukhamet Shayakhmetov is one of the very few people still alive who are old enough to remember Stalin s Great Terror of the mid thirties, as well as what life was like for the Kazakhs before the unending march of Soviet progress ended their way of life forever.Shayakhmetov writes clearly and plainly, without pretensions or self pity, almost in a journalistic fashion I learned a lot from his sto There aren t very many books in English that come out of Central Asia, particularly from this period Mukhamet Shayakhmetov is one of the very few people still alive who are old enough to remember Stalin s Great Terror of the mid thirties, as well as what life was like for the Kazakhs before the unending march of Soviet progress ended their way of life forever.Shayakhmetov writes clearly and plainly, without pretensions or self pity, almost in a journalistic fashion I learned a lot f...Very readable account of the forgotten story of the nomadic Kazakhs under Stalin s regime Written by one of the Kazakhs who lived it, includes interesting looks into what traditions the nomads had and interesting anecdotes of how many tried to get around the Soviet program of turning a...

• English
• 02 January 2017
Mukhamet Shayakhmetov
• Hardcover
• 345 pages
• 1585679550
• Mukhamet Shayakhmetov
• The Silent Steppe