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Silent Steppe The Memoir of a Kazakh Nomad Under Stalin Mukhamet Shayakhmetov Jan Butler Books

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Silent Steppe The Memoir of a Kazakh Nomad Under Stalin Mukhamet Shayakhmetov Jan Butler Books

The Silent Steppe is perhaps the best book I've read detailing the plight of the Kazakh nomads under Stalin's rule. Shayakhmetov gives a heart breaking account of the famine, discrimination, and suffering of the 1930s. A smooth read, the narration is crisp and engaging and pulls the reader into the story. I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kazakhstan, and this book has gone a long way to helping me understand where the people came from and what they lived through. I would recommened this without reservation to anyone interested in learning more about Kazakhstan or the devestation caused by the former Soviet Union.


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Silent Steppe The Memoir of a Kazakh Nomad Under Stalin Mukhamet Shayakhmetov Jan Butler Books Reviews

Great book. I lived in Kazakhstan for 10 years and learned to love the Kazakh people. This book gives important insight into Kazakh culture and the momentous impact of the early Soviet years. But it does so in a very personal narrative, told without a political point of view or polemic, but just a matter-of-fact recounting from the perspective of personal experience. Yet his experience is representative of an entire culture. A must-read for anyone who desires to understand better appreciate Kazakh culture.
Fascinating story of growing up in central Asia as the Communist system nearly destroys the Kazakh way of life. You have to admire the Kazakhs as they try to retain their customs and their benevolent attitudes toward their fellow man. In particular, the book shows how the Soviets treated a non-Russian minority in a far flung region of the USSR. I read the follow-on memoir of the author's later years which is not as interesting but shows how badly flawed Communism was and how difficult it was for him to work within the system.
The Silent Steppe is a rare treasure, bringing a detailed but engaging description of the transition from traditional nomadic life to a forced, new “settled” one — that was in reality completely unsettled, first by famine and then by war. The writer is both teacher, filling in helpful historical backdrop, and storyteller, with one dramatic tale after another to relate. Throughout, his love for his homeland, his people, and their traditions, and his defense of honor and duty, undergird the narrative. The Silent Steppe reveals the author, Mukhamet Shayakhmetov, as a warm-hearted individual struggling to endure nearly impossible circumstances, and allows us to experience an important but little-known chapter in the history of Kazakhstan. Besides a few typos, the English translation is also of excellent literary quality.
This is an amazing story told by a most remarkable individual. Mukamet Shayakhmetov lived through turbulent times and had heavy responsibilities thrust on him at a very young age, yet he records his survival through harrowing experiences with total equanimity. He bears no resentment against those who wronged him and writes with no bitterness of the massive policy blunders which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of his country men and women. Life for the nomadic Kazakh people at the dawn of the twentieth century was always going to change, but the transition could have been far less ruthless than the collectivisation and punitive treatment of successful village communities pushed through by the Bolsheviks. "Silent Steppe" is an evocative account of a young man's journey to adulthood through tragedy, suffering and war. What a life and what a testament.
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 only survived by the skin of his teeth.
"Three years earlier, my mother had ridden a white horse along this same route, sitting astride her silver-edged saddle studded with precious gems, with a child in a travel-cradle fastened to the front of her swaddle, leading a camel by a long rein attached to her left wrist. It was impossible to know what she was thinking now as she traipsed along in a state of semi-starvation."
He writes of being banned from school as the son of a 'kulyk' (wealthy peasant), of homelessness, of the freezing winters ...and at last of the onset of World War 2. We know he went on to do well in his chosen career of teaching, becoming a headmaster, and living into old age (this book was written in early 2000s.)
As another reviewer states, this is a 'flat', factual recounting of events, rather than an emotional or literary work, but informative, covering a place about which we hear little in the West. The introduction tells us that only "a fragment - perhaps some 5% of the stock-rearing population - has to this day survived."
Several pages of b/w photos.
This is a very interesting picture of how it was for the Kazakhs during the time of Stalin, and how their culture was all but destroyed. The successful were reduced to poverty, having everything they valued taken away from them. This book shows how the former clan / family system was replaced by suspicion, lies, and terror, brother against brother. Very sad and enlightening.
It was a beautiful story written with a restrained hand documenting the resilience and charitable culture of the nomadic people of Kazakhstan. Each generation needs to read this testament and remember what was. The heavy hand of the Soviet government is a caution to all peoples of the world. The means don't justify the ends.
The Silent Steppe is perhaps the best book I've read detailing the plight of the Kazakh nomads under Stalin's rule. Shayakhmetov gives a heart breaking account of the famine, discrimination, and suffering of the 1930s. A smooth read, the narration is crisp and engaging and pulls the reader into the story. I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kazakhstan, and this book has gone a long way to helping me understand where the people came from and what they lived through. I would recommened this without reservation to anyone interested in learning more about Kazakhstan or the devestation caused by the former Soviet Union.