Book Review: The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov (Translated by Constance Garnett)

This volume contains nine amazing short stories.  It touches on the themes of hope, despair, married life, choice, love, ego, time, happiness, life and freedom. The short stories include the Lady with the Dog, A Doctor's Visit, An Upheaval, Ionitch, The Head of the Family, The Black Monk, Volodya, An Anonymous Story and The Husband.

Chekov writes (from In The Lady with the Dog): " Useless pursuits and conversations always about the same things absorb the better part of one's time, the better part of one's strength, and in the end there is left a life groveling and curtailed, worthless and trivial, and there is no escaping or getting away from it- just as though one were in a madhouse or a prison" (p. 9).

Chekov was born in 1860 in Russia and died in 1904 in a German town. I think Anton Chekov is one of the greatest short story writers of the world. People reading him in Russian are very lucky.

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Book Review: Letters by Maxim Gorky

Maxim Gorky, one the famous Russian writers left around 20,000 letters for his readers. 13,000 of which were written to him only by Soviet writers. This book presents more than 100 letters of Gorky written between 1889 and 1936. It also includes material which Soviet publishers have issued few years before the publication of the book. Various aspects of life in Russia, Europe and America of the first three decades of the twentieth century are covered in the book. 

Gorky's letters to writers such as Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells and Stefan Zweig are included in the book. Other correspondences with Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekov and V. I. Lenin are also part of the book. I would not quote from the letters as it would be unfair with the writer. I recommend the readers to read all the letters in great details and explore content and the values of the letters themselves.

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Book Review: 5 Russian Masters by Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Ivan Turgenev

5 Russian Masters is an amazing compilation of short stories of five great Russian writers. In this collection I loved reading Anton Chekhov's short stories the most. Six of his stories touched on the themes of submissive behavior, dreams of freedom, memories, perceptions, anxiety and future. 

Leo Tolstoy's three short stories highlighted themes of hard work, kindness, honesty. Tolstoy's short story The Candle stresses that, as you sow so shall you reap. Three of Maxim Gorky's works are about the wisdom of life, between idealism and reality, pain and human misery.

Fyodor Dostoevsky's brings out some lessons in his stories. The first one focuses on truth, second on wealth and marriage, and the third one is on kindness, memories and human life. Ivan Turgenev has two short stories in this compilation. The first one is about human life and limitations and the second one Three Portraits is about stubbornness and how it can lead to disaster.

This wonderful collection covers a range of themes and styles. Many of these stories are timeless and are as relevant today, as they were centuries ago.

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Book Review: Notes from Underground By Fyodor Dostoyevsky

 

First published in 1964, this novel is considered as one of Dostoyevsky’s most famous novels. Notes from Underground narrates the story of an unmade narrator who had gone underground as a protest against social utopia. This self-opposing account examines the moral and intellectual fluctuations of the narrator and man’s inherent illogical nature.

Some of the dialogues in the novel are as follows:

·     .- ‘I swear, gentlemen, that to be too conscious is an illness- a real thorough-going illness’ (p. 10).

·      - Man is so ungrateful that you could not find another like him in all creation (p. 29).

·       -Reason satisfies only the rational side of man’s nature, while will is a manifestation of the whole life (p.32).

·       -Narrating about his office environment he mentions about the officials in his office who ‘talked about excise duty; about business in the senate, about salaries, about promotions, about His Excellency, and the best means of pleasing him, and so on’ (p. 64).

This novel has a very different writing style and plot. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

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Book Review: An Appeal to the Toiling, Oppressed and Exhausted Peoples of Europe By Leon Trotsky

 

Speeches of Leon Trotsky are compiled in this book.  Some the themes which are covered include critique of capitalism, the need for revolution, his opposition to Stalin, and the political developments of his time. Trotsky wants the working class to recover itself and fight for peace. Criticizing the propertied classes, he says that for them the monarchy is the most reliable ally in their struggle against the revolutionary offensive of the proletariat. The Soviet leader gave three percepts. One, trust not the bourgeoisie. Two, control our own leaders and third, have confidence in our own revolutionary strength (p.24).

The author condemns secret diplomacy during negotiations. In a speech delivered in Moscow on April 14 1918, Trotsky says that ‘All those phrases about ‘democarcy’, ‘the fate of small nationalities’, ‘justice’, God’s commands’ – all these are but words, phrases used for the purpose of cheating the common people; in reality the powers are only looking out for unprotected booty in order to pocket it. This I say is the essence of imperialist policy’ (p.60).

Trotsky mentions that the genuine bourgeois thinks that nature itself has destined him to dominate. He warns that if the revolution did not spread to other countries, then it would be crushed by European capitalism (p.70). He further stresses on the intellectual development of women. Criticizing the anarchist communists Trotsky states that there is a need for state apparatus when a country as big as Russia plans to organize its economic system whereas the anarchist believed that the working class did not need state power as it was a bourgeoisie machine (p.82).

Trotsky praises Lenin’s personality and his efforts for the cause. According to him Lenin is the ‘fusion of a courageous, unwavering mind and a steeled and inflexible will’ (p. 100). He also condemns the assassination attempt on his life.  For Marx, he says that he was ‘the greatest of all fighters and thinkers who anticipated and pointed out the paths to a new history (p.97).

The author heavily criticizes the bureaucracy as he considers is an ‘embodiment of monstrous inequality. The revolution destroyed the nobility. The bureaucracy creates a new gentry. The revolution destroyed titles and decorations. The new aristocracy produces marshals and generals. The new aristocracy absorbs an enormous part of the national income. Its position before the people is deceitful and false. Its leaders are forced to hide the reality, to deceive the masses, to cloak themselves, calling black white. The whole policy of the new aristocracy is a frame-up. The new constitution is nothing but a frame-up’ (p125).

Trotsky believes that socialism is only possible when independent activity of the masses and the flourishing of the human personality takes place. Furthermore, he strongly believes in a communist future and wants the future generations to cleanse life of all evil, oppression and violence.

 

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Book Review: Buddha or Karl Marx by Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar

 

The editorial committee of this book found three different typed copies of an essay on Buddha and Karl Marx in loose sheets. The essay is divided into sub topics. This includes basis of the ideas of Buddha and Karl Marx. With that, the author compares Buddha and Marx. Furthermore, in the book withering away of the state is also discussed.

Marx and Buddha were divided by 2381 years. Ambedkar believes that having read both Buddha and Marx, a comparison is what he should do. The author believes that Buddha was born a democrat and died a democrat. He stresses that Buddha was of the view that ‘each man should be morally so trained that he may himself become a sentinel for the kingdom of righteousness.’ Ambedkar says that the communists themselves admit that their theory of the state as a permanent dictatorship is a weakness in their political philosophy. He further says that Russians do not seem to be paying any attention to Buddhism as an ultimate aid to sustain Communism when force is withdrawn.

Buddha’s method was to change the mind so that whatever he does is without force of compulsion. Ambedkar believes that Russian dictatorship would be good for all backward countries, but this is no argument for permanent dictatorship. This form of dictatorship he believes, paid no attention to spiritual values. Ambedkar stresses that man must grow materially and spiritually. He opines that equality will be of no vale without fraternity or liberty. Ambedkar concludes that all three can coexist if one follows the way of Buddha.

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Book Review: The Birth of Tajikistan: National Identity and the Origins of the Republic by Paul Bergne

 

In October 1917 the Bolshevik Revolution broke out. During this period much of Central Asia was ruled by autonomous rulers such as the Emir of Bukhara and the Khan of Khiva. By the 1920s the khanates were converted into People’s republics. In 1924 Stalin the then people’s commissar for nationalities redrew the frontiers on ethno-linguistic lines. Among these was the Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbekistan- the land of the Uzbeks.

Turkic Uzbeks were not the only ones living in Uzbekistan. There was a considerable number of Persian speaking population. Bergne writes that, in opposition to Uzbeks the Tajiks first gained an autonomous oblast (administrative region) within Uzbekistan, then an autonomous republic and in 1929 got the status of a full Soviet Union Republic. The new government had to survive the civil war which followed the revolution, build a new country in a remote terrain, create a Tajik identity (which did not exist before).

The author has tried to document as to how the idea of Tajik state came into form and how the birth of the Tajik nation took place.

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Book Review: V. I. Lenin by Margaret J. Goldstein

Vladimir Lenin was born on 10^th of April 1870 in Simbirsk, Russia. His name at birth was Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. The Ulyanov family had six children. Lenin’s father worked for the government. On 1^st of March 1881 when Vladimir was ten years old, bombers set off two explosions near Czar Alexander’s carriage outside his palace in Saint Petersburg. The second explosion killed the Czar. People’s Will, the organization of the bombers believed that once the Czar was dead poor people would rise up in revolution and take control of Russia’s government.

Vladimir earned top marks in school. He excelled in Greek, Latin, German, algebra, and other classes. He was also doing great in his writing class. Moreover, his favorite classes were history and literature. Nikolay Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, and Ivan Turgenev were his favorite Russian novelists. Lenin was not even sixteen when his father passed away. Vladimir’s brother Alexander got inspired from the works of German thinkers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Alexander along with other like-minded fellows planned to murder the Czar. Alexander was to make the bomb. Before they could execute their plan, the police caught them. On 8^th May 1887 Alexander was executed. He did not beg for mercy as some of his other fellows.

Vladimir was greatly shaken by the death of his brother. After graduating from Simbirsk Classical Gimnazia with a gold medal Lenin hoped to attend Saint Petersburg University, but his brother’s crime barred him from admission. Instead, he applied Imperial Kazan University for Law, but the university officials kept a close eye on him. He along with thirty-nine others were expelled from the school on joining a protest against some harsh university regulations. Not giving up his thoughts of becoming a lawyer, the self-taught young man stood first out of a class of 124 students. Lenin hated the Russian nobility and wanted a revolution to happen and in the summer of 1893, Vladimir moved to Saint Petersburg.

He was twenty-three when he arrived at Saint Petersburg.  His fellow revolutionaries used to call him Starik (old man) as he appeared to be fully politically mature. Lenin was a powerful speaker who had strong command over history, economics and political science. Lenin met Nadezhda Krupskaya at a Marxist discussion circle in February 1894. The two became close companions. Lenin saw liberals and reformers as members of the bourgeoisie and enemies of the proletariat.

In Dec 1895, Lenin and his colleagues were caught in the process of creating an illegal newspaper. As he was waiting for his sentence Lenin stayed in cell 193 and engaged himself with writing a book called The Development of Capitalism in Russia. After more than a year of waiting he was punished. He was to spend three years in exile in Siberia. There in Siberia he was was reading, writing and hunting. Lenin’s companion Nadya was sentenced to exile in Ufa. Claiming they were engaged they requested to be allowed to get married in Shushenskoye. In Jan 1900, Lenin’s exile ended, but his wife had one year left which she was to spend at Ufa.

After exile Lenin and his comrades decide to produce papers abroad which they were to smuggle into Russia. In 1902, Lenin met Trotsky and was impressed by the young man’s sharp mind, and commitment to revolutionary cause. Lenin’s group was known as Bolsheviks and Julius Marton’s group was known as Mehseviks. In the time period around 1905 peasants wanted changes to land laws.  Russia went to war with Japan, which further angered the Russians. Russians started to doubt Czar’s ability to rule them. On 9^th of January 1905 Georgy Gapon, a Russian Orthodox priest with some 200, 000 people headed to the Czar’s winter palace with a petition signed by 135000 people. Before the demonstration reached the palace soldiers fired on them.

Uprisings continued throughout Russia. By October 1905, Czar Nicholas agreed to create a constitution. He gave people freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Politics were allowed to operate. A Duma (parliament) was allowed to operate, but he reserved the right to disband the Duma. According to the author the elections of April 1906 were won by the Constitutional democrats, nicknamed Cadets who were in favor of liberal reforms and a western European style of democracy. Lenin criticized the Cadets and also was against the Mensheviks

Nicholas disbanded the first Duma within three months and called for new elections. Revolutionaries were actively involved in activities against the Czar.  Lenin left Russian for Finland in 1907. The second Duma was also disbanded. In this socialist groups were quite successful. In the third Duma which met for the first time in November 1907 there were fewer Cadets, few socialists and more pro-Czarists.

In 1914 the great war had started. Russia was on the side of Allied Powers. The author says that the Russians were not well prepared for the war. Lenin and Krupskaya were in Galacia, which was part of Austro-Hungarian Empire. When the war started they left for Switzerland. Setting foot in Russia on 3^rd of April 1917. In May 1917 Leon Trotsky joined who was earlier in the Menshevik camp joined the Bolshevik camp. The government troop caught Trotsky but Lenin managed to escape to Finland. From Finland, he continued to direct Bolshevik activities. Trotsky now released from prison, became the chairman of the Petrograd Soviet.

On 24 Oct 1917 Congress of Soviet opened. The wheels of revolution were already in motion. On the same day, late at night Bolshevik soldiers took over telephone exchanges, telegraph offices, banks, railroad stations, power stations and bridges. On Oct 26 the red guards entered the palace and arrested the palace. The Mensheviks and the Social Revolutionary delegates denounced the coup at the Congress of Soviets. Trotsky scolded them in return. On the evening of Oct 26, Lenin addressed the congress. He ordered the peasants to take over all private land in Russia.

Soon after coming to power Lenin established Cheka, the secret police force. Lenin struck down the law of inheritance, gave women equal rights with men, nationalized big businesses and tightened the control over smaller ones. In July 1918 the entire ruling family of Russia was murdered. On 30 August, 1930 Lenin was shot thrice by a woman named Fanya Kaplan. She did so because Lenin had disbanded the constituent assembly earlier. The author stresses that for propaganda poets, authors, artists, theatre and films were used. Even posters, slogans and musical works were to follow the party line. In 1920 the civil war in Russia had ended in favor of a red victory. It is estimated that millions perished during the conflict.

On January 21, 1924, Lenin fell into a coma. Later that evening, he died. He was fifty-three years old. Before that, he had a few strokes which had partially paralyzed his body. Lenin thought that Trotsky was the most capable person to succeed him, but Stalin found the testament which Lenin tried to keep secret. The document did not stand in the way of Stalin’s rise to power, as Stalin very much wanted. Lenin’s body was not buried. His body was preserved and put in a glass coffin. Petrograd, which was previously renamed from Saint Petersburg, was now renamed as Leningrad.

Lenin who rose to become one of the most powerful man in human history inspired millions throughout the world. This book presents a leader who transformed Russia- for good or for bad is another questions. A short read this book gives a short biographical account of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

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Book Review: Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin’s Dream of an Empire in Asia By Peter Hopkirk

In 1920 Lenin had declared that England was Soviet Union’s greatest enemy and they must be hit in India hard. During this tense period of the twentieth century various intelligence gatherings missions were carried out, both on the Soviet and the British side. The Soviet secret police known as Cheka as rival of the British intelligence, which was still the world’s most formidable intelligence service. Disguised as member of shooting trips, scientific expeditions and covering as native traders, acts of espionage gained new highest in the Central Asian region. In Summer 1918 a small party on ponies led by Colonel Fredrick Bailey of the Indian Political and Secret Department were travelling through Chinese Central Asia heading for the Russian frontier. Another British officer included in this party was Major Stewart Blacker.

On 22 April Bailey left India and on 7 June he reached Kashgar. Messages from Kashgar took at least three weeks to reach India by runner. On June 16, 1918, when Bailey and his party were about to leave Kashgar Tsar Nicholas and his family were executed in cold blood in the soviet territory. As they travelled towards Tashkent Bailey stopped to catch butterflies. On 14 August 1918 Colonel Bailey and Major Blacker stepped off the train in Tashkent and drove to Regina hotel. The two officers were lucky enough not to get shot. Invisible ink and code was used to convey news of their situation to Etherton in Kashgar. On September 1, 1918 Sir George Macartney had arrived in Tashkent and both were summoned to the White House, residence of the former Governor-General, to see President of the new republic.

One of the reasons why forbearance was being shown to the mission was that Bolshevik’s desire for recognition by the British, the then leading power of the world. At Tashkent there was the American Consul named Roger Tredwell. The author of this book says that Bailey finished his lunch and made his way home. Safely inside he made the final plan and left for Tredwell’s, for supper. After supper he entered a narrow row of houses nearby, after which he disappeared.

Another character in the great game was Paul Nazaroff who was the ringleader of a White Russian plot to overthrow the Tashkent Soviet and link up with the British to the West. Nazaroff was caught by two Cheka agents. Osipov had overthrown the Tashkent government and before the Revolution he was a junior officer in the Tsarist army. ‘For months now those Russians opposed to Bolshevik rule in Central Asia had been looking in desperation to the British for deliverance’, says Hopkirk.

Bailey was still on the run from the Cheka and was out of touch with his government. Indian revolutionaries had arrived in Tashkent with Bolshevik assistance and Bailey had noted them, not for the first time. King Habibullah of Afghanistan strictly remained neutral throughout the war from 1914-18. An Afghan mission had visited Moscow and met Lenin, Trotsky and other senior Bolshevik leaders.

Bailey’s former companion in Tashkent was now engaged in Bolshevik-watching from Meshed. To Bailey in Tashkent it had become obvious that the British were not aiming to drive the Bolsheviks out of Central Asia. He was simply wasting his time there and was at considerable risk. Bailey with the help of Manditch, a Serbian police contact got recruited in the Bolshevik Secret Service. Before leaving Tashkent Bailey managed to obtain a letter of introduction from the Bokharan consul to his opposite number in Kagan. It was acquired through mutual friends on ‘a solemn promise that Bailey was not a Bolshevik’. It was the last Bolsheviks were ever to see of Bailey.

It occurred to Bailey that once established in Bokhara, with the Emir’s blessings, he would be well placed to supply to Meshed regular intelligence about what was going on in Bolshevik Central Asia, just as Etherton was doing from Kashgar. Bailey made his escape to Persia on January 6, 1920. Bailey’s party crossed the river and narrowly escaped Bolshevik arrest. After seventeen months Bailey was finally on friendly soil. After Bailey, the author places Major (later Colonel) Etherton in the Soviet order of villainy. Etherton spent four years as Consul General at Kashgar. His book Across the Roof of the World is also mentioned by Hopkirk. In January 1918 a wireless receiving set was installed which intercepted Bolshevik radio traffic between Tashkent, Moscow and elsewhere. Officially the Consul General was there in Kashgar to protect the rights of British –Indian subjects in Chinese Turkestan. The Consul staff included a Vice-Consul, British wireless monitors, chief clerk, an assistant clerk, a Chinese secretary and numerous orderlies and servants. In case of trouble this British outpost had thirty sepoys commanded by an Indian officer who were changed annually.

The author describes the Chini Bagh residence at Kashgar. In 1913 Chini Bagh was demolished and a new twenty roomed European style residence was constructed. Before 1914-18, this English home was the oasis for rare European travelers. Albert von Le Coq and Aurel Stein also visited this place. The Bolsheviks were pressing the Chinese to be allowed to open consulates in Sinkiang and handover those who still remained loyal to the Tsarist cause. Etherton was determined to sabotage the Bolshevik move. Etherton warned the Chinese that the Bolsheviks would foment trouble among the Muslim population, which was already restless. Not until three years after Etherton’s departure from Kashgar was Moscow allowed to reoccupy its own Consulate-General at Kashgar.

On the second of March 1919, fifty-two leading revolutionaries including Lenin and Trotsky met within the walls of Kremlin to lay the foundations of the Communist International, which became better known as Comintern. Lenin wanted Bolshevism to spread in India. For this Manabendra Nath Roy was ready. He was a native of Bengal and from a well-known Brahmin family. He began his revolutionary career in as anti-British secret society. Wanted for treason by the British authorities Roy fled via Japan and China to the United States. Roy had disagreed with Lenin on two issues. First, Roy insisted that the colonies should first be liberated and secondly Roy did not want cooperation with non-Marxist liberation movements.

Further in the book, Baron Ungern-Sternberg who brought terror to Mongolia and Enver Pasha who dreamed of a Turkish empire in Central Asia is well explained. Their photographs are also published in the book. In 1921 Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement was mad, which according to the author made partial recognition by the greatest of the imperialist powers. The news of the agreement was a bombshell to Colonel Etherton, who was at Kashgar. In India Mahatma Gandhi had appeared on the political scene. Gandhi had transformed the Indian National Congress into a nationwide political party. Mongolia on the other hand, was the second country to turn Communist. Ungern-Sternberg had it made easy for the Russians, says the author.

The entire Muslim population of Central Asia was alienated when the ancient Muslim town of Kokand was brutally sacked by the Soviets in 1918. Basmachi bands were formed as a reaction to this. Lenin chose Enver Pasha, a former Turkish General to break the basmachi and persuade the Muslim masses to join the Bolshevik cause. Enver wanted to deliver British India to the Bolsheviks in exchange their help in restoring him to power in Turkey, which by now was in the grip of one of his former colonels, Mustafa Pasha, better known as Kemal Ataturk. Ataturk showed himself to be friendly towards the soviet neighbors and hostile towards the British.

Enver Pasha’s political fortunes reached a low ebb on March 16, 1921 when Moscow finally signed a treaty with his arch-foe Ataturk. The author says that: “But it appears that the unsuspecting Lenin dispatched him to Central Asia hoping that he would exert his considerable influence on the local Muslim population…”. Enver arrived in Bohara which was now in firm Bolshevik hands. He made secret contact with basmachi leaders. Enver is said to have found himself in the cradle of the Turkish race. He was to lead against the Bolsheviks. Enver had to unite Uzbek, Turkoman, Kirghiz and Kazakh. He sent messengers to Khiva, Samarkand and Ferghana to invite basmachi leaders to join forces with him. On 14 February 1922 Enver captured Dushambe, in present-day Tajikistan.

On the other side, Roy considered Gandhi’s ideas as ‘positively reactionary’ and not being revolutionary. Ten of Roy’s Indian agents were picked up after entering the India across the Pamir. They were charged under section 121-A of the Indian Penal Code. Satlin who had been placed in charge of the Comintern’s eastern operations by Lenin, was now becoming increasingly impatient at Roy’s lack of results. On May 8, 1923 Lord Curzon sent an ultimatum warning Moscow that unless, within ten days, it withdrew all its agents operating against British interests in Asia, or anywhere else, trade relations between the two countries would be terminated forthwith. Moscow was momentarily stunned by Curzon’s bombshell but for the Bolsheviks Soviet India remained the ultimate Prize in Asia, and Moscow had no intention of abandoning its hopes. Comintern now aimed at expanding Eastwards towards China as well as into French Indo-China and the Dutch East Indies. Bolshevisk had links with China dated from 1920.

On February 1, 1924, Britain accorded full diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union, becoming the first major power to do so. Major George Gillan who took charge as Consul-General at Kashgar pointed out to Taoyin that incase of trouble the British Consul-General could become a refuge for the most obvious victims of the mobs. In Kashgar Gillan and his Russian counterpart were indulging in these shadowy pursuits, elsewhere in China there had been dramatic developments. Borodin wanted the communists in China to go along with the Kuomintang and to seize victory from them at the last moment, from within. The warlord-held territories could be captured in this manner was what Borodin planned. Roy exited from the Soviet Union with the help of Borodin. Roy was arrested in Bombay and was found guilty and sentenced to twelve years of rigorous imprisonment.  He argued in court and quoted Hume and Bentham. His sentence was cut half.

Chapter sixteen is about the last of the central Asian dreamers. In this chapter the political turmoil, killings, conflicts and the last foreigners who observed the various changes in that part of Central Asia are mentioned. Khotan, Kucha and Yarkand are mentioned in the next chapter, serving as important positions in the great game. Colonel Reginald Schomberg, after travelling through Chinese Central Asia produced a twelve-page report. He warned that there is great threat of ‘Red intrigue’ in ‘India, Tibet, Chitral and Punial’.

Peter Hopkirk espouses that the East fails to ignite as he says that: “Lenin’s great dream of an empire in Asia, like those of Sternberg, Enver and Ma, had ended in failure”. Hopkirk considers that the only permanent gain has been Mongolia. Bailey described as the last player in the Great Game was to serve the British government for another eighteen years. First as political officer in Sikkim, later resident in Srinagar and lastly as Minister Plenipotentiary to the Royal Court of Nepal. Bailey passed away in 1967 at the age of eighty-five. The author considers him as the last survivor of those stirring days in Asia’s back.

The bloody struggle is a story of British intelligence officers, armed communists of the Communist International, Muslim leaders, Chinese political figures and other regional stakeholders. A very interesting read for all those interested in understanding Great Game in the Central Asian region.

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Book Review: Mikhail Gorbachev: The Soviet Innovator by Steve Otfinoski

 

This biography of Mikhail Gorbachev by Steven Otfinoski is of the series produced by Great Lives. It starts with the early life of Gorbachev to his rise to power, and the challenges which he faces as a leader of the Soviet Union. The soviet leader was son of a peasant born in 1931, in the Stavropol territory. His father wanted his son to acquire good education. Gorbachev got into law school at Moscow State University. He married a lady named Raisa in early 1954 in senior year. After completing his education Gorbachev and his wife returned to Stavropol. He remained for twenty-three years at this place. Gorbachev worked for the party and gradually made his way up the party ranks.

On Andropov’s insistence during Brezhnev’s time, Gorbachev got a chance to become the twentieth most powerful man in the country at the age of forty-seven. After Brezhnev’s death Andropov took over and provided more working opportunity for Gorbachev as he had trust in him. They retired old politicians and replaced them with young blood. They dispensed more power to regional and local leaders. Moreover, they introduced western technology into soviet industry. Gorbachev got the opportunity to travel to other countries which include France, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Belgium and Great Britain. This provided him opportunity to learn more from other countries.

In Feb 1984 Andropov died of kidney failure. In March 1985 Chernenko passed way without changing much as he was one of the last old guards who tried to hold together the Soviet Union of Joseph Stalin. Gorbachev was chosen as the General Secretary by the Central Committee. Gorbachev removed corrupt and lazy party leaders. He launched an anti-drinking campaign. Later he introduced Perestroika (restructuring in Russian) and glasnost (openness in Russian). Ligachev and Yeltsin now emerged as heading two different groups within the political system. Ligachev was head of the conservatives and Yeltsin of the opposite camp who grew frustrated at the slowness of reform. Here Gorbachev very skillfully comforted the conservatives and encouraged his fellow reformers.

As far as foreign policy is concerned in November 1985 Gorbachev met Ronald Regan in Geneva. In September 1986 they met again, but this time in Iceland. In December 1987 Gorbachevs arrived in Washington for four days. Regans visited Moscow in June 1988. In December 1988 Gorbachev spoke before the General Assembly in New York. George Bush was the vice-president at that time. A 6.9 earthquake had struck Armenia in Soviet Union. Gorbachevs had to cancel his trips to Cuba and the Great Britain. Thy flew back home.

A chapter titled ‘The Road Ahead’ presents the key to future challenges. The author of the book suggests that ‘energy, political wisdom, and statesmanship' would be required to manage problems in the future. At times the author presents Gorbachev as the only intelligent soviet leader since Soviet Union's inception. The reader of this book would surely manage to dissect this short reading.

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