Let Our Fame Be Great Journeys Among the Defiant People of the Caucasus

by Bullough, Oliver

• ISBN13: 9780465029044
• ISBN10: 0465029043
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-08-07
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

The jagged peaks of the Caucasus Mountains have hosted a rich history of diverse nations, valuable trade, and incessant warfare. But today the region is best known for atrocities in Chechnya and the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia. In Let Our Fame Be Great, journalist and Russian expert Oliver Bullough explores the fascinating cultural crossroads of the Caucasus, where Europe, Asia, and the Middle East intersect. Traveling through its history, Bullough tracks down the nations dispersed by the region's last two hundred years of brutal warfare. Filled with a compelling mix of archival research and oral history, Let Our Fame Be Greatrecounts the tenacious survival of peoples who have been relentlessly invaded and persecuted and yet woefully overlooked.

Author Biography

Oliver Bullough studied modern history at Oxford University. Formerly a Reuters Moscow correspondent, he is now Caucasus Editor for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

List of Maps	p. vii
Author's Note	p. xiii
Introduction: Let Us Live in Freedom	p. 1
The Circassians, 1864
Are You Not a Circassian?	p. 15
We Share Happiness, We Share Sadness	p. 32
I Give Thee That Little Bird	p. 44
Three Hundred Prime-Bodied Circassians	p. 64
The Caucasus Mountains are Sacred to Me	p. 75
Extermination Alone Would Keep Them Quiet	p. 99
A Pear Tree in the Mountains	p. 114
Here Lived the Circassians	p. 127
The Circassians Do Not Appear in This List	p. 134
The Mountain Turks, 1943-4
A Read Gramphone	p. 145
A Dirty Animal	p. 154
Three Little Boys	p. 162
The Double-Headed Mountain	p. 167
I Always Fought against the Class Enemies	p. 185
Liquidate the Bandit Group	p. 195
The 'Unnation' was a New Phenomenon	p. 210
Playing Stalin	p. 220
Grozny, 1995
War is War, But to Behave in That Way is Not Right	p. 237
A Muslim Submissive to the Will of God	p. 250
The Imam and the Princesses	p. 264
Fire is Better Than Shame	p. 280
The Old Man Shamil	p. 293
People Should Not Return Ever	p. 307
This is all for the Sake of Allah	p. 323
Everyone was Scared of Them	p. 340
My Sons were Killed	p. 354
Beslan, 2004
We Offer You Peace, and the Choice is Up to You	p. 363
I Cannot Even Raise My Eyes towards Them	p. 384
It was all for Nothing	p. 400
The Hard Shackles of Evil	p. 413
I Have Become No One	p. 428
There is No Need for This Any More	p. 445
Postscript: The Boy Who Chose an Orange, Not a Gun	p. 453
Sources	p. 463
Acknowledgements	p. 477
Index	p. 479
Photo insert between pages 244-245
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