‘Hunted Through Central Asia’

The students were protesting that the reforms of Deng Xiaoping had not gone far enough. They could see the political liberalization process -- “glasnost” -- going on in neighboring Russia under Mikhail Gorbachev and wanted a similar process in China. They also wanted democratic reform, which would result in less power for the Chinese Communist party.

Sadly, as a result of the protest and the military action to crush it, the student protest movement was crushed, leaving very little formal opposition to the Chinese government within the country. So, rather than accelerating the pace of reform, Tiananmen Square was to halt it.

Communism came to this part of the world with the Bolshevik Revolution, in an uprising of the people against the rulers, not unlike China’s student protests. In Western Europe, when we study the period of 1915-1920, we meet characters such as Lenin and Trotsky and focus on the effects of the struggle to consolidate Bolshevik rule in Russia. The October Revolution, the tragic shooting of Tsar Nicholas II and his family in the woods near Yekaterinburg (did his daughter Anastasia survive?), the civil war between the “Reds” and the “Whites” that finally led to Red victory and the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, are all taught focused on the cities of Petrograd (St. Petersburg) and Moscow.

But, if you think of the area of the USSR and the fact that it is the union of republics (in the plural), it is clear that the struggle for supremacy between the old order and the new order must have had a much wider geographical base. The “Reds” were the communist revolutionaries, the radicals. The “Whites” were an assorted array of all those who opposed the new Bolshevik ideas: an alliance of monarchists, conservatives, liberals and more moderate socialists. Because of their royal family and economic connections, and in a foreshadowing of the Cold War, the Whites had overseas backing from Great Britain, France, the US and Japan.

Some of the earliest struggles took place in the Ukraine. But how, exactly, did the people of Central Asia become part of the USSR? I don’t recall learning about that at school. Did they gladly embrace the Soviet model? Were they powerless to resist? Did they join in the struggle with the “White” Russians against the “Reds,” only to fall victim to the Red victory?

Paul Nazaroff’s exciting tale of his adventures on the run from Lenin’s secret police through modern-day Uzbekistan, Kyrgyz-stan and northwest China shed light on this silent period of history. Written 15 years after his escape to Chinese Central Asia and from there to Britain, it does, of course, still gloss over certain details so as not to incriminate those left behind who would otherwise be exposed to retribution by the authorities.

Nazaroff was born in Orenburg in the Urals. He was a Russian, and he served as a mining engineer in Tashkent, the administrative center of Central Asia. From there he would explore the country for ores, finding sites for mines for copper, silver, oil and coal.

When the revolution happened, Nazaroff appears to have been the leader of an organization in the area that fought with the Whites against the Communists. For this, he was wanted by the authorities, and the tale he tells is of taking refuge with Kirghiz nomads and the Sart people (the Russian word for Central Asians) in a hazardous game of cat and mouse with first the Cheka and then the Chinese border guards.

The first part of his story describes an amazing piece of group resistance in Tashkent prison. Chapter 1 is tantalizingly entitled “awaiting execution.” In the Turkestan Republic of Workers and Peasants, Nazaroff is approached by Cheka who came to see him to coerce him to get communication lines open to Moscow through the desert of Ust Urt. The Cheka had orders to arrest, imprison and interrogate anyone who they thought fit. In the process, they uncover Nazaroff’s involvement in organizing resistance throughout the province, in particular in the Ferghana Valley, and arrest him.

The “Uzun Kulak” -- literally long ears -- of the Kirghiz grapevine do not take long to discover in which prison he is being held. By this method, news spreads faster than lightning! As Nazaroff is held in solitary confinement a new resistance starts: the project to get him out of prison and start a counter-revolution.

Many did not make it out of the prison. Families would bring meals to the gates each day and would dread hearing the news “he does not need any more meals where he is now.” These meals were checked through thoroughly by the guards for hidden pieces of paper, concealed metal items, etc. But no guards suspected the dough rings that were baked in the prison by an old Central Asian. In fact, he was the son of one of the Tajik political prisoners, disguised to look poor and harmless. He would give messages to his father by molding what seemed like random patterns in the dough. In actual fact they were information about what was happening on the outside, written in the Tajik language in Arabic script! At exercise time these could be whispered to Nazaroff. Replies were channeled back to the outside world by equally surreptitious means.

In the end, their plans for an uprising were not needed. A few days before the set date, they were saved by the English advance, fighting with the White Russians. They assaulted the city, overthrew the Cheka and released the prisoners, much to the joy of the people. “When I went out into the streets I found them crammed with people, both Russian and native, all laughing with happiness. They surrounded me, congratulated me, shook my hands and embraced me.” These scenes of euphoria spilled over the whole town. Church bells rang; the sky was blue. “It was a moment of triumph when, as we fondly thought, the land had been finally freed.”

However, the respite was short lived. The roads were soon crammed again with Red troops advancing against the Whites, and Nazaroff had to get out of town as he was public enemy number one. His adventures through the hostile Central Asian winter and the Tien Shan and Pamir mountains started.

Although the majority of the book is about one man pitted against the military and logistic might of a government -- like our lone man in Tiananmen Square -- the kindness and bravery of the Kirghiz and Sart who risked their lives to shelter him or save him shines through. They knew perfectly well who they had invited into their home and to what danger they had exposed their whole family by doing so. Locals helped him by guiding the way, assisting with false paperwork and, when he finally managed to crosses the border and the Chinese devastatingly sent him back, helping him discover another way to safety. This is truly a story of solidarity across religious, social and ethnic divides!