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The Silent Steppe: the Story of a Kazakh Nomad under Stalin

The Silent Steppe: the Story of a Kazakh Nomad under Stalin

Author(s): Mukhamet Shayakhmetov

Location(s): Kazakhstan

Genre(s): Nonfiction

Era(s): 1930s and 1940s

If you read just 1 book about Kazakhstan, let it be this one. While the devastating famine in Ukraine is fairly well-known, the death and displacement of millions of Kazakhs in the same period of Stalin’s reign is almost forgotten in the West. This first-hand account of a survivor tells the story of the sad, starved end to the nomadic lifestyle of Kazakhs.

Like a Kazakh “Wild Swans”, Shayakhmetov has written an exceptionally dignified and balanced account of the incredible hardships the Kazakh people had to endure in the 1930’s and ’40’s. You will learn not only about the tragic history of the land, but also about the age-old way of life of Kazakhs before it was destroyed by Soviet Russia. No other writer comes close to Shayakhmetov in describing the Kazakh way without undue romance or exaggerated venom. The Silent Steppe will make you understand how Kazakh traditions still linger on in contemporary life.

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