Download or read book The Mysteries of the Caucasus written by Dorota Gierycz and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2010-09-23 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author, a former senior United Nations official stationed in Sukhumi and Tbilisi, tells the stories of people in Abkhazia and Georgia proper, intertwined with astute and timely analysis of the political events that have shaped the small Caucasus nation in the years since she gained her independencefrom the rise and fall of Shevardnadze, the hero of perestroika and the Wests favourite democrat, to the era of Saakashvili, the proclaimed beacon of democracy, increasingly authoritarian and challenged by a discontented public. The analysis is also anchored in Georgias history and collective memory, indelibly marked by the lasting impact of the brutal rule of Stalin and Beria and the ever-present shadow and interference of Russia.
Download or read book Days in the Caucasus written by Banine and published by Pushkin Press. This book was released on 2019-04-18 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A scintillatingly witty memoir telling the story of a young woman's determined struggle for freedom We all know families that are poor but 'respectable'. Mine, in contrast, was extremely rich but not 'respectable' at all... This is the unforgettable memoir of an 'odd, rich, exotic' childhood, of growing up in Azerbaijan in the turbulent early twentieth century, caught between East and West, tradition and modernity. Banine remembers her luxurious home, with endless feasts of sweets and fruit; her beloved, flaxen-haired German governess; her imperious, swearing, strict Muslim grandmother; her bickering, poker-playing, chain-smoking relatives. She recalls how the Bolsheviks came, and they lost everything. How, amid revolution and bloodshed, she fell passionately in love, only to be forced into marriage with a man she loathed- until the chance of escape arrived. By turns gossipy and romantic, wry and moving, Days in the Caucasus is a coming-of-age story and a portrait of a vanished world. Banine shows us what it means to leave the past behind, and how it haunts us. Banine was born Umm El-Banu Assadullayeva in 1905, into a wealthy family in Baku, then part of the Russian Empire. Following the Russian Revolution and the subsequent fall of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, Banine was forced to flee her home-country - first to Istanbul, and then to Paris. In Paris she formed a wide circle of literary acquaintances including Nicos Kazantzakis, André Malraux, Ivan Bunin and Teffi and eventually began writing herself. Days in the Caucasus is Banine's most famous work. It was published in 1945 to critical acclaim but has never been translated into English, until now.
Download or read book History of the Caucasus written by Christoph Baumer and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-08-26 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Rich and illuminating." Literary Review A landscape of high mountains and narrow valleys stretching from the Black to the Caspian Seas, the Caucasus region has been home to human populations for nearly 2 million years. In this richly illustrated 2-volume series, historian and explorer Christoph Baumer tells the story of the region's history through to the present day. It is a story of encounters between many different peoples, from Scythians, Turkic and Mongol peoples of the East to Greeks and Romans from the West, from Indo-European tribes from the West as well as the East, and to Arabs and Iranians from the South. It is a story of rival claims by Empires and nations and of how the region has become home to more than 50 languages that can be heard within its borders to this very day. This first volume charts the period from the emergence of the earliest human populations in the region – the first known human populations outside Africa - to the Seljuk conquests of 1050CE. Along the way the book charts the development of Neolithic, Iron and Bronze Age cultures, the first recognizable Caucasian state and the arrival of a succession of the great transnational Empires, from the Greeks, the Romans and the Armenian to competing Christian and Muslim conquerors. The History of the Caucasus: Volume 1 also includes more than 200 full colour images and maps bringing the changing cultures of these lands vividly to life.
Download or read book Let Our Fame Be Great written by Oliver Bullough and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2010-03-04 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two centuries ago, the Russians pushed out of the cold north towards the Caucasus Mountains, the range that blocked their access to Georgia, Turkey, Persia and India. They were forging their colonial destiny, and the mountains were in their way. The Caucasus had to be conquered and, for the highlanders who lived there, life would never be the same again. If the Russians expected it to be an easy fight, however, they were mistaken. Their armies would go on to defeat Napoleon and Hitler, as well as lesser foes, but no one resisted them for as long as these supposed savages. To hear the stories of the conquest, I travelled far from the mountains. I wandered through the steppes of Central Asia and the cities of Turkey. I squatted outside internment camps in Poland, and drank tea beneath the gentle hills of Israel. The stories I heard amplified the outrages I saw in the mountains themselves. As I set out, in my mind was a Chechen woman I had met in a refugee camp. She lived in a ragged, khaki tent in a field of mud and stones, but she welcomed me with laughter and kindness. Like the mountains of her homeland, her spirit had soared upwards, gleaming and pure. Throughout my travels, I met the same generosity from all the Caucasus peoples. Their stories have not been told, and there fame is not great, but truly it deserves to be.
Download or read book Energy and Conflict in Central Asia and the Caucasus written by Robert E. Ebel and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2000 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This timely study is the first to examine the relationship between competition for energy resources and the propensity for conflict in the Caspian region. Taking the discussion well beyond issues of pipeline politics and the significance of Caspian oil and gas to the global market, the book offers significant new findings concerning the impact of energy wealth on the political life and economies of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. The contributors, a leading group of scholars and policymakers, explore the differing interests of ruling elites, the political opposition, and minority ethnic and religious groups region-wide. Placing Caspian development in the broader international relations context, the book assesses the ways in which Russia, China, Iran, and Turkey are fighting to protect their interests in the newly independent states and how competition for production contracts and pipeline routes influences regional security. Specific chapters also link regional issues to central questions of international politics and to theoretical debates over the role of energy wealth in political and economic development worldwide. Woven throughout the implications for U.S. policy, giving the book wide appeal to policymakers, corporate executives, energy analysts, and scholars alike.
Download or read book Bourdieu s Secret Admirer in the Caucasus written by Georgi M. Derluguian and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2005-07-15 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bourdieu's Secret Admirer in the Caucasus is a gripping account of the developmental dynamics involved in the collapse of Soviet socialism. Fusing a narrative of human agency to his critical discussion of structural forces, Georgi M. Derluguian reconstructs from firsthand accounts the life story of Musa Shanib—who from a small town in the Caucasus grew to be a prominent leader in the Chechen revolution. In his examination of Shanib and his keen interest in the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, Derluguian discerns how and why this dissident intellectual became a nationalist warlord. Exploring globalization, democratization, ethnic identity, and international terrorism, Derluguian contextualizes Shanib's personal trajectory from de-Stalinization through the nationalist rebellions of the 1990s, to the recent rise in Islamic militancy. He masterfully reveals not only how external economic and political forces affect the former Soviet republics but how those forces are in turn shaped by the individuals, institutions, ethnicities, and social networks that make up those societies. Drawing on the work of Charles Tilly, Immanuel Wallerstein, and, of course, Bourdieu, Derluguian's explanation of the recent ethnic wars and terrorist acts in Russia succeeds in illuminating the role of human agency in shaping history.
Download or read book The Exploration of the Caucasus written by Douglas William Freshfield and published by London : E. Arnold. This book was released on 1896 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Ossetes written by Richard Foltz and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-12-30 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ossetes, a small nation inhabiting two adjacent states in the central Caucasus, are the last remaining linguistic and cultural descendants of the ancient nomadic Scythians who dominated the Eurasian steppe from the Balkans to Mongolia for well over one thousand years. A nominally Christian nation speaking a language distantly related to Persian, the Ossetes have inherited much of the culture of the medieval Alans who brought equestrian culture to Europe. They have preserved a rich oral literature through the epic of the Narts, a body of heroic legends that shares much in common with the Persian Book of Kings and other works of Indo-European mythology. This is the first book devoted to the little-known history and culture of the Ossetes to appear in any Western language. Charting Ossetian history from Antiquity to today, it will be a vital contribution to the fields of Iranian, Caucasian, Post-Soviet and Indo-European Studies.
Download or read book The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus written by John Frederick Baddeley and published by . This book was released on 1908 with total page 614 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Vagabond in the Caucasus written by Stephen Graham and published by . This book was released on 1911 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Insurgency in Chechnya and the North Caucasus written by Robert W. Schaefer and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-10-22 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time, a military expert on both Russia and insurgency offers the definitive guide on activities in Southern Russia, explaining why the Russian approach to counter terrorism is failing and why terrorist and insurgent attacks in Russia have sharply increased over the past three years. The Insurgency in Chechnya and the North Caucasus: From Gazavat to Jihad is an comprehensive treatment of this 300 year-old conflict. Thematically organized, it cuts through the rhetoric to provide a contextual framework with which readers can truly understand the "why" and "how" of one of the world's longest-running contemporary insurgencies, despite Russia's best efforts to eradicate it. A fascinating case study of a counterinsurgency campaign that is in direct contravention of U.S. and Western strategy, the book also examines the differences and linkages between insurgency and terrorism; the origins of conflict in the North Caucasus; and the influences of different strains of Islam, of al-Qaida, and of the War on Terror. A critical examination of never-before-revealed Russian counterinsurgency (COIN) campaigns explains why those campaigns have consistently failed and why the region has seen such an upswing in violence since the conflict was officially declared "over" less than two years ago.
Download or read book The Ghost of Freedom written by Charles King and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-02-11 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: " ... The first general history of the modern Caucasus, stretching from the beginning of Russian imperial expansion up to rise of new countries after the Soviet Union's collapse."--Cover.
Download or read book Twelve Secrets in the Caucasus written by Essad Bey and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essad Bey, the sickly son of an oil millionaire from Baku, Azerbaijan, receives permission from his father to spend the summer with his "milk brother” Ali Khan, passing the holiday in his home village in the wild Caucasus. So the two set out, under the custody of a wise attendant, into an archaic world in which chivalry counted more than buying power and poets were more highly regarded than princes – into a country in which, as a kind of curiosity shop of world history, all that is outlived and forgotten was loyally preserved. This is Essad Bey’s second book, which was first published in 1930. In it the author draws upon his Oriental imaginative powers, conjuring a vast panorama of the Caucasus, its people and customs. The result is a fresh and densely atmospheric work, even if not always laying claim to scientific accuracy. Often adding a touch of imagination, the author succeeds in bringing the heart and soul of this archaic world to life, which he had himself experienced and learned to love as a child.
Download or read book Fire and Sword in the Caucasus written by Luigi Villari and published by . This book was released on 1906 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Mystery of Olga Chekhova written by Antony Beevor and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2005-08-30 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his latest work, Antony Beevor—bestselling author of Stalingrad and The Battle of Arnhem and one of our most respected historians of World War II—brings us the true, little-known story of a family torn apart by revolution and war. Olga Chekhova, a stunning Russian beauty, was the niece of playwright Anton Chekhov and a famous Nazi-era film actress who was closely associated with Hitler. After fleeing Bolshevik Moscow for Berlin in 1920, she was recruited by her composer brother Lev to become a Soviet spy—a career she spent her entire postwar life denying. The riveting story of how Olga and her family survived the Russian Revolution, the rise of Hitler, the Stalinist Terror, and the Second World War becomes, in Beevor’s hands, a breathtaking tale of survival in a merciless age.
Download or read book Nart Sagas from the Caucasus written by John Colarusso and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2002-11-10 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Nart sagas are a series of tales originating from the North Caucasus, forming the basic mythology of the tribes in the area. In ninety-two straightforward tales populated by extraordinary characters and exploits, by giants who humble haughty Narts, by horses and sorceresses, these myths bring these cultures to life in a powerful epos. In these colorful tales, women, not least the beautiful temptress Satanaya, the mother of all Narts, are not only fertility figures but also pillars of authority and wisdom. In one variation on a recurring theme, a shepherd, overcome with passion on observing Satanaya bathing alone, shoots a "bolt of lust" that strikes a rock -- a rock that gives birth to the Achilles-like Sawseruquo, or Sosruquo. With steely skin but tender knees, Sawseruquo is a man the Narts come to love and hate. Despite a tragic history, the Circassians, Abazas, Abkhaz, and Ubykhs have retained the Nart sagas as a living tradition. The memory of their elaborate warrior culture, so richly expressed by these tales, helped them resist Tsarist imperialism in the nineteenth century, Stalinist suppression in the twentieth, and has bolstered their ongoing cultural journey into the post-Soviet future. Because these peoples were at the crossroads of Eurasia for millennia, their myths exhibit striking parallels with the lore of ancient India, classical Greece, and pagan Scandinavia. The Nart sagas may also have formed a crucial component of the Arthurian cycle. Notes after each tale reveal these parallels; an appendix offers extensive linguistic commentary.
Download or read book The Rise and Fall of the Caucasian Race written by Bruce Baum and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2008-07 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originating in 1795, the term 'Caucasian' identifies both the peoples of the Caucasus Mountains region as well as those thought to be 'Caucasian.' This text explores the history of the term and the category of the 'Caucasian race' more broadly in light of the changing politics of racial theory and identity.
