Let Our Fame be Great

Let Our Fame be Great: Journeys Among the Defiant People of the Caucasus by Oliver Bullough

Although Let Our Fame be Great is Oliver Bullough's first book, it is a masterpiece that clearly demonstrates his historical training and his journalistic background. Bullough tells the story of the people of the Caucasus by successfully combining historical sources and numerous interviews that he carried out during his extensive travel in the region. What stands out most about the book is his ability to emphasize to emphasize with his interviewees and still maintain a suitable distance in order to successfully analyse their perspectives. Bullough's writing is first class and his descriptions of people and places are magnificent. He is able to bring to life every story that he tells, no matter whether he's talking about the Russian Empire in the 18th century or the 1st Chechen war in the late 20th century. The breadth of this book is truly astonishing as it takes the reader on a tour de force of the history of the Caucasus in the last 300 years by looking at the lives of many of the most notable figures of Russian history such as the Russian poets Pushkin and Lermontov, various Russian emperors, the Soviet dictator Stalin and the current Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. At the same time he also gives us a view into the lives of many ordinary people, thus enriching our perspective of the events presented in the book.

Bullough begins his book with the tragic tale of the Nogai people who accepted Russian rule in August 1783 only to be rewarded with an order to abandon their lands and settle south of the Urals. This resulted in a rebellion in which the leaders who had signed the pact with Russia were executed and thousands of Nogai marched against the Russians. However, these rebels were no match for the Russian armies. This event resulted in the death of many Nogai and the capture of many heads of cattle as well as many women and children. Later in that month, August, more members of the Nogai people rose up to avenge the massacre but they were pursued by the Russians and mercilessly executed.

If you find this kind of story too gruesome, sad or interesting, then you'd better leave this book alone. Although it also contains many moments of mirth, Let Our Fame be Great is primarily a story of the gradual deportation and extermination of the many peoples from the Caucasus region. The book's title comes from a tale about the Narts, the mythical ancestors of all the Caucasus nation:

"Throughout the chronicles, the Narts delight in holding meetings and discussions to decide the correct course of action. But in this tale they do not do so. Without hesitation, they tell the swallow to take their answer back to his master.

'If our lives are to be short, then let our fame be great! Let us not depart from the truth! Let fairness be our path! Let us know not grief! Let us live in freedom!' The swallow took that answer away with him and, so the story goes, 'their fame has remained undying among people.'" (1)

The book is divided into 4 parts and each of them focuses on a different period in the history of the region. The first part focuses on the tragic history of the Circassians who in 1864 were expelled from their lands following their final defeat and, according to Bullough, became victims of perhaps the first genocide of the modern era. Bullough charts the gradual Russian conquest of the Circassians and his description of the expulsion of the Circassians to the lands of the Ottoman Empire in 1864 is heart-breaking. He also makes ample use of interviews with descendants of the Circassians who proudly uphold their legacy today in the former territories of the Ottomans and within Turkey itself.

The second part of the book, called the Mountain Turks, focuses on the fate of several ethnic groups, including the Karachai-Balkar nation, the Kalmyks, as well as the Chechens and the Ingush. The displacement and killing of these people occured during one of the worst periods in the history of Caucasus - the rule of Stalin. In 1943-44 while the battle was raging between the Nazis and the Soviets, these groups suffered a similar fate to that of the Circassians as many of them were killed and the rest were transported in other, distant regions in the vast territory of the USSR.

Although the following quote by Ivan Velyaminov, chief of staff of General Alexei Yermolov, who was charged with continuing the conquest of the Caucasus begun by Suvorov, refers to the strategy that Russia utilised in the first half of the 19th century, I think that it also aptly describes the tragic events that occured in the 20th century as well:

"The Caucasus may be likened to a mighty fortress, marvellously strong by nature, artifically protected by military works, and defended by a numerous garrison. Only thoughtless men would attempt to establish such a stronghold. A wise commander would see the necessity of having recourse to military art; would lay his parallels; advance by sap and mine, and so master the place. The Caucasus, in my opinion, must be treated in the same way, and even if the method of procedure is not drawn up beforehand, so that it may be continually referred to, the very nature of things will compel such action, ' Velyaminov wrote." (2)

The third and fourth sections of Bullough's book examine the conquest of the Chechens and the development of tensions in the region in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union, which eventually resulted in the 1st and 2nd Chechen wars. Bullough once again skillfully combines interviews with historical resources to present a compelling tale of the fate of the Chechens who today have become the most common European refugee seekers. He is able to demonstrate the complexity of the Chechen wars and he adds a human dimension to a conflict that could easily be seen as a case of a modern country fighting a war against a group of backward savages that refuse to accept the benefits of its civilization. Although Bullough's account presents the dire circumstances of Chechens today, it also underscores the hardiness of the Chechens and the other inhabitans of the Caucasus. Speaking of a Chechen whose application for a refugee status has been refused, the author describes the situation with the following words:

 

"He was on his way to the clearing in the forest where he would park his car and sleep that night. And after that? He had said he might go to Turkey. Or perhaps he will try his luck in western Europe again. Whatever he chooses - and I never even found out his surname, so I will never know - it will be even further from what he dreamed of us as a boy.

Had he not been a Chechen, I would have called him a broken man." (3)

In short, Bullough's book is an absolute triumph and I recommend it highly to anyone with an interest in the Caucasus, the Russian Empire, Eastern Europe or European history in general. The only criticism that I can direct towards him is that he seems willing to forgive the Chechens for their backward, by modern standards, attitude to women but he is less willing to consider the fact that like other people Russian citizens are influenced by the environment that they grow up in and, just as many British and French people are unrepentant about their former colonial empires, the Russians feel no regret about the military successes of their ancestors, despite the cost at which they were achieved. Nevertheless, this is only a small caveat and I heartily vouch for the high quality of this book. I look forward to reading Bullough's second book, which is titled The Last Man in Russia and seeks to examine in greater detail the story of this vast and in so many ways contradictory country.

References

(1) Oliver Bullough, Let Out Fame be Great: Journeys Among the Defiant People of the Caucasus, London: Penguin Books, 2011, p. 9

(2) Bullough, Let Our Fame be Great, pp. 260-1

(3) Bullough, Let Our Fame be Great, p.  444

Image taken from Amazon.co.uk