Synopses & Reviews
Paul Nazaroff was the ringleader of a desperate plot to overthrow the Bolsheviks in Central Asia in 1918. He was betrayed to the Secret Police, who declared him "the most dangerous counter-revolutionary at large in the Tashkent region."
Thus began his extraordinary catalogue of adventures, "a long and distant odyssey which would take me right across Central Asia . . . over the Himalayas to the plains of Hindustan." As he fled from Lenin's men, he was aided by the indigenous peoples of the region, the Kirghiz and the Sarts, and for months he was forced to live the life of a hunted animal.
Peter Hopkirk has contributed a fascinating introduction to this thrilling tale of espionage and survival against all odds, as well as an epilogue which reveals Nazaroff's later fortunes.
About the Author
Paul Nazaroff was educated in Moscow and St Petersburg. His career as a geoloist, minerologist, and mining engineer was interrupted by the Bolshevick Revolution, which prompted him to become a counter-revolutionary agent. A man of wide sympathies and encyclopaedic knowledge, he was also highly skilled in the fields of ornithology, archaeology, ballistics, and botany, and was an accomplished linguist, huntsman, and taxidermist.
Table of Contents
Introduction,
Peter HopkirkPreface, Malcolm Burr
1. Awaiting Execution
2. Release
3. Days of Wrath
4. Hiding among the Sarts
5. Persecution and alarms
6. Home life among the Sarts and Kirghiz
7. Hiding among the Kirghiz
8. Alone with nature
9. The white lady
10. The road to Semirechie
11. Pishpek
12. In Semirechie
13. Hiding in the hills
14. Danger again
15. Back on the trail
16. Safety in sight
17. Desolation
18. Despair
19. One last effort
20. At last!
Epilogue, Peter Hopkirk
Index