Hunted through Central Asia: On the Run from Lenin's Secret Police

by Paul Nazaroff, Peter Hopkirk (Introduction)

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.

Genres: History, Russia, Travel, Biography

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1932

About the author

Pavel Stepanovich Nazarov

Nazarov was a Russian geologist and writer who was caught up in the Russian Revolution, and became the leader of a plot to overthrow Bolshevik rule in Central Asia.

He was born in Orenburg about 1890, the son of the local mayor and mine owner. He qualified as a geologist at the University of Moscow. In August 1918 he was living openly at Tashkent under the local Soviet, while aiding both White and British Forces in Central Asia with information and assistance to help forestall the spread of Bolshevik power in the region. Arrested by the CHEKA in October 1918, he was one of the main organisers of a coup which temporarily overthrew the Tashkent Soviet on 6 January 1919, and incidentally freed him from prison. This was defeated when the railway workers changed sides when they learned that the new government was royalist and reactionary. Nazaroff himself managed to evade the pursuing Bolsheviks and escaped through the mountains to Kashgar in China in early 1920, as he tells in his book Hunted Through Central Asia (translated into English in 1932 and reissued in 2002).

There in Kashgar he continued to be an important source of information for both the Chinese and British authorities, but in August 1924, he decided to leave in wake of the Chinese Government's recognition of Soviet Russia. He then made another difficult journey over the Himalayas to Kashmir and India. He later moved to London in search of work as a geologist, before accepting an assignment in Equatorial Africa, far as he hoped from Soviet agents. It was there he met Malcolm Burr who encouraged him to write (and translated) an account of his adventures. Later he settled in South Africa where he died in 1942 at Johannesburg. He was married but his wife does not seem to have escaped or survived the civil war. Peter Hopkirk's Setting the East Ablaze also gives details of Nazaroff's adventures.

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

After trying a desperate plot to overthrow the Bolsheviks, a man flees through central Asia. A travelogue and a chase.

Would be more exciting, except the author tried to take most of the excitement out of it.

[Ilan Sinai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly didn't pass the test of time. Mix of more and less interesting parts

[Hazel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this after reading my last; Hopkirk talks of Nazaroff. This is fantastic account of his time giving the Bolshies the run around. He must have been living on adrenaline.

This should be a film: fantastic read.

[James Herring · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting memoire of an isolated place at a tumultuous moment in history. Follows the life of Paul Nazaroff, a Russian geologist and botanist (an Czarist), as he flees from the Bolsheviks in Russian Turkmenistan in 1919. It reads half as an indictment of the Soviets and half as a scientific study of the peoples, cultures, flora, and fauna of Turkmenistan.

[Patrick Billings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Memoirs of a freedom fighter, well not freedom fighter but czarist, that was fighting the communist movement in Turkmenistan. Forced to flee, he makes his way thru the high passes around Tian Shan, to try to reach Kashgar. He is being hunted like an animal by the Soviets. Another great book on the region

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

terrible white russian being pursued by even more terrible red russians

[Misha Ivanov · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book and can second every review written here till now.

The way the author tells the story is not very exciting and is a bit old-fashioned. He hates Communists and doesn't forget to remind us about it in every chapter. He pays a lot of attention to the flora, fauna and geology of the region, which someone might find boring.

And yes he is an arrogant 'terrible white Russian being pursued by even more terrible red Russians', as someone mentioned in a review here.

[Tom Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

everything i like in a book. first published in 1932. translated from Russian by Paul's friend Malcolm Burr.

[Roar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but a lot of attention is given to nature, animals, plants etc. Some might find it boring. Paul Nazaroff is also described in Peter Hopkirks book Setting the East Ablaze.