Customer Reviews

Silent Steppe

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The Silent Steppe is perhaps the best book I've read detailing the plight of the Kazakh nomads under Stalin's rule. Shayakhmetov gives a heart breaking account of the famine, discrimination, and suffering of the 1930s. A smooth read, the narration is crisp and engaging and pulls the reader into the story. I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kazakhstan, and this book has gone a long way to helping me understand where the people came from and what they lived through. I would recommened this without reservation to anyone interested in learning more about Kazakhstan or the devestation caused by the former Soviet Union.

This is a very interesting picture of how it was for the Kazakhs during the time of Stalin, and how their culture was all but destroyed. The successful were reduced to poverty, having everything they valued taken away from them. This book shows how the former clan / family system was replaced by suspicion, lies, and terror, brother against brother. Very sad and enlightening.

This book was a welcome eye witness account; well organized, poignant. My understanding of the Kazakh people has grown, as has my thankfulness to God for his mercy in preserving a nation amidst such suffering.

I am currently reading this book, and so far it is a great book, and very enlightening on the Kazakh culture and way of life both prior to and during Soviet times.

Well worth the read!

Mark Conway