196 Books: Kazakhstan

 Dark Shadows by Joanna Lillis

Aaaaand we're back! Here's Kazakhstan:

 Here's the summary:

Dark Shadows is a compelling portrait of Kazakhstan, a country that is little known in the West. Strategically located in the heart of Central Asia, sandwiched between Vladimir Putin's Russia, its former colonial ruler, and Xi Jinping's China, this vast oil-rich state is carving out its place in the world as it contends with its own complex past and present. Journalist Joanna Lillis paints a vibrant picture of this emerging nation through vivid reportage based on 13 years of on-the-ground coverage, and travels across the length and breadth of this enigmatic country that lies along the ancient Silk Road and at the geopolitical and cultural crossroads where East meets West.
Featuring tales of murder and abduction, intrigue and betrayal, extortion and corruption, this book explores how a president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, transformed himself into a potentate and the economically-struggling state he inherited at the fall of the USSR into a swaggering 21st-century monocracy. A colourful cast of characters brings the politics to life: from strutting oligarch to sleeping villagers, from principled politicians to striking oilmen, from crusading journalists to courageous campaigners.
Traversing dust-blown deserts and majestic mountains, taking in glitzy cities and dystopian landscapes, Dark Shadows conjures up Kazakhstan as a living, breathing place, full of extraordinary people living extraordinary lives.

 

 "Journalists appeared to consider it the least sexy of the 'Stans', the five countries of post-Soviet Central Asia: less eccentric than Turkmenistan, less dictatorial than Uzbekistan, less exotic than Tajikistan, less turbulent than Kyrgyzstan." 

I mean, what a line! I'm also pretty proud that I *almost* spelled them all correctly on my own. But this was kind of a wild ride, and it seemed different than the stories where a country is overthrown. "'We found ourselves in unique conditions: a single body of the Soviet economy burst open and we ended up like a shard of a broken plate.'" So here they are, they've been part of the USSR for decades, and it's suddenly gone. And then you get some egotistical asshole that comes in saying they have all the answers while lining their own pockets and leaving the citizens in the cold. I swear, I'm so sick of governments. We need to bring back matriarchal societies. 

 

Okay sorry. So you get some asshole in who promises the world and then the cracks start to show. "With its quirky constructions in resplendent gold and lustrous glass, Nazarbayev's [President of Kazakhstan 1991-2019] capital is a love-it-or-hate-it kind of place: fun and flamboyant to fans, a statement of bold modernity; tawdry and tasteless to critics, the epitome of 'dictator chic'." Now doesn't this sound familiar. And then it gets darker: "But it has always had another countenance that it shows to critics who step out of line at home: a dictatorial state where dissenting views are crushed, the media is muzzled, peaceful protesters are arrested or gunned down, and political foes can end up at best in jail or exile, at worst dead." Next you get the classics: banning books and music, shooting unarmed protesters, banning entire ethnicities from the country, or sending them to concentration camps. 

And Russia. Freaking Russia just can't stay in its lane. "History is written by the victors, and the idea that the Kazakhs invited the Russians in for protection is one that suited-and still suits-the Kremlin nicely, tying in neatly with a world view still prevalent in Russia of the Russians as benevolent big brother rather than expansionist coloniser." Oh hey, Ukraine. But of course it's more complicated than that; you had a certain population that missed the USSR and still saw (sees?) the West as everything that is evil. "She bears no grudge against the Soviet system, and still professes admiration for Stalin, the tyrant who branded her a traitor at three months old and banished her form her homeland. 'Stalin was a good man, of course he was! He never offended anyone.'"

 

And, man, it just gets worse. Babies were infected with HIV through infected blood, even when they didn't need transfusions. The freshwater became polluted and dried up into a desert. They tested atomic bombs next to a small town, then moved the testing underground. Then they just monitored the people. "The polygon went on to detonate 456 atomic explosions over the next 40 years, releasing energy 2,500 times that of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima." I just...what the hell. Well now I'm real bummed out. 

Okay but it did end on a positive note: Kazakhstan is working on growing a wine industry! I will be looking for a bottle.  

And this was my favorite line: "It all comes down to politics, whichever way you look at it, because it's all about our lives." Because it really, really is.