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A Dark Path to Freedom: Ruzi Nazar from the Red Army to the CIA
Enver Altayli
€ 32.99
€ 30.69
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Description for A Dark Path to Freedom: Ruzi Nazar from the Red Army to the CIA
Hardback. The startling biography of a native Turkestani whose pursuit of self-determination for his country saw him serve the Nazis in World War II, the Red Army, and the CIA at the height of the Cold War. Translator(s): Barchard, David. Num Pages: 288 pages. BIC Classification: 1FC; 3JJ; BGH; HBTW; HBWQ; JPFC. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Weight in Grams: 256.
Born in Margilan, Central Asia on the eve of the Russian Revolution of 1917, Ruzi Nazar had one of the most exciting lives of the twentieth century. Charming, intellectually brilliant and passionately committed to the liberation of Central Asia from Russian rule, his life was a series of adventures and narrow escapes. He was successively a Soviet student, a Red Army officer, an officer in the German Turkestan Legion during World War II, a fugitive living in postwar Germany's underworld, and finally an immigrant to the United States who rose high in the CIA. Here he mixed with the powerful and famous, represented the US as a diplomat in Ankara and Bonn, and became an undercover agent in Iran after the hostage crisis of 1979-81. Nazar's foresight was formidable. He predicted that communism would collapse from within, briefing Reagan on the weakness of the Soviet system before the Reagan-Gorbachev talks. A Muslim who rejected Islamism, his warnings to the US government about the dangers of Islamic radicalism fell on deaf ears.This remarkable biography casts unique light on the lives of people caught up in the turmoil of the Soviet Union, World War II, the Cold War, and the struggle of nationalities deprived of their freedom by communism to regain independence.
Product Details
Publisher
C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd
Format
Hardback
Publication date
2017
Condition
New
Number of Pages
288
Place of Publication
London, United Kingdom
ISBN
9781849046978
SKU
V9781849046978
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 5 to 9 working days
Ref
99-10
About Enver Altayli
Enver Altayli is one of Turkey's leading specialists on Central Asia and a former intelligence officer. A close friend of Rusi Nazar for over half a century, his biography is based on many weeks of recorded interviews, as well as his own scholarship on Turkistan and the history of espionage during the Cold War.
Reviews for A Dark Path to Freedom: Ruzi Nazar from the Red Army to the CIA
'Ruzi Nazar led a truly remarkable life, and in A Dark Path To Freedom, Enver Altayli, one of Turkey's leading specialists on Central Asia and a friend of Nazar for more than half a century, has turned it into a breathtaking book.'
The Scotsman
'A Dark Path to Freedom is one of the most amazing spy stories of recent times. It follows a fascinating journey from Stalin's Russia to Nazi Germany and onwards through the clandestine Cold War to the Iranian Revolution of 1979. This is essential reading for anyone interested in secret service in the Middle East and Central Asia.'
Richard Aldrich, Leverhulme Major Research Fellow in Politics & International Relations, University of Warwick 'It is rare for individuals to have had such a varied life and to have played as important a role against a range of intelligence adversaries as did Ruzi Nazar. This is a thrilling story of one man's struggle against Nazism, Soviet communism, and radical Islam.'
Michael Goodman, Professor in Intelligence and International Affairs, King's College London Department of War Studies 'What an extraordinary life! If one wrote this survival story as fiction it would be hard to believe. A Dark Path to Freedom is especially useful in its first-hand details of often reviled movements, from the Nazis to Turkey's far-right
though for Nazar himself, the decolonisation of Central Asia was paramount.'
Hugh Poulton, author of Top-Hat, the Grey Wolf and the Crescent: Turkish Nationalism and the Turkish Republic 'In A Dark Path to Freedom, Enver Altayli captures the sweep of history through the remarkable life of Ruzi Nazar, taking the reader on a lively journey from Central Asia on the eve of World War II, to the horror of that conflict, the intrigue of the ensuing Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union.'
Benjamin Fortna, Director of the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies, University of Arizona
The Scotsman
'A Dark Path to Freedom is one of the most amazing spy stories of recent times. It follows a fascinating journey from Stalin's Russia to Nazi Germany and onwards through the clandestine Cold War to the Iranian Revolution of 1979. This is essential reading for anyone interested in secret service in the Middle East and Central Asia.'
Richard Aldrich, Leverhulme Major Research Fellow in Politics & International Relations, University of Warwick 'It is rare for individuals to have had such a varied life and to have played as important a role against a range of intelligence adversaries as did Ruzi Nazar. This is a thrilling story of one man's struggle against Nazism, Soviet communism, and radical Islam.'
Michael Goodman, Professor in Intelligence and International Affairs, King's College London Department of War Studies 'What an extraordinary life! If one wrote this survival story as fiction it would be hard to believe. A Dark Path to Freedom is especially useful in its first-hand details of often reviled movements, from the Nazis to Turkey's far-right
though for Nazar himself, the decolonisation of Central Asia was paramount.'
Hugh Poulton, author of Top-Hat, the Grey Wolf and the Crescent: Turkish Nationalism and the Turkish Republic 'In A Dark Path to Freedom, Enver Altayli captures the sweep of history through the remarkable life of Ruzi Nazar, taking the reader on a lively journey from Central Asia on the eve of World War II, to the horror of that conflict, the intrigue of the ensuing Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union.'
Benjamin Fortna, Director of the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies, University of Arizona