Overview

After surviving the blitzkrieg of World War II and escaping from two Nazi prison camps, Soviet soldier Azamat Altay was banished as a traitor from his native home land. Chinghiz Aitmatov became a hero of Kyrgyzstan, writing novels about the lives of everyday Soviet citizens but mourning a mystery that might never be solved. While both came from small villages in the beautiful mountainous countryside, they found themselves caught on opposite sides of the Cold War struggle between world superpowers. Altay became the voice of democracy on Radio Liberty, while Aitmatov rose through the ranks of Soviet politics. Yet just as they seemed to be pulled apart in the political turmoil, they found their lives intersecting in moving and surprising ways. Have the Mountains Fallen? traces the lives of these two men as they confronted the full threat and legacy of the Soviet empire. Through personal and intersecting narratives of loss, love, and longing for a homeland forever changed, a clearer picture emerges of the experience of the Cold War from the other side.

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9780253032423

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Reviews

The book is the perfect combination of exhaustive research, beautiful writing, page-turning action, inspirational heroes and verbal pictures of a little known land, people and culture. With fast-paced storytelling we experience life in the Soviet Union from Stalin's Great Purges when thousands of innocent people were executed, all the way up to its collapse in 1991. We experience the torture and misery of World War II, through both men's completely different first hand experiences, the acute longing for one's homeland when one can't return, and the outwitting of the Soviet censors by a brilliant Kyrgyz author who exposes the cruelty and soulessness of the ideal Soviet Man in his books. And we are deeply inspired by their efforts-one inside the Soviet Union, and one outside it-to preserve the history and culture of Kyrgyzstan, and the soul of its people. * KPC News * The stories of Chingiz Aitmatov and Azamat Altay are best told together, a herculean task which Jeffrey B. Lilley's Have The Mountain's Fallen? Two Journeys of Loss and Redemption in the Cold War manages deftly. . . . Their story-because it is, in essence, a single story-is that of Kyrgyzstan itself, replete with tragedy and sacrifice, hope and triumph. * The Diplomat *

The book is the perfect combination of exhaustive research, beautiful writing, page-turning action, inspirational heroes and verbal pictures of a little known land, people and culture. With fast-paced storytelling we experience life in the Soviet Union from Stalin's Great Purges when thousands of innocent people were executed, all the way up to its collapse in 1991. We experience the torture and misery of World War II, through both men's completely different first hand experiences, the acute longing for one's homeland when one can't return, and the outwitting of the Soviet censors by a brilliant Kyrgyz author who exposes the cruelty and soulessness of the ideal Soviet Man in his books. And we are deeply inspired by their efforts-one inside the Soviet Union, and one outside it-to preserve the history and culture of Kyrgyzstan, and the soul of its people. * KPC News * The stories of Chingiz Aitmatov and Azamat Altay are best told together, a herculean task which Jeffrey B. Lilley's Have The Mountain's Fallen? Two Journeys of Loss and Redemption in the Cold War manages deftly. . . . Their story-because it is, in essence, a single story-is that of Kyrgyzstan itself, replete with tragedy and sacrifice, hope and triumph. * The Diplomat * James Lilley shows how that happened. For his efforts, he deserves the thanks of all those who study the former Soviet space. More than that, however, his book provides a model for what representatives of other nations with that experience can and should do. Everyone will benefit if such works appear. * Paul Goble *

Author Information

After witnessing the collapse of the Soviet Union as a journalist in the 1990s, Jeff Lilley moved to Central Asia in 2004. During a three-year posting in Kyrgyzstan, he read the works of Chinghiz Aitmatov, slept in yurts, drank fermented mare's milk, and hiked in the country's beautiful mountains. Over the next ten years, he worked in the field of democracy and governance support in Washington, DC, and the Middle East, returning to Kyrgyzstan in 2016 to lead a British-funded parliamentary support program. Lilley is the coauthor of China Hands: Nine Decades of Adventure, Espionage and Diplomacy.

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