Overview

Amid continuing debate in the early 21st century, in the former Soviet states, the West, China and elsewhere, over the alleged merits and demerits of socialism as a political system, this work aims to expose its dark sides as experienced by the Kazakh (and other former Soviet) peoples during the Soviet era. The author, Garifolla Yesim, was born (1947) and raised in Soviet socialist Kazakhstan, emerging thereafter as a top national academic and Kazakhstani senate deputy in the post-Soviet period. Drawing on his many long years of personal life and political experience as well as academic training, he weaves together a compelling narrative interspersed with his own insightful commentary and the real-life stories of those who endured the tragedies he has preserved through oral transmission and now bequeaths as a memoir for this and all future generations to carefully ponder.

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9780979495717

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Reviews

Garifolla Yesim's little book is an insightful and deeply disturbing account of his upbringing and life in Soviet Kazakhstan and the process by which he reached his damning conclusions on Soviet socialism itself. Displaying his gifts as a writer on every page, he intersperses personal impressions with moving vignettes of actual citizens of Soviet Kazakhstan and the often horrific travails they endured. There is another side to all this, of course, but never again can we think of Soviet rule in that vast Central Asian land without being mindful, too, of this toxic heritage. </p>- S. Fredrick Starr, Chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program, Institute for Security and Development Policy, and Research Professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University)</p> </p> Garifolla Yesim's memoir of Soviet rule in Kazakhstan is a valuable addition to the literature about and by survivors of war, genocide, and totalitarian rule imposed in the name of ideologies of both the Left and Right. <em>The Agony of Socialism</em> uniquely blends the personal experiences of ordinary Kazakhs in the Soviet Union with reflections on the political theory and philosophy that framed and legitimized what was, at its core, a profoundly inhumane and unjust system. It at once speaks to the universal lessons of the human cost when states and parties dehumanize those under their control, and provides a rare window into the specific history and memory of Soviet rule in Central Asia, a subject that is virtually unknown, and inaccessible, to a general western audience. </p>- Raymond Sun, Associate Professor of modern German and European history, Washington State University</p>

-Garifolla Yesim's little book is an insightful and deeply disturbing account of his upbringing and life in Soviet Kazakhstan and the process by which he reached his damning conclusions on Soviet socialism itself. Displaying his gifts as a writer on every page, he intersperses personal impressions with moving vignettes of actual citizens of Soviet Kazakhstan and the often horrific travails they endured. There is another side to all this, of course, but never again can we think of Soviet rule in that vast Central Asian land without being mindful, too, of this toxic heritage.- - S. Fredrick Starr, Chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program, Institute for Security and Development Policy, and Research Professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University) -Garifolla Yesim's memoir of Soviet rule in Kazakhstan is a valuable addition to the literature about and by survivors of war, genocide, and totalitarian rule imposed in the name of ideologies of both the Left and Right. The Agony of Socialism uniquely blends the personal experiences of ordinary Kazakhs in the Soviet Union with reflections on the political theory and philosophy that framed and legitimized what was, at its core, a profoundly inhumane and unjust system. It at once speaks to the universal lessons of the human cost when states and parties dehumanize those under their control, and provides a rare window into the specific history and memory of Soviet rule in Central Asia, a subject that is virtually unknown, and inaccessible, to a general western audience.- - Raymond Sun, Associate Professor of modern German and European history, Washington State University Garifolla Yesim's little book is an insightful and deeply disturbing account of his upbringing and life in Soviet Kazakhstan and the process by which he reached his damning conclusions on Soviet socialism itself. Displaying his gifts as a writer on every page, he intersperses personal impressions with moving vignettes of actual citizens of Soviet Kazakhstan and the often horrific travails they endured. There is another side to all this, of course, but never again can we think of Soviet rule in that vast Central Asian land without being mindful, too, of this toxic heritage. - S. Fredrick Starr, Chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program, Institute for Security and Development Policy, and Research Professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University) Garifolla Yesim's memoir of Soviet rule in Kazakhstan is a valuable addition to the literature about and by survivors of war, genocide, and totalitarian rule imposed in the name of ideologies of both the Left and Right. The Agony of Socialism uniquely blends the personal experiences of ordinary Kazakhs in the Soviet Union with reflections on the political theory and philosophy that framed and legitimized what was, at its core, a profoundly inhumane and unjust system. It at once speaks to the universal lessons of the human cost when states and parties dehumanize those under their control, and provides a rare window into the specific history and memory of Soviet rule in Central Asia, a subject that is virtually unknown, and inaccessible, to a general western audience. - Raymond Sun, Associate Professor of modern German and European history, Washington State University

Author Information

Garifolla Yesim is a professor of historical philosophy. He has served as Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Political Science at both Almaty State University (1992-98) and Kazakh National University (2001-10) in Almaty, Kazakhstan. He now teaches at Eurasian University in Astana while serving as a Senate deputy in the Kazakhstani government. He is an academic of top national honors who contributes regularly to national television and radio programs as well as newspaper and magazine publications. He has written numerous books and journal articles in both Kazakh and Russian. R. Charles Weller (Ph.D., Al-Farabi Kazakh National University) is Clinical Assistant Professor in the Roots of Contemporary Issues World History & Asia Programs at Washington State University and a non-residential Visiting Researcher at Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (2014-2018). He specializes in history and identity in Tsarist Central Asia and the Islamic world, Western-Islamic relations, Western Imperialism and Asian/Islamic reform movements, and world history and historiography (18-20th cc.).

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