Let Our Fame Be Great

This History of the Caucuses has been very well written and researched. Oliver Bullough gives a great picture of Chechnya especially during the 1990's with war against Russia. But Bullough also delves into the history of the entire region in a most readable and delightful manner. He does a very good job of explaining the many different peoples, cultures and religions. He also talks about the Diaspora and the many groups and their forced migrations under the Czars, the Soviet Union and Russia. These people are not easy to understand as knowledge of each group, religion, culture and language will go a long way to a better understanding. Bullough goes a long way of solving this mystery. It makes me glad that I found this book and was able to read because here is many groups of people that we are called after (Caucasian) and we in the West have no idea what they are like and how little in common we have with them. I recommend this book to anyone who is serious about History.

"Let Our Fame be Great" is a thoroughly researched account of the Russian invasions and occupation of its southern Caucasus mountains, a tale of numbing cruelty the scale of which staggers the imagination. This is a tale of Chauvinism, cruelty and duplicity, of imperial power without check. America's oppression of its native peoples and apartheid South Africa's mistreatment of its black millions have been abhorrent, but they pale in scope and savagery to Russia's treatment of the mountain peoples on its southern border. By and large, the Russia of today refuses to acknowledge that history, instead engaging instead in massive denial and wanton revisionism, which in turn have influenced the fashion in which the rest of the world perceives the troubled region and Russia's place in it. This historical revisionism is redolent of the denials of those who dispute the historicity of the Second World War's holocaust. Russian atrocities in Chechnya, the recent war between Russia and Georgia, the aspirations toward independence of the peoples of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and the horrors in Nagorno-Karabakh are its baleful legacy. In this work, British journalist Oliver Bullough explores the fascinating tapestry of cultures, religions and languages in the mountain fastnesses of the Caucasus where Europe, Asia, and the Mideast intersect in uneasy proximity. The author traces the histories of the Circassians, the Mountain Turks and other peoples dispossessed of their ancestral homelands and sent into exile over the last two centuries of unremitting conflict and recounts how they have fared in their exile. A well-organized, highly readable collection of archival data, personal observations and eyewitness accounts, Let Our Fame Be Great tells a compelling story of peoples who have been pushed to the limits of survival and have nonetheless fought on.

Excellent history covering the 19th Century through to the present of the peoples of the Caucasus Mountains. The author has done thorough research of the 19th Century and World War experiences of this fascinating region by studying the few and often biased traveler accounts from those periods. And, the author has traveled through the region in recent decades and was on the scene during some of the important recent events. The main groups covered are the Circassians, Balkars, Chechens, and Dagestanis, plus of course Russians who have been mainly working to stamp out the other groups. The author brings the history to life through extensive interviews with people from the region, some of whom are in exile communities outside of the Caucasus.

Makes you realise that current Russian behaviour in annexing areas of the world which have their own independent views and societies is nothing new in Russian history. How tragic that these cultures are almost lost to the mainstream world but I take my hat off to the people who try to maintaint heir culture in exile.

Engrossing and tragic, this book puts a whole new perspective on the struggles of the Muslims in Chechnya and other mountain regions that battle Russia. Terrorism and involving civilians is never acceptable, but neither is the actions of larger countries, as the author does a very good job of pointing out in this fascinating book which combines current events and history flawlessly.

One of the examples when ai has more "brains": “Let Our Fame Be Great” is a beautifully written but structurally biased travel‑history narrative that explores the tragedies of the Caucasus through a romantic, outsider lens. Bullough weaves together archival material, personal travel, and oral stories to highlight the endurance of mountain peoples—especially Chechens—through centuries of Russian expansion, deportation, and war. The book’s strengths are: vivid storytelling emotional immediacy accessible explanations of complex history strong empathy for victims of imperial violence But its weaknesses are equally clear: heavy reliance on Russian and Soviet sources uncritical adoption of the “Vainakh unity” framework Chechen-centered narrative that sidelines Ingush history maps and descriptions that reproduce pro-Chechen and pro-Ossetian territorial distortions especially Prigorodny and Dzheirakh The result is a compelling but uneven portrait of the Caucasus—one that amplifies Chechen suffering while unintentionally erasing Ingush historical presence and territorial continuity."

Filled with facts, first hand accounts, details, maps and history as it should've been told. He is able to weave history with story telling in a balanced, intricate manner and has given us a lot to process. Deeply researched and well written.

Met the author on a marshrutka in Georgia, he really cares about the area!

There are now a considerable number of books that mix history with travel journalism dipping between history and modern politics. This book is no different in that respect. The writers style immediately catches the readers intention, and no bad thing considering the ground he has to cover. He describes in considerable detail the historical demise of the Circassian peoples, driven from the Caucasus by Russia in the 19 Century after years of brutal warfare. They died in their thousands escaping to the central part of the Ottomon Empire in what is today Turkey dieing in their thousands from starvation, typhoid, malaria and other tropical diseases. Poignant letters make clear Britain was quite aware of the situation, but impotent or unwilling to assist the beleagured nation that wrote a tragic final plea for help, a few weeks before their expulsion from the homeland to the Houses of Parliament. Today the planned Russian Winter Olympics in Sochi is on the site of exquisitely sensitive national emotion for Circassians. Bullough dug out diaspora in Israel, Kosova and other countries weaving together a sad collective memory, and an impressive attempt to maintain at least some of their Caucasian traditions, that are so important to the Caucasian psyche. He also covers the Wars of Shamil, which is pretty much old hat, as a host of academic writers like Gammer and Badderly (1940) have amply detailed this side of history. More interesting is his willingness to criticise Russian and Chechen politics, not something undertaken lightly, but he manages to do this in an effective and intelligent manner. This is a remarkable book for a young writer to have made his debut with, and no doubt there will be more to come!

Thanks to Oliver Bullough we have a very authentic insight into the Caucasus. The mosaic of different cultures, people and languages. The tales and stories of the people in the Caucasus. This is a book which I highly recommend for reading. Especially because not many know about the people and the variety of different ethnics in the Caucasus.

This is an excellent book, written from a particular viewpoint, but none the worse for that. The author has clearly managed to gain the trust of the many people he visited and spoke to, and has an excellent background in Russian and Caucasian history. It is selective: the Northern Caucasus (very little about the fascinating history of the countries and peoples to the South - Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and so on), and primarily three nations of the Northern Caucasus. Despite being selective, it is a fine and thought provoking read. No-one will read it and fail to learn more about the interaction of Russia with these peoples.

Der Journalist O. Pullough nimmt uns mit auf seine Reise durch Vergangenheit und Gegenwart der Nordkaukasier. Die russische Eroberung leitet der Autor mit der Zerschlagung der Nogayer Horde ein, um uns anschließend das tragische Schicksal der Tscherkessen in der Diaspora nahe zu bringen. Im zweiten Kapitel schildert Bullough die Deportation der Karatschaier und Balkaren unter Stalin, hierbei sind die Geschichten : A Red Gramophone sowie A Dirty Animal sehr zu empfehlen. Im dritten Kapitel geht es um den Widerstand der Tschetschenen mit Rückblenden an Imam Schamil in Daghestan.

The people who live in the Caucasus be it the Circassians or the Chechens amongst others have a remarkable story to be told, the author Oliver Bullough with his contacts in the region and his many years of journalism reporting from there tells us about the struggle, the wars that these defiant people have had to go through. Although written from his own viewpoint and for that Russia in the past or Putin in the present isn't looked favourably upon he has made the Caucasus and it's peoples history a great read. Recommended.