Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia
THE GREATGAME: THE EPIC STORY BEHIND TODAY'S HEADLINES \ Peter Hopkirk's spellbinding account of the great imperial struggle for supremacy in Central Asoa has been hailed as essential reading with that era's legacy playing itself out today.\ The Great Game between Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia was fought across desolate terrain from the Caucasus to China, over the lonely passes of the Parmirs and Karakorams, in the blazing Kerman and Helmund deserts, and through the caravan towns of...
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THE GREATGAME: THE EPIC STORY BEHIND TODAY'S HEADLINES Peter Hopkirk's spellbinding account of the great imperial struggle for supremacy in Central Asoa has been hailed as essential reading with that era's legacy playing itself out today. The Great Game between Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia was fought across desolate terrain from the Caucasus to China, over the lonely passes of the Parmirs and Karakorams, in the blazing Kerman and Helmund deserts, and through the caravan towns of the old Silk Road-both powers scrambling to control access to the riches of India and the East. When play first began, the frontiers of Russia and British India lay 2000 miles apart; by the end, this distance had shrunk to twenty miles at some points. Now, in the vacuum left by the disintegration of the Soviet Union, there is once again talk of Russian soldiers "dipping their toes in the Indian Ocean."The Washington Post has said that "every story Peter Hopkirk touches is totally engrossing." In this gripping narrative he recounts a breathtaking tale of espionage and treachery through the actual experiences of its colorful characters. Based on meticulous scholarship and on-the-spot research, this is the history at the core of today's geopolitics. Publishers Weekly Half-mad Russian czar Paul I dispatched an invasion force to India in 1801. It was hastily recalled upon his assassination. But 70 years later a succession of ambitious czars had crushed the Muslim peoples of Central Asia, and confident St. Petersburg again cast a covetous eye southward on India. Fearing a Russian invasion, the British rulers of India sent English spies disguised as holy men to find out what the Russians were up to. In 1880, after bloody fighting, the British eradicated Russian influence in Afghanistan and established a buffer state. The Great Game, as the Anglo-Russian struggle in Central Asia was called, unfolds in Hopkirk's ( Setting the East Ablaze ) intricate narrative as an incredible tale of high adventure and political intrigue, conveyed here through the exploits of Cossacks, Muslim guerrillas, courageous travelers, spies, mapmakers and soldiers. The Great Game ended in 1907 with an Anglo-Russian pact, but as Hopkirk notes in a foreword, a new imperialist rivalry is underway in Central Asia, pitting the U.S. against Russia, Turkey, China and Iran. Photos. (Sept.)
MapsIllustrationsForewordAcknowledgementsPrologue1The Beginnings91The Yellow Peril112Napoleonic Nightmare243Rehearsal for the Great Game384The Russian Bogy575All Roads Lead to India696The First of the Russian Players777A Strange Tale of Two Dogs898Death on the Oxus999The Barometer Falls109The Middle Years12110'The Great Game'12311Enter 'Bokhara' Burnes13512The Greatest Fortress in the World15313The Mysterious Vitkevich16514Hero of Herat17515The Kingmakers18816The Race for Khiva20217The Freeing of the Slaves21318Night of the Long Knives23019Catastrophe24320Massacre in the Passes25721The Last Hours of Conolly and Stoddart27022Half-time281The Climactic Years29323The Great Russian Advance Begins29524Lion of Tashkent30625Spies Along the Silk Road32126The Feel of Cold Steel Across His Throat33927'A Physician from the North'35528Captain Burnaby's Ride to Khiva36529Bloodbath at the Bala Hissar38430The Last Stand of the Turcomans40231To the Brink of War41832The Railway Race to the East43033Where Three Empires Meet44734Flashpoint in the High Pamirs46535The Race for Chitral48336The Beginning of the End50237End-game513Bibliography527Index543
\ Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly\ Half-mad Russian czar Paul I dispatched an invasion force to India in 1801. It was hastily recalled upon his assassination. But 70 years later a succession of ambitious czars had crushed the Muslim peoples of Central Asia, and confident St. Petersburg again cast a covetous eye southward on India. Fearing a Russian invasion, the British rulers of India sent English spies disguised as holy men to find out what the Russians were up to. In 1880, after bloody fighting, the British eradicated Russian influence in Afghanistan and established a buffer state. The Great Game, as the Anglo-Russian struggle in Central Asia was called, unfolds in Hopkirk's ( Setting the East Ablaze ) intricate narrative as an incredible tale of high adventure and political intrigue, conveyed here through the exploits of Cossacks, Muslim guerrillas, courageous travelers, spies, mapmakers and soldiers. The Great Game ended in 1907 with an Anglo-Russian pact, but as Hopkirk notes in a foreword, a new imperialist rivalry is underway in Central Asia, pitting the U.S. against Russia, Turkey, China and Iran. Photos. (Sept.)\ \ \ \ \ BooknewsHopkirk's real-life thriller, first published in Great Britain in 1990 as The Great Game: on Secret Service in High Asia (John Murray Ltd.), tells the story of the 19th-century imperial struggle between agents of Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia for strategic and economic supremacy over an area stretching from the Caucasus to China. Includes 24 pages of illustrations. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)\ \
