Two Stops Past Siberia

This delightful little book tells of “Lenin’s Dream of an Empire in Asia,” and does so with considerable readability and attention to detail. The facts presented in this tale are without question accurate, and all the more commendable on account of the fact that it was written and researched while the Soviet Union still functioned. Furthermore, despite being a British author himself, Hopkirk’s take feels fairly balanced as it presents both Lenin’s attempts to incite Soviet revolution, and also the British attempt to thwart him.

Setting the East Ablaze begins just as Czarist Russia falls. Hopkirk begins the narrative with agents loyal to Britain and the old Russian empire as they move from a British listening post in Kashgar towards the old Silk Road city of Bukhara. From this vantage point, Hopkirk tells us of how the new Bolshevik regime retook former Czarist Central Asia, fighting anti-revolutionary White Russian troops and other local opponents along the way. Once Central Asia is firmly in Lenin’s control, Hopkirk moves on to the formation of the Soviet Comintern and its various attempts at fomenting world revolution, whether in India, China, or Europe itself.

Overall, the book succeeds in its main goal of present an honest and historically accurate portrayal of how Asia faired in the final days of the Great Game. While the yarn does trend towards history book flavor, rather than story time, there is plenty here to incite imagination. This books abounds with spies, warriors,  espionage, and enough ancient cities to intoxicate most anyone. The book’s one drawback, if it may even be considered so, is that its frame over reference necessarily leaves out much of the local opinion. As the book is written from the perspective of competing foreign governments, so lay the focus. If one is interested in, say, what the Kyrgyz people thought of all of these antics, one would be advised to look elsewhere.

Highly recommended