Description
Book SynopsisBorn in Margilan, Central Asia on the eve of the Russian Revolution of 1917, Ruzi Nazar had one of the most exciting lives of the twentieth century. Charming, intellectually brilliant and passionately committed to the liberation of Central Asia from Russian rule, his life was a series of adventures and narrow escapes. He was successively a Soviet student, a Red Army officer, an officer in the German Turkestan Legion during World War II, a fugitive living in postwar Germany's underworld, and finally an immigrant to the United States who rose high in the CIA. Here he mixed with the powerful and famous, represented the US as a diplomat in Ankara and Bonn, and became an undercover agent in Iran after the hostage crisis of 1979-81. Nazar's foresight was formidable. He predicted that communism would collapse from within, briefing Reagan on the weakness of the Soviet system before the Reagan-Gorbachev talks. A Muslim who rejected Islamism, his warnings to the US government about the dangers of Islamic radicalism fell on deaf ears.This remarkable biography casts unique light on the lives of people caught up in the turmoil of the Soviet Union, World War II, the Cold War, and the struggle of nationalities deprived of their freedom by communism to regain independence.
Trade Review'Ruzi Nazar led a truly remarkable life, and in A Dark Path To Freedom, Enver Altayli, one of Turkey's leading specialists on Central Asia and a friend of Nazar for more than half a century, has turned it into a breathtaking book.' * The Scotsman * 'A Dark Path to Freedom is one of the most amazing spy stories of recent times. It follows a fascinating journey from Stalin's Russia to Nazi Germany and onwards through the clandestine Cold War to the Iranian Revolution of 1979. This is essential reading for anyone interested in secret service in the Middle East and Central Asia.' -- Richard Aldrich, Leverhulme Major Research Fellow in Politics & International Relations, University of Warwick 'It is rare for individuals to have had such a varied life and to have played as important a role against a range of intelligence adversaries as did Ruzi Nazar. This is a thrilling story of one man's struggle against Nazism, Soviet communism, and radical Islam.' -- Michael Goodman, Professor in Intelligence and International Affairs, King's College London Department of War Studies 'What an extraordinary life! If one wrote this survival story as fiction it would be hard to believe. A Dark Path to Freedom is especially useful in its first-hand details of often reviled movements, from the Nazis to Turkey's far-right--though for Nazar himself, the decolonisation of Central Asia was paramount.' -- Hugh Poulton, author of Top-Hat, the Grey Wolf and the Crescent: Turkish Nationalism and the Turkish Republic 'In A Dark Path to Freedom, Enver Altayli captures the sweep of history through the remarkable life of Ruzi Nazar, taking the reader on a lively journey from Central Asia on the eve of World War II, to the horror of that conflict, the intrigue of the ensuing Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union.' -- Benjamin Fortna, Director of the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies, University of Arizona
