Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan

Written by Erika Fatland

Narrated by Jill Rolls

Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan became free of the Soviet Union in 1991. But though they are new to modern statehood, this is a region rich in ancient history, culture, and landscapes unlike anywhere else in the world.

Traveling alone, Erika Fatland is a true adventurer in every sense. In Sovietistan, she takes the reader on a compassionate and insightful journey to explore how their Soviet heritage has influenced these countries, with governments experimenting with both democracy and dictatorships.

In Kyrgyzstani villages, she meets victims of the tradition of bride snatching; she visits the huge and desolate Polygon in Kazakhstan where the Soviet Union tested explosions of nuclear bombs; she meets shrimp gatherers on the banks of the dried out Aral Sea; she witnesses the fall of a dictator.

She travels incognito through Turkmenistan, a country that is closed to journalists. She meets exhausted human rights activists in Kazakhstan, survivors from the massacre in Osh in 2010, and German Mennonites that found paradise on the Kyrgyzstani plains 200 years ago. We learn how ancient customs clash with gas production and witness the underlying conflicts between ethnic Russians and the majority in a country that is slowly building its future in nationalist colors.

Once the frontier of the Soviet Union, life follows another pace of time. Amidst the treasures of Samarkand and the brutalist Soviet architecture, Sovietistan is a rare and unforgettable adventure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Everand Productions
• Release date: Dec 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9781094436111

Erika Fatland

Erika Fatland studied Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo and is the author of two previous books in Norwegian, The Village of Angels and The Year Without Summer, describing the year that followed the massacre on Utøya. She speaks eight languages and lives in Oslo with her husband. Her new book The Border, is also available from Pegasus Books.

Reviews for Sovietistan

[LL · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I spent a lot of time looking for books in English on central Asia, but there are very few, and this one in particular is just egregious. This book is so racist & orientalist. It sometimes socks me how western English-speakers have no shame about their own ignorance. This book is proof that we should. It is shameful. Read it if you want to hear from a racist capitalist who thinks she's saying clever things but they're just racist things that aren't funny unless you think Uzbek people are less human than you. Read it if you want to be stupider than you were before.

[Jigar Shah · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Everything you want in a travelogue: meaningful personal observations of the time, analysis, well-researched historical background. And a place known more by myth than reality.

[David Slaton · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow! What great source of knowledge on this often-overlooked, but vital area of the world. Thoroughly researched and presented in an understandable (to a Westerner) a relevant way.

[Caleb Hildenbrand · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is well-written and covers a multitude of topics on an under-represented region of the globe.

[medansilviu · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great great book!Very many thanks to the author, for taking the time the risks to travel in this faraway places, so the rest of us to have a idea about the life in Central Asia!Five stars for shure!

[starbox_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

2014 (but with later footnotes added) look at the five Central Asian republics, by a Norwegian author.In short, accessible chapters, she meets the locals, visits interesting places...and looks at the politics, the dictators (only Kyrgyzstan can be considered free) and the history. A part of the world that fascinates me; this is a recommended introduction to the region.

[karatelpek · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Having lived in Central Asia from 2010-2012 I found Fatland's book a nice nostalgic trip down memory lane. I tend to agree with most of her assessments, although I wish the Turkmenistan chapters had been less focused on the dictator and more about the people and history of the country (despite having a guide, it was still possible to do so). Pretty funny that she was there when he fell off this horse. While there were a few mistakes here and there (Stalin died in 1953, not 1952 for example) overall, this is the best updated account of modern Central Asia.

[Nathan Coppini · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great book if you want to know more about the region

[kaida46_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sovietistan by Erika Fatland: A Journey Through Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan (2019)This is a combination travel and history book about these five specific countries in central Asia. The author is a brave Nordic woman who travelled to the area in two separate trips around 2013 and 14. It was a good introduction for me as reader who before reading the book, had very little knowledge about the area. It’s a very readable book, if not all inclusive. These countries all have threads that tie them together as formerly being part of the USSR, which has an effect on how they are governed today while each country is in the process of forging their own new identity now as independent nations. Ecological, social, political, and economic insight is also explored with its consequences, for good or for bad, on the population. There is rich history here, there are also historical lessons to be learned. Many topics are covered, the silk road, nomads of the steppes, the drying up of the Aral Sea, people persevering in the face of steep odds, use/misuse of the environment, exploration of the outcomes of government forced programs on the population, and the list goes on. I found it an enlightening read.

[spiralsheep · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

146/2020.Review: I've just finished the excellent 2019 English translation and updating of Sovietistan (originally published in Norwegian, 2014), which is Erika Fatland's travelogue through the five ex-Soviet Central Asian 'stans: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The book is written in journalistic style with a minimum of authorial self-insertion and a maximum of description backed up with history (ancient history, the silk road, Islamic cultures, Mongol hordes, local histories, Russian Imperial conquest, and the various Soviet periods). I appreciated the straightforward writing style and prioritisation of fact over opinion although, as with any journalism, each reader has to decide how much they will rely on an individual non-fiction author's presentation of their research.I completed this book on the day the president / dictator of Turkmenistan unveiled a new giant golden statue of his favourite breed of dog (video available on youtube etc) and due to my reading I knew that this isn't even close to being the oddest state-erected sculpture in Turkmenistan.Erika Fatland has another book including Central Asian countries titled The Border - a Journey Around Russia that is also now available in an English translation.Personal thoughts: the final chapter of Sovietistan is about Uzbekistan, supposedly one of the most repressive regimes in the world, and gives a horrific example of two citizens tortured to death by the secret police, which reminded me that in 2017 a US citizen, Darren Rainey, was tortured to death in prison in the US in exactly the same way (warning: DON'T google this unless you're sure you want details). The difference between Uzbekistan and the US is that in Uzbekistan the secret police try to cover up their crimes because the state fears repercussions while US police and prison officers openly torture and murder citizens with no fear of any consequences - the US "justice" system claims Darren Rainey's death was an "accident" but there have been multiple similar torture "accidents" with no prison official ever held accountable.The road to becoming a "failed state" is worryingly short.

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

With 5 countries visited, this travelog with historical backgrounds, both common and separate, and overviews of modern political realities, the author has limited space to present the people and terrain of these nations. There are occasion fascinating bits, the stars over Pamir and the stolen brides of Kyrgyzstan, but mostly this is hoofing it over rough ground on feathers.