Restless Valley.

• Author: Cotter, Michael
• Position: Book review

Restless Valley: Revolution, Murder, and Intrigue in the Heart of Central Asia, by Philip Shiskin, Yale University Press, 2013, Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-300-18436-5, pp. 301, $20.07 Hardcover, $14.99/$15.49 E-Book (Kindle/Nook)

Some caveats are required in introducing this book. The restless valley in the title refers to the Fergana Valley, the most fertile region of the former Soviet Central Asia, divided by Stalin between the Uzbek, Tajik and Kyrgyz SSRs. The dustcover introduction suggests the book is "... a gripping, firsthand account of Central Asia's recent history." That's not quite accurate. In fact, the book only touches in passing on either subject. What Restless Valley does is provide a vivid account of the recent history of one of the former Soviet Central Asian republics--Kyrgyzstan --with a bit of Uzbekistan's thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately, it presents those events in a vacuum, with minimal historical background to assist the reader unfamiliar with Central Asia.

The five 'Stans (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) became independent political entities for the first time when the Soviet Union dissolved itself in 1990. In all but Kyrgyzstan, the first secretary of the local Communist Party evolved into the first president of the independent republic. Two remain in power--Nursultan

Nazarbayev in Kazakhstan and Islam Karimov in Uzbekistan. In Tajikistan the speaker of parliament, Emomali Rahmanov, became president in 1992 during a brutal civil war and remains in power. The first president of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov (known as "Turkmenbashi), died of a heart attack in 2006. Only in Kyrgyzstan did the Supreme Soviet actually hold a contested election for a president. When neither the president of the council of ministers or the first secretary of the party could gain a majority, a compromise candidate, Askar Akayev, a physicist and mathematician, was elected.

Akayev was forced out of office in 2005 in what was called the "Tulip Revolution." His successor Kurmanbek Bakiyev was, in turn, ousted after massive protests in 2010. Restless Valley recounts the...