Altayli E. A Dark Path to Freedom. Ruzi Nazar from the Red Army to the CIA

London: Hurst and Company, 2017. — 297 p. — ISBN: 9781849046978Born 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.Childhood in Turkestan
Student Years in Stalins Central Asia
Ruzi in the Red Army
Soldiers and Prisoners of War
Ruzi and the Legions’ War against Soviet Russia
The Tide Turns Against Germany
Escaping from the jaws of Defeat
Refuge in Rosenheim
The Cold War and the New Espionage
Ruzi Goes to America
First Visits to the Middle East
The Bandung Conference
Undercover Work in International Conferences
Ruzi in Turkey: Soldiers, Plots and Politics
From Turkey to Bonn
Undercover in Iran During the Hostage Crisis
The Cold War Ends and Ruzi Returns to Uzbekistan