Once in Kazakhstan: The Snow Leopard Emerges

Kazakhstan, now that's a name that few Americans knew until after the former Soviet Union ceased to exist. Quickly, the nation became of international importance due to having its own nuclear bombs. For most, that was the brief and complete story of Kazakhstan.

American attorney Keith Rosten uses his knowledge of Russian and Kazakhstan's history, and his journal from living in Kazakhstan during the early 1990s to provide an intriguing story of how one nation founded its government, sought to keep the peace between its primary ethnic populations (majority Kazakhs and minority Russians) and groped towards a future with more prosperity. He also updates events since then to provide a further perspective.

I don't know of any alternative resource for this country during this period that's available in English. Although Kazakhstan is a big place, it doesn't have very many people.

Like many such books, there are many references to the weak economic conditions during the period, the leftover problems of the Soviet years and the new problems of independence.

The best part of the book, for me, came in Mr. Rosten's many interviews with political leaders who described their thoughts and problems during the process of forming the government and creating electoral processes. Democracy didn't really take in Kazakhstan, and you find out why it's not as easy as it sounds to move in that direction.

One of the nice surprises in the book can be found in the reproductions of photographs from those years. They bring the book to life. Without those photographs, this would have been a three-star book. But do realize that the reproduction isn't very good. Almost every image looks like a copy of a newspaper photograph.

I thought the book had many weaknesses. First, I would have preferred a nonfiction book format, rather than the often-redundant journal entries. Second, it would have been more powerful coming from the perspective of people in Kazakhstan rather than from Mr. Rosten's viewpoint. Third, a book about events in the early 1990s would have been a lot more interesting if it had been published soon thereafter. Fourth, the book could have used maps and reference materials about Kazakhstan to help the reader follow along.

But I'm glad I read the book. I doubt if I'll ever go to Kazakhstan (and certainly not in the winter), and Mr. Rosten made me a little more knowledgeable about the people there.

I admire him, by the way, for being willing to go to such a faraway land and to teach under trying conditions.

Ahhh, Kazakhstan! What a country, eh? Everyone is familiar with this far away spot, this one time member of the Soviet Union that has since become an independent country after the fall of Russian style communism, right? Probably not. Kazakhstan is an obscure, out of the way nation on the other side of the world, which virtually assures that nine out of ten American schoolchildren couldn't find it on a map if their lives depended on it. Heck, nine out of ten American adults couldn't locate this Asiatic nation if their lives depended on it. Only state department wonks, Soviet research specialists, and oil executives probably know much about Kazakhstan. Oh, and Keith Rosten too. He's a lawyer who spent time in this former Soviet Republic on a Fulbright scholarship back in the early 1990s. His duties included teaching courses on American law at a university. His duties also included surviving the day-to-day challenges of living in a former Soviet Republic desperately grasping at that nebulous concept called democracy. "Once in Kazakhstan: The Snow Leopard Emerges" is Rosten's account of his numerous adventures written in the form of a daily journal.

According to Rosten, Kazakhstan is a country struggling to form a coherent identity. Arguably the greatest factor in shaping a vision of itself is its problems with the ethnic makeup of the nation. Throughout the book, the author returns repeatedly to the problems faced by Kazakhstan's Russian, German, Jewish, and Kazakh populations. The imposition of Soviet communism seriously depleted the native population when the endearing Uncle Joe Stalin presided over a kulak style extermination program aimed at turning a nomadic people into a sedentary, rural based group of cheery proletariats. Who cares if a few million wretches died in the pursuit of such a noble dream? Uncle Joe had a vision, a vision that largely succeeded in fundamentally altering the lifestyles of the Kazakh people. Here's to seeing Uncle Joe and his ilk festering in the deepest pits of Hades for all time. But in the process of changing Kazakhstan, thousands upon thousands of ethnic Russians invaded the country to take all the cushy party jobs and generally feed like a plague upon the naïve waifs who lived there. Now that the Soviet Union has faded into memory, the country struggles to define the role of those Russians still living within its borders. Thousands have left, as have Germans living in the region for centuries. Jews as well have largely left for Israel.

The problem of building a democracy from the ground up, aside from ethnic insecurities, is a daunting task. Rosten details the process in a largely sober manner tinged with traces of humor. Any nation aspiring to the highest ideals of democracy must have a firm educational footing, yet the author notes how his students are far from inspired scholars. Academics earn next to nothing, even at the university level, so the emphasis on education tends to slip quite often. Students take a huge load of courses but do little real work in any of them. Drinking is a prime factor in laxity on campus, and it's also an important facet of life in Kazakhstan at large. Rosten explains repeatedly his efforts to escape the offers of various liquors, often with little success. Another factor in establishing a firm footing in the democratic tradition revolves around a stable monetary system--or at least a monetary system a nation can call its own. During the author's stay in the country, Kazakhstan attempted to institute its own currency, called the tenge, in order to replace the Russian and Soviet era rubles used by the citizenry. Chaos quickly ensued as the value of money bounced back and forth like a yo-yo. I won't even get into the quagmire that is an election in Kazakhstan. It makes our 2000 race look tame by comparison.

Most of the book deals with Rosten's daily experiences in Almaty (once called Alma Alta), the capital of the country. When one acquires lodgings in this city, one soon learns to lower one's expectations. Especially if that person is an American used to American buildings and amenities. Plumbing is a problem in Almaty, especially hot water. As for roaches, well, Rosten tells us these icky pests soon became second nature when staying in apartments and hotels. If you're expecting to clean your clothing with the latest washers and dryers from Sears, forget about it. You wash by hand in the sink or use odd little machines that don't work well. Planning on heading down to the local supermarket for your weekly grocery order? Nope. Kazakhstan has a marketplace where people go to buy food on a daily basis. They also buy goods from little kiosks that sprout up on streets throughout the city. Then there is the problem of getting around the city. A person can walk, but not at night. High crime rates in Almaty during the early 1990s promised dire fates to those stupid enough to go out for a stroll once the sun went down. Driving presents a host of holy horrors.

I'm making Rosten's experiences in Kazakhstan sound like a nightmare, but the author is the first to admit that he came away with a great love for the people he met there. They have problems in nearly every aspect of their lives, but they also possess a tenacity that saw them through the horrors of communism. The book concludes with the author noting several changes he witnessed on return trips to the country, some good and some bad. As for the book itself, "Once in Kazakhstan" is a wonderful example of travelogue literature in both the positive and the negative: positive because such books give the reader an intimate look at a foreign culture not readily available from newspapers or other sources, and negative because we rarely see anything beyond what Rosten sees. Nonetheless, this is a great book about a great nation.

Based on a journal that details the emergence and struggles of the new nation of Kazakhstan in the '90s, this is timely and fascinating reading, as it tells of the process we see unfolding currently in Afghanistan and Iraq, with the same problems of violence and lack of basic services.
Rosten's first trip to Kazakhstan was in 1991, when the Soviet Union disintegrated, and he returned two years later to teach U.S. law in Almaty, then the capital of the country.

"Once in Kazakhstan" is much more than a recounting of political upheavals, it is alive with vivid descriptions, some of them hilarious, as Rosten has the gift of keen observation, and also a marvelous dry wit, that sees the dark humor in even the bleakest of scenarios, and this brings balance to the book; it is a page-turner, as one learns a lot about a little known culture, laughs out loud at his zany escapades, and is enlightened on the procedures of creating a new country, all written in a fluid, readable style.

Chapter Two gives us a history of this nation, which is of mixed ethnicity and rugged terrain..."more than a million square miles, but mostly of unforgiving steppe"...and the book is peppered throughout with small b&w photos to help us visualize the land. The only thing missing from this volume is a map, and I do recommend looking at an atlas before delving into this terrific book to see how vast this country is, and where it lies in relation to its neighbors.

There is an epilogue that updates us to the present time, with the many changes, normalization, and improvements, and even a change of capitals, from Almaty to Astana (formerly known as Aknola).
This is one of the very best books I have read in this genre, and I hope it is just the beginning of Rosten's career as a writer. I await further intriguing tales of far-off lands, and many more laughs from this skilled and very entertaining author.

There was a time when our information about distant lands came from world travelers (remember Richard Halliburton?) who observed, participated in cultural miscegenation, and daily recorded their findings and feelings in journals which were later to become the informational resource for those folk who were able to visit the planet solely from the comfort of their home reading chair. Now the media blitz puts us anywhere on the globe, and even off the globe, funnelng back photos and documentation that rarely give us story and even less rarely provide insight into the places and peoples captured and transmitted by satellite.

Keith Rosten may be a lawyer and teacher by occupation, but by gift he is a humanist and a wise transmitter of information. In this very readable book (try putting it down!) Rosten provides a day by day journal of his experiences in Kazakhstan in a way that draws us not only into the history of this vast land of 'In the Steppes of Central Asia', but also into the people who have been part of this huge country, a country that preceded the USSR and was subsequently absorbed in that beomoth and now is regaining its own identity.

There is much to learn about the fascinating social and political history of this land, but even more important to us as readers is the grace with which Rosten introduces us to the people: the customs, the language, the food, the living conditions, the customs and joys and tribulations of this fascinating band of survivors. Rosten includes snapshots that enhance his observations and in general provides us with a crisp, intelligent, witty, wry and ultimately warmly informative diary. Highly recommended for students of Russian culture, for those confused by the land mass diaspora post USSR, and for the gentle reader who is just curious about that other side of the world! Grady Harp, March 05

Keith Rosten has given us a fascinating look at a country I for one knew very little about. It seems to me that we cared much more about the former Soviet satellite nations while they lay subject to Soviet domination and have generally ignored them after the Soviet Union burst apart at the seams. That is unfortunate because former Soviet bloc nations such as Kazakhstan have been, for well over a decade now, embarking on the road to democracy - a journey which has oftentimes involved two steps back for each step forward. Rosten gives us a personal view of the early struggle for progress and democratic reform in this geographically isolated, complicated nation, for he was there in the fall through spring months of 1993/94 as Kazakhstan took some of its early steps toward becoming a free and independent nation. In the upper left corner of the back cover of this book, Once in Kazakhstan: The Snow Leopard Emerges is classified as a Travel book, but it is much more than that. Rosten introduces us to the history of this country, describes its strengths and beauties as well as its many problems, details its halting steps toward national autonomy, and - most importantly - gives us a sense of the life and culture of the inhabitants of this comparatively large country lying between China and the Caspian Sea.

Keith Rosten is a lawyer who went to Kazakhstan (not for the first or last time) in September 1993 as a Fulbright Lecturer in Law. Over the course of a long, typically cold winter, he witnessed some of the most crucial days in the creation of the infant Republic of Kazakhstan. In a country with little infrastructure, almost no experience at self-rule, and a potentially fractious mix of ethnic groups, democracy doesn't just happen. Kazakhstan, led by Nursultan Nazarbayev, former head of the Kazakhstan Communist Party, did not see its people take to the streets embracing their independence; rather, the government plotted a slow and not always sure path to change. Life became, in many ways, harder than ever in this isolated country, cursed with the kind of problems we in the West can hardly imagine. As an experienced lawyer, long-time student of Russian, Soviet, and post-Soviet studies, and MBA holder, Rosten is perfectly suited to describe the struggles of the Kazakhstan people - and to explain why democracy does not always come as easy as we in America sometimes expect it should.

Rosten kept a journal during this particular stay in Kazakhstan, and this Almaty Journal (Almaty is the former national capital in which he resided) evolved into Once in Kazakhstan - as a chronological account of sorts, it is sometimes slightly repetitive in terms of facts, but the personal insights it offers into the people are invaluable. Those people, one should note, cover a wide spectrum: normal, everyday citizens; college faculty and students; Kazakhs, Russians, Germans, and ethnic Jews; parliamentarians and former parliamentarians; members of the intelligentsia charged with codifying a new set of laws for the nation; the American ambassador to Kazakhstan; and others. Thus, he can not only detail the frustrating problems of nonexistent garbage pickup, malfunctioning and non-functioning traffic signals, the all-too-common absence of such luxuries as hot water and heat, extensive transportation and travel problems, and the like, he can also offer insight as to why the government seemed powerless to do anything about them. Rosten also chronicles the pervasive issues associated with the nation's rapid transition from the Russian ruble to new Kazakh currency. Most intriguingly, however, Rosten tells us how the people felt about democracy and the sweeping changes that independence was bringing to their country.

Through Rosten, you really feel as if you get to know - to some real degree - the people of Kazakhstan - the proud Kazakhs who seek to assert their authority, the Russians and Germans who decide to leave Kazakhstan in growing numbers, the small but significant number of ethnic Jews, and the increasing numbers of Moslems. You go into their homes, experience their unique form of hospitality (which traditionally involves a sheep's head), drink with them (a lot), and share their waits for food, gasoline, and public transportation. I can't say the book makes me want to visit Kazakhstan any time soon (it takes a hearty soul to endure the Kazakh winter), but this book gives me a wonderful and invaluable understanding of a people seeking to - finally - build a better way of life for themselves. Now that the former Soviet bloc countries are independent, it does not mean we in the West should abandon or ignore them. Rosten certainly hasn't, as he has traveled back to the country many times since the months chronicled in this book - in fact, he adds an informative epilogue describing the less than democratic changes in Kazakhstan since the end of his Almaty Journal days.

Once in Kazakhstan is immensely informative, but that does not mean it is dry or boring - far from it, in fact. Rosten is a gifted writer who tells his story in a personal, conversational, utterly fascinating manner. He communicates to the reader a very real sense of what life is like in this remote country on the other side of the world.