Mission to Turkestan being the memoirs of Count K. K. Pahlen 1908-1909. Edited and introduced by Richard A. Pierce. Translated by N. J. Couriss
London: Oxford University Press, 1964. First edition, 8vo, pp. xv, [3], 241, [1]; map endpapers, frontispiece portrait, fine copy in a fine, unclipped dust jacket. "The vast area of land that lies to the east of the Caspian Sea and stretches to the borders of China; that lies north of Persia and Afghanistan and reaches the edge of Siberia; an area containing deserts, high mountains, and great lakes - the land of Tamerlane - was brought under Russian rule in the second half of the nineteenth century and became known as Russian Turkestan. Rich and remote, it became a place of golden opportunity for venal officials as well as a favorite place for settlers, and the corruption and inefficiency of the administration became so notorious that a Commission of Enquiry, with full powers, was sent to investigate conditions in 1908. At the head of the Commission was a nobleman from the Baltic provinces, Count Pahlen. His report ran into nineteen volumes - dry reading but a mine of information concerning Central Asia before the First World War. In exile after the Revolution, Count Pahlen wrote his memoirs of the journeys undertaken for the Commission and his experiences in the country, memoirs which are now published in an English translation for the first time" (jacket blurb). Item #71309
Price: $35.00
