Gustav Krist
Encyclopedia
Gustav Krist (29 July 1894-1937) was an Austrian adventure
r, prisoner-of-war, carpet-dealer and author.
His accounts of unmonitored journeys, in a politically closed and tightly-controlled Russian, and then Soviet Central Asia
, offer a unique glimpse into the essentially unchanged Muslim Central Asia before Sovietization
.
-born and educated Krist worked as a technician in Germany before being mobilised as a private in the Austro-Hungarian Army
on the outbreak of war
. Early in the war (November 1914) he was severely wounded and captured by the Russians at the San river
defensive line on the Eastern front
. This led to internment in Russian Turkistan with other German and Austrian prisoners-of-war.
, a frontier town with the Emirate of Bukhara
near Samarkand
. With a natural gift for languages, before the war he had acquired some Russian and a smattering of some oriental languages. Building on this, and acting as interpreter, he was able to become familiar with the peoples, places and conditions of the region over the eight years he remained there. Conditions in the camps were harsh however. Many of his fellow prisoners died of typhus
, forced labour and starvation, or in fighting following the collapse of the Central Government. Krist kept a diary of his experiences during the whole period written on cigarette papers and secreted in a Bukharan hubble-bubble pipe to avoid it being confiscated. After the Bolshevik revolution the region was both dangerous and politically confused as Soviets, White Army, Basmachi insurgents and foreign powers struggled for power.
This region of ancient Silk Road
cities had been closed to foreigners on political grounds during the war. In 1917 Krist moved to Samarkand where he worked in the town. Trading with the Sart
s and being able to talk to them directly he had a sharp grasp of the situation. His writings offer a valuable glimpse of various peoples and cultures in this area of Central Asia. For seventy years after him the area was seldom visited by foreign visitors unencumbered by official controls and his accounts show life before the Sovietization of the region. Krist came to love the nomadic peoples of the region as well as the Islamic architecture of Samarkand, especially the Shah-i-Zinda
complex
in Persia
, but was unable to return to Austria due to conditions in Kurdistan and British control of south Persia. En route he had been recaptured but jumped a prison-train and made his way via Merv
, Northern Afghanistan and Meshed to Tabriz. As Tabriz was a principal centre for Persian carpet production and trade, here he began trading in wool and carpets around Persia for a native Iranian, but was captured in the Russian swoop on the German community in Tabriz.
He was now sent to Fort Alexandovsky
an isolated penal-camp on the Caspian
where troublesome prisoners were concentrated. The conditions here were atrocious and eventually when it was closed down following Red Cross investigations he was moved to Samarkand where he was assigned work. After the Bolsheviks freed the prisoners of war, Krist and others established various wheeling-and-dealing industries. Krist also travelled with Red Cross delegations across Turkistan and in a bizarre episode entered the service of the Emir of Bukhara
who was striving to re-establish his full independence in the collapse of the Russian Empire, and helped him set up a mint
. This was subsequently wrecked when Krist was driven out of town by the conservative religious leaders. Krist was able to visit the town and the Ark Citadel
before its destruction. Bukhara
fell to the Soviets under Mikhail Frunze in September 1920 after four day's fighting which left much of the town in ruins.
The local soviet
in Turkistan promised a train to take the ex-prisoners home in 1920 for aid in suppressing mutinous Bolshevik soldiers in Samarkand. So NCO
Krist led a force of Austrian POWs in disarming them. After the Austrians had handed in their arms this was reneged on. In fact Krist was amongst those who were later condemned to death for counter-revolutionary activity. Luckily this was commuted to three-months imprisonment at the last minute leaving time to arrange a pardon. Krist and the remaining prisoners were repatriated late in 1921 through the Baltic States
and Germany
, having to cross a Russia suffering from famine
and civil-war
.
in Persia
to work again as a carpet dealer. He transversed Persia for the next two years, but even this work became routine for him and a chance meeting with some Turkmen tribesmen
in 1924, led him to slip across into Soviet territory, which was even then strengthening its controls along the frontier in that area.
Travelling without papers in Soviet territory was impossible. Krist said he'd "would sooner pay a call on the Devil and his mother-in-law in Hell" than attempt to travel without them. However using the I.D.
card of a naturalised fellow ex-prisoner he knew in Turkmenistan
he came up with a scheme to get recognition as a State Geologist of the Uzbeg Soviet in Samarkand. This enabled him to explore the mountainous region to the east without hindrance.
He crossed the waterless Kara-Kum desert (the “black, or terrible, one”) to the Amu Darya
. Always a keen observer and with his gift for striking up conversations in Deh i Nau he fell in with a GPU
officer who had witnessed the death of Enver Pasha. After revisiting Bukhara, Samarkand and (pre-earthquake) Tashkent
he moved up the Ferghana Valley. There he encountered the Kara Kirghiz (Black Kirghiz) with whom he wintered during their last annual migration into the Pamirs, before the Soviet forces conquered them and they were collectivized
. Working his way through modern-day Tajikistan
he made his way to the Persian frontier and recrossed with some difficulty.
Adventure
An adventure is defined as an exciting or unusual experience; it may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome. The term is often used to refer to activities with some potential for physical danger, such as skydiving, mountain climbing and or participating in extreme sports...
r, prisoner-of-war, carpet-dealer and author.
His accounts of unmonitored journeys, in a politically closed and tightly-controlled Russian, and then Soviet Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
, offer a unique glimpse into the essentially unchanged Muslim Central Asia before Sovietization
Sovietization
Sovietization is term that may be used with two distinct meanings:*the adoption of a political system based on the model of soviets .*the adoption of a way of life and mentality modelled after the Soviet Union....
.
Background
The VienneseVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
-born and educated Krist worked as a technician in Germany before being mobilised as a private in the Austro-Hungarian Army
Austro-Hungarian Army
The Austro-Hungarian Army was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint army , the Austrian Landwehr , and the Hungarian Honvédség .In the wake of fighting between the...
on the outbreak of war
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Early in the war (November 1914) he was severely wounded and captured by the Russians at the San river
San River
The San is a river in southeastern Poland and western Ukraine, a tributary of the Vistula River, with a length of 433 km and a basin area of 16,861 km2...
defensive line on the Eastern front
Eastern Front (World War I)
The Eastern Front was a theatre of war during World War I in Central and, primarily, Eastern Europe. The term is in contrast to the Western Front. Despite the geographical separation, the events in the two theatres strongly influenced each other...
. This led to internment in Russian Turkistan with other German and Austrian prisoners-of-war.
Internment
His first camp was sited at Katta-KurganKatta-Kurgan
Kattakurgan is a town in the Samarqand Province of Uzbekistan. It is located on the road and railway between Bukhara and Samarkand. The name is Turkic and means "large town or kurgan"...
, a frontier town with the Emirate of Bukhara
Emirate of Bukhara
The Emirate of Bukhara was a Central Asian state that existed from 1785 to 1920. It occupied the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, known formerly as Transoxiana. Its core territory was the land along the lower Zarafshan River, and its urban centres were the ancient cities of...
near Samarkand
Samarkand
Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...
. With a natural gift for languages, before the war he had acquired some Russian and a smattering of some oriental languages. Building on this, and acting as interpreter, he was able to become familiar with the peoples, places and conditions of the region over the eight years he remained there. Conditions in the camps were harsh however. Many of his fellow prisoners died of typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
, forced labour and starvation, or in fighting following the collapse of the Central Government. Krist kept a diary of his experiences during the whole period written on cigarette papers and secreted in a Bukharan hubble-bubble pipe to avoid it being confiscated. After the Bolshevik revolution the region was both dangerous and politically confused as Soviets, White Army, Basmachi insurgents and foreign powers struggled for power.
This region of ancient Silk Road
Silk Road
The Silk Road or Silk Route refers to a historical network of interlinking trade routes across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world, as well as parts of North and East Africa...
cities had been closed to foreigners on political grounds during the war. In 1917 Krist moved to Samarkand where he worked in the town. Trading with the Sart
Sart
Sart is a name for the settled inhabitants of Central Asia which has had shifting meanings over the centuries. Sarts, known sometimes as Ak-Sart in ancient times, did not have any particular ethnic identification, and were usually town-dwellers.-Origin:There are several theories about the origin...
s and being able to talk to them directly he had a sharp grasp of the situation. His writings offer a valuable glimpse of various peoples and cultures in this area of Central Asia. For seventy years after him the area was seldom visited by foreign visitors unencumbered by official controls and his accounts show life before the Sovietization of the region. Krist came to love the nomadic peoples of the region as well as the Islamic architecture of Samarkand, especially the Shah-i-Zinda
Shah-i-Zinda
Shah-i-Zinda is a necropolis in the north-eastern part of Samarkand, Uzbekistan.The Shah-i-Zinda Ensemble includes mausoleums and other ritual buildings of 9-14th and 19th centuries. The name Shah-i-Zinda is connected with the legend that Kusam ibn Abbas, the cousin of the prophet Muhammad was...
complex
Various Escapes
In 1916 Krist escaped Katta-Kurgan to TabrizTabriz
Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
in Persia
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, but was unable to return to Austria due to conditions in Kurdistan and British control of south Persia. En route he had been recaptured but jumped a prison-train and made his way via Merv
Mary, Turkmenistan
Mary is the capital city of Mary Province in Turkmenistan. Former names include Merv, Meru and Margiana. It is located at . The city is an oasis in the Karakum Desert, located on the Murghab river. In 2009, Mary had a population of 123,000 , up from 92,000 in the 1989 census.-History:The ancient...
, Northern Afghanistan and Meshed to Tabriz. As Tabriz was a principal centre for Persian carpet production and trade, here he began trading in wool and carpets around Persia for a native Iranian, but was captured in the Russian swoop on the German community in Tabriz.
He was now sent to Fort Alexandovsky
Fort Shevchenko
Fort Shevchenko is a military-base town and administrative center of Tupkaragan District in Mangystau Province, Kazakhstan on the Caspian Sea . Primary industries include fishing and the extraction of stone.-History:...
an isolated penal-camp on the Caspian
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
where troublesome prisoners were concentrated. The conditions here were atrocious and eventually when it was closed down following Red Cross investigations he was moved to Samarkand where he was assigned work. After the Bolsheviks freed the prisoners of war, Krist and others established various wheeling-and-dealing industries. Krist also travelled with Red Cross delegations across Turkistan and in a bizarre episode entered the service of the Emir of Bukhara
Mohammed Alim Khan
Emir Said Mir Mohammed Alim Khan was the last emir of the Manghit dynasty, the last ruling dynasty of the Emirate of Bukhara in Central Asia...
who was striving to re-establish his full independence in the collapse of the Russian Empire, and helped him set up a mint
Mint (coin)
A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins for currency.The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. One difference is that the history of the mint is usually closely tied to the political situation of an era...
. This was subsequently wrecked when Krist was driven out of town by the conservative religious leaders. Krist was able to visit the town and the Ark Citadel
The Ark (Fortress)
The Ark is a massive fortress located in the city of Bukhara, Uzbekistan that was initially built and occupied around the 5th century AD. In addition to being a military structure, the Ark encompassed what was essentially a town that, during much of the fortress' history, was inhabited by the...
before its destruction. Bukhara
Bukhara
Bukhara , from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 263,400 . The region around Bukhara has been inhabited for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half that time...
fell to the Soviets under Mikhail Frunze in September 1920 after four day's fighting which left much of the town in ruins.
Soviet (council)
Soviet was a name used for several Russian political organizations. Examples include the Czar's Council of Ministers, which was called the “Soviet of Ministers”; a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia; and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union....
in Turkistan promised a train to take the ex-prisoners home in 1920 for aid in suppressing mutinous Bolshevik soldiers in Samarkand. So NCO
Non-commissioned officer
A non-commissioned officer , called a sub-officer in some countries, is a military officer who has not been given a commission...
Krist led a force of Austrian POWs in disarming them. After the Austrians had handed in their arms this was reneged on. In fact Krist was amongst those who were later condemned to death for counter-revolutionary activity. Luckily this was commuted to three-months imprisonment at the last minute leaving time to arrange a pardon. Krist and the remaining prisoners were repatriated late in 1921 through the Baltic States
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, having to cross a Russia suffering from famine
Russian famine of 1921
The Russian famine of 1921, also known as Povolzhye famine, which began in the early spring of that year, and lasted through 1922, was a severe famine that occurred in Bolshevik Russia...
and civil-war
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
.
Adventurous return
After returning briefly to Vienna, in 1922 he moved back to TabrizTabriz
Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
in Persia
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
to work again as a carpet dealer. He transversed Persia for the next two years, but even this work became routine for him and a chance meeting with some Turkmen tribesmen
Turkmen people
The Turkmen are a Turkic people located primarily in the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and northeastern Iran. They speak the Turkmen language, which is classified as a part of the Western Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages family together with Turkish, Azerbaijani, Qashqai,...
in 1924, led him to slip across into Soviet territory, which was even then strengthening its controls along the frontier in that area.
Travelling without papers in Soviet territory was impossible. Krist said he'd "would sooner pay a call on the Devil and his mother-in-law in Hell" than attempt to travel without them. However using the I.D.
Identity document
An identity document is any document which may be used to verify aspects of a person's personal identity. If issued in the form of a small, mostly standard-sized card, it is usually called an identity card...
card of a naturalised fellow ex-prisoner he knew in Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...
he came up with a scheme to get recognition as a State Geologist of the Uzbeg Soviet in Samarkand. This enabled him to explore the mountainous region to the east without hindrance.
He crossed the waterless Kara-Kum desert (the “black, or terrible, one”) to the Amu Darya
Amu Darya
The Amu Darya , also called Oxus and Amu River, is a major river in Central Asia. It is formed by the junction of the Vakhsh and Panj rivers...
. Always a keen observer and with his gift for striking up conversations in Deh i Nau he fell in with a GPU
State Political Directorate
The State Political Directorate was the secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1934...
officer who had witnessed the death of Enver Pasha. After revisiting Bukhara, Samarkand and (pre-earthquake) Tashkent
Tashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...
he moved up the Ferghana Valley. There he encountered the Kara Kirghiz (Black Kirghiz) with whom he wintered during their last annual migration into the Pamirs, before the Soviet forces conquered them and they were collectivized
Collectivisation in the USSR
Collectivization in the Soviet Union was a policy pursued under Stalin between 1928 and 1940. The goal of this policy was to consolidate individual land and labour into collective farms...
. Working his way through modern-day Tajikistan
Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
he made his way to the Persian frontier and recrossed with some difficulty.
Final years
In 1926 he returned permanently to Vienna where he became editor of “Die Teppichborse” a monthly carpet industry trade-magazine. Here with some leisure time and stimulated by occasional visits of former comrades he pieced together his war-diary as “Pascholl plenny!” (literally 'Get a move on, prisoner'). In 1936 he had his manuscript accepted by a publisher, and this led onto the writing of his account of his 1924-1925 adventure as “Alone through the forbidden Land”. He died as it came off the presses, from the serious injuries he received during the war.Sources
- Reader’s Union magazine. “Readers’ News” No. 20 (April 1939): Travel Special.
- Hopkirk, Peter. Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin's Dream of an Empire in Asia. (London: Kodansha International, 1984).