Postcard from Bishkek

During my enforced month long absence from the office, (hospitalization and recuperation), the rest of the world went about its business and I am now in the process of catching up on the news and events that took place while I lay in my bed.

There were many interesting stories, from both here in Kyrgyzstan and further afield, and some that caught my attention and I thought were worth a mention.  The story of Stephen Graham was one of those.

This was highlighted in a series of posts (in Russian) on the Kloop website, complete with photographs.

The photographs give a fascinating view of life in Kyrgyzstan in 1914.

Stephen Graham was a British journalist, born in Edinburgh in 1884, who traveled extensively throughout Russia before the Bolshevik Revolution and wrote accounts of what he saw and experienced for The Times in London, and were later published in book form, as Russia and the World, in 1915, and Through Russian Central Asia in 1916.

Although he was born into a literary family, (his father was an essayist and editor of the magazine Country Life), he left school early, at the age of 14, and moved from the family home in Cheltenham, and moved to London where he worked as a clerk in the law court and then in the civil service.

He started to study Russian and went on a holiday to Russia with his teacher and shortly after returning home he gave up his job and left to travel through the Caucasus and Urals.  Later he moved to Moscow and started his career as a writer … and he also taught English.

He was commissioned by Lord Northcliffe to write articles for his newspaper, The Times.

At the outbreak of the First World War, Graham found himself in the Altai Mountains from where he sent reports back to The Times of the war as seen from the Russian point of view … which were later collected and published as his most famous books.

After his travels through Russia during 1914, he returned to Britain and enlisted in the Scots Guards, serving on the Western Front in 1918 and writing an account of his wartime experiences, (A Private in the Guards).  When the war was over he visited America publishing, among other things, the stories of immigrants.

In later life he wrote and published his autobiography, Part of the Wonderful Scene.

He died in 1975.

In his writings, Graham showed an understanding and sympathy with the poor and downtrodden, such as agricultural labourers and tramps and a distaste for industrialization.

 

For the record: Kloop was launched in June 2007 and consists of two main services, (journalism and a blogging platform).  The original idea was to bring all the features for free, which means there are no paid skins, and no paid plugins – it was established with funding provided by the Dutch-based Hivos Foundation.

Articles are written by young journalists, mostly University High School students between the ages of 15 and 25. The Kloop Media Foundation runs training courses to help them with issues such as Balance, Accuracy and Journalistic Ethics.

The three articles, (in Russian), were:

• Kyrgyz at the beginning of the XX Century: featuring photographs of life among the Kyrgyz.
• Notes from the past: A Britain view of Central Asia 1914, Part I: quoting an excerpt from Through Russian Central Asia, describing the Russian colonization of the region, with photographs
• Notes from the past: A British view of Central Asia 1914, Part II: continuing the story with more photographs.

Here are some of the photos featured in the articles:

The book Through Russian Central Asia, with illustrations, is available for download in different formats for various types of readers from Internet Archive.

 

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