Book Launch—Have the Mountains Fallen? Two Journeys of Loss and Redemption in the Cold War

Please join us for a discussion with Jeffrey B. Lilley, author of Have the Mountains Fallen? Two Journeys of Loss and Redemption in the Cold War, and representatives of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, as they discuss the book's implications for modern Central Asia. 

After surviving the blitzkrieg of World War II and escaping from Nazi prison camps, Soviet soldier Azamat Altay fled to the West. He was charged as a traitor in his homeland in Soviet Central Asia. Chingiz Aitmatov became a hero of Soviet Kyrgyzstan, propelled by family loss to write novels about the everyday lives of his fellow citizens.

Altay became a voice of democracy on Radio Liberty, broadcasting back into his shuttered homeland, while Aitmatov rose through the ranks of Soviet society. Yet just as they seemed to be pulled apart by the divisions of the Cold War, they found their lives intersecting in compelling ways, joined by a common mission to save their people. Through narratives of loss, love, and longing for a homeland forever changed, a clearer picture emerges of the struggle for freedom inside the Soviet Union during the Cold War.