>> From the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. ^F00:00:04 ^M00:00:16 >> Mary-Jane Deeb: Welcome to the African and Middle Eastern Division. I'm Mary-Jane Deeb, chief of the division. And I'm really delighted to see you all here today. I'm also extremely happy to welcome Kyrgyz Ambassador Kadyr Toktogulov to the African and Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress. He has been here several times before, however today he is here in an official capacity to present a short documentary on Chingiz Aitmatov, the most important Kyrgyz author of the 20th Century. Ambassador Toktogulov was the person who originally introduced us to today's speaker, Jeffrey Lilley. But in fact we had met earlier ten years ago when we first had a major conference on Chingiz Aitmatov. And he was there and he told me that he was there and he had just started writing his book and today we're having Jeffrey Lilly with a book completed and ready to share with everyone here and across the world because, as you know, we're being webcast and therefore this program is going to appear around the world. And the book with the wonderful title, "Have the Mountains Fallen?" It's an intriguing title. I want to hear more about it. It will be on sale after this program. Now a few worlds about Ambassador Kadyr Toktogulov -- On December 31, 2014 Kyrgyzstan's President Almazbek Atambaev appointed him as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kyrgyz Republic to the United States of America. And two months later on February 23, 2015 he presented his credentials to President Barack Obama and took office. ^M00:02:24 However that was not all. The following year on February 24, 2016 Kadyr Toktogulov was again appointed by President Almazbek Atambaev as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Canada this time, but as he could not divide himself into two, his residence is officially in Washington D.C. So he presented his credentials to the Governor General of Canada David Johnston on March 22, 2016. We're thus very honored today to have with us two Ambassadors in one person. So we are delighted to welcome him here. Prior to his appointment as Ambassador, Kadyr Toktogulov served as President Atambaev's Press Secretary having worked earlier as the Chief of Information Policy in the Office of the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan. There he was in charge of coordinating media relations for the Prime Minister, his deputies, and key government officials. He also coordinated media coverage of the work of the government. Ambassador Kadyr Toktogulov is also a very experienced journalist, having worked as a correspondent for the Associated Press between 2003 and 2006, the Dow Jones Newswires, as well has having contributed a number of stories for the Wall Street Journal between 2006 and 2011. He holds a BA degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from the American University of Central Asia, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and was an exchange student at Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey, 1998 and 1999 and also at Ithaca College between 2001 and 2002, here in New York. So in addition to Kyrgyz he's fluent in Russian, English, and Turkish. And now let us all welcome the Ambassador who will introduce a film for today. ^M00:04:33 [ Applause ] ^M00:04:38 ^M00:04:43 >> Kadyr Toktogulov: Thank you very much for this very generous introduction Dr. Mary-Jane Deeb. Dear friends it's wonderful to see you all today at the book launch of the newly released book by my friend Jeff Lilley. We've spoken earlier today to figure out what year we actually met in Kyrgyzstan and we figured out it was 2005 in Bishkek. Before I speak about today's event and the book and the author, Jeff Lilley, I'd like to express my deepest gratitude to the Library of Congress. It's a very special institution that holds a unique importance for the United States and the world libraries. Special thanks to the African and Middle Eastern Division, Chief of the Division Dr. Mary-Jane Deeb and Joan Weeks Head Near East Section and Turkish Specialist. Thank you very much for hosting today's event. My embassy colleagues and I have enjoyed working with you on putting together this book presentation. I especially enjoyed our conversations about the vast -- ^M00:05:40 ^M00:05:46 I especially enjoyed our conversations about the vast collection of Central Asian literature that the Library holds. And the best moments of our discussions were talking about my home country Kyrgyzstan and our most famous writer the late Chingiz Aitmatov. I'm grateful to the Library and to you Dr. Mary-Jane Deeb and Joan Weeks for agreeing to host the presentation of this fascinating book, "Have the Mountains?" You told me you liked the title of the book [laughs] back then when we were discussing the details of today's event and I really like it too. I was a journalist when Jeff and I met. He was working in Bishkek as the Country Director of the International Republican Institute in Bishkek Office. He recently returned to Kyrgyzstan to continue his support for my country and my country's democratic development. The book is really fascinating. It's my country's journey to independence through the stories of its two outstanding sons that had lived through Kyrgyz nation's tragedies in the 20th Century before the country declared its independence in 1991. I'm very happy that this event is taking place as we celebrate the 90th birthday of our great writer Chingiz Aitmatov. His books and stories put Kyrgyzstan on the map for many people around the world and helped my country stand firmer in today's world. I have personal stories about the two heroes of the book that I'd like to share with you. Chingiz Aitmatov is my favorite writer. His books kept me awake at nights as I was reading his stories about the lives of his characters during and after the Word War II in Kyrgyzstan. I was happy when I got to see him in Ankara at the conference when I was a student. I would manage to get an autograph in a book by him that I was reading at the time. He was a great master in how he told a story of my country and people during difficult days which tested human beings courage, decency, kindness, generosity, and love for the country. The importance of Chingiz Aitmatov to the Kyrgyz Republic and the Kyrgyz people is significant. Nobody has made a stronger contribution to today's Kyrgyzstan self-identity than Aitmatov. This year we're celebrating the 90th birth of our great writer and we see this book launch as part of the celebrations. When I was here in the U.S. 2001, 2002, I attempted to meet Azamat Altay. I was very much fascinated by his personal story of his journey all the way from Kyrgyzstan to the U.S. though the horrors of World War II and challenges of his life in Europe. Through some Kyrgyz contacts I managed to get hold of his home phone number and dialed him. As Azamat Altay picked up the phone and I spoke to him in Kyrgyz and told him that I wanted to visit him, he gave me his home address. But back then there were no smartphones that would guide you though a city that you don't know. I couldn't get any tips on how to get to Flushing Meadows. I was in New York for a couple of days only so I failed to visit him. And to be honest I regret not having made the efforts back then to see this great man. Jeff, you did a great job in telling the intertwining stories of Chingiz Aitmatov and Azamat Altay. And through their stories you told a story of my country. You really took us through the days of the Urkun, the Great Tragedy and the flight of the Kyrgyz people to China during their violent crack down by the Czarist Russian troops. You took us through the tragic years of the World War II. And in your book you took us through my country's journey to independence. It's an emotional book and it's an important book if one wants to learn about the Kyrgyz Republic and its best representatives. Chingiz Aitmatov and Azamat Altay are among them. As Ambassador of an independent Kyrgyzstan I'd like to say thank you for the book, for your hard work writing this book, and your respect and love for my country, my country's people and heroes. Thank you, Jeff. I really look forward to the presentation and last but not least I'd like to thank Venera Djumataeva, Director of Kyrgyz Service of RFE/RL who came all the way from Prague for this event and also helped us with the presentation by making, producing this video that we'll see that will introduce the heroes of the book that Jeff wrote before his presentation. Thank you. ^M00:10:13 [ Applause ] ^M00:10:19 [ Music ] ^M00:10:28 >> Two Kyrgyz men who whose lives were adversely affected and forever changed by the biggest tragedies of the 20th Century -- Chingiz Aitmatov and Azamat Altay. Two people whose lives reflect all the political and moral lessons of the century. ^F00:10:44 ^M00:10:54 Chingiz Aitmatov, the most famous Kyrgyz writer, lost his father to Stalin's repressive regime in 1938 and only found where his father had been executed and buried 53 years after it occurred. Not only his father, a promising young Kyrgyz leader, but several of his uncles also fell victim to the soviet dictatorship. Aitmatov hid his deep inner sadness after losing his father at the age of nine and dedicated his life to educating himself and his three younger siblings. He became an internationally known whose books, which have been translated into more than 160 languages describe the national character, lifestyle, and existential philosophy of the nomadic Kyrgyz people. In every book Aitmatov created a hero who in whatever difficult circumstances he or she was forced to live would choose to live freely, happily, and fully. ^M00:11:49 [ Foreign Language ] ^F00:13:03 ^M00:13:11 >> The Kyrgyz author was a supporter of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and advised him on the implementation of the very first political reforms in the final years of the USSR. He was later appointed Soviet Ambassador to Luxembourg and then was Kyrgyzstan's Ambassador to the Benelux Countries spending the last 18 years of his life in Europe, mostly Brussels. Even after his death, Aitmatov's books and their heroes continued to introduce Kyrgyzstan as a beautiful mountainous country and its people rich character and values to the entire world. ^M00:13:44 [ Music ] ^M00:13:56 Azamat Altay, a young and educated Kyrgyz man decided to stay in the west after World War II after realizing that he would be punished in the USSR since serving as a POW in a Nazi Camp. That decision cut him off from his homeland, from his father, and other relatives for 55 years. Eager to make a connection with his homeland, Altay made contacts with other Russian and Soviet dissidents living in Europe and attended several gatherings of Central Asian, and Soviet dissident, even writing articles for dissident publications. He was later appointed an editor of the [inaudible] magazine published by Central Asian dissidents in Europe. Through those connections Azamat Altay became radio for Europe, Radio Liberties very first Kyrgyz broadcaster in March 1953. It his work, Altay had to cover many taboo topics in Soviet Kyrgyzstan such as victims of Stalin's repression, young Kyrgyz writers, intellectuals, poets and politicians whose names let alone their works were forbidden in the Kyrgyz media at the time. Alta, and later his new Kyrgyz colleagues at RFE/RL covered issues regarding the Kyrgyz diaspora living in Afghanistan, Turkey, and Pakistan. RFE/RLs Kyrgyz service also paid a lot of attention in the early years to Kyrgyz language, customs, and history issues in the ever increasingly Russified Soviet Kyrgyzstan. Azamat Altay collected some 6,000 books and magazines on Kyrgyz and Central Asian topics at his home and had helped some prominent western academics to conduct their research on Kyrgyzstan behind the iron curtain. He reported for RFE/RL Kyrgyz service for some 40 years. Attacked regularly by the Soviet Kyrgyz media as a traitor and enemy of the people, Azamat Altay still had his secret supporters and admirers in Kyrgyzstan. Intellectuals, writers, and scholars would listen to RFE/RL Kyrgyz programs at their dachas often built atop hills with better reception and they would discuss Altay himself and RFE/RL Kyrgyz service programs among themselves. Some of the topics were related to the Soviet Communist Leadership and political corruption issues. That's why in 1995 when Altay, a retired veteran journalist and former RFE/RL Kyrgyz Service Director was finally invited to independent Kyrgyzstan and arrived in the Capital Bishkek, he was greeted as a national hero as a Kyrgyz American who had devoted his life to the struggle for his people's freedom and independence. For Kyrgyz language, culture, and history. ^M00:16:36 [ Foreign Language ] ^M00:17:06 [ Music ] ^M00:17:30 >> Chingiz Aitmatov and Azamat Altay were born in Kyrgyzstan but spend most of their lives on two different sides of the Cold War. Yet they were still able to meet several times during the Soviet Era and again later in independent Kyrgyzstan. They had some important common goals in life -- to find their lost fathers, to fight for their people's freedom, to preserve their national history, culture, and language and to find justice and freedom in ordinary people's lives. ^M00:17:58 [ Music ] ^M00:18:18 ^M00:18:20 >> Joan Weeks: I turn from an ovation person into this introduction. So on behalf of all my colleagues in the African and Middle Eastern Division I'd like to extend a very warm welcome to everyone on this very special 90th Birthday celebration for Chingiz Aitmatov. What a fantastic person. I mean this movie just gave us a little snapshot, but I'm so pleased to be able to work with Ambassador Toktogulov and the Embassy of Kyrgyzstan. And as head of the Near East Section, the sponsor of today's program, we're very pleased to present this program. And we just are so delighted that Jeffrey came in and used the Library of Congress collections for his research. This is a fantastic division that combines all of Africa. We cover 78 countries and more than two dozen languages and we have all of these specialists here that will hope that you come and use these wonderful collections for your research as well. We also invite you to cover and use our social media. We've got Facebook, we've got a blog, and you can hear about all of our other programs as well. And just a slight note that this whole program is being videotaped for future broadcast, so we welcome a couple questions perhaps at the end, but just to let you know that you're giving permission to be videotaped if you do. And so I'd like to move right on without any further ado to an introduction of Jeff Lilley. ^M00:20:02 He received his undergraduate degree in history and Russian from Williams College and a master's degree in Soviet Studies from Johns Hopkins. And do you realize it was the last time they gave that degree because Soviet Studies turned into studies of about all of the Central Asian Countries. And he worked as a journalist in Russia reporting for the Far Eastern Economic Review and Sports Illustrated as well as Voice of America. And after witnessing the collapse of the Soviet Union as a journalist in the 1990s, he moved to Central Asia in 2004 where he began to work in the field of international democracy and governance in support of transitions in the countries of Eurasia in the Middle East. And during a three-year period as a posing in Kyrgyzstan from 2004 to 2007, he started reading the works of Chingiz Aitmatov. He slept in yurts, which I think is a fabulous opportunity to really get to know the country. He drank fermented mare's milk. I'm not sure I'd do that. He hiked in the country's beautiful mountains. And over the next ten years he worked in the field of democracy and governance support in Washington D.C. in the Middle East. He continues his research and finished his book as well. In 2016 he returned to Kyrgyzstan to lead a British funded parliamentary support program. He's also the author of "China Hands: Nine Decades of Adventure, Espionage, and Diplomacy." And so without further ago I'd like to welcome Jeff Lilley to the podium. ^M00:21:47 [ Applause ] ^M00:21:51 ^M00:21:54 >> Jeffrey Lilley: What a treat. I think it's my turn to say thank you to the Library of Congress. As Mary Jane has referred to and Joan, I spent a good number of hours in this Library working with microfiche, working with books, and doing the research for this book, which is a labor of love, which as was mentioned took me ten years to research and write. The Library of Congress is a treasure and a direct manifestation of American democracy. Thank you to those of you who work here to make your incredible buildings -- holdings, sorry organized, and your building is organized, and available to writers like me. This is definitely a team effort. I was here ten years ago when the Library of Congress put on a celebration that was supposed to mark Chingiz Aitmatov's 80th Birthday. But instead it became a celebration of his life after he died in June 2008. That was a great event with speakers from around the world, a speech by Dr. James Billington, a screening of the film "Jamila" and a display of Aitmatov's books in many languages including Aramaic. You could say the event launched this book project, which not comes to a close right here full circle. So onto the book, I'm going to -- yeah -- so I know everybody here knows where Kyrgyzstan is and I know they know exactly how it's spelled. My father, who was a diplomat was a little bit shaky on how to pronounce it. But anyway this is a map of Kyrgyzstan. And I'll just point out here -- can you guys see my cursor? Yeah, Sheker is where Chingiz Aitmatov is born in the west. And Kodjomberdiev, right here on the beautiful Lake Issyk-Kul was where Azamat Altay was born. So these are two warriors for freedom from Kyrgyzstan -- Chingiz Aitmatov and Azamat Altay. And it's a country as was mentioned by Joan that I first lived in from 2004 to 2007. Aitmatov was an intellectual warrior and Altay was a battle hardened warrior literally who carried the scars of war with him through life. Both were embolden by their experiences to fight with words -- one writing, one speaking, the good fight. So as was mentioned I arrived in 2004 and I started reading Aitmatov's body of work. Short stories and novels written over 40 years during my posting and I finished a couple of years later. That was just the reading, when working back in Washington D.C. "Have the Mountains Fallen?" is a story of the Cold War from the other side with roots in the 1920s and '30s when Soviet power was establishing itself across the Eurasian landmass. ^M00:24:42 It tells the parallel stories of Aitmatov and Altay, two men who travel separately though life until they meet and find common cause, in of all places New York City in 1975. Their life stories are testaments to the human spirit's quest for freedom. Their lives are proof that lives live only for so long. That truth, as evidence by the attainment of justice and redemption is achievable and that the search for a meaningful life is based on individual freedom. So everybody is familiar with Kyrgyzstan country, descended from nomads, 90% mountains, and home to some of the most beautiful and pristine nature in the world, as you can see from the cover of the book, which is actually my wife's photo. My wife is a photographer and she's here today. And we thought we could do better than Indiana University Press, which got a beautiful photo but my wife's was better. So let's move on. Like so many other citizens, this is a picture of Torekul Aitmatov, Chingiz Aitmatov's father and a young Chingiz when he was probably about two years old in 1930. Like so many other citizens at that time, Azamat Altay and Chingiz Aitmatov's father pictured here, believed in Soviet power which had brought literacy, electricity, hospitals and schools to the Kyrgyz people. They served it loyally until Stalin's terror started to wreak havoc across the Soviet Union in the 1930s. ^M00:26:12 The purges swept up Torekul Aitmatov in 1938. Train station, there's a vivid scene in the book where Chingiz Aitmatov says goodbye to his father and not even knowing that he'll never see him again on the train station in Moscow. Those purges made a disbeliever out of Azamat Altay and they shape Chingiz Aitmatov's life. World War II was a crucible for both Altay and Chingiz Aitmatov. They were eight years separated, the men. Altay was born in 1920. Chingiz Aitmatov was born in 1928. So by the time World War II happened in the Soviet Union, they were both young men. As a 14-year-old in a village bereft of men because they had all been called to the front, Chingiz Aitmatov delivered death notices to families whose fathers, sons, or uncles had died in the war. So I want to read you a little passage from the book on that. ^M00:27:17 ^M00:27:20 So Chingiz Aitmatov has just delivered a death notice to a family. Chingiz would then stare at the ground uncomfortable, 14 years old, shifting his feet. Usually he would hear a heavy sigh from the mother, then whimpering or heaving, and finally crying would rend the air like a plate shattering. Chingiz would stand there a young boy with nowhere to run and no way to console. Villagers began associating the young village assistant with bad luck. As soon as households saw him riding down the street they would shun him like an evil spirit. "Don't come to our house," they would say, "Pass by. Don't bring us bad news." Such a young boy shouldering such heavy responsibilities to suffer the village's grief as the messenger of bad news, a piece of paper in exchange for a son. But this was how Soviet Society endured during World War II or the Great Patriotic War as it is known in Russian. Ironies overwhelm, the distant war reeking havoc in an isolated village, teenagers running village affairs and a boy not big enough to mount his horse delivering death sentences -- not death sentences, death notices. Meanwhile Soviet conscript Altay was scrambling for his life after being overrun by the German Blitzkrieg in June 1941. He was serving in Soviet occupied Lithuania at that point. Altay escaped from Nazi POW camps not once, not twice, but three times. Eventually joining French Freedom Fighters on the march to liberate Paris. He dreamed of returning to his home village on Issyk-Kul, you saw that, but Soviet Leader Stalin's perverse logic considered Soviet POWs as traitors just because they had the misfortune to be captured alive. That meant prison camp in Siberia for someone like Altay, even though he had crisscrossed Europe fighting for his own survival and always opposing the Nazis. It was absurd. Altay ended up making a decision which irrevocably change his life. After midnight on -- this is from the book -- After midnight on January 1st, 1946 Altay was serving as a Soviet border guard then -- as revelers and cities around Europe were raising their glasses to the end of World War II, Soviet border guard Azamat Altay tossed aside his rifle, threw off his military overcoat and stole across the boarder into the English zone of recently liberated Germany. Altay headed south from the English zone in Germany, he was determined to get to France, the only country that had welcomed him and where he had friends from his partisan days. Using a smattering of French, German, and Russian he begged a ticket off an elderly station worker at the Saarbrucken Train Station. ^M00:30:00 Lacking permission to cross the still-militarized German-French border, he stowed away, hiding in the first-class bathroom. Altay arrived in Paris, a free but penniless man, with not a French franc to his name. A passerby gave him two francs to ride on the subway. It was a bumble start to a new life, but with each mile he traveled on foot by train or subway -- he was leaving behind the tragedies of the past. In Europe after the war, Altay scrambled to make a living. He did manual labor in small towns in France. It was a lonely time with few friends among the rural French who had no idea where he came from. As a matter of fact there's this little story in the book about Altay was so lonely that he got a dog and he would put this dog in a cart and then he would kind of wheel the cart I guess around the little village he was in and he named the dog "My Friend" in Kyrgyz, which is "Menin Dosum". And they called him -- the French villagers called him "The Chinese with a dog." That's the best they could get. ^M00:31:04 Altay eventually educated himself anew, immersing himself in European philosophy in the struggle for independence of Soviet Central Asia. in 1953, as we saw in that wonderful film, he became the voice of Radio Liberty broadcasting back into Soviet Kyrgyzsia. So it's two parallel stories. So I'm going to be jumping back and forth. Meanwhile, Aitmatov, scarred by the disappearance of his father, here's Aitmatov as a young man you can see. I guess he's to his mother's left. And this is his brother Ilgez, and this is his sister Roza who is still alive and well. And Ilgez and Roza are both alive and well in Bishkek in their 80s, and this is his sister Luzia behind him. So scarred by the disappearance of his father in 1937, Aitmatov was keeping his head down and as the eldest male in the family, nine years old, trying to help his family survive, he was considered the son of an enemy of the people, denied his scholarship, refused his stipend, and denied entrance into graduate school despite stellar grades. He took to writing instead. He wrote stories of independent minded fallible people who on the outside may have been loyal Soviet citizens. But reading between the lines his heroes bucked the system. Whether it was patriarchal tradition, Soviet ideology, or groupthink. How Aitmatov did this under Soviet censorship is one of the most fascinating parts of this story. He contorted himself, hid behind the Kyrgyz language, which sensors didn't understand, and compromised where and when necessary. As someone who knew him well told me when I was researching the book, "When Chingiz Aitmatov got behind a desk he couldn't lie." So he starts to break into fame and be famous., in 1963, and his reputation or his family's reputation is resurrected when he wins the Lenin Prize of 1963 for a series of short stories, one of which was "Jamila", who I'm sure a lot of people in this room have read. Beautiful story. So here is a wonderful picture of Chingiz Aitmatov selling his books at a book fair. And you can see "Jamila" right there in the background. It was a couple of years after "Jamila" came out. Just a neat, neat picture that I found in the archives in Bishkek. So then Altay fearful that Soviet spies would try to assassinate him for his radio work, Altay immigrated to the U.S. and he was one of the first Kyrgyz ever to do so. He settled in New York City as Kadyr knows, in Flushing Meadows, right? A melting pot of nationalities and Cold War intrigues. And he started a 20-year career working in the New York public libraries -- a New York public library and Columbia University Library. I think Altay would feel very at home at the Library of Congress. I am sure he was here many times. So now it gets neat. You have these two parallel stories of men living and what was fascinating to me is when I decided to incorporate Altay into the story, which is a couple years after I had started research Aitmatov's life, I found out the way their lives intersected. So far from home, cut off from his family and culture, Altay suffered immensely. He was a persona non grata having been declared a traitor after jumping lines and sentenced to 25 years in jail should he ever return to the Soviet Union. His name was blackened by propaganda campaigns in Soviet Kyrgyzia. His solace was music of his homeland. Lilting melodies played on the Kyrgyz three-string guitar, the komuz and Aitmatov's stories, which formed part of his collection of 5,000, 6,000 books on Central Asia in his personal library in Queens New York. ^M00:34:49 So about that meeting in 1975, in the 1970s when the two men's lives intersected for the first time. Now this is the Cold War. Alta is persona non grata in the Soviet Union. The KGB is alive and strong and here's a picture of these two men meeting in Altay's apartment in Queen's New York. So that's the American angle to the book. During a period of warming and U.S. Soviet relations in the 1970s when Space cooperation between the countries started and cultural exchanges took place, we all call that detente, we called it detente. Aitmatov got invited to the U.S. for the performance of a play he had written about Stalinism and the scars it had left on the Kyrgyz people. As a big fan of Aitmatov's works, Altay played an instrumental role in Aitmatov getting invited by the U.S. State Department. He was very helpful in getting the visa. The two men met in Aitmatov's New York hotel room on the very day that Soviet and American astronauts shook hands in space during the Apollo-Soyuz hookup. You can't make that stuff up. And I just want to read a passage from the book. The scene was an uncanny terrestrial version of the nomadic events that had happened earlier in the day. At noon New York time Apollo had achieved a firm linkup with Soyuz over the Atlantic Ocean 620 miles west of Portugal. In a culmination of three years of joint work by the Cold War rivals. Soviet cosmonaut Alexey Leonov welcomed American astronaut Tom Stafford through the hatches with a hearty handshake. President Ford and General Secretary Brezhnev sent congratulating messages to the crews. ^M00:36:31 ^M00:36:33 It Aitmatov's hotel that evening, 620 miles lower a celebratory atmosphere prevailed but of a far different nature. The impromptu gathering of Kyrgyz in New York, though unpublicized had as much significance for the Kyrgyz people as did the Apollo-Soyuz handshake, maybe even more. It represented a coming together of the disparate parts of the Kyrgyz elite. Two leading cultural lights of Soviet Kyrgyzia in the same room with the founding voice of the Kyrgyz service of American's Radio Liberty. A Kyrgyz Hall of Fame, if you will. What unified then was blood, and the simple joy of connection that stood as an affirmation that the Kyrgyz people were living, existing, and staying together, even across ideological divides that seemed insurmountable to so many -- the day's events not withstanding. In 1979, Altay returned to Radio Liberty in Munich and headed the Kyrgyz service. He arrived in time to chronicle the demise of his archenemy the Soviet Union. As the Soviet Union stumbled into Afghanistan in the 1980s, Aitmatov's pros got stronger. Aitmatov was widely published in the USSR and around the world in 160 languages. But his public statements often sang the praises of the Soviet system. That was the price of Aitmatov's inner freedom to write his mind, to write his conscience. Freedom inside had to be purchased with compromise from the outside. ^M00:38:07 ^M00:38:11 With the advent of perestroika the two men, Azamat Altay and Chingiz Aitmatov met more frequently with Aitmatov brushing aside the increasingly KGB. Aitmatov was appointed a member of Gorbachev's reform team and spoke openly about failures of the Soviet system during perestroika and the importance of restoring the place of language, history, and culture for the Kyrgyz and other constituent Republics of the USSR. ^M00:38:37 ^M00:38:40 This photo, likely from 1989 shows a relaxed gathering in Munich, Kyrgyz style, with Aitmatov, the honored guest getting the head of the lamb. Altay, the oldest at the table is seated to Aitmatov's left. But one meeting in particular symbolized the new era. A time of hope and ultimately redemption . Aitmatov was in Munich presenting his latest book. Unbeknownst to him, Altay and other Kyrgyz working at Radio Liberty were in the audience. The KGB in an effort to avoid a meeting between the two men hustled Aitmatov and his wife Maria out of the hall and into a waiting car. A James Bond like car chase ensued. So this is from the book. When the car carrying the Aimatov's arrived at their hotel a white van pulled up right behind. Outstepped Azamat Altay with several Kyrgyz adults and children. The wary KGB agent rushed to block their approach but Aitmatov halted them. "These are my people. Let me speak with them." He said. ^F00:39:53 ^M00:40:01 Aitmatov's simple gesture spoke volumes. It said, "That's enough." Excuse me. ^M00:40:10 ^M00:40:12 And with his command to the two KGB officers fear and silence engrained in the Kyrgyz people for decades and carried by Aitmatov himself started to recede. It was as if Aitmatov were saying it was time to learn how to live in a normal society. No more keeping silent, no more fear, and no more tragedies. Yes, the fatherless Aitmatov seemed to be saying, "Let the next generation of Kyrgyz grow up with their fathers and let the KGB learn another way to carry out its work. So this is a fun picture. Altay returned to Kyrgyzstan in 1995 after a 55-year absence. His criminal sentence was abolished and he was greeted like a hero in independent Kyrgyzstan. When he stepped off the plane onto the tarmac he kissed the ground. There to meet him was Chingiz Aitmatov. So you can see here Altay is under the orange arrow, Chingiz Aitmatov is under the blue, and under the green is Chingiz Aitmatov's son, Askar, who is a Kyrgyz diplomat in New York at the time, and Askar got Azamat Altay the visa and Askar accompanied Azamat Altay all the way back to Kyrgyzstan at a time when there weren't -- you had to go through Tashkent and wait hours, hours, and hours. So it's really kind of neat that the Aitmatov's were on both sides taking care of Altay. So what are the lessons from their lives? The individual accounts. Freedom of thought, speech, and religion are the foundations of a democratic society. And take nothing for granted. Nothing is guaranteed. Dedicate yourself to what you believe in, structure your life to achieve it, base decisions upon it and yes, be ready to make compromises to achieve the larger goal, and in the case of Azamat Altay, be ready to lose precious things along the way. "The moral arc of history bends towards justice." Martin Luther King said. Both men, Azamat Altay and Chingiz Aitmatov found justice in their lifetimes and that's the redemption in the title. So Altay's redemption we could see was returning to Kyrgyzstan and as we saw in that wonderful film, being greeted like a hero by his fellow countrymen and women. ^M00:42:33 ^M00:42:35 A few years earlier Aitmatov himself before Altay's return, Altay himself after decades of looking found his father, Torekul Aitmatov was at the bottom of a grave with 137 other skeletons piled on top, all victims of Stalin's purges. Dry conditions in the mass grave, which had been a brick kiln, had preserved the written order sentencing Torekul Aitmatov, his father, Chingiz's, to death. The excavation of the mass grave captivated Soviet Kyrgyzia during the Summer of 1991. And I'm going to show you a little bit of a video here. ^M00:43:12 ^M00:43:16 So this is a video that was taken by the people who were excavating the grave and pulling out these skulls, 137. Pulling out personal objects that were preserved in the climate, this warm climate. ^M00:43:35 ^M00:43:37 These are shoes. ^M00:43:38 ^M00:43:43 This is the brick kiln that became the burial ground. ^F00:43:47 ^M00:43:56 Here are other artifacts. ^M00:43:58 ^M00:44:01 This all happened in July of 1991, six months before the collapse of the Soviet Union. ^F00:44:07 ^M00:44:17 So here you can see in his kalpak the worker is digging. And here they're pulling out the letters. These are the sentencing documents that preserved that had the names of the people who were executed and then they were able to match the bodies to the people and they were able to tell relatives who had waited 53 years that they had found the remains of their fathers, brothers, husbands. So that gives you a sense. Aitmatov himself gave voice to the miracle -- so this is from the book -- this is a quote e from Chingiz Aitmatov -- "Everything disappeared, disintegrated, the bodies of the unfortunate people, their shoes, clothes," Aitmatov would say a few weeks later, "except this paper, this document from that era, with the name of Torekul Aitmatov, which remained intact enough to read." Dry conditions had preserved the documents, but the Aitmatov family know that something else was at work in solving the gruesome mystery. And so did many other Kyrgyz. "There is in the world some higher justice. "There is in the world some higher justice, timeless, and absolute." Aitmatov said, "something maybe beyond our everyday existence." Loss, redemption, and hope, a true story of the Cold War from Central Asia. ^M00:45:43 [ Applause ] ^M00:45:49 ^M00:45:55 >> Joan Weeks: Thank you so much for such a brilliant presentation. We have all been so inspired by all of this. We do have time for a couple of questions so if someone has a question please go ahead. ^F00:46:08 ^M00:46:13 >> I didn't ask of this, Jeff, but how did you come to decide to write about [inaudible], both of them on one book. They have own books and stories. It was very [inaudible] managed to tell the stories of two great men in one book. >> Jeffrey Lilley: I initially wanted to write a biography of Aitmatov because I really liked his writing and I thought that this is writer that actually Americans should know about. So that was the original idea and I didn't find any biography of Aitmatov in English. And so that's what I started out for three years doing and then I was interviewing [inaudible] from Radio Liberty and he -- I was interviewing him about Aitmatov and he mentioned Altay. And I had never known -- I had never heard of Altay's name. The whole time I was in Kyrgyzstan for three years, and he told me all about him and I just thought wow, you know, that's a pretty interesting story too and he was outside, Aitmatov was inside, and I didn't know what I would find but I just -- it would be more interesting -- it was just a more interesting story to me at that point. And as you as a formal journalist, you know good stories are important and weaving it. So I just then decided to weave them, and then as I said the other day, I think a writer, you have to be lucky too. And I was lucky because I didn't know that they had met in New York in 1975. I mean I think [inaudible] said that, but then I found a letter courtesy of [inaudible] that Altay wrote to a friend after he had just met Aitmatov and he realized what an important meeting that was for him. The photos were there and then people were still alive, you know, and I could get the story. ^M00:48:07 ^M00:48:09 Yes Mary-Jane? ^M00:48:10 [ Inaudible Question ] ^M00:48:19 >> Jeffrey Lilley: Yes, well I'll tell you, as was mentioned in the film, Aitmatov lost a lot of cousins and family members -- three uncles, and I can't even remember, and his father to the purges. Of his own family, there were four kids, Chingiz was the oldest and Ilgez was second, and Ilgez was a scientist, a geologist, he's still alive. He was head of the Academy of Sciences. He was -- you know, worked in the geological mining industry I think, I'm not quite sure, but he is about 80 -- he must be 87 or something now. Because Chingiz would be 90, so he's two years younger, 88, distinguished man. And then Roza is alive and well in Bishkek and she was the youngest. And she was nine months old when her father disappeared. Never knew her father. She's written a bunch of good books, which have been very helpful, about the family history. So she's alive and well and was very -- she was trained as a teacher and very active in NGO work for many years after independence. And then, actually Roza is youngest. Luzia was the third and Luzia went to the Technical Institute and got a degree -- I can't remember, in engineering. She died relatively young. I think in the mid '70s. But she was born as a twin. And there was a boy and a girl. Luzia was born and the boys name was Revo [assumed spelling], so when you put it together it's a Revo-Luzia, which shows you how their parents where such committed Communist to the cause. ^M00:50:02 And yet the father gets purged, you know, it's insanity. So she passed away but she has a son, a couple of kids, and he is a writer and he has written some interesting works about legacy of his uncle. ^M00:50:19 ^M00:50:22 Roza remained, Ilgez remained, yes, and yeah. That's right. ^M00:50:31 [ Inaudible Question ] ^M00:51:29 >> Jeffrey Lilley: Right, I mean, I think -- I don't know. I probably did 30, 40 interviews around the world -- Europe, US., Kyrgyzstan. In terms of feedback, good feedback, I was very gratified to get an email the other day from the former president of Norton Publishing and the former chairman emeritus of the Yale University Press, one man, who was very helpful to me during the attempt to find a publisher because I didn't write this book having a publisher saying, "Jeff, we're going to publish this book." So it was, I was I had to go out and market it and as they say, you only need one person to say yes, but a lot do say no. So his name is -- well, it's not important -- but he said something to the effect of "History told at its best, narratives, scope, pace" and that was really gratifying. I think, yeah, the other people I've talked to -- I haven't been back to the states since it was published, I just got back four days ago, have found it to be a good read, a page turner, you know, yeah and educating them about a part of the world they may not have known much about. But I think the thing that I hope connects is that these are two human individuals and it's actually a universal story that transcends geography or state borders. Yes? ^M00:53:17 [ Inaudible Question ] ^M00:53:27 >> Jeffrey Lilley: Yes, you know, I think I was pretty lucky -- no I was very lucky and I think that's a testament to Kyrgyzstan being open. You know, I had researchers on the ground because I wasn't in Kyrgyzstan for a lot of the time and they were able to get everything, you know, that we needed. But I made requests here as well, FOIA requests, and you know, our bureaucracy is slow but, you know, eventually I got a response, so actually the research was pretty darn good, pretty darn good, and I felt lucky about that. Yeah. ^M00:54:10 >> Joan Weeks: Thank you very much. Gather a round of applause. >> Jeffrey Lilley: Thank you. ^M00:54:16 [ Applause ] ^M00:54:19 >> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit us at loc.gov. ^E00:54:27