Robert Kaplan, "In Europe's shadow"

            Annoyingly objective, Robert Kaplan describes three different Romania(s) he encountered in his visits in the country in the '80,'90 and 2013.
             He creates a charming blend between history, geopolitics, geography, religion and remarkably acute observations. He doesn't judge, is totally unbiased, his observations are realistically crude.

             The book is destined mostly to the western readers and probably not to the Romanian themselves, because who would like to see himself in a freshly polished mirror? He goes into the depths of history starting with the formation of the Romanian people until present day politicians, describing medieval historical figures, who probably mean nothing to westerners, but the Romanians have always taken huge pride in them.

             And one of the proudest is Mircea Eliade who believed that the West developed on the expense of Romanians, who all throughout Middle Ages were too busy to fight the Ottoman Empire rather then spend time writing poetry, painting and discussing philosophy. Always attacked, always on defense the Romanians were too busy to survive and had no time to indulge into intangible aspects of life. The idea, that West developed under the protective shield of Romania, brings Kaplan on the verge of explosion and sends Romanians and Romania back to the dark corners of history from where it had the audacity to stick its head out.
              Kaplan says that Romanians claiming to have influenced the West development in such an overwhelming manner is not only ridiculous but also inaccurate, because equally the same statement can be attributed to Russians who saved the North of Europe from the nomadic Mongolian tribes.
              However, Kaplan forgets to mention some crucial aspects, the Mongolian Empire lasted about 150 years, whereas the Ottoman Empire lasted more than 600 years. Arguably, a mere fact of opportunity saved the West from the Mongol Horde. In 1241, Batu, Genghis Khan's grandson was making rapid advancement towards the western Europe, it was a matter of days if not hours until the Magyars would be defeated, but a messenger arrives in the Mongolian camp, Ogodai, Genghis Khan successor, had died. Almost instantly the Mongolians make a "U" turn and the fight for the succession of the largest empire was bound to commence. In the following years there will be sporadic invasions, but never reaching further than Transylvania or Serbia.
               The siege of the Ottoman Empire was constant and the Romanian army, consisted mostly of untrained peasants, miraculously managed to keep a sort of independence towards the Ottoman Empire.
                Romanians did provide a a buffer zone for the rest of the Europe and maybe it did offer a small respite to the West, but the West was a force in itself, with or without the Romanians, the Ottoman Empire would have not been able to defeat a far more trained and professionalized army with which the West would have faced them.
                The West had its talent, history and legacy which enabled them to build an immense culture that has shaped the world until present day.

Tim Severin, ”In search of Genghis Khan”

               What a great adventure and what courage and stamina you'd need to enterprise such a journey in the harsh and beautiful landscape of Mongolia. Tim Severn and his friend Paul have it all. They have the physical strength to endure riding an extremely long distance, crossing Mongolia from one end to the other (the Silk Road), they also have the stomach to eat 99% of the time only boiled mutton and mare's milk. Most importantly they have the mental strength to put up with one of the most incompetent and arrogant expedition organizer that Mongolia ever had, Ariunbold.
                 "In search of Genghis Han" is not only a travel book, but it is also a great adventure which happened in the '90, shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. Mongolia at that time was still captive in the mentality and soviet social instruments like all the other countries that were part of the Russian Soviet block. People with shallow intelligence, but with strong political relations were promoted to positions were they were utterly incompetent, the infrastructure was almost nonexistent, the supply was short in everything ranging from food to means of transportation or equipment.
                  However the people are fascinating, living in extremely difficult conditions they've managed to keep their traditional way of life. The herdsmen were still living in gers (yurt), their diet was extremely simplistic, but by some miracle their bodies were able to extract from it all the necessary nutrients. Almost never eating vegetables or fruit, just sheep, marmot, mare's milk and lots of alcohol. The Mongols apparently have survived with this diet for centuries.
                  The communism tried to change that, they tried to uniform and transform the Mongol mentality. The result was an utterly failure, partially because the Mongols were stubborn and hard to subdue, just like their wild horses, but also because the communists had nothing with which to blackmail them. With little personal possessions, used with migration for centuries in search of richer pastures for their horses, the Mongols were free in spirit and belongings, therefore it was extremely hard for the communists to find something with which to tie them in their soviet projects.
                  To transform herdsmen into agricultural peasants was an incredibly naive attempt, even though the communists managed to convince them to plow the land, when came the season to reap the fruit of their labor, the Mongols simply when away to find grassland for their herds and ingenuously didn't even bother to harvest.
                  Ukrainians, Romanians or Bulgarians were practicing agriculture for centuries and the communists taking their land was like the destruction of their identity, for Mongolians their land was everywhere and nowhere. What could the communists take from them?, their wild horses? obviously not, as it is still commonly known in Mongolia that the wild horses only accept a Mongolian rider, you'd need to smell and look like them to be accepted by a wild horse on its back.
                   The taciturn Mongolian riding his horse into the vast and desert landscape having the bright blue sky above him is nothing less, but an impressive picture. It makes you think how were his ancestors that ruled this earth and transformed Mongolia in the biggest empire that ever existed. Tim Severin goes into those depths as well without romanticizing and trying to diminish the image of the greatest Mongolian that ever existed, Genghis Khan. Gifted with an incredible intelligence and without doubt with great charisma, Genghis Khan managed to unite into a huge military force one of the most scattered population at that time.
                     Avant la lettre, Genghis Khan discovered the fantastic advantage of speed. This was the main technical fact that contributed to the successful Mongolian empire. With an impressive relay system that enabled the same rider to travel up to 250 miles in one go, this was without doubt the greatest advantage that baffled the enemies and contributed to conquering vast territories in quite a short time and mainly during Genghis Khan's life time. 

                    After conquering a new land and especially if the opponents tried to defend themselves, the Mongolian showed no mercy decapitating and killing without any remorse the entire population, transforming the new land in a huge human abatoire. The Mongolians were not insensitive murderers, they didn't enjoy necessarily the act of Killing, but they were very much aware of the power of inflicting paralizing fear among the enemies. Sometimes, the targeted population was so horrified by the Mongolians that they didn't even have the strength to fight back and simply surrendered in front of them. Of course this was the preferred method of conquering a new land and indeed the fame of the cruel Mongolians travel far and wide alonside with their new lands they've taken. 

                   Not only fear and an incredible efficient military force did the Mongolians bring to the world, but also something more deadly than anything else, claiming the lives of over twenty five million people, the Black Death. 

                   Not until recently was known which was the origin of the Plague. Apparently the original carriers of the Black Death are the marmots, a casual dish in the Mongolian diet. However, long before the medical advancement the Mongolians knew how to differentiate between a healthy and a sick marmot. Mormots are incredibly alert animals, hard to catch, most of the time you need to trick them and be as equally fast as the rodent. If the animal is wobbly and unusual slow it is an obvious proof that the animal is sick and it would never been eaten by a Mongolian. However, in the early stages of the disease it is hard to see the difference and sometimes locals did get sick after handling a marmot. 
                      Through the advancement of their vast empire the Mongolians brought the Plague in Europe too, claiming more lives than ever were through their violent attacks. Even in modern Mongolia occasionally there are still deaths caused by Black Death. The authorities are not always fully opened about the matter and the vaccines they get from the Russian Federation are not as effective as the Western ones.  

                    The figure of Genghis Khan is still very much alive among the Mongolians. The Soviets tried everything to seclude his image and history, but the huge admiration survived despite all of that. Admired and feared, Genghis Khan was indeed a genius without equal during his time. His incredible ability to transform a scattered population into the greatest empire that humanity has known is overwhelming.