Mission to Tashkent

First published in 1946, this memoir by Lieutenant-Colonel F. M. Bailey recounts his 1918-1920 mission from India through Kashgar into Bolshevik Turkestan. Sent to learn whether the new regime would aid Germany or stir India, he reaches Tashkent as an official visitor, then goes underground when the Cheka turns on Allied agents. He lives under false papers, hides with sympathisers, and at one point is enrolled by the secret police themselves and sent toward Bokhara on an errand that would have meant arresting his own alias. The narrative follows escapes into the mountains, returns to the city, and a final crossing toward Persia. The book is a first-person intelligence narrative of Central Asia in the Russian Civil War.

Bound in pages of monochrome photos. Two maps. Quarter bound in maroon buckram with paper sides printed with a facsimile of Bailey's passport. Maroon slipcase and endpapers.