Subtitled “The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia” this work covers in a fair amount of detail, the machinations between the UK and Russia over about a 100 year period from the early 1800s to the early 1900s as they worked for positioning and influence throughout the areas of Iran, northern India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the rest of the ‘stans. These efforts which frequently edged closely to all out war between these two great powers never fell over into such a conflagration but did involve significant conflicts between both Russian and UK forces and the local populations throughout these areas.
Russian and UK armies advance and retreat, conquer and are conquered, take territory and lose it over and over. All the while what we would call “spies” from each side work to leverage their knowledge and political influence to control their “spheres of influence”.
Not focusing on any one effort in the Great Game, Hopkirk covers the breadth of it, relaying the most interesting and important events. His recount of the English retreat from Kabul in 1842 stands out as a key example of what you find in this work as Hopkirk details General Elphinstone’s completely incompetant abandoning of Kabul and attempted withdrawal to Jalalabad. In this effort all but a literal handful of 16,000 soldiers and civilians who started out were killed, died of exposure, or captured. One of the worst military disasters in English history is put in its proper place with the reasons for why Elphinstone was in Kabul in the first place, the seemingly small conflicts that led up to the disaster (Sir Alexander Burns’ murder) and its aftermath leading to a counter invasion by additional British forces, all provided their own weight and context.
The book is far too deep and detailed to try and cover in such a small review as this but its recounting of some of the most harrowing tales, violence, bravery, exploration, and sacrifice warrant reading for just the “adventure” of it all. The reader comes away with not just an appreciation for just how great powers seek to undermine one another and establish power within these remote regions but just how much what we see today with our modern efforts there are merely a repetition of what has gone before. The similarities between Elphinstone’s idiotic decision making do not appear much different than our own disaster at Kabul only a year ago. The US vs. Russia proxy conflict in Afghanistan merely mimics that of the UK vs. Russia events of 150 years ago. China’s entry into the area now to fill the power vacuum just continues traditions by world powers playing in the high Himalayas for centuries.
Fantastic work and there are certainly other works that cover certain aspects of The Great Game in more detail but I think you’d be hard pressed to find one that covers the entire scope of the chessboard movements over a century any better than what is done here.