Henning Haslund (1896–1948)

Briefly told, a young Dane moves to Mongolia in 1923 with like-minded young men to found a dairy/cattle/fur trading station in the newly independent Mongolia. He discovers a beautiful wilderness still suffering from the 'white' and 'red' wars (Russian imperial supporters vs. Bolshevik revolutionaries). Much of the book is adventure stories of braving the weather, food shortages, blizzards and bandits and if you want a feel for the frontier land Mongolia was in the 1920s this book is a good place to start. Those with a more extensive knowledge of Chinese and Russian history will find it fills the gap between state histories and the consequences of history upon the innocents who are always the victims of war. There are several references to the German-born/Russian megalomaniac "Mad Baron" who saw himself as Mongolia's saviour (who was eventually caught and executed at the age of 36), as well as brief descriptions of the religious life of the peoples Haslund encountered that combined animism, Buddhism, and local folk lore with shamanism (for example, the usual Buddhist configuration of two deer with a central wheel, representing the Buddha's First Sermon in a Deer Park, is locally understood as two gazelle worshipping the sun).

One of the features I found most interesting in this tale of a group of young men who left Denmark in the 1920s to set up a ranch in Mongolia, was that they had been preceded by previous generations of Danes who had settled in the region to establish dairy farms (all taken over by the State after the Russian revolution). It put in context for me Karen Blix and her tales of the Danes who had emigrated to Africa during the same period. I had been unaware of this aspect of Danish history.

Recommended for anyone interested in Scandinavian, Chinese, Russian and Mongolian history, but don't expect to learn much about how to judge the quality of furs, although that was one of Haslund's main responsibilities. I would have preferred more descriptions of the customs and people than tales of overcoming snow-filled passes and fording frozen rivers.… (plus d'informations)