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「よくぞ生き延びて、この本を書いてくれた。」あがってきた訳を読みながら、私は、そうバイエフに語りかけていたのを憶えている。この本は、どこを切っても、バイエフの血が流れている。
驚くほどのまっすぐさと、自らの命を危うくしてしまうほどの優しさ。そういえば、背筋の伸びた明治の日本人は、こんなではなかったろうか。どうしてと問われても困るのだが、彼が柔道の達人であり、嘉納治五郎を尊敬しているというのもよくわかる。
この本を読むとき、私たちはバイエフの目を通して、チェチェンの美しい村々を、地獄のような戦場を、そして戦いの中で醜くもあり、気高くもある人々を見るだろう。彼の目は万能ではないが、一点の曇りもない。そのことは、私が保証する。(西田)
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◆海外各誌書評を引用、掲載致します。各書評者の「熱」を感じ取ってください。こちらも熱くさせられます。「活字」の力を私は再認識しました。目から鱗が落ちる思いです。お時間のある方は是非熟読玩味をお願いします。(小関)
From Publishers Weekly Russia's war against Muslim separatists in Chechnya turned Baiev from a cosmetic surgeon into a real-life Hawkeye Pierce. As he shows in this understated, honest memoir, the change "took some getting used to": he faced constant obstacles, such as poor supplies, not to mention occasional bombing campaigns-one of which placed him in a coma. And as the only doctor in a city of 80,000, he once performed 67 amputations in 48 hours. Baiev is a clear Chechen patriot, as he goes to great lengths to demonstrate, countering Russian allegations that the Chechens were Nazi sympathizers during WWII and documenting the mighty suffering of his people during the fighting, which has raged sporadically during the past decade. But he details Chechen atrocities as well. He treated everybody, whether Russian or Chechen, and risked his life on numerous occasions to save those on both sides. The result: both sides physically threatened him, yet he was also honored by Human Rights Watch. Throughout, Baiev, who is also a martial arts expert, is modest, which only adds to his heroism. But more than that, he has humanized the Chechens, whom others have portrayed as terrorists. Russian president Vladimir Putin has tried to equate Russia's fight against the Chechens with the U.S. battle against al-Qaida. Those who read this stirring memoir will be hard-pressed to see the situation so simply. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From the New England Journal of Medicine, February 12, 2004 The manifest theme of this revealing and fascinating book is the inherent and perpetual conflict between the universalism of the Hippocratic oath and the particularism of selecting patients on the basis of any number of criteria (age, sex, race, color, class, nationality, religion, wealth, and so on). What makes this book exceptional is that the ground on which this conflict is played out reflects the struggle between Chechnya and Russia at the end of the 20th century. The author is a Chechen physician who put his life on the line, time and again, because he chose to honor the oath and treat both Chechen people and Russian people. It is unfortunate that the book's title does not reflect the venue and the substance of the story; the subtitle states only "A Surgeon under Fire." (Figure) The surgeon is Khassan Baiev, and the book first provides valuable background information on Chechnya, a small region of the Caucasus, incorporated against its will into the Tsarist and Soviet empires, of the Muslim faith, and striving for some kind of independence or autonomy. In 1944, during World War II, the region's entire population was deported to Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, and Siberia on Stalin's orders (as were those of other, neighboring ethnic regions), on the grounds that they were sympathizers of the Germans and thus branded as traitors by the Russians. At the present time, the epithet has been replaced by "bandits," although the author also qualifies for the "traitor" appellation because of the formula "Whoever helps my enemy is my enemy." Dr. Baiev's parents were allowed to return in 1959 to their native land, where he was born in 1963. He chose a career in medicine, specializing in facial surgery, and successfully practiced as a cosmetic surgeon in Moscow. At the outbreak of the first Russian-Chechen war (1994 to 1996), he decided to return home and served as a doctor and surgeon. After a few years of uneasy truce, hostilities resumed in 1999, and again Baiev found himself on the front lines and performed thousands of operations (mostly amputations) and treated all, civilian and military, Russian and Chechen. In one period of two days, he performed 67 amputations and 7 brain surgeries. He often lacked surgical instruments and worked with ordinary carpentry tools (saws and drills) that were difficult to sterilize and keep sharp. What was most appalling was that his patients were primarily civilians, children, women, and the elderly: "innocent victims sacrificed on the altar of power-hungry leaders on both sides of the conflict." He thus holds no brief for the Chechen warlords who looted or extorted or kidnapped people to enrich themselves any more than for the Russians who shelled indiscriminately and pillaged and killed at random. "Bullets, rockets, mortars, shrapnel -- each produces its own kind of wound," he writes. Lethal fragmentation bombs caused "shredded intestines, livers, kidneys, and sexual organs reduced to ground meat." Dr. Baiev adds that he and his staff gave blood every two weeks, sometimes once a week. Because he treated patients from both sides, he was condemned to death for being not only a "traitor" but also a "bandit-doctor" (for treating Chechens) or a "pig-doctor" (for treating Russians). The fact that he survived can only be called miraculous, as there is no other word to convey that meaning. In one episode he describes, he escaped death twice in a single day. Because of the stressful conditions of his life and his work, he suffered, at times, severe depression and was even hospitalized for several weeks. He attributes his recovery, among other things, to his faith in Allah and his devotion to his work. Eventually it became clear that his life continued to be in danger, and several organizations (including Physicians for Human Rights and Amnesty International) managed to arrange for his emigration to the United States, at first on a temporary basis and then permanently as a political refugee. The description of Baiev's departure to New York from the Moscow airport, where he was stopped, interrogated, and eventually allowed to board the plane as the doors were being closed, is so suspenseful that it revived in me similar feelings of anxiety -- which I experienced when I left the Soviet Union -- at the idea of being arbitrarily detained. Baiev's description of the nature of medical and surgical practices in the United States as compared with what he experienced back home is itself a reason to read the book. This is a unique story. It teaches us a great deal about the Chechen situation today, and particularly about the effects of the wars on the civilian population. Recent media accounts of what goes on in Chechnya are consistent with what the author describes in the book. This is an important testimony that belongs in the annals of the history of medicine. Mark G. Field, Ph.D. Copyright © 2004 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.
From Booklist *Starred Review* Baiev lived an extraordinary chapter of his life during a devastating time for his homeland of Chechnya. His war memoir, written with Ruth Daniloff and Nicholas Daniloff, gives American readers an important perspective to consider as our government's quest for support in the war on terror constrains it from condemning atrocities committed by allies. It's the perspective of an oil-rich Muslim republic naive enough to think it could break away from Russia during the period of glasnost and so steeped in warring tradition that it resorts to terrorism in its now-suicidal struggle for freedom. Through two Russian invasions of Chechnya, Baiev refused to take up arms or retreat from his hometown of Alkhan Kala. There and in the devastated capital of Grozny, the martial-arts-champion-turned-stoic-surgeon made a stand for humanity and the Hippocratic oath, treating civilians and soldiers on both sides even as missiles rained down, his family suffered, and he found himself targeted by Russian and Chechen leaders. As in The Pianist, one marvels at how a man can continually escape seemingly certain death and persevere under the most perverse conditions. Perhaps understandably, Baiev proves an unreliable analyst of the political situation, sometimes blaming the Russians for atrocities committed by Chechens. But this peace hero is at his best when he recounts the countless medical miracles he performed under fire and sears our senses with the horrors of war. Frank Sennett Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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