The Oath Lib/E: The Remarkable Story of a Surgeon's Life Under Fire in Chechnya

When Chechen rebels took Moscow theatergoers hostage in October 2002, it tragically highlighted the ongoing conflict between Russia and its breakaway republic, Chechnya-a war that has claimed an estimated 200,000 Chechen lives in the past decade. Yet the true nature of the debacle lies behind the headlines. In The Oath, a heroic Chechen doctor relates his harrowing experiences in the line of fire to bear witness to this international calamity, and illuminates his remarkable people and their culture. In 1994, when fighting threatened to break out in Chechnya, Baiev left his promising career in Russia to aid his countrymen. First, he worked in a Grozny hospital until it was destroyed by Russian shelling. Returning to his hometown of Alkhan Kala, he and his fellow villagers restored a clinic with his own funds, and he soon found himself the only doctor for 80,000 residents in six villages and 5,000 refugees. During the next six years, he worked without gas, electricity, or running water, with only local anesthetics, and at one point dressed wounds with sour cream or egg yolks when supplies ran out. He often donated his own blood for surgeries, and on one occasion performed sixty-seven amputations in forty-eight hours. Although he mainly treated civilians, Baiev also cared for Russian soldiers and Chechen fighters alike, never allowing politics to interfere with his commitment to the Hippocratic oath. He harbored Russian deserters and Chechen rebels at great personal risk and single-handedly rescued a Russian doctor who was scheduled to be executed. For this, Baiev was nearly killed by both the Russian special forces and Chechen extremists. Only when the Russian Army ordered him arrested for treating a wounded rebel warlord did Baiev finally flee Chechnya. Echoing through his memoir is the history of Chechnya, a Muslim nation the size of Connecticut with a population of one million. Baiev explains the roots of the Chechen- Russian conflict, dating back 400 years, and he brings to life his once-beautiful ancestral home of Makazhoi where his family clan goes back generations, steeped in ancient traditions that are an intriguing blend of mountain folklore-including blood vendettas, arranged marriages, the authority of village elders-and Muslim religious rituals. And he writes frankly about the challenges of assimilating into western culture and about the post-traumatic stress disorder that has debilitated him since the war began. The Oath is an important eyewitness account of the reality of the Chechen-Russian conflict, in which countless atrocities have been committed against average Chechens in stark contrast to the Kremlin's portrayal of the conflict. It is also a searing, unforgettable memoir that is certain to become a classic in the literature of war.

About the Author :
Nicholas Daniloff is an American journalist who graduated from Harvard University and was most prominent in the 1980s for his reporting on the Soviet Union.

Review :

"The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire is as much a memoir as it is a painful attempt to try to keep the memory of the human rights violations in Chechnya from being buried under shifts in geopolitical realities. In a sense Baiev is trying to bear witness. It's a role that comes naturally to him."

"Graphic, often horrifying memoir by a Chechen doctor who treated Russian soldiers, Chechen rebels, and civilians caught in the middle...A compelling portrait of the Chechen people and the effects of war on innocent victims, demonstrating the depths to which human beings can sink and the heights to which they can rise."

"Robert O'Keefe's voice has a musical timbre, and he's confident with the Russian names. But his agonizingly slow delivery doesn't keep up with the fast-paced narrative."

"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."

"Such moments inspire and Baiev emerges as an honorable character, made all the more human because he doesn't claim to be driven by long-held notions of saving the world. He does the right thing at the right time; you'd like to think anyone in his position would act accordingly, but the horrifying thing about war is how it persuades so many not to."