Several years ago, I caught the Turkish TV series, Kurt Syet and Shura, which is based on the trilogy by Nermin Bezmen which, in turn, is based on her family history (she is a granddaughter of the eponymous Kurt Syet). Since watching it, I have been wanting to read the books and have just gotten around to it. I have been unable to find the other two books in the trilogy, Kurt Syet and Murka and Shura, translated into English.
Kurt (Wolf) Seyit Eminof is a (Syet is apparently the Russian spelling of Seyit) Crimean soldier in service to the elite Imperial Guard of Tsar Nicholas II. A young aristocrat in his mid twenties, Kurt falls in love with the teenaged girl, Alexandra (Shura) Verjenskaya though he is Muslim and she Christian. Their love survives a lengthy absence during which he is sent to the the Carpathian front line. Later, when the Bolsheviks revolt and seize power during the October Revolution of 1917, he must flee for his life but takes Shura with him. They first go to Alushta, on the southern coast of Crimea, to stay with his family, but his father refuses to acknowledge his son’s relationship with the Christian girl. As the Bolshevik terror spreads to Crimea, the couple move on, eventually landing in Istanbul.
This is a star-crossed lovers romance without the requisite happily-ever-after ending. Despite their true love, they never marry because of religious beliefs and familial expectations. Indeed, happiness eludes Kurt and Shura. The book does a good job showing the magnificence of Petrograd and contrasting it with the squalor in which peasants lived. Bezman works in a lot of history as well, resulting in a rather distant third person point of view. The book would perhaps have been better in a more close point of view, but it is still well worth reading for insight into the world of Russian aristocracy in the late nineteenth century.
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Kurt Seyt and Shura is available through Amazon.
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