The House of the Dead: Siberian Exile Under the Tsars

by Daniel Beer

It was known as 'the vast prison without a roof'. From the beginning of the nineteenth century to the Russian Revolution, the tsarist regime exiled more than one million prisoners and their families beyond the Ural Mountains to Siberia.

Daniel Beer's new book, The House of the Dead, brings to life both the brutal realities of an inhuman system and the tragic and inspiring fates of those who endured it. This is the vividly told history of common criminals and political radicals, the victims of serfdom and village politics, the wives and children who followed husbands and fathers, and of fugitives and bounty-hunters.

Siberia served two masters: colonisation and punishment. In theory, exiles would discover the virtues of self-reliance, abstinence and hard work and, in so doing, they would develop Siberia's natural riches and bind it more firmly to Russia. In reality, the autocracy banished an army not of hardy colonists but of half-starving, desperate vagabonds. The tsars also looked on Siberia as creating the ultimate political quarantine from the contagions of revolution. Generations of rebels - republicans, nationalists and socialists - were condemned to oblivion thousands of kilometres from European Russia. Over the nineteenth century, however, these political exiles transformed Siberia's mines, prisons and remote settlements into an enormous laboratory of revolution.

This masterly work of original research taps a mass of almost unknown primary evidence held in Russian and Siberian archives to tell the epic story both of Russia's struggle to govern its monstrous penal colony and Siberia's ultimate, decisive impact on the political forces of the modern world.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Russia, Russian History, Historical, Politics, European History

512 pages, Hardcover

First published July 7, 2016

About the author

Daniel Beer (born 1973) is Reader in Modern European history at Royal Holloway, University of London. His book, The House of the Dead, won the 2017 Cundill History Prize and was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize.

Reviews

[Jonny · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Siberia's prisons also proved indispensable weapons in the government's campaign to crush the 1905 Revolution, but they were a double edged sword. Crammed with embittered and hostile revolutionaries, they became not simply places of containment and punishment but also incubators of the vengeful, implacable hatred that would erupt across the empire in 1917."
An unflinching review of the Tsarist dream of convict exile and colonisation of the Siberian wastes, the attempted exploitation of the regions natural and mineral resources and the reason it failed and ultimately turned on itself. The shift from criminal to political exile following the Decemberist and Polish revolts, the conditions faced by exiles (often dependant on status rather than magnitude of the crime) and the increasingly repressionary methods the autocracy used against its subjects which ultimately led to the creation of a major revolutionary force are documented, with the ultimate irony that while political exile was briefly outlawed by the Bolsheviks it was quickly reinstated as a state repressionary measure.
An important book, filling in a gap in understanding Russian history and its progression toward the October Revolution. Highly recommended.

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daniel Beer's The House of the Dead recounts the brutal policy of exile in late Tsarist Russia. Taking his title from Dostoyevsky's autobiographical novel about his time in Siberia, Beer explores how the system of Katorga gradually developed through the 18th and 19th Centuries, with an informal series of prison camps, forced labor and distant settlements in the forbidding, distant climates of Siberia and the Russian Far East. The policy served multiple purposes in allowing the government to forcibly settle and develop their Far Eastern possessions (displacing the Indigenous population in the process), but mostly served as (in the words of one Tsarist official) "a deep sack into which we tossed our social sins" - criminals, dissidents, failed rebels and general malcontents all found themselves uprooted and forced into a forbidding new climate. From the failed Decembrist rebels to Polish nationalists, to intellectuals like Dostoyevsky and Alexander Radischev, to Bolsheviks Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin, the system encompassed a massive roster of the Russian Empire's discontented. While not as systematic as the Soviet gulags, Katorga was arbitrary in its cruelties: some exiles enjoyed relatively stable, undisturbed lives, while others were enslaved to work mines and build roads, brutalized by overseers or preyed upon by bandits. Sporadic rebellions, outbreaks of crime and a general disconnect from Moscow caused the region to become "a hothouse of revolution"; turns out, gathering radicals together in isolation while subjecting them to random violence wasn't the best policy for reform. Eventually, exposes by writers both foreign (George Kennan, uncle of the famous diplomat) and domestic (Anton Chekhov, whose writings on the Sakhalin Island penal colony caused it to be shut down) caused Nicholas II to curb the program's worst excesses - but Katorga continued until the Revolution of 1917. Of course, Siberia enjoyed only the briefest respite, as the Romanovs' successors erected a similar, even more repressive system in its place. Not light reading, but Beer assures that readers won't completely despair by studding the narrative with pen portraits and stirring quotations from Siberia's exiles, who struggled to retain personal identity and beliefs in the face of brutality.

[Cheyanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this would be a good read even if you aren't a Russian history buff like me. If you are, it's amazing. The author has synthesized a massive amount of historical research into an epic account of centuries of exile and suffering in the great "prison without a roof." Chapters that provide a broad overview alternate with chapters that focus on the moving personal stories of particular individuals or groups. Some, such as the Decembrists and Dostoevsky, are famous; others might have been forgotten but for the diaries and letters they managed to leave behind to fill a history such as this one.

[Jeff Bursey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is essential reading for understanding much of 19th, 20th and, sadly, 21st century russian life, history, and politics.

Apart from the horrors of the penal system coupled with the terrible ordeal of prisoners getting to their place of exile (often a very lengthy trip), there is the place of exile as well: it may be a mine, or a small siberian town set in the middle of the taiga or an icy wasteland. Or on sakhalin island. There is cruelty on the part of every Tsar (not that only saints were convicted or punished administratively by this or that city in european russia), governor, warden, and guard. Yet there are also stories of those who, as today, persisted in living or in facing down authority (often at the price of their lives).

In truth, there are probably half a dozen stories in here that would reward elaboration, whether they be about polish nobility who were sentenced to exile but kept escaping, the criminal element that terrorized the few roads, waterways and villages, or the women who went to join their husbands despite pressure not to. All classes were sent to siberia to be rehabilitated and to add coin to the realm by working on the land, or under it; a mad, centralist impulse to ship problem people elsewhere only served to disperse anti-monarchist ideas to areas of russia that would not have otherwise heard about them.

Daniel Beer has a good style and the material is compelling.

[Julian Douglass · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very revealing and engaging book by Mr. Beer. The way he hits on the five senses with describing the conditions in Siberia during the 19th century are astonishing, stomach turning, and plain depressing. The corruption, incompetence, and utter disregard for human life by the Tsars and their ministers made the problems worse and were (part of) the reason for the 1917 Revolution, which ironically enough, continued the use of Siberia as a prison colony after denouncing it under the Romanov’s. Mr. Beer does a wonderful job in spelling all of this in this masterpiece of a book. The only problem I have with the book is the way that the timeline runs in this book. While it is linear to a degree, the book tends to jump in gaps of 20, 30, even 40 years in the same chapter, which can make keeping track of all the names and events a bit confusing. Otherwise, great book and thoughtful piece of history.

[Sara Leacock · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn't bad, but I found it a bit of a slog. Part of the problem was that there was no particular through-line being followed (no one person's life, or story of a single historical incident, etc.) and so it felt disjointed at times. It also wasn't particularly chronological which would have helped make it easier to follow. Again, it wasn't bad, I just had no trouble putting it down and was never particularly excited to start it again.

[Marks54 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first heard about this book while reading a couple of histories about the Romanov dynasty and its end in WWI and the Russian Revolutions of 1917. This is a book about the Romanov system of internal exile to Siberia, especially from 1800 until the beginning of WW1. Beer takes his title from Dostoevsky's autobiographical novel of his time in Siberian prisons. In terms of sources, Beer makes good use of a vast array of source materials that have been made available in Russia in recent decades. The book thus constitutes a general history of the exile program in its last century. For those who do not realize the continuity between the Tsarist prisons and the Gulag, readers might with to follow this book up with Anne Applebaum's superb history of the Gulag that was published a few years ago or Wachsmann's 2015 book on the Nazi concentration camp system.

The book is generally well written and interesting, but the topic is a grim one. How to hold the reader through over a hundred years of brutality and grimness is no mean feat. Beer organizes the book around a set of focal points/events over the course of the period. The first is the experiences of the Decembrists (which is a highlight of the book). Later chapters focus on subsequent generations of exiles and how their experiences changed, including revolutionary periods after 1948, the Polish rebellion of 1863, the rebirth of revolutionary and anarchist movements in the 1880s and 1890s, the revolution of 1905, and the events leading up to 1914. Beer does discuss the continuity with the Bolshevik system, but that is really another story. Beer also makes good use of the accounts of some of the more famous visitors to Siberia, in particular Dostoevsky and Chekhov, who provided detailed notes of his visit to Sakhalin Island. It is hard to miss when making use of observers like that.

Several themes are noteworthy in the book. The first is the tension between an imperial/colonial view of Siberia as a potential zone for economic development and its use as a prison without a roof. A related issue is the role of technology and evolving media, which made Siberia less remote and more connected and thus made the Siberian system seem anachronistic and helped to alienate the educated classes both in Russia and in Europe and America. Perhaps the major theme is the corruption inherent in the foundation of the system of autocratic control and which was made much worse but the extended bureaucratic nature of the Tsarist regime. Beer is most effective in showing how the system not only failed to stem political unrest and revolution but actually ended up serving as a laboratory for revolution that provided training, hardening, and stature for the Bolsheviks.

It is really fascinating to read this with the internet handy. Beer makes a number a points by referencing paintings from the period that diepict the plight of the exiles or by discussing the particular towns in which various exiles served their time. The paintings can be looked up on the web. You can even book a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railroad or see a trip advisor page for where Lenin was exiled. (There are still only a few sights to see there.)

Overall, this was a good book and a fine supporting history for the Romanovs.

[Colby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply, a masterpiece of 'forensic scholarship'. (No point in regurgitating summaries posted; words fail - at least, my words fail. Yet another case of [human] 'good intentions' producing [human] unintended consequences, but on a tragically huge scale.)

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a rough read. While meticulously researched and offering broad information punctuated with stories of individuals' experiences, the book is a history where cruelty, violence, incompetence, suffering, and the creation of criminality for survival are central points. The pre-Gulag penal system of Russia was extreme in its punishment--beyond flogging or imprisonment were long treks through and attempted survival in unbearable weather conditions, unsafe work, poverty, starvation, disease, unsanitary conditions, sex exploitation and rape, the necessity to be a criminal and contend with criminals to survive, and other horrors. The torture was not only physical--it was geographical, climatic, temporal, psychological, and sociological. The entire system, from start to finish, was intended to break people, and it punished those who didn't break with more suffering. Criminals became harder and more dangerous, and the unfeeling used their apathy to survive. Those who maintained their humanity, like the women passed around settlements, had to learn to give it up in order to get by. In the end, the only freedom some of those exiled to Siberia could find was in their own death--in taking their own lives, the prevented the state from being able to do so.

This book is grim and grisly, but the information within goes a long way into setting up the foundation for the idea of Soviet Gulag and explains how the mythos of Siberia as a harsh and unforgiving place remains in the cultural consciousness.

[Nicholas · Rating 2 out of 5]

extremely thorough examination of pre-soviet prison history. beer does a good job accumulating a plethora of primary material, especially as it relates to prisoners. the book, however, has no central argument or through line to ground the reader to connect each chapter together. the book could be about 150 pages shorter. the empirical nature of almost 400 pages makes this book a slog fest. you can gather as much understanding and impression of crime and punishment in the tsarist period from the likes of dostoevsky and chekhov.

[Chiel T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Op een simpele wijze het complexe Russische verbanning systeem uitgelegd.

[Marsha Altman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Woohoo! I feel so accomplished for finishing this book, which took me an unusually long time (1 week) to read because it was so packed with information. Most of it was very interesting, but it could FEEL like a slog on occasion.

[Kusaimamekirai · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an amazingly detailed and exhaustively researched look at the system of Siberian exile from the early 19th century up until the Bolshevik revolution. The author tackles this immense topic by separating each chapter into different periods of time as well as different aspects of exile. He makes the important distinction between those sentenced to penal labor and exile and the physical and emotional punishments they endured.
Throughout the book, I couldn't help reflecting on how shortsighted, vindictive, and ineffective this system was. There was very little record keeping to speak of (hardened criminals would often bully, coerce, or kill a fellow traveller to assume their identity and a lesser sentence), hardened criminals were often housed with simple vagrants, women were encouraged to join their husbands and then were often raped or forced into prostitution, and political prisoners were often housed together which only served to spread revolutionary ideas deeper into the countries interior among its peasants.
If all this sounds haphazard and senseless, its because it was. Siberian exile became a tool of repression for a series of increasingly paranoid Tsars, as well as local communities who had the power to condemn their fellow citizens to exile due to the national government's inability to adequately police all of its vast territory and thus ceded such powers to local authorities. When the revolution arrived in 1917 and the jails were opened, the revolution had ready access to a large number of hardened political prisoners ready to be loosed on the old order.
This is certainly not an easy read. It is filled with grim statistics and anecdotes that are at best, unsettling. But it remains an important book nonetheless.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good look at exile to Siberia under the Tsars. He briefly discusses Siberia after the revolution but I did wonder if he's planning a book about it.
It's not as easy a subject as I imagined--There was not one kind of exile and there was not one kind of person exiled. Different classes often (though not always) got treated differently for example. People were also differentiated by what part of Siberia they were sent to--climate and labor being the main differentiators. Were they sent as laborers? If so, where? Were they farmers? Miners?
An interesting and well-researched book.

[Anastasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The information is good. The presentation needs some work. Using some percentages when comparing the amounts of prisoners instead of the large raw numbers would have made the information easier to digest. The constant barage of names was also overwhelming. It must be difficult to condense the material when focusing on such a large subject it would have made a larger impact to do so. 

There were many times my eyes glazed over with the amount of names and numbers given in a short space of time. 

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't actually finish it. Excellent account of Russian punishment... Siberian and otherwise. Also picked up lots of Russian history along the way.

[Kate Hackett · Rating 4 out of 5]

They exiled a bell.

A bell.

To Siberia.

[Tom Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

well written, exhaustively researched (I am a worthy judge of that?). Now I would like to read Dostoevsky's 'Notes from the House of the Dead'. (I've read 'The Idiot', a surprisingly humorous book, even if it is a grim humor, Dostoevsky is an author deserving of his accolades). I've just ordered Tolstoy's Resurrection (another book frequently referred).

The brutality never ends - this sentence by Beer (paraphrased) sums it up, 'By the end of the nineteenth century, Imperial Russia was a society devouring itself'. Knowing that Stalin took the gulags and the expediency of "devouring" his own people to a whole new level, with his victims numbering in the millions, not just in the hundreds of thousands - makes the pages heavy reading. Maybe the Russians learned cruelty only too well from their years of oppression under the Mongols. Then again, most every culture that remains on earth has a history of barbarity. Scratch the surface and find a blood lust that still remains. Of our own sordid past, ours is a country conceived in slavery, a government predicted on the God-given right of white people to own black people. And to this day that overt racism persists as strong as ever (even if deodorized). Which brings up another observation forwarded by Beer, 'reform only happens when backed by the threat of violence'. I am becoming ever more convinced of that grim truth.

The tsar's ideology - (1) Autocracy (is this where we are heading, the strongman style of government?) - (2) Orthodoxy (too many would happily knock down the wall between church and state, the "church" as defined by white evangelicals) - (3) A national spirit (with us, it is the closely held belief that we white people are truly exceptional, chosen by God to rule over all lessor creatures)

One of the most disturbing traits of the Republican party is their demagoguery of torture - to force confessions, to find the Truth, when, in fact, it does everything but. The Russian tsars used it with gusto. To be arrested was to be guilty. Our Godly people know how well it works in hunting witches.

There's much more - the whole bit about General Cuckoo's Army, i.e., the Law of Unintended Results was a subject I hadn't previously given much thought to. The tsar felt constrained in the handling of young revolutionaries from the nobility - so he let them live and then - from the remote settlements of Siberia they built a fanatical base for revolution. Stalin did not have to deal with such qualms. He murdered everyone. Full circle - back to the gentle mercies of Genghis Khan.

The exiles were marched in chains over 1,000 miles - usually may more than 1,000. This occurred at roughly the same time as coffles of African slaves were being forced marched from the east coast seaports to the southern cotton fields, at roughly the same distance. We needn't point fingers as much as look in the mirror.

Page 231, "...peasant culture across the Russian Empire was very violent." The tsar's penal system took brutal people and further brutalized them. Hitler was clueless. The state's primary interest was with political prisoners, the peasants had to deal with violent criminals as best they could. Oftentimes the hard working settlers were on their own. Siberia at the end of the nineteenth century was in a virtual civil war. The escaped exiles and vagabonds would gang up and terrorize the isolated farms and villages. Arson was a common weapon. (very reminiscent of the social dynamics as spelled out in the book, Wisconsin Death Trip, a 1973 non-fiction book by Michael Lesy wherein barn burning was a plague) The native tribes of Gilyaks and Buryats of eastern Siberia became skilled trackers and killers of the vagabond bandits (pg 234).

[Ben Koops · Rating 5 out of 5]

Verbluffend werk van een grote eruditie. Vooral als voorstudie van de grote revolutie. De onderdrukking van het tsaristische regime creëerde in zekere zin niet alleen een oppositie maar ook een klassenstrijd. De straf ging verder dan alleen maar straf, het moest ook vernedering zijn, onderwerping, knechting in de ouderwetse zin van het woord. Men moest kruipen voor genade. Mooi verbeeld in het symbolische breken van zwaarden over het hoofd van veroordeelden. Het aparte hoofdstuk over Dostojevski was ook fijn. Heel mooi verweven is ook de reactie van de buitenlandse opinie op het regime. En Tsjechovs bezoek aan Sachalin. Zet een hoop dingen in perspectief. Het systeem was gewoon verrot, al vanaf het begin. Siberië was de kweekvijver voor revolutie en een maatschappij brede haat van de macht. Stel je voor dat je voor je straf begint nog 2 jaar te voet moet marcheren, soms in voetijzers of in het beste geval in een wrakkige houten kar. Corrupte bewakers, volstrekte willekeur en ambtelijke onmacht en je snapt het plaatje. De standaard reactie op veel vergrijpen was hele lange tijd gewoon hup verbanning. Een beetje hetzelfde als de harten koningin uit Alice die bij het minste of geringste roept: ''off with their heads.''

[Becky Loader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have never really read much about Siberia, and how the Russians used its vast expanse.

The sheer brutality used on offenders by the Russians is almost too much to bear, and I use "offender" as a generic term. The powers that be could find something to make almost everyone an "offender." Beating and mutilating people before exiling them to Siberia was routine. The penal colonies were expected to thrive and populate the area so that the rich mines could be tapped for wealth. Ugh.

Very well written, but depressing.

[Kevin]

Whoops. This sounds like something I wanted to read, but it was not. No offense intended to Beer at all - it seems very well-researched and informative, if this is the kind of thing you want information about.

[Callum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Covering the majority of the nineteenth century, House of the Dead contends with the system of Serbian exile that occured under the Tsarist regime - particularly Nicholas I, Alexander II, Alexander III and Nicholas II. The book is relatively chronological - each chapter covers a different theme though, like punishment, women and Sekhalin island so sometimes there is a bit of overlap. Otherwise, it flows seamlessly, revisiting previous points and chapters from a different perspective.

I picked up a lot from this book, particularly regarding the Decembrists revolt. It was something that we only briefly referred to in A Level History so it was nice to come back around to that - the set, the plot and the consequences - as well as the lasting impact that this revolt had on Russian society.

Additionally, I think the topic at hand was well chosen. The expanse of Siberia made for a compelling topic, particularly in a breadth view. The author darted around, from year to year, penal outpost to penal outpost. At points, it is hard to comprehend, given the scale of the piece, and the bleakness of it all. But ultimately, I think that is what lends to its interest - the scale of the operations is absolutely fascinating, the 'Russianess' of it all.

A few critiques. It did end a bit fuzzily. We meandered from 1890s, to the 1905 revolution before promptly ending, with a brief afterword about the spiritual successor, the GULAG. I think it would have been nice to have a firmer ending. Like what happened to all those people in exile when they were granted clemency by the Provisional Government?

Another critique - the maps were useful but it was very confusing at times, trying to keep track of all these village and labour camp names. Maybe that's partly a language problem? Russia isn't the most intuitive for English speakers so it can all blur into one. Nonetheless, there were a lot of facts, names and dates being thrown out. That combined with the broad breadth of study made it hard to follow at points.

All in all, a very compelling and well written book, occupying a spot between academic and popular history that makes for insightful reading, particularly for those already familiar with aspects of Russian history.

[Steve Cunningham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extraordinary book in many ways. In documenting the colossal waste of human life and resources that the Romanov regime expended in banishing social and political undesirables to the farthest and most remote reaches of the Russian Empire, it serves in some respects as a pre-revolutionary companion piece to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956, and demonstrates that while Tsarist exile lacked the industrial scale and bureaucracy of the Stalinist Gulag, it was every bit as arbitrary, brutal and dehumanising, showing that the genesis of one of the greatest of humanity's scars upon the social and political landscape of the twentieth century was a seed planted in the period of Russian imperial expansion in the seventeenth century.

But the book also utilises the institution of Siberian exile as a prism through which to view the development of the Russian Empire and Romanov autocracy, and the real and perceived internal threats thereto. We are introduced to Polish nationalists seeking the independence of their country from rule by Saint Petersburg, the Decembrist rebels with their aims of a constitutional monarchy and the abolition of serfdom, the reformist Petrashevsky Circle, whose most notable member was Fyodor Dostoyevsky, a host of vagrants and recidivist petty criminals, and, latterly, the confirmed revolutionaries who would finally succeed in tearing down the Tsarist edifice in 1917. While the aims of each of these groups, where they had specific aims, were varied, all represented a challenge to the divinely ordained authority of the Romanov Tsars. It is hard to disagree with the books closing assertion, that it was a supreme historical irony that resulted in a system designed to eliminate opposition to the ancien régime fomenting the very revolutionaries who would overthrow it, and that the last Tsar, Nicholas II would die an ignominious death at the hands of Bolshevik executioners in Yekaterinburg on the edge of Siberia.

[Al · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly unremitting litany of the tsarist atrocious program of exiling political and criminal miscreants to Siberia during the 19th century. For the most part it's a complete, depressing and repetitive catalog of all the ways the exiles could be mistreated, and most assuredly there were many.... There are a few interesting stories about the cases of particular individuals; they were a welcome relief from the endless list of statistics. I really don't think the book improved by listing what seemed to be every possible example the author could find; if it had been 150 pages shorter the point would have been made and the book more readable (and bearable).
On the positive side, despite the deluge of despair, THOTD provides, almost as an aside, a good history of Russia during that period, as well as a brief bridge to the post-Bolshevik period. There's irony here; horrific as the conditions were in the 19th century under the stars, there were few actual executions of Siberian prisoners (although they died in the thousands from natural causes and torture), the prisoners often were able to file petitions with the government and otherwise call attention to their plight, and prisoners sometimes actually completed their sentences and were released. When the communists, outraged by the tsarist punishment system and other abuses, came to power in 1917, they quickly reinstituted the whole system for their own benefit, but went even further to create the infamous gulag archipelago, which brutally eliminated any trace of humanity the prior prison system may have contained. Of course, for the communists, it was all right; after all, they had a good cause. No doubt a good part of the gulag survives today, which is just another reason not to trust or accept the current Russian government.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beer looks at the Siberian exile of the Russian Empire, which reached its peak during the 19th century. With emphasis on specific groups (the Decembrists of the 1820s, the Polish revolutionaries of the 1830s and 1860s, the late-century revolutionaries), he describes how the system was poorly-run for nearly its entire existence, and largely failed to achieve any of its goals (either to imprison convicts, or to develop the sparsely-populated Siberian wilderness). He also shows the brutal reality of life for the exiles, going into intense detail, and shows that it was a harsh life for the hundreds of thousands who were sent there during this period. A fascinating and engaging read, it brings to life one of the worst aspects of the Russian Empire.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative. Appeared to be quite thorough. I must admit I skimmed the last 100 pgs or so in a bid to finish it. There weren't quite as many personal stories as I had anticipated. I feel more informed about the different rebellion movements against the Tsarist regime particularly about the Decembrists and the different Polish rebellions. I'm glad I read it.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've realized I knew very little about Siberia and its history. This book has made me want to read more. It was very interesting and I enjoyed the paintings they had in it as well.

Also I can't believe they banished a bell at one point.

Actually I can, history is weird.

[Christen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Redundant. Could have been half the pages it was. Good solid information.

[Meghan W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! An amazing read. It's a horrifying history. Well researched and written.

[GreyAtlas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring. Worse than watching paint dry. Pictures could have saved it.