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The Siberians
Farley Mowat's most dramatic expedition takes him deep into the little-known regions of Soviet Siberia from the weather-battered log houses of old Russia, to primitive deerskin tents pitched on the edge of the polar sea, and to Yaksutsk, one of the coldest places on earth, where on still winter days the warmth of human breath causes fogs to condense over the towns. The Siberians --- reindeers, and vigorous women-welcome Mowat with mare's milk and vodka, black bread and caviar, outrageous good humor, and a fierce love for their isolated --- yet booming territory. An forgettable adventure in the other half of the Arctic.
304 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 1971
6 people are currently reading
269 people want to read
About the author
Farley Mowat
117 books645 followersFarley McGill Mowat was a conservationist and one of Canada's most widely-read authors.
Many of his most popular works have been memoirs of his childhood, his war service, and his work as a naturalist. His works have been translated into 52 languages and he has sold more than 14 million books.
Mowat studied biology at the University of Toronto. During a field trip to the Arctic, Mowat became outraged at the plight of the Ihalmiut, a Caribou Inuit band, which he attributed to misunderstanding by whites. His outrage led him to publish his first novel, People of the Deer (1952). This book made Mowat into a literary celebrity and was largely responsible for the shift in the Canadian government's Inuit policy: the government began shipping meat and dry goods to a people they previously denied existed.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship RV Farley Mowat was named in honour of him, and he frequently visited it to assist its mission.
Many of his most popular works have been memoirs of his childhood, his war service, and his work as a naturalist. His works have been translated into 52 languages and he has sold more than 14 million books.
Mowat studied biology at the University of Toronto. During a field trip to the Arctic, Mowat became outraged at the plight of the Ihalmiut, a Caribou Inuit band, which he attributed to misunderstanding by whites. His outrage led him to publish his first novel, People of the Deer (1952). This book made Mowat into a literary celebrity and was largely responsible for the shift in the Canadian government's Inuit policy: the government began shipping meat and dry goods to a people they previously denied existed.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship RV Farley Mowat was named in honour of him, and he frequently visited it to assist its mission.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
July 12, 2020
This book was written during the Soviet Era and took place in Siberia.
With this you get a taste of the original people or as the Soviet Era said “small people”. And this has piqued my interest. I would like to know more about the original people who live in the north country.
The author also talked about how when he would go on his visits he would get overloaded with local statistics, which would make him roll his eyes.
At the time this was written the exportation of the North Country hadn’t been going on for very long. Now with global warming and the permafrost slowly melting, it makes you wonder what this region looks like today. Or if the conservationists who were working hard at that time to protect the land have been able to keep the tide at bay.
With this you get a taste of the original people or as the Soviet Era said “small people”. And this has piqued my interest. I would like to know more about the original people who live in the north country.
The author also talked about how when he would go on his visits he would get overloaded with local statistics, which would make him roll his eyes.
At the time this was written the exportation of the North Country hadn’t been going on for very long. Now with global warming and the permafrost slowly melting, it makes you wonder what this region looks like today. Or if the conservationists who were working hard at that time to protect the land have been able to keep the tide at bay.
March 21, 2023
A very interesting book about life in Siberia in the late 1960ies.
I can understand Mowat’s enthusiasm with the vitality of the new settlements and the progress achieved in such an extreme part of the world and I was touched by the hospitality of the people who received him and the passion for their land. But it was very weird - to say the least – to read nearly 400 pages of praise to the USSR with just one or two brief mentions to the forced labour camps where millions lost their lives working to build the cities and dams and making possible the progress Mowat so admired. Whenever the issue was mentioned, it was as something that had happened in a distant past, an unfortunate error to be brushed aside (actually, that past was not so distant, as the author’s visits took place in 1966 and 1969). On the contrary, every mention to Canada or the USA was to criticise these countries for doing worse than their northern neighbours on one aspect or other.
This being said, this was still a good read. I learned a lot about Siberia and I feel for all the dreamers and enthusiasts that were genuinely working to make the far North a better place. What a shame that their dream has found so many barriers.
Below are a few excerpts from the book about different topics that I enjoyed reading about.
I truly empathised with this description of the love of Russians for the wilderness (OK, let’s disregard their equally strong love for hunting for a while): “At first I was not convinced that the simplicity of the dachas was so much intentional as it was a product of a not-so-affluent society. Once, while visiting Yura Rytkheu’s dacha near Leningrad I made a rather snide suggestion to this point, to which he replied: ‘Farley, you think I am a poor man? Ha! I make more money than President of USSR. If I want, I have electric lights and television here. Have everything. But why I want to do that, eh? Why anybody want to take city with him on his back when he go live with nature?’”
It was chilling to read about permafrost and the challenges of living and building in such a region, now that we are watching first hand the fragility of this environment, with the rising temperatures leading to the melting of ice, the tundra fires and the opening of cracks and craters on the ground, exposing creatures frozen for nearly thirty thousand years.
“One fifth of the earth’s land surface; three-quarters of Siberia; and the whole of Yakutia, sits on a crust of ice, frozen bog, soil, gravel, and rock – a crust with a maximum frost depth of fifteen hundred meters in north-west Yakutia and an average depth under the whole of the republic of three hundred and twenty meters.
(…) Near the southern limits of permafrost the surface may thaw each summer to a depth of several feet and, in the far North, to a depth of a few inches. In winter, however, it all freezes into one solid block again.
The effects of this underlying shield of frost are tremendously far-reaching. For one thing, there is no drainage through it, and so all precipitation must escape by running off the surface or, if it cannot do that, it remains to form gigantic morasses like those which characterise the West Siberia Plain. The presence of permafrost is responsible for the size and flow of the great Siberian rivers and, in Northern Canada, is largely responsible for the astronomical numbers of lakes and ponds (...). Paradoxically, it is also largely responsible for the existence of the immense Northern forests, since it acts to conserve the rather scanty precipitation. Without permafrost as a basement sealant, much of the Northern interior of America and Asia would probably be desert.”
And finally, a paragraph that sums up what I liked best about this book:
“My best memories of the Soviet Union are of evenings spent drinking, eating, arguing, laughing and singing in the intimate atmosphere of Russian family life. Most of what I learned about the way people thought and felt I learned on such occasions. What seemed then, and still remains, the most important element of all was the warmth and depth of friendship which was offered to me; friendship which took me behind the barriers of generic conclusions and crass generalities which so effectively shield people of different races and cultures from meaningful understanding of one another.”
I can understand Mowat’s enthusiasm with the vitality of the new settlements and the progress achieved in such an extreme part of the world and I was touched by the hospitality of the people who received him and the passion for their land. But it was very weird - to say the least – to read nearly 400 pages of praise to the USSR with just one or two brief mentions to the forced labour camps where millions lost their lives working to build the cities and dams and making possible the progress Mowat so admired. Whenever the issue was mentioned, it was as something that had happened in a distant past, an unfortunate error to be brushed aside (actually, that past was not so distant, as the author’s visits took place in 1966 and 1969). On the contrary, every mention to Canada or the USA was to criticise these countries for doing worse than their northern neighbours on one aspect or other.
This being said, this was still a good read. I learned a lot about Siberia and I feel for all the dreamers and enthusiasts that were genuinely working to make the far North a better place. What a shame that their dream has found so many barriers.
Below are a few excerpts from the book about different topics that I enjoyed reading about.
I truly empathised with this description of the love of Russians for the wilderness (OK, let’s disregard their equally strong love for hunting for a while): “At first I was not convinced that the simplicity of the dachas was so much intentional as it was a product of a not-so-affluent society. Once, while visiting Yura Rytkheu’s dacha near Leningrad I made a rather snide suggestion to this point, to which he replied: ‘Farley, you think I am a poor man? Ha! I make more money than President of USSR. If I want, I have electric lights and television here. Have everything. But why I want to do that, eh? Why anybody want to take city with him on his back when he go live with nature?’”
It was chilling to read about permafrost and the challenges of living and building in such a region, now that we are watching first hand the fragility of this environment, with the rising temperatures leading to the melting of ice, the tundra fires and the opening of cracks and craters on the ground, exposing creatures frozen for nearly thirty thousand years.
“One fifth of the earth’s land surface; three-quarters of Siberia; and the whole of Yakutia, sits on a crust of ice, frozen bog, soil, gravel, and rock – a crust with a maximum frost depth of fifteen hundred meters in north-west Yakutia and an average depth under the whole of the republic of three hundred and twenty meters.
(…) Near the southern limits of permafrost the surface may thaw each summer to a depth of several feet and, in the far North, to a depth of a few inches. In winter, however, it all freezes into one solid block again.
The effects of this underlying shield of frost are tremendously far-reaching. For one thing, there is no drainage through it, and so all precipitation must escape by running off the surface or, if it cannot do that, it remains to form gigantic morasses like those which characterise the West Siberia Plain. The presence of permafrost is responsible for the size and flow of the great Siberian rivers and, in Northern Canada, is largely responsible for the astronomical numbers of lakes and ponds (...). Paradoxically, it is also largely responsible for the existence of the immense Northern forests, since it acts to conserve the rather scanty precipitation. Without permafrost as a basement sealant, much of the Northern interior of America and Asia would probably be desert.”
And finally, a paragraph that sums up what I liked best about this book:
“My best memories of the Soviet Union are of evenings spent drinking, eating, arguing, laughing and singing in the intimate atmosphere of Russian family life. Most of what I learned about the way people thought and felt I learned on such occasions. What seemed then, and still remains, the most important element of all was the warmth and depth of friendship which was offered to me; friendship which took me behind the barriers of generic conclusions and crass generalities which so effectively shield people of different races and cultures from meaningful understanding of one another.”
April 25, 2009
If you are wondering what Siberia was like in the late 1960's, then this is the book for you. Farley Mowat travels the arctic, meeting the locals and drinking lots of vodka and champagne. Young Russians and native peoples of Siberia are building new cities and new industries together, maintaining everyone's cultural heritage, and all of it environmentally friendly. The people he talks to describe the USSR as paradise and continually ask why the West isn't doing better. While I agree with some of the criticisms of the West, I'm also not convinced that the Soviets were so terrific.
January 30, 2015
Interesting look at the Thaw that was coming to the Soviet States in the 1970's.
Look at Writers of the period.
The People of Siberia.
Environmental Concerns of the unspoiled, untouched area of Siberia and the Soviet Man/Woman and the upcoming youth who wanted to keep things unblemished and unspoiled from the Party.
Would like to revisit this book w/National Geographic Articles on the area discussed here in the book.
Look at Writers of the period.
The People of Siberia.
Environmental Concerns of the unspoiled, untouched area of Siberia and the Soviet Man/Woman and the upcoming youth who wanted to keep things unblemished and unspoiled from the Party.
Would like to revisit this book w/National Geographic Articles on the area discussed here in the book.
September 28, 2025
I first read this book years ago, probably in the 70s or 80s. I remember reading A Whale for the Killing, a book I thought was wonderful. I think I may also have read People of the Deer which I have some vague memory of, and possibly Never Cry Wolf. Recently I read The Dog Who Wouldn't Be and enjoyed it so I thought that after all these years, I would take another look at The Siberians. My main motivation was my father. He lived in Siberia and then Kazakhstan during World War II as, basically, a prisoner/refugee from Poland. He wrote a memoir that I turned into a book (Stories My Father Told Me: From Warsaw, Moscow, Algeria, Siberia, Kazakhstan, Dominican Republic). I was curious to see if I could find any hint of what my father experienced and wrote about in Mowat's book.
The answer was No. Mowat mentions something about work camps, maybe once of twice, keeping a distance from the subject as if it had never happened. The only place name that overlapped was Lake Baikal.
Mowat was very well impressed with all the positive things going on in the USSR's North country and managed to sugarcoat anything that would spoil that view. The development of the territory was more important to him than politics which was not his area of expertise or interest. Still, he did talk about history but managed to stay away from anything negative. It left me with the feeling that Mowat was quite naive.
I enjoyed some of his descriptions of the people he met and the places he saw (and the food he ate. There I found one overlap -- koumiss, a drink my father talked about.), as well as some of the history. But overall, for me the book (the second time around) was a slog. I didn't want to pick it up, was eager to put it back down, and in the end I stopped reading at page 322. I marked the book as "Read" because I did read it -- about 40 years ago and what I remembered most from that first reading, many years later, was all the champagne they drank in Siberia. (My poor dad only drank koumiss.)
The answer was No. Mowat mentions something about work camps, maybe once of twice, keeping a distance from the subject as if it had never happened. The only place name that overlapped was Lake Baikal.
Mowat was very well impressed with all the positive things going on in the USSR's North country and managed to sugarcoat anything that would spoil that view. The development of the territory was more important to him than politics which was not his area of expertise or interest. Still, he did talk about history but managed to stay away from anything negative. It left me with the feeling that Mowat was quite naive.
I enjoyed some of his descriptions of the people he met and the places he saw (and the food he ate. There I found one overlap -- koumiss, a drink my father talked about.), as well as some of the history. But overall, for me the book (the second time around) was a slog. I didn't want to pick it up, was eager to put it back down, and in the end I stopped reading at page 322. I marked the book as "Read" because I did read it -- about 40 years ago and what I remembered most from that first reading, many years later, was all the champagne they drank in Siberia. (My poor dad only drank koumiss.)
May 14, 2016
This is a nonfiction account of two visits to Siberia by the Canadian author Farley Mowat in 1966 and 1969.
I have mixed feelings about this book. It is a pretty interesting read, but I feel like
the author was duped by the Soviets. Here's a quick quote:
"Would Tchersky prove to be the site of one of those dread "work camps" which, according to the writings of so many expatriate Russians and home-bred Russophobes cover Siberia like a shroud of hopelessness?"
Yeah, big joke. I can't help feeling like he is making light of the crimes of a regime that caused tremendous death and suffering.
There's a lot of glowing prose here about the enlightened way the Soviets are treating their Siberian minorities and how as a result the whole area is booming. The Gulag is acknowledged but as something that mostly ended with the death of Stalin, 20 years in the past.
As I read this I wanted to be part of the grand adventure, but at the same time I couldn't help wondering how much of what I was reading was real. Mowat passes along some information about the opening up of navigation of the Arctic sea for example that he didn't see with his own eyes. Did that happen?
Overall this was just sort of an uneasy read for me with such a contrast between Mowat's upbeat story and the grim accounts I have read by other authors about the prisons and camps in the Soviet Union, even in Siberia during this era. Is there some truth to the picture painted by this book, or was Mowat shown a Potemkin village?
I have mixed feelings about this book. It is a pretty interesting read, but I feel like
the author was duped by the Soviets. Here's a quick quote:
"Would Tchersky prove to be the site of one of those dread "work camps" which, according to the writings of so many expatriate Russians and home-bred Russophobes cover Siberia like a shroud of hopelessness?"
Yeah, big joke. I can't help feeling like he is making light of the crimes of a regime that caused tremendous death and suffering.
There's a lot of glowing prose here about the enlightened way the Soviets are treating their Siberian minorities and how as a result the whole area is booming. The Gulag is acknowledged but as something that mostly ended with the death of Stalin, 20 years in the past.
As I read this I wanted to be part of the grand adventure, but at the same time I couldn't help wondering how much of what I was reading was real. Mowat passes along some information about the opening up of navigation of the Arctic sea for example that he didn't see with his own eyes. Did that happen?
Overall this was just sort of an uneasy read for me with such a contrast between Mowat's upbeat story and the grim accounts I have read by other authors about the prisons and camps in the Soviet Union, even in Siberia during this era. Is there some truth to the picture painted by this book, or was Mowat shown a Potemkin village?
February 10, 2018
In 1966 and again in 1969 Canadian writer Farley Mowat spent weeks traveling across Siberia with a translator and his wife. The visits were informed by his extensive study of the Alaskan and Canadian North, their people and wildlife; his goal was a comprehensive understanding of the Arctic North and human impact, particularly its “Small Peoples” (his term) or indigenous people. (I think by Small People he means small in population numbers, although he never explains the term.)
Mowat is captivated by Siberian hospitality and the fact that its former history as a gulag was erased by Russian determination to “settle” the most forbidding territory in the world. Over and over again he is told that the Russian Way is not to exploit the land, but to build communities there to integrate the territory into the nation. His gullibility is charming—he accepts everyone at face value, which probably opened many more doors than skepticism—but it’s more informative to read this book with Ian Frazier’s more contemporary ‘Travels in Siberia.’
One of the most interesting topics the book takes on is the challenge of building on permafrost. Here’s how that worked out: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/20....
Mowat is captivated by Siberian hospitality and the fact that its former history as a gulag was erased by Russian determination to “settle” the most forbidding territory in the world. Over and over again he is told that the Russian Way is not to exploit the land, but to build communities there to integrate the territory into the nation. His gullibility is charming—he accepts everyone at face value, which probably opened many more doors than skepticism—but it’s more informative to read this book with Ian Frazier’s more contemporary ‘Travels in Siberia.’
One of the most interesting topics the book takes on is the challenge of building on permafrost. Here’s how that worked out: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/20....
January 18, 2023
Inevitably dated in places, this remains an affectionate and informative trip around a region which many still associate only with permafrost and the gulag. The people are portrayed as proud, honourable and hospitable, and their communities and technical achievements are impressive. I'd be interested to read an updated version to see what has changed in the half century since this was written.
March 19, 2018
I read a lot of Russian and Soviet fiction and non-fiction. I generally avoid non-fiction about the Soviet Union because it tends to focus on the dark side of the Soviet years. I have longed for a more positive view because I have been certain that it could not all be bad. The Siberians is a positive look at the Soviet history in the Siberian North. It is positive and sometimes funny. It is not a fairy tale where the workers sing "Hi ho, hi ho, its off to work we go," but it is still very positive. I suspect that Mr. Mowat avoided writing about the negative things that he saw in order to be allowed multiple trips through the Soviet Union with what seems to be liberal access to the people and places of Siberia but, considering the negativity of most writing about the Soviet Union, I think that if Mr. Mowat tended to gloss over the negative then he has not skewed the portrait that we in the West have of the Soviets.
My search indicates that this book is out-of-print.
My search indicates that this book is out-of-print.
February 9, 2022
Wow, is this book ever dated! Written in the early '70's about trips taken in the late '60's. Everyone's happy in the USSR. Very little about the prison camps (before we knew the word "gulag."). While Mowat is a wonderful writer, especially of the natural world, I was disappointed that he primarily visited towns and cities rather than the smaller communities that still exist in Siberia (from what I've read elsewhere.). There is a lot of humor - about the amount of drinking, eating, hospitality. His appreciation of beautiful women is somewhat dated; male writers are a little more careful now but he does remain respectful of the generally wonderful people he met.
May 3, 2024
This was interesting in places, but generally not what I was expecting. Mowat seems to just be on an extensive guided tour of Siberia's slick modern cities, with very little material on the ecosystem of the region. I would prefer to read his accounts of rural and wild Siberia instead of his tour guides' endless raving about some industrial or cultural milestone. I got over halfway through The Siberians, and it began to feel like an endless string of statistics, propaganda, and a bunch of people getting drunk.
I did learn a couple of things about the Yakut people, but I'm sure there are better books about Siberia out there.
I did learn a couple of things about the Yakut people, but I'm sure there are better books about Siberia out there.
July 14, 2018
This book was printed in 1971 during the period of the Soviet Union. It is an interesting study of the Siberian area where new growth is taking place...new cities, new trades etc. The Russian hosts are eager to be friends with the Canadian writer as they share the most Northern parts of the earth. I suspect much is out of date since the fall of The Soviet. It would be interesting to find out how these Russian folks are doing today.
December 25, 2017
rating books is hard. i really liked "The Siberians", but it suffered from a disjointed-ness due to the nature of the work (a write-up of two trips taken over a period of five years). reads better as a collection of essays about siberia, hence the original title: Sibir.
November 20, 2018
Mowat made two extended trips to Siberia in the 1960s, and here recorded his experiences. I enjoyed these glimpses into a huge but relatively unknown part of the world, even if it was quite dated when I read it. Note: Mowat was not the best of journalists.
July 24, 2021
I forgot how great Mowat's writing is. He really pulls you in without realizing it. That being said, there were long stretches of this I did not find interesting. I loved the conversations he had with people though. So I'm middle ground on this one.
November 25, 2024
Mowat spends most of his time absolutely HYPING up Siberia. His moments regarding the lasting friendships he makes during his travels during peak Cold War is quite touching. A bit long winded but a fun read especially while traveling yourself.
March 4, 2023
This book was published in 1970 based on his visits in 1966 and 1969 to Siberia. When I picked this book off the library shelf, I was interested because I had read several other books by Farley Mowat years ago, and I find the far north interesting. However, I didn't think of the dynamic of how different the world is now from when he wrote the book. Twenty years after he wrote this, the USSR broke up. Now, my newsfeed is full of the war in Ukraine which was started by Russia's invasion. The book was very interesting but now I would love to know how the 'Small Peoples' of Siberia have fared in the intervening 50 years.
January 7, 2015
This travelogue from the 60's would have made a good blog. The chapters, while generally engaging, are a bit repetitious with Mowat visiting a region, giving a brief review of the local color and history, and then describing the great and happy people that he meets along the way.
A number of other reviewers have stated that the author seems to be wearing rose-tinted glasses as he meets the people of Siberia, and I tend to agree. Either Mowat is a bit naive or he has an agenda, and I think it's a bit of both. His writing suggests that he is an early environmentalist and a bit of a political radical, as many people were in the late 60's. Anyway, as he is carefully chaperoned across Russia, he spends time with people of the upper middle class (in as much as that country can have such a class), that is to say successful busines managers and intellectuals. No wonder everyone he meets seems happy and contented. I have a feeling that those who were miserable with their lives were carefully screened from his view.
Despite his tendency to romanticize the Soviet Union and the people he meets in Siberia, the book is a worthy examination of the geography of Siberia and also reminds of some important and helpful big ideas like how we should respect nature and treat minorities well.
Overall, I enjoyed The Siberians although, honestly, it could have been a bit shorter.
As a final note, if you want a more balanced and realistic view of life in the Soviet Union, check out David Shipler's "Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams" which was published about a decade after The Siberians.
A number of other reviewers have stated that the author seems to be wearing rose-tinted glasses as he meets the people of Siberia, and I tend to agree. Either Mowat is a bit naive or he has an agenda, and I think it's a bit of both. His writing suggests that he is an early environmentalist and a bit of a political radical, as many people were in the late 60's. Anyway, as he is carefully chaperoned across Russia, he spends time with people of the upper middle class (in as much as that country can have such a class), that is to say successful busines managers and intellectuals. No wonder everyone he meets seems happy and contented. I have a feeling that those who were miserable with their lives were carefully screened from his view.
Despite his tendency to romanticize the Soviet Union and the people he meets in Siberia, the book is a worthy examination of the geography of Siberia and also reminds of some important and helpful big ideas like how we should respect nature and treat minorities well.
Overall, I enjoyed The Siberians although, honestly, it could have been a bit shorter.
As a final note, if you want a more balanced and realistic view of life in the Soviet Union, check out David Shipler's "Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams" which was published about a decade after The Siberians.
September 5, 2011
Any one who doesn't like this book is obviously not interested in remote hydroelectroic projects, kimberlite deposits or gold. The other reviews on goodreads correctly point out that the book is, on the face of it, a somewhat blase travel log, most notable for ubiquitous liquor. It should be kept in mind that Mowat was the first Westerner to visit most of these places since the Russian Revolution and his somewhat pat descriptions of economic development were (to his contemporaries) mind-boggling facts with no comparison in the North American Arctic (which is where Mowat first gained notoriety for his first book, People of the Deer, the critical and controversial bent of which no doubt ingratiated him with Soviet Officialdom).
More than any impression, this book leaves me wondering what fate had in store for the 100,000s of European immigrants to Soviet Siberia; whether the diverse economies that the Communist state intentionally developed still linger to any meaningful extent (fur farming, reindeer farming, specialized arctic crops, summer shipping, extremely remote logging, and tourism fostered around, hydroelectric projects, gold, diamond, oil and other extractive industries).
More than any impression, this book leaves me wondering what fate had in store for the 100,000s of European immigrants to Soviet Siberia; whether the diverse economies that the Communist state intentionally developed still linger to any meaningful extent (fur farming, reindeer farming, specialized arctic crops, summer shipping, extremely remote logging, and tourism fostered around, hydroelectric projects, gold, diamond, oil and other extractive industries).
May 15, 2015
First read this in about 1983 and (at the age of 13) found it heavy going - but actually it's a very digestible, rather rosy-specked look at life, and economics, in Siberia in 1966-69 - where most people, native or imported from western Russia, were apparently very gung-ho about the opportunities (for freedom in industry, as much as anything) that Sibera offered. It really requires an update - which I would love to undertake, if anyone would like to send me there - on what has happened to the new cities, the ecology of Baikal, the native populations.
In particular Farley gets very involved in how much better the Yakut, Evenk and others are treated by both the regional and national governments, in comparison with the undeniably dire way Canada was treating its 'small peoples'. He didn't make himself very popular - but he's a treasure really, even just for the idea of him freezing his яйца off in a kilt in Irkutsk.
A good thing to follow Red Plenty with, incidentally.
In particular Farley gets very involved in how much better the Yakut, Evenk and others are treated by both the regional and national governments, in comparison with the undeniably dire way Canada was treating its 'small peoples'. He didn't make himself very popular - but he's a treasure really, even just for the idea of him freezing his яйца off in a kilt in Irkutsk.
A good thing to follow Red Plenty with, incidentally.
April 8, 2012
It is Spring Break, the sun is out and I am in a reading frenzy and the topic is Siberia. Farley Mowat's book was published in 1970 about his visits with Siberian peoples in the 1960's. This book is more about the people while Frazier's book focuses on the environment and scenery. They do not always share the same view. While the natives are proud of their education and connection with the environment as they build new industries and economies in the sixties, the cities of the nineties are dirty and polluted and often partially abandoned. I can only guess at what happened, but the fall of communism probably has to be connected. Again, I had my Russian map and computer handy as I read this book and looked at images of the people of Siberia.
September 2, 2015
Farley Mowat writes about Siberia in the 1960s and captures a fascinating point in history. Due to the popularity of his novels in Russia, and his love for the North of Canada, he was allowed unequaled access to Siberia during a period of booming growth. He begrudginly writes about the statistics of industrialization in the region, but his real focus is on the 'Small Peoples' of Siberia. A conservationist tale somewhat before its time, this is a wonderful and beautiful way to become familiar with the natural wealth and peoples of Siberia. He tells a lot of fun stories about travels, drinking and funny characters, so it doesn't come across at all dry.
I recommend it!
I recommend it!
March 6, 2016
I found Mowat's account of his travels into Siberia during the 1960s quite fascinating -- especially in an American/Vietnam/LBJ perspective. Mowat with his free, easy, and so honest style brings much of the place and people alive from their own, rather than an official, perspective. The book is primarily a personal experience of culture and place in relation to his native Canada. The overall attitude of the people as they aspire and solve problems peculiar to the taiga and tundra is inspiring. Mowat provides some geography/geology. I wonder where all these developments are now with the break-up of the USSR. The book inspires me to learn more about this part of the world and the people.
December 2, 2007
Sadly this was due back at the library before I could finish it. It wasn't really all that informative, but it was entertaining and Farley Mowat is kind of insane. He tried to wear a kilt in Siberia but had to stop because he almost froze his balls off. One of my favorite bits was about his book, "Never Cry Wolf," being translated into Russian. They didn't get the reference in the title so they translated it as "Wolves! Please Don't Cry!"
March 12, 2011
This book was mostly interesting as a preparation for Ian Frazier's Siberian book, and the 2 together provide part of the historical arc of the USSR in Siberia. Mowat was apparently beloved to the Russians and they had him visit where they basically gave several company tours of industrial sites in Siberia. He claims that American beef ranchers blocked the development of reindeer meat (a supposedly lower energy source of meat)- reindeer meat anybody?
March 12, 2012
Although it bogs down a bit in places this book provides a detailed snapshot of life in Siberia in the 1960s. I can't help but wonder what effect global warming has had on these communities, or that of the disbanding of the USSR.
November 9, 2007
Canadian naturalist travels as official guest throughout Soviet era Siberia, drinks lots of vodka, meets really great people, and discusses all things boreal. A really fun, though dated, book.
December 11, 2008
They put away alot of vodka in Siberia. And they build dams with permafrost.
August 14, 2012
A cultural adventure... you drink vodka, chase caribou, and freeze to death with these brusk hardy Siberians
February 10, 2013
good but very dated
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