Beyond Siberia

by Christina Dodwell

Beyond the Tsar and the Soviet Union’s notorious penal colony of Siberia lies Russia’s own Far East, a vast territory stretching east to the Bering Strait and Alaska and south to the islands Russia disputes with Japan. It is a land of exiles and their outcast descendants, of scientists and would-be exploiters of its oil, gold and caviar. It is also home to various indigenous reindeer-herding peoples whose way of life was rapidly being extinguished under the steamroller of communist state education until perestroika acknowledged these ethnic peoples. Foreign travel became possible and Christina Dodwell was one of the first to explore Kamchatka, that exposed peninsular reaching a thousand kilometres south into the Pacific. She chose to travel during the last months of winter, learning to herd reindeer and drive both reindeer and dogs, skiing frozen rivers, meeting vulcanologists and geologists working in the geyser region of the south. She also tracked bears on a preserve usually forbidden to outsiders. In addition, Christina travelled with a dance troupe entertaining the scattered communities of reindeer herdsmen, while a man from the ministry on the same helicopter explained why there was no cash to pay them. Staying with these native peoples in their reindeer-skin tents gave Christina an opportunity to do what she does finding out about the minutiae of their daily life, listening to their stories and legends and discovering a world still ruled by an animist religion the state has never managed to suppress.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Russia

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Christina was born in Nigeria, West Africa, and educated in England. Her life of remarkable adventure began by chance in 1975, when she made a 20,000-mile journey round Africa by horse, camel and dug-out canoe. She followed that up with journeys in Papua New Guinea, China, Siberia, Madagascar, Turkey and Iran.

Christina has made 3 television films and more than 40 radio documentary programmes for BBC Radio 4 - several have received distinguished merit awards. She has worked for the Consulate of Madagascar in London for fourteen years and in 1995 she founded The Dodwell Trust, a charity dedicated to the Third World.

Christina was awarded the Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in 1989.

Like Isabella Bird and Rosita Forbes, Christina demonstrates enormous courage, a keen eye for detail, an insatiable curiosity about the local people and great respect for their culture.