Siberia and the Exile System: Volume 1

by George Kennan

This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1891 edition by the Century Co., New York.

Genres: History, Russia, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published June 5, 2002

About the author

George Kennan was an American explorer noted for his travels in the Kamchatka and Caucasus regions of Russia.

Do not confuse with his great-nephew, diplomat and historian George Frost Kennan (1904-2005)

Reviews

[David Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Think of this as the Gulag Archipelago of Tsarist times. Kennan, armed with permission from the government and a number of letters of introduction, sets off to investigate the Tsar's Siberian prison system.

It begins innocently enough. Siberia is a big place, far away from European Russia. So, the first order of business is to get there. And the journey starts off pleasant enough. Kennan describes his trip like a first rate travel writer. These chapters on their own would make an interesting travelogue through beautiful scenery.

The tone changes once he reaches the first prison transit camp. He and his faithful sidekick, Mr. Frost, are arrested for loitering around the prison. His permission slip does the trick, and for the next several chapters they go from transit prison to transit prison. We learn how the exiles, a combination of criminals and political prisoners, are moved along the routes east. It takes months, conditions are bad, there is much overcrowding and disease. Our travelers eventually reach their desired destinations - the brutal mines in the far east.

The scale of the book falls short of Solzhenitsyn's work, but the scope is similar. We learn about the conditions the prisoners face in the transit camps and on the roads. We learn about the justice system, such as it is, that set this all in motion. We are introduced to the officials overseeing the system as well as many of the so-called "nihilists": political prisoners exiled for terrorist activities.

Kennan and Frost take copious notes, make drawings, take photographs. Things begin, perhaps, as a not unusual bit of reporting. As their journey lengthens, however, and they meet more of the politicals, the tension increases. This is very much not the usual reporting job.

This was man's inhumanity to man as the state of the art at the time.

[Жанна Пояркова · Rating 4 out of 5]

Некоторые обвиняют большевиков в том, что они избавили страну от элиты. Кеннан, американец и исследователь Сибири, доказывает то, что царь и сам неплохо с этим справлялся. Особенно меня впечатлила ссылка в юрту к якутам и тот факт, что ссыльные дворяне вместе с семьями и детьми _годами_ шли к месту ссылки пешком. Женщины сходили с ума, мужчины стрелялись. Тюрьмы - отдельный разговор. Ну и других впечатляющих моментов здесь хватает, хотя начинается все как дневник путешественника. Хороший взгляд со стороны от человека, который сначала, вроде, думал, что все в порядке, а закончил тем, что помогал ссыльным бежать за границу и призывал разрушить "сраную рашку".

[Jindřich Zapletal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not know that such a comprehensive contemporary treatment of Russian exile system in late 19th century existed. It is long and the subject matter is depressing, but everything else about the book is great.

After his first visit in Russia, George Kennan spent years providing positive publicity in the West to the tsarist system. Which is probably why, during his second stay there, this time as an Associated Press journalist with an attached painter, he got official letters that allowed him a surprising level of access to the tsarist exile and katorga system in Siberia. The time was shortly after the 1881 assassination of Alexander II, with the associated influx of convicts and forced colonists; it also coincides with the first English translation of Dostoevsky's House of the Dead, which I do not think is a coincidence.

The result is a book filled to the brim with interviews with convicts and prison managers, descriptions of mines, prison hospitals and prison river barges, Siberian newspaper reports on the system, even secret memos to the tsar containing reform proposals, with extensive references and illustrations. In addition to the overwhelming autoptic quality of the book, it also has a feel of a definitive treatment of the topic, albeit from foreigner's point of view. Comparison with Solzhenitsyn's work is not out of place.

Needless to say, the katorga visits made Kennan reconsider his former rosy assessment of the Russian autocratic system. What a change of tone compared to his earlier writings.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

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I read Vol. one and two, both published in 1891 by the Century Co.

Both are amazing accounts of George Kennan's journey from St. Petersburg to Eastern Siberia in order to document the circumstances of 'administrative exiles'.
What he found were appalling conditions for any and all prisoners and/or exiles to Siberia.
It is an engrossing account as he is an excellent writer with a sense of humor, and speaks to us in this day and age.
The accompanying photos, all either sketches or actual photos by Mr. Frost who accompanied him, are amazing also. It is a picture of Eastern Siberia that is unseen any other way.
I recommend vol. one and two highly though it is, overall, a long and fascinating read. I am unsure how many libraries would carry these editions. The Peter White Public Library in Marquette, MI has both. Hopefully they will keep them forever.