A Journey to the End of the Russian Empire

by Anton Chekhov

Overwhelmed by what he felt was the worthlessness of his great success as a writer, Chekhov (1860-1904) decided to leave everything behind him and go to the far reaches of Siberia - to the terrible Russian penal colony on Sakhalin Island. This book mixes his witty, charming letters back to friends on his long journey with his grim account of the reality of life in one of the worst places on earth.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Russia, Russian Literature, Memoir, History, Classics

111 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1893

About the author

Dramas, such as The Seagull (1896, revised 1898), and including "A Dreary Story" (1889) of Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, also Chekov, concern the inability of humans to communicate.

Born ( Антон Павлович Чехов ) in the small southern seaport of Taganrog, the son of a grocer. His grandfather, a serf, bought his own freedom and that of his three sons in 1841. He also taught to read. A cloth merchant fathered Yevgenia Morozova, his mother.

"When I think back on my childhood," Chekhov recalled, "it all seems quite gloomy to me." Tyranny of his father, religious fanaticism, and long nights in the store, open from five in the morning till midnight, shadowed his early years. He attended a school for Greek boys in Taganrog from 1867 to 1868 and then Taganrog grammar school. Bankruptcy of his father compelled the family to move to Moscow. At the age of 16 years in 1876, independent Chekhov for some time alone in his native town supported through private tutoring.

In 1879, Chekhov left grammar school and entered the university medical school at Moscow. In the school, he began to publish hundreds of short comics to support his mother, sisters and brothers. Nicholas Leikin published him at this period and owned Oskolki (splinters), the journal of Saint Petersburg. His subjected silly social situations, marital problems, and farcical encounters among husbands, wives, mistresses, and lust; even after his marriage, Chekhov, the shy author, knew not much of whims of young women.

Nenunzhaya pobeda , first novel of Chekhov, set in 1882 in Hungary, parodied the novels of the popular Mór Jókai. People also mocked ideological optimism of Jókai as a politician.

Chekhov graduated in 1884 and practiced medicine. He worked from 1885 in Peterburskaia gazeta.

In 1886, Chekhov met H.S. Suvorin, who invited him, a regular contributor, to work for Novoe vremya, the daily paper of Saint Petersburg. He gained a wide fame before 1886. He authored The Shooting Party , his second full-length novel, later translated into English. Agatha Christie used its characters and atmosphere in later her mystery novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd . First book of Chekhov in 1886 succeeded, and he gradually committed full time. The refusal of the author to join the ranks of social critics arose the wrath of liberal and radical intelligentsia, who criticized him for dealing with serious social and moral questions but avoiding giving answers. Such leaders as Leo Tolstoy and Nikolai Leskov, however, defended him. "I'm not a liberal, or a conservative, or a gradualist, or a monk, or an indifferentist. I should like to be a free artist and that's all..." Chekhov said in 1888.

The failure of The Wood Demon , play in 1889, and problems with novel made Chekhov to withdraw from literature for a period. In 1890, he traveled across Siberia to Sakhalin, remote prison island. He conducted a detailed census of ten thousand convicts and settlers, condemned to live on that harsh island. Chekhov expected to use the results of his research for his doctoral dissertation. Hard conditions on the island probably also weakened his own physical condition. From this journey came his famous travel book.

Chekhov practiced medicine until 1892. During these years, Chechov developed his concept of the dispassionate, non-judgmental author. He outlined his program in a letter to his brother Aleksandr: "1. Absence of lengthy verbiage of political-social-economic nature; 2. total objectivity; 3. truthful descriptions of persons and objects; 4. extreme brevity; 5. audacity and originality; flee the stereotype; 6. compassion." Because he objected that the paper conducted against Alfred Dreyfus, his friendship with Suvorin ended

Reviews

[Daren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short excerpt book, as a part of the Penguin Great Journeys set.

In 1890 Chekhov travelled across Russia to the labour camp / penal colony island of Sakhalin. This book is made up of two sections: the first a series of heavily abridged letters to family and friends covering the journey eastwards. The writing in this section is jocular and informing, makes for a very interesting travelogue. There are good descriptions of the tundra and taiga, which remind me of the scenery I saw when I travelled on the TransSiberian a number of years ago (the TransMongolian actually, as I turned off South to Ulaan Bataar).

The second part of the book contains excerpts from a report on the conditions of life on Sakhalin. It stops short of being detached, but is still written in almost a report formate. Each town is discussed, and statistics are quoted:
Voskresenskoye is twice as large as Uskovo. Inhabitants, 183: 175 male and 8 female. There are 7 free families but not one legally married. There are few children in the settlement and only one girl. It has 97 homesteads and 77 co-owners.

It does however cover most aspects of life on the island, including a large section on the re-sentencing of those who commit crimes or attempt escape from the convict colonies, including the vigorous torture and executions.It also covers the local inhabitants, the native Gilyak people, and their life on the island.

Unfortunately the excerpt doesn't cover the history of the island, which has been argued over by Russia and Japan for hundreds of years.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I borrowed this from my local library. I thought it looked a surprisingly slim volume and soon found the reason for this, which is that this edition is heavily abridged. The book is in two parts. The first consists of a series of entertaining letters written by Chekhov to his family as he travelled through Siberia on his way to Sakhalin Island in 1890. The second part consists merely of extracts from Chekhov's book "Sakhalin Island". At the time Sakhalin was used by the Russian authorities as a penal colony and Chekhov was interested in penal reform. The extracts cover a journey along the course of the River Tym; observations on the island's indigenous people (Chekhov's views appear to have been very enlightened for the time); and lastly some fairly horrifying descriptions of how the penal colony operated. This is a decent enough read as far as it goes, but I think I would rather have read the unabridged version of Chekhov's account, even if, judging by these extracts, it would be a fairly grim read.

[Terence · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an abridgement of letters Anton Chekhov wrote to his family and friends during a working vacation to Russia's Far East, and of the report on the conditions on Sakhalin Island he wrote for the Tsar's government.

The report almost reads like one of Chekhov's stories. It's full of rich description and largely sympathetic protrayals of the poor souls who populated one of the remotest outposts of Russian imperialism.

And the letters describe a Chekhov who was having a great time getting to Sakhalin. Despite some horrid traveling conditions and seemingly endless delays, Chekhov was never healthier and observant in his life.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

"A Journey to the End of the Russian Empire" by Anton Chekov is a nice sampling of the observational power of one of Russia's foremost playwrights. The book describes Chekov's journey to Sakhalin Island, a Russian Penal colony at the furthest end of the Russian Empire. The book is very short (approximately 109 pp.) and is part of the Penguin Classic's "Great Journeys" Collection which are short, abridged travel accounts.

Many of the books images are haunting and paint the picture of a lawless, backwards world beaten down by the lash of the birch rod. It is a lonely, unforgiving place where the prisoners and settlers live in abject, violent poverty and the entire population has been dehumanized by the harsh conditions. I For all of the effort of Russia to portray itself as an enlightened European power, Chekov's Sakhalin only proves how far this portion of the Russian Empire was from that idea.

Many of the text's images are distinctly Chekovian such idle, debilitating bored bourgeoisie wasting away in the country and an overwhelming abundance of irony. Many of the images try to show the cruelty and absurdity of the East. One is the description of a warden's house where the family is being waited on by slavish, broken prisoners- a feudal system that exists almost 30 years after the abolition of the serfs. There is a town called Derbinskoye named after a cruel warden who was killed by his prisoners: "He was murdered in a bakery. He defended himself and fell through the fermenting bread batter, bloodying the dough. His death was greeted with great rejoicing by the convicts who donated a purse of 60 roubles to the murderer." One passage, worth quoting at length, shows how much this places transforms man into caricature and brings him to his lowest depths:

"These words were intended for a group of twenty prisoners who, from the few phrases I overheard were pleading to be sent to the hospital. They were ragged, soaked by the rain, covered with mud and shivering. They wanted to demonstrate in mime exactly what ailed them, but on their pinched, frozen faces in somehow came out false and crooked, although they were probably not lying at all. 'Oh, my God, my God!' someone sighed, and my nightmare seemed to be continuing. The word 'pariah' comes tom mind, meaning that a person can fall no lower. During my entire sojourn on Sakhalin only in the settlers barracks near the mine and here, in Derbinskoye, on that rainy, muddy morning, did I live through moments when I felt that I saw before me the extreme limits of man's degradation, lower than which he cannot go."

While the images presented in "Journey..." are well drawn, this particular edition lacks because of its format. I admire the desire to make these accounts accessible to a wider audience but I feel that the book suffer from what appears to be extreme abridgment. Part One is made up of truncated letters, some with three or four sets of ellipses on one page. Part Two are more complete excerpts from "The Island: A Journey to Sakhalin," and reads much better than the first part. However, I always had the feeling like something was missing or I was not getting the whole picture. An excellent introduction but not enough for the serious student.

[TarasProkopyuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Произведение "Из Сибири" состоит из писем. И лично для меня эти письма Антона Чехова о Сибири и её жизни во время длительной поездки через неё на Сахалин читались словно очередное его художественное произведение. Оно как и многие другие работа автора переполнены любовью и состраданию к людям жизнь которых словно в плену в огромной и безмолвной мгле.

[Tam G · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay. Obviously more intended as casual letters or notes for reports or articles than a whole work of memoir or non-fiction.

Starts whiny. It's not easy crossing Siberia. Gets slightly better after a scene visiting a Japanese prostitute that comes out of nowhere. (Maybe that loosens him up a bit? Or maybe he just gets more focus when he arrives?)

Then you get vignettes of Sakhalin prison life. Lists of figures. Frustration with the everyday violence of the place.

I wish there was more. More introspection. More depth. Less stories heard from officers or the governor and more stories taken from people themselves.

[Anthony Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This abridged version of Chekhov’s report on the state of the prison colonies on Sakhalin Island at the extreme eastern end of the Russian Empire makes for some heavy reading, and two of the four excerpts are often full of meticulously recorded data and population statistics which I thought dull, but not uninteresting. These excerpts are preceded by excerpts from the letters that Chekhov wrote during his journey across Russia from Moscow by coach, private conveyance and lake and river steamers, and then during his time in Sakhalin. They are in many ways rather more readable than his official report.

The overwhelming impression I was left with was that Chekhov and his fellow travellers must have been hardy stoics, their intrepidity often stoked with vodka (though Chekhov seems to have been relatively abstemious) and their tempers strained by each other’s unavoidable company, the weather, delays, the general discomfort, accommodation of uncertain quality, anxiety about money, and boredom. Nevertheless, Chekhov often records just how awestruck he is by the scenery, especially on his journey down the river Amur on steamers that usually vibrate so much that he can scarcely write. The Amur is the boundary between Russia to the North and China to the South, so the racial mix of the region is a source of wonder and excitement. There is one episode in which Chekhov, writing to a friend rather than his family, describes a visit to a Japanese brothel where he clearly had a wonderful time in surroundings which were immaculate, with women who were polite, professional, courteous and pampering and, he notes approvingly as both client and doctor, ‘clean’.

But the island’s penal colonies and its free inhabitants are another story. On the one hand, they appear early on to be open prisons with prisoners going about ordinary daily jobs. But it’s not long before Chekhov is out and about and travelling in gruelling conditions, usually cold and wet and boggy and tree-obstructed, from one place to another. Roads are few and far between, and tracks are often the only routes there are, and sometimes not even those. Agriculture everywhere is tenuously viable, to put it at its best; housing is wooden, planked if you’re lucky, otherwise the walls consist simply of timbers covered with tree bark.

And the prisons are places of great misery and brutality. What must be one of the best known episodes in the whole account is included here: Chekhov’s description of a flogging – the standard punishment for wrongdoing of any kind, and administrable with different lashes. Chekhov witnesses 90 lashes with the three-thonged version. Everyone knows how dreadful the punishment is, and most are quiet and sympathetic to the prisoner, but there are one or two who are sadistic enough openly to relish watching it.

The other standard punishment is being kept in a dark room with one hot meal every three days. The prisoner is likely to be chained as well.

What a curious, beastly world, a mixture of state-sanctioned cruelty, kindness, desperation, illness, hopelessness, fear, hunger. And what fortitude Chekhov evinces, as he observes unswervingly records it all,. As a doctor, he would have been well aware of his professional principle ‘Primum non nocere’, and yet here he saw first-hand the opposite of that, a system in which harm seems to be the guiding principle in administering justice. The prison doctor is left to do the healing, although he is powerless to prevent the harm being done in the first place. A bizarre moral world indeed.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first part of the book; letters Chekhov wrote during his journey across Russia to Sakhalin Island, was interesting and amusing. The second part, details of the life of the people on Sakhalin Island which was a penal colony where convicts and exiles were sent, was not enjoyable but bleak and dark. The island was a sort of precursor to the Gulags. Chekhov was highlighting this place so as to change things for the better but much worse in Russian history was to come.
I would like to read others in this series.

[Sobriquet · Rating 4 out of 5]

The air on board gets red hot from all the talking. Out here nobody worries about saying what he thinks. There's no one to arrest you and nowhere to exile people to, so you can be as liberal as you please. [The journey- Amur in 1890]

This book contains two extracts, the first from A Life in Letters contains Chekhov's letters home; describes his journey to Sakhalin, and the second is an extract from The Island : A Journey to Sakhalin , and details his impressions of the penal colony on Sakhalin; where he spent three months interviewing the settlers and convicts.

Not only do the prisoners become hardened and brutalized from corporal punishment, but those who inflict the punishment become hardened, and so to the spectators. Educated people are no exception. [Sakhalin]

My review: Beautifully written and appalling.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Strong triggers in this book for racism, sexism, child prostitution, and women bought and sold and used as currency. If you’re not triggered by these things, there are other sections of the book describing the landscape that are interesting, but I would not under any circumstances recommend this book.

[50andsomething · Rating 4 out of 5]

An account of the young Chekhov's uncomfortable, yet beautiful, journey across Russia. The second half of the book is an account of life and the inhabitants on the prison island of Sakhalin. A different Chekhov emerges from this account - appalled by the cruelty and inhumanity he observes, and their coarsening effect on guards and officials.

[Theodoros Vassiliadis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brief though depicting , delivering realism mixed with humanism , revealing the harshness of the convicts of all kinds that were thrown to the inhospitable Russian far east and their forgetfulness (by the state ) and dryness of morals , following this.
Oblivion of one and abandonment in the hands of fate and the cruel environment

[Alex Tsiatsos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm trying to add books that I've read in the past. I don't remember much about this except that I remember thinking that it was elegant. But I would expect that, and I don't know if that is my actual memory or my after the fact expectation.

[Mike Reiff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bleak and dispassionate in the later half, Chekov’s reportage on the prison islands in 1890, what this book is known for. The book is joyful and invigorating in the front half, his letters home as he gets there. An interesting juxtaposition Penguin has put together here.

[Wasi Rizvi · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting application of Chekhov's ability to describe a scene, on this journey, carrying his narrative as if creating a timeless painting, a snapshot, of his observations.

[Cristian N. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Olena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sobering recollections of times long past.

[SB · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[Ape · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very interesting read, but incredibly bleak and not the most positive look on people, especially in the last chapter, so it really leaves you on a low! The book is excerpts partly about Chekhov's journey across Siberia to the eastern sea front of Russia, and from there mainly about the island of Sakhalin, which is a Russian island, north of Japan. The first part of this book is sections of letters to family and friends about his journey to this island. The second part is more in essay form and is a selection of chapters about life on this island.

It's not a cheerful life. Well, this is one of the places they were sending their prisoners in exile, and it sounds like a bleak place. The land sounds inhospitable and diffecult to farm, so generally most people there are starving. He mentions seeing ice flows in the water in June, ground frosts in August. And of course when everything thaws out, the mosquitoes roll out. So the prisoners and the Russians (as in not prisoners) spend their time drinking vodka, playing cards and beating the living crap out of each other. The final chapter, which is about corporal punishment and their attitudes towards the beatings makes very grim reading and makes you wonder if there was any humanity left there. The few women living there are treated terribily, basically prostitutes, and he notes girls getting into the game at the age of 9, women running brothels where they pimp out their daughters. There are native tribespeople living there, the Gilyak, and to begin with you get the impression that he sees them as dirty, simplistic, but noble people who don't like lying or avoiding a task once they've agreed to undertake it. And then you find out about their women, whom they treat as cattle, use to batter for animals, goods etc, kick and beat at will, and basically have no respect for what so ever.

So, an interesting read, but my god, not a place you'd want to visit.

[Felicity Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

With all of the books paying homage to works that are much longer, all of the books in the Penguin series of Great Journeys {each around one hundred - one hundred and fifty pages} offer the reader a glimpse into a much longer, possibly daunting, text that they may well have never considered. I know a few of them even made me want to take a look at the book from which the abridged excerpt had been taken ... others, well, not so much.

To my mind one of the best books in the whole series. Made up of two sections, the first, abridged letters to Chekhov's family and friends, the second, report on life on Sakhalin ... and in particular that of the penal colony there. Yes, there's the not altogether unexpected torture, execution, racism, sexism, child prostitution and the use of women being sold/used as a currency BUT there is also the equally fascinating {less gory} insight into the lives of the native Gilyak people, free Russians who had settled on the island.

Copyright ... Felicity Grace Terry @ Pen and Paper

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

One thing I will say, is that this book isn't easy read; I don't mean, "all the big words" make for confusement, I mean the content of the narrative, can be tough to take at times. It is a good mix of charming/witty letters to friends on his journey, with a dark accout one of the worst places on earth, and its inhabitants. It is emotionally gruelling, and the end in particular, I found to be nothing short of profound. Your conscience won't be called upon, but whatever happens to be going on in your 'personal' life at the time will shoot from your ears immediately. When reading the second part of the book in particular, I was slapped across the face with the wet flannel of reality; reality then that is, but reality all the same and something I will never fully understand. I can only appreciate the injustices and, if I have anything about me, shall further bury my head in research on the Russian penal colony on Sakhalin Island.

[Matthew]

My sensitive comedian, apparently his empathy did not march toward every battered soul. He's real irked by the Siberian prisoners, but his casual amusement concerning his experiences with Japanese prostitutes made me put the book down. I tried to keep reading. Skipped around, only to find haughty descriptions of his discomfort within lodgings located at the most desolate places on earth. "Vodka everywhere on this continent but not a decent fish meal to be had?" "Why the hell does this village of farmers smell like dung?" "I'm outraged that this bed in a prison camp isn't comfortable!" - well, I'm sort of paraphrasing.

I know he wasn't always dignified and noble and filled with good humor, but I don't want to know that!

[Eric in Ohio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not your average Chekhov. This is short - an abridgement of the dark and oppressive Journey to Sakhalin Island - non-fiction and produced sort of on contract. A gritty look at the penal colony and frontierland of Sakhalin, that would have been accompanied well by the contrast of an American westward migration tract, of which none come to mind. Provided me with just the right contrast to the remarkably brighter island of Revillagiggedo off the coast of Alaska, which I was visiting when reading this. Lots of facts and figures, including remarkable snapshots of the demographics of tremendously isolated and harsh communities that some people might be able to see from Alaska.

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was only a short book but it certainly packed a punch. The second half made for quite difficult reading.

The book is a mixture of Chekhov's letters to friends and family whilst travelling through Russia, and an account of the horrors of the penal colony on the island of Sakhalin. The letters were the first half of the book and were quite jovial, however the account of Sakhalin was harrowing to read. Reading, in graphic detail, about how the convicts were treated there sent chills through me.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1890 Chekhov travelled across Russia to the island of Sakhalin. This book is made up of two sections: the first a series of letters to family and friends covering the journey eastwards. Full of accounts of journeys by sleigh and ferry, waiting for days for riverboat connections, and the spectacular scenery of the Amur region.

The second is what reads like public articles on the conditions of life on Sakhalin which seems at that time to have dominated by convict colonies and the remnants of the Gilyak people. Grim, and informative.

[Mitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting account of Sakhalin, among other places. I read it because this is where many people claim Chekhov called Sakhalin "hell". In fact, he did - when he was viewing a prison on a beach and before he had even landed. Good to know he had a lot of good things to say about this island as well, and after all, it was a penal colony.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This concise account of the travels of Chekhov to the infamous penal colony in Sakhalin is fascinating. Chekhov is a skilled narrator, who writes with clarity and wit. The section on the morality of the denizens of Sakhalin is particularly matter-of-fact, and leaves a chilling feeling towards the nature of corporal punishment.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wish I had not bothered buying this, and gone for getting the full work - Sakhalin Island - straight away! That makes it hard to rate this work; how do you say that the original is so good that one cannot recommend an abridgement?

[Rory Bergin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A curious mixture, the first half is of letters home from Chekhov to family and friends which reveal him to be rather ordinary and unimpressive. The second half is a description of the island of Sakhalin, a kind of penal colony, and the longer it goes on the better it gets. His calm and dignified description of the horrible treatment of prisoners shows his intelligence and humanity.

[Paul Jellinek · Rating 4 out of 5]

The human side of Chekhov, as he makes his way across Siberia to the prison colonies of the Russian Far East. The first half is a series of letters to family and friends; the second half is a more academic record of his observations once he reached the penal colony. The letters are more fun.