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Home > The Victorian World > Europe > Siberia
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Siberia is a name that still strikes a chill in one's heart. In the Victorian era, thousands of Russians were exiled to the prison camps and mines of Siberia, generally for "political" crimes. In the late 1880's, George Kennan, an American journalist and explorer, undertook a monumental journey to visit these camps and interview their occupants. The results were published in serial form in Century Magazine (as provided below) and later in two book volumes. By the way, Kennan is a very enjoyable writer - still eminiently readable today - and I highly recommend his earlier work on travels in Russia, Tent Life in Siberia A New Account of an Old Undertaking; Adventures among the Koraks and Other Tribes In Kamchatka and Northern Asia (free on Kindle). In this book, Kennan describes his travels in Russia to lay the groundwork for setting up a telegraph cable across the far reaches of that country (it didn't happen, and his crew ultimately sold off insulators to the locals as fancy teacups!).
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- Sent to Siberia
(Cassell's Family Magazine, 1879)
- A Peep at Schoolgirls in Eastern Siberia
(Girl's Own Paper, 1882)
- The Natives of Siberia, by Henry Lansdell
(Harper's Monthly, 1887B)
- The Steppes of the Irtish, by George Kennan
(Century Magazine, 1888B)
- Though part of Kennan's larger look at the political prisons of Siberia (below), this article is more of a travelogue of the tribes of the Steppes.
- Downhill with a Vengeance, by W.H. Gilder
(St. Nicholas, 1889)
- Negotiating a particularly steep mountain pass in Siberia.
- On the Road to Siberia: The Story of a Polish Prisoner (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1889)
- Turchanoff - An Adventure in Siberia
(Pictorial Museum of Sport & Adventure, ca. 1890)
- The account of a prisoner who escaped from Siberia. I can't locate any reference to this name; the spelling has probably changed since the 1890's.
Siberia and the Exile System, by George Kennan
(Century Magazine, 1888-1890)
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George Kennan was a widely traveled writer and war correspondent who became noted as an expert on "all matters pertaining to Russia." He was the first American to visit and explore certain regions of the Caucasus, and wrote ethnographic descriptions of many native peoples of Siberia. Though his leanings were first "Tsarist," his interviews with members of the Russian revolution of the time and his subsequent study of the Russian/Siberian penal system turned him into a staunch supporter of the revolution. He published his lengthy series on the Siberian prison system in
Century Magazine (from 1888-1890), and later as a two-volume book Siberia and The Exile System.
George Kennan writes, "I purpose to set forth... what seems to me one of the most important and efficient of the causes which led the Russian revolutionists to adopt in 1878 the unfortunate, mistaken, and criminal policy of "terror"; namely, the treatment of political offenders in the Russian prisons. Whatever view may be taken of the phases through which the Russian revolutionary movement has passed since 1870, there can, I think, be no question that its last phase - organized assassination - is largely the result of what the revolutionists regard as the cruel and inhuman treatment of "politicals" in the fortress of Petropavlovsk, the castle of Schlusselburg, and the prisons of Moscow, Kiev, and Odessa. Before proceeding, therefore, to consider such crimes as the assassination of Alexander II, or to pass judgment upon such characters as those which came into prominence with the adoption of the terroristic policy, it is absolutely necessary to have a clear conception of the life of the Russian revolutionists in prison."
- The Last Appeal of the Russian Liberals
(1888A)
- An address laid before the Tsar, who apparently meant to act upon it. On 12 March 1881 he "signed a proclamation announcing to the people his intention to summon a national assembly and to grant a constitutional form of government." However, the next day, before the proclamation was made public, he was assassinated.
- Part 1: Prison life of the Russian Revolutionists.
(1888A)
- Part 2: Russian provincial prisons.
(1888A)
- Part 3: A Russian political prison: The fortress of Petropavlovsk.
(1888A)
- Part 4: Further details of the prison life of the revolutionists.
(1888A)
- Part 5: The Russian penal code.
(1888A)
- Part 6: Siberia and the Exile System - Author's Preface
(1888B)
- Part 7: Plains and Prisons of Western Siberia
(1888B)
- Part 8: The Steppes of the Irtish
(1888B)
- Part 9: My Meeting with the Political Exiles
(1888B)
- Part 10: Exile by Administrative Process
(1888B)
- Part 11: The Tomsk Forwarding Prison
(1888B)
- Part 12: Political Exiles and Common Convicts at Tomsk
(1889A)
- Part 13: Life on the Great Siberian Road
(1889A)
- Part 14: The Life of Administrative Exiles
(1889A)
- Part 15: Exiles at Irkutsk
(1889A)
- Part 16: A Ride Through the Trans-Baikal
(1889B)
- Part 17: The Convict Mines of Kara
(1889B)
- Part 18: The "Free Command" at the Mines of Kara
(1889B)
- Part 19: State Criminals at the Kara Mines
(1889B)
- Part 20: The History of the Kara Political Prison
(1889B)
- Part 21: In East-Siberian Silver Mines
(1889B)
- Is the Siberian Exile System to Be at Once Abolished? by George Kennan
(Century Magazine, 1888B)
- A commentary on the articles above, in which Kennan notes that planned reforms to the exile system would not be abolished anytime soon.
- An Open Letter by Mr. George Kennan on a Question of Judgment, by George Kennan
(Century Magazine, 1889A)
- A response to a concern about Kennan's series on Siberia.
- Adventures in Eastern Siberia; The Latest Siberian Tragedy
(Century Magazine, 1890A)
- The Siberian Exile Petition Movement of Philadelphia, by Alfred J.P. McClure
(Century Magazine, 1890B)
- Mr. Kennan's Reply to Certain Criticisms, by George Kennan
(Century Magazine, 1891B)
- More comments on the exile system.
- A Winter Journey Through Siberia/My Last Days in Siberia, by George Kennan
(Century Magazine, 1891B)
- More Information:
- George Kennan, by Anna Laurens Dawes
(Century Magazine, 1888B)
- George Kennan
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Kennan_(explorer)
- Siberia and the Exile System
- Volume 1: E-book (free) • Print (POD version of the free Ebook)
- Volume 2: E-book (free) • Print (POD version of the free Ebook)
See also
• Russia: Moscow & St. Petersburg
• Russia: Travel, Life & Culture
• Russia: Politics & Controversies
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