Into Siberia

George Kennan's Epic Journey Through the Brutal, Frozen Heart of Russia

De: Gregory J. Wallance

Narrado por: Daniel Henning

In the late nineteenth century, close diplomatic relations existed between the United States and Russia. All that changed when George Kennan went to Siberia in 1885 to investigate the exile system and his eyes were opened to the brutality Russia was wielding to suppress dissent.

Over ten months Kennan traveled eight thousand miles, mostly in horse-drawn carriages, sleighs, or on horseback. He endured suffocating sandstorms in the summer and blizzards in the winter. His interviews with convicts and political exiles revealed how Russia ran on the fuel of inflicted pain and fear. Prisoners in the mines were chained day and night to their wheelbarrows as punishment. Babies in exile parties froze to death in their mothers' arms. Kennan came to call the exiles' experience in Siberia a "perfect hell of misery."

After returning to the United States, Kennan set out to generate public outrage over the plight of the exiles, writing the renowned Siberia and the Exile System. He then went on a nine-year lecture tour to describe the suffering of the Siberian exiles, intensifying the newly emerging diplomatic conflicts between the two countries which last to this day.

©2023 Gregory J. Wallance (P)2023 Tantor

It can always get worse

The sad irony is the revolutionaries eventually toppled the Russian regime who oversaw the horrific exile system and they replaced them tsar with with the most murderous regime in history , the Bolsheviks who gave rise to Stalin and helped Mao come to power. Even the Nazis came to power in part as a counter to the Bolsheviks encroachment

Perhaps Tolstoy was right when he told the author that violent revolution is not Gods way and will not bring his kingdom.

Story is a decent read but author has a nasal sound that’s annoying.

The Cold and Cruel

Very good book. The narrator is very hard to get used to. Before you read this or even in the middle, look up GK. He had a long career after thet time covered in this book. If you like explorers,strange lands and differentsocieties, this is a must read!

Dry and boring

Learned that the new leader was as bad as the old one. It sounded like the book was written in 1895. Minimal research went into this book. It was if this is a book about Kennen's book.

Decent in-depth history

The history and description of the landscape was interesting. Unfortunately I had a hard time with the narration. It was a little too upbeat and cheery for the dark suffering that was going on. 4 for the story. 3, maybe 2 for the narration.

Amazing story - but annoying narrator

The story is extremely interesting, but I wish it was a different narrator. I’m sorry to say that. Something about his voice and the way he narrates that is very annoying. Also, sometimes he seems incredibly insensitive. For example, in chapter 5, after Kennan’s wife has experienced a very difficult childbirth, her sister writes him a sympathy letter and this narrator reads it with incredibly insensitive sarcasm. I have no idea why this narrator was hired. I would have enjoyed this book so much more with probably any other narrator. The story is rich and interesting.

History and Adventure

When we were kids, some parents threatened to send misbehaving children to the salt mines, or to Siberia. This book shows how scary that threat could be. Siberia in the 19th Century became a harsh prison for Russian exiles. These were not just criminals, but often political exiles, wealthy nobles and intellectuals who were thought to have criticized the tsar.

George Kennan exposed the horrors of the Russian exile system after a lengthy 1885 expedition into Siberia with his artist friend George Frost. Until his expedition, Kennan believed the exile system was humane. But as he toured the overcrowded, disease-infested prisons and met with wretched exiles across Siberia, he realized the cruelty and horror of their punishment. He changed his mind about the exile system, and he changed the minds of the American public through his articles in popular magazines of the day.

This is a stirring book, and it’s also a remarkable adventure story. Kennan traveled twice to Siberia, once as part of an 1865 team considering a telegraph route, then in 1885 for his investigation of the Russian exile system. Both trips were hazardous and thrilling. Kennan confronted wild bears, blinding blizzards, out-of-control sleigh rides, suspicious officials and his own physical and mental exhaustion. Frost appeared to suffer a nervous breakdown. But they didn’t stop their investigation.

I would recommend this book for those interested in Russian and Siberian history, but also for those who like adventure and survival stories. The narration was well done.