Into Siberia

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

By: Gregory J. Wallance

Narrated by: 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

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.

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.