Review: Into Siberia
Dec. 31st, 2024 07:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebGregory J. Wallace's book Into Siberia: George Kennan's Epic Journey Through the Brutal, Frozen Heart of Russia was recommended to me by a friend who knows I'm reading books about and set in other countries.
It's actually about two of his journeys through Siberia, the first being to help lay cable. He wanted to prove to himself that he was courageous. He succeeded.
The second time he wanted to observe Russia's exile system to better explain to his fellow Americans how much more humane it was than our penal system. For example, they let family members accompany them. And the Russians did let him inspect sites across Russia and interview not only the people in charge but also the exiles. In the end he decided he was horribly wrong and almost single-handedly changed US-Russian relations from friendly to not-so-friendly with his writings and speeches.
The Siberian exile system was not planned to be loathsome and vile... [It] was the product of imperial ambitions [for free workers], bureaucratic incompetence, corruption [sending off people you don't like without a trial], and inadequate funding [overcrowding and unsanitary conditions]. Centuries of grotesque penal evolution had spawned disease-ridden prisons, exile parties driven like cattle [except also wearing chains], virtual enslavement, and lunacies like the punishment of the Bell of Uglich [literally a church bell].
I won't go into any more details--I think you get the picture. Oh, except that it continued evolving into a worse and worse system.
One fascinating thing was just how difficult travel was for Kennan and the illustrator he brought with him: bouncing around in vehicles so much that they were bruised head-to-toe, having difficulty finding proper beds and avoiding bedbugs and other vermin, and being unable to sleep for long periods. How did the drivers they hired do this all the time? And yet it was much worse for the prisoners. And also for the people who accompanied them.
Another fascinating thing was that he met a female exile whose history and attitudes made him decide that she was even more courageous than he. He then gave up his beliefs that women were weak.
Another fascinating thing was that Kennan feared Americans wouldn't care about the terrible treatment of people in a land across the sea when they couldn't be encouraged to fight the injustices against Native Americans and recently freed slaves at home. But they did. Apparently the lack of guilt made it easier for them to be horrified and somehow they also managed to avoid feeling hypocritical. There should be a lesson here somehow in a country where some oppose teaching the bad parts of American history because they think it just makes white kids feel bad about themselves.
It's actually about two of his journeys through Siberia, the first being to help lay cable. He wanted to prove to himself that he was courageous. He succeeded.
The second time he wanted to observe Russia's exile system to better explain to his fellow Americans how much more humane it was than our penal system. For example, they let family members accompany them. And the Russians did let him inspect sites across Russia and interview not only the people in charge but also the exiles. In the end he decided he was horribly wrong and almost single-handedly changed US-Russian relations from friendly to not-so-friendly with his writings and speeches.
The Siberian exile system was not planned to be loathsome and vile... [It] was the product of imperial ambitions [for free workers], bureaucratic incompetence, corruption [sending off people you don't like without a trial], and inadequate funding [overcrowding and unsanitary conditions]. Centuries of grotesque penal evolution had spawned disease-ridden prisons, exile parties driven like cattle [except also wearing chains], virtual enslavement, and lunacies like the punishment of the Bell of Uglich [literally a church bell].
I won't go into any more details--I think you get the picture. Oh, except that it continued evolving into a worse and worse system.
One fascinating thing was just how difficult travel was for Kennan and the illustrator he brought with him: bouncing around in vehicles so much that they were bruised head-to-toe, having difficulty finding proper beds and avoiding bedbugs and other vermin, and being unable to sleep for long periods. How did the drivers they hired do this all the time? And yet it was much worse for the prisoners. And also for the people who accompanied them.
Another fascinating thing was that he met a female exile whose history and attitudes made him decide that she was even more courageous than he. He then gave up his beliefs that women were weak.
Another fascinating thing was that Kennan feared Americans wouldn't care about the terrible treatment of people in a land across the sea when they couldn't be encouraged to fight the injustices against Native Americans and recently freed slaves at home. But they did. Apparently the lack of guilt made it easier for them to be horrified and somehow they also managed to avoid feeling hypocritical. There should be a lesson here somehow in a country where some oppose teaching the bad parts of American history because they think it just makes white kids feel bad about themselves.