Russia's Penal Colony in the Far East: A Translation of Vlas Doroshevich's "Sakhalin" (Anthem Series on Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies)

Russia's Penal Colony in the Far East: A Translation of Vlas Doroshevich's Sakhalin is the first English language translation of the Russian journalist Vlas Doroshevich's 1903 account of his visit to tsarist Russia's largest penal colony, Sakhalin, in the north Pacific. Despite the publication of Anton Chekhov's account of his visit to Sakhalin in 1890, many Russians remained unaware of the brutality and savagery of the devil island'. In 1897 Doroshevich, Russia's most popular journalist, travelled to Sakhalin and spent three months touring the island, interviewing numerous prisoners and officials, and recording his impressions. The feuilletons he wired back to his publishers were eventually collected and published in book form in 1903, under the title Sakhalin (Katorga). Doroshevich's book was enormously popular when it first appeared, and it continues to be published in Russia, as a historical record of the striking barbarity of late nineteenth century penal practices. Despite this popularity, it has never before been translated into English, and Doroshevich remains largely unknown outside Russia. This translation introduces English-language readers to an important writer and original stylist who defined journalistic practice during the years leading up to the 1917 Revolution, by way of a book which helps explain the causes for that revolution. Portraits of Sakhalin First impressions The infirmary The katorga cemetery A day in prison The chains prison The free prison Workshops "Aid station" The women's prison The isolators "Reformed" Two odessans The murderers (a married couple) Grebeniuk and his homestead Paklin (from my notebook) Settlements (the exile-settlers) The female cohabitant The male cohabitant Those who've voluntarily followed The homeowners Reztsov Freemen on Sakhalin The katorga theater Katorga actors The brodiaga Sokolsky Crimes in Korsakovsk district Departure Real katorga The capital of Sakhalin Aleksandrovsk post Sentenced to penal labor Who runs katorga? Prison wardens The death penalty Executioners Corporal punishments Katorga's ways Matvey's trouble The indefinitely-sentenced probationer Glovatsky Katorga types Initiation into the penal laborers Educated persons in katorga Talma on Sakhalin The card game Katorga's laws The language of katorga Katorga songs Katorga and religion Sectarians on Sakhalin Island Criminals and crimes Criminals and justice (from observations on Sakhalin) Katorga labors of a Konovalova The most unfortunate of women Voluntary followers Natives of Sakhalin Island Golden hand Poluliakhov A famous Moscow murderer The specialist Cannibals The penal laborer baroness Heimbrück Landsberg The grandfather of Russian katorga The apostate Katorga's aristocrat The plebeian The parricide Shkandyba Hired murderers The suicide The frenzied The educated man Poet-murderers (in the form of a preface) Mentally ill criminals Sakhalin's Monte Carlo (the katorga almshouse in Derbinsk settlement). "Russia's Penal Colony in the Far East: A Translation of Vlas Doroshevich's "Sakhalin" is the first English language translation of the Russian journalist Vlas Doroshevich's 1903 account of his visit to tsarist Russia's largest penal colony, Sakhalin, in the north Pacific. Despite the publication of Anton Chekhov's account of his visit to Sakhalin in 1890, many Russians remained unaware of the brutality and savagery of the devil island'. In 1897 Doroshevich, Russia's most popular journalist, travelled to Sakhalin and spent three months touring the island, interviewing numerous prisoners and officials, and recording his impressions. The feuilletons he wired back to his publishers were eventually collected and published in book form in 1903, under the title Sakhalin (Katorga)." "Doroshevich's book was enormously popular when it first appeared, and it continues to be published in Russia, as a historical record of the striking barbarity of late nineteenth century penal practices. Despite this popularity, it has never before been translated into English, and Doroshevich remains largely unknown outside Russia. This translation introduces English-language readers to an important writer and original stylist who defined journalistic practice during the years leading up to the 1917 Revolution, by way of a book which helps explain the causes for that revolution."--BOOK JACKET A comprehensive evaluation of the Russian oil and natural gas industry and its pivotal role in the volatile Russian economy