Letter from Siberia

May 3, 2017 10:34 AM

Through sands and mountains in search of a gulag ghost town: "We all know what Siberia means. It means Lake Baikal and the Altai Mountains. It means bears, long winters and vast expanses of taiga. All true enough. But if you scrutinise the map of Siberia, choose a little-known region and pluck up the courage to undertake an unconventional itinerary, you’ll have the chance to experience a Siberia at once recognisable and unanticipated."
posted by mandolin conspiracy (10 comments total)

(A) Today I learned that Siberia includes a literal desert, and (B) those are some fantastic mountains.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:13 AM on May 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Great piece, with amazing photos; I'm glad to see the Calvert Journal getting some love. Gotta say, I find it irritating that there isn't an accompanying map; sure, you can google Chara Sands and find the Wikipedia article with its linked maps, but those are of no help in finding the gulag camp in the mountains. But that's not a huge irritant. Thanks for the post!
posted by languagehat at 11:20 AM on May 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

It was known as 'the vast prison without a roof.' From the beginning of the nineteenth century until the Russian Revolution, the tsars exiled more than one million prisoners and their families beyond the Ural Mountains to Siberia. Daniel Beer illuminates both the brutal realities of this inhuman system and the tragic and inspiring fates of those who endured it. Here are the vividly told stories of petty criminals and mass murderers, bookish radicals and violent terrorists, fugitives and bounty hunters, and the innocent women and children who followed their husbands and fathers into exile.
EXCELLENT BOOK!
posted by robbyrobs at 11:29 AM on May 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

As an American who received basically no education about the history or geography of Russia, the sense of vast undiscoveredness (or lost-ness, maybe lost-ness is a better word) is thrilling. There's so much out there and little reads like this one really tickle a wonderful sense of uneasy discovery.
posted by WidgetAlley at 12:05 PM on May 3, 2017

Yeah, I was kind of wondering about a map - would've been nice.

This piece (same author and photographer) includes a map:

Transbaikal diaries: Up and down the bear tracks.

As an American who received basically no education about the history or geography of Russia, the sense of vast undiscoveredness (or lost-ness, maybe lost-ness is a better word) is thrilling. There's so much out there and little reads like this one really tickle a wonderful sense of uneasy discovery.

As languagehat mentioned, the Calvert Journal is fantastic. If you like this, you'll love the other stuff to be found there.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:12 PM on May 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is kind of tangential, but my strongest association for Siberia is the fact that a friend of mine was adopted from an orphanage in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in far southeastern Siberia (where Jews are now a small minority). When I learned this about her, I did some "Google Maps Street View" tourism in the area, and there's some very good street-view tourism to be had. I find the human landscape to be fascinating! Because Siberia is such an unknown for many of us, it's a good way to explore.
posted by drlith at 12:48 PM on May 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

My great-grandmother was exiled to Siberia as a young woman and, at age 19, travelled back across the entire Asian continent, sneaking her way to Italy and thence, by boat, to Ellis Island. It was so awful that she literally walked across two continents to get the hell out of there.
posted by 1adam12 at 2:14 PM on May 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

The pocket-desert next to taiga and mountains gives this a real Minecraft vibe. Better dig a hole before it gets dark.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:21 PM on May 3, 2017

I don't think that's what the word "Siberia" automatically means to anyone born before, say, the late 1980s.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 3:23 PM on May 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

This is beautiful to look at and read.
posted by Oyéah at 9:42 PM on May 3, 2017