Siberia

"Siberia" is a travel book written by English travel writer Colin Thubron. Thubron at the age of 58 decided to travel throughout Siberia to see the effect of the fall of Communism on life (if you can call it that) in this large (and cold) region. Speaking some Russian (and having written one previous travel book on Russia), he embarked by himself in 1998 on what seemed to have been a 4-5 month trip, generally following the Trans-Siberian railroad, but going off on excursions (sometimes hitching a ride, and sometimes flying in propeller planes) both north and south. He method is as follows, or so it seems: he researches the area to which he is to travel in order both to set out his route (marked generally by distinct locations which he believes are 'must see'), and to get background on the places he is to visit (generally, it appears, by reading and by visiting museums in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where he speaks to scholars and curators. Then he sets off, with minimal baggage. It seems he is only carrying a large rucksack. Although he knows where he is going and what he wants to accomplish there, he makes no advance arrangements, relying on his wits to find places to sleep and eat, and people to meet. Often the places he travels to are very remote, with no accomodations, and he must fend for himself.

What a terrible place Siberia is. And always has been. Largely, of course, because of weather and expanse. The native tribes began to be joined by Russian who were fur trading and mineral mining centuries ago. But those were the good told days. Struggles with native populations, continued and generally unsuccessful attempts at larger scale colonization and industrialization, the creation of enormous prison and labor camp systems by a series of Russian governments, and environmental destruction have all left their mark.

In some of the larger cities (Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinislav), there are hotels, but not first class ones. In some smaller places, there are guest houses. But there are also places, such as Pokrovskoe (the boyhood home of Rasputin) where he stays in the two room cabin of an old woman.

"It never fails. You arrive in a small town towards sunset. You know nobody, nothing. The main street is empty, the shops closed, the few offices, almost deserted. But you tell yourself: within an hour, I'll be under shelter. So you trudge into some municipal building, where a dazed looking secretary directs you down the street to a guesthouse. It doesn't exist."

The trip is certainly not without interest. You see where Tolstoy died, where Doestoevsky and Lenin and Stalin were exiled. You meet people who survived the gulag and hear of those who did not. You see the Communist attempts to build industrial powerhouses in the east, now mainly abandoned and left to decay. You see the large science center built at Novosibirsk, once totally off limits to foreigners, and now attracting only third rate researchers, who scrape buy with virtually no financial support from the government. You see the resurgence of Russian orthodoxy, and of buddhism. You see how removed the non-Russians feel from Moscow, and how so many of the Russians believe that they are still part of a large unified country. You see the brain drain, the vodka, the lack of a balanced diet, the madmen, the religious enthusiasts of all stripes. You visit Lake Baikal, deepest and purest in the world, in spite of increasing pollution. You go into regional museums, you see the large public and cultural buildings in places such as Irkutsk, built in better times. You see Chinese merchants who cross the border to see, you visit Birobidjan (the Jewish autonomous republic) now without Jews, you enter a restaurant in Yakutsk, where horsemeat and pony stew highlight the menu.

You are fascinated by the trip as it moves along. You are thrilled when it is over.

Thubron is an excellent writer, but he makes you wonder about what was left out, as well as about the situations he describes. You don't want to visit Siberia.