Through Siberia, the Land of the FutureAn account of the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen's 1913 voyage to Siberia, traveling by carriage, on foot, and on the Trans-Siberian railroad; includes observations on the history and culture of the province and its peoples, from the Indigenous inhabitants to the Russian settlers beginning to colonize the region. Nansen also describes the natural beauty of the landscape and Siberia's vast natural resources, including timber, minerals, and fertile land, which he believed could be harnessed to fuel Russia's growth and development. |
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Common terms and phrases
AMUR Amúr district anchor Arctic Ocean arrived August Baikal bank birch boat Captain carriage Chinese coast Cossacks course Dudinka east eastern eastward engineer farther fathoms feet fish flat floes forest frozen horses ice conditions Island Kara Sea Kara Strait Karmakuli Khingán Koreans Krasnoyarsk labourers lake land layers lighters live looked Loris-Melikov Manchuria miles morning mountains muksun natives night northward Norway Norwegian Novaya Zemlya Obdorsk OCTOBER Omul open water Ostiaks peasants plain political exiles poods railway reached reindeer ridge river rock roubles round Russian sailed Samoyedes seemed seen September ship shore Siberia side slope soil soon station steamer sturgeon summer tarantass temperature tent things told town trader Transbaikalia trees tribes tundra Tunguses Turukhansk Ussúri versts village Vostrotin voyage whole wind winter Wourtzel Yamal Yenisei estuary Yenisei-Ostiaks Yeniseisk Yugor Strait Yuraks
Popular passages
Page 440 - From these authorities it is sufficiently clear that in the latter half of the sixteenth century there was a well-known trading communication along the coast from the Pechora and the White Sea to the Gulf of Obi.
Page 160 - From here it spreads unbrokenly to the cultivated tracts and steppes of the south, and far to the south of lake Baikal — an extent of more than 1200 miles in a straight line from north to south — and from the Ural Mountains on the west to the Pacific and Kamchatka on the east, more than 3700 miles, a single continuous mantle of forest, only broken by the broad waters of quiet-flowing rivers. This is the Siberian taiga.
Page 166 - With contributions from the Siberian members of the Duma, the Red Cross Society sent out an expedition from Krasnoyarsk, but too late in the spring, when the snow had already begun to melt. They got past Turukhansk, but could not penetrate any farther into the tundra on account of the state of the ground. They went far enough to find tents where all was still; the occupants lay dead within, five or six of them, and outside lay the dead reindeer, those that had not been able to break loose and escape....
Page 2 - to open up a regular trade connexion with the interior of Siberia, via the Kara Sea and the mouth of the Yenisei.
Page 436 - ... soon we shall see the last of it. I have a feeling of sadness on parting from these great melancholy forests and this solemn scenery, with its broad, simple lines, free from all petty details. I have come to love it, this boundless land, mighty as the ocean itself, with its infinite plains and its mountains — its frozen Arctic coast — its free and desolate tundra — its deep, mysterious taiga, from the Ural to the Pacific — its grass-grown, rolling steppes — its purple, wooded hills...
Page 370 - The mistress of the house wears a dress made by a Chinese tailor (...) In the yard a Korean is at work chopping...
Page 7 - Why not? It was a temptingly easy way of making a trip through the Arctic Ocean to the Yenisei, and then seeing the whole of Siberia to the farthest east, without any trouble or preparation. I wanted a holiday; there could not be a better way of spending it, and I accepted with thanks.
Page 283 - Moscow about 15oo,20 to our day, its territorial increase has had no parallel in the history of the world, with the exception of the British Empire." "During the whole of this period the Russian Empire has grown at the average rate of fifty-five square miles a day or 20,000 square miles a year,— or a territory as large as the Kingdom of Norway, every seventh year unceasingly.
Page 368 - Besides this, the Chinese and Koreans are industrious and steady workers, which is not always the case with the Russians out here." As a whole, Dr. Nansen's book has something of an American flavor, because it is largely devoted to describing new towns, which, as the author says, " have grown up with American rapidity.
Page 370 - The master of the house drinks his Chinese tea, with bread made of Manchurian flour from a Chinese bakery.