Through Siberia

Anglican missionary Henry Lansdell (1841–1919) published this popular two-volume account of his travels through Russia and Siberia in 1882.

Henry Lansdell (Author)

9781108071222, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 April 2014

440 pages, 26 b/w illus. 1 map
21.6 x 14 x 2.5 cm, 0.56 kg

The Church of England clergyman Henry Lansdell (1841–1919) was an energetic traveller, both during his own leisure time and on behalf of the Irish Church Missions. He made many visits to Russia and central Asia, distributing bibles and tracts in the native languages of the many peoples he encountered, and focusing his attention especially on hospitals and prisons. He published this two-volume account in 1882, and it proved extremely popular (this second edition being prepared before the first was published), but it attracted some criticism for its favourable treatment of the Russian government. The anarchist Prince Peter Kropotkin was especially indignant at the accounts of Russian prisons: he alleged that Lansdell was either a dupe of propaganda or was deliberately distorting what he had seen. Volume 1 describes Lansdell's motives for making the journey, his travels across Russia, and his experience of the prison and exile systems of Siberia.

Preface to second edition
Preface to first edition
1. Introductory
2. Across Europe
3. The Urals to Tiumen
4. The exiles
5. From Tiumen to Tobolsk
6. Siberian prisons
7. Siberian prisons (cont.)
8. The Obi
9. Tobolsk
10. From Tobolsk to Tomsk
11. Tomsk
12. Siberian posting
13. From Tomsk southwards
14. Barnaul
15. The Siberian church
16. The Siberian church (cont.)
17. From Tomsk to Krasnoiarsk
18. The Yenisei
19. A visit to a gold-mine
20. From Krasnoiarsk to Alexandreffsky
21. The Alexandreffsky central prison
22. A city on fire
23. Irkutsk
24. The Lena
25. Yakutsk
26. Across Lake Baikal to Troitzkosavsk
27. The Siberian frontier at Kiakhta
28. The Mongolian frontier at Maimatchin
29. From Kiakhta to Chita
30. The Buriats.

Subject Areas: European history [HBJD]