This book provides a comprehensive history of the genesis, existence, and demise of Imperial Russia’s largest penal colony, made famous by Chekhov in a book written following his visit there in 1890. Based on extensive original research in archival documents, published reports, and memoirs, the book is also a social history of the late imperial bureaucracy and of the subaltern society of criminals and exiles; an examination of the tsarist state’s failed efforts at reform; an exploration of Russian imperialism in East Asia and Russia’s acquisition of Sakhalin Island in the face of competition from Japan; and an anthropological and literary study of the Sakhalin landscape and its associated values and ideologies. The Sakhalin penal colony became one of the largest penal colonies in history. The book’s conclusion prompts important questions about contemporary prisons and their relationship to state and society.

Stressing the relationship between tsarism's service-state ethos and its utilization of subjects, this study argues that economic and political, rather than judicial or penological, factors primarily conditioned Siberian exile's growth and development.

This book concerns the mass deportation of Poles and others to Siberia following the failed 1863 Polish Insurrection. The imperial Russian government fell back upon using exile to punish the insurrectionists and to cleanse Russia’s Western Provinces of ethnic Poles. It convoyed some 20,000 inhabitants of the Kingdom of Poland and the Western Provinces across the Urals to locations as far away as Iakutsk, and assigned them to penal labor or forced settlement. Yet the government’s lack of infrastructure and planning doomed this operation from the start, and the exiles found ways to resist their subjugation. Based upon archival documents from Siberia and the former Western Provinces, this book offers an unparalleled exploration of the mass deportation. Combining social history with an analysis of statecraft, it is a unique contribution to scholarship on the history of Poland and the Russian Empire.

Despite reports of exile proving disastrous to the region, 300,000 Russian subjects, from political dissidents to the elderly and mentally disabled, were deported to Siberia from 1823-61. Their stories of physical and psychological suffering, heroism and personal resurrection, are recounted in this compelling history of tsarist Siberian exile.

In 1863 Poles living under Russian domination staged the so called January Uprising. In a desperate bid to assert national sovereignty, insurrectionists attacked Russian troops throughout the Kingdom of Poland. The fighting soon spread to the empire's Western Provinces, where ethnic Poles were predominant. During the suppression of the insurrection and in the decades that followed, the Russian government deported as many as 40,000 Poles to locations throughout the empire. Half of these deportees were sent to Siberia, where they were assigned either to penal labor or to rural settlements. "Deluge: The Mass Deportation of Poles to Siberia, 1863-1880" is the first book-length study of this mass deportation of Poles. It is written by an Ivy League educated Ph.D. in Russian history and is based largely on documents found in Siberian archives. The text totals 90,000 words, and includes footnotes and a bibliography. The Table of Contents is as follows: Foreword A Note on Terminology and Usage Acknowledgements Glossary Introduction Chapter One-Siberian Exile, 1590-1863 Chapter Two-The 1863 January Uprising Chapter Three-Suppression, Deportation, and Debate Chapter Four-The Insurrectionists Arrive in Siberia Chapter Five-Forced Settlers Chapter Six-Katorga Chapter Seven-Resistance and the Baikal Circle Road Revolt Chapter Eight-Amnesties, Repatriations, and Other Fates Conclusion Bibliography This book will prove informative to both professional scholars and lovers of history.

Includes biographical information; World War I draft registration record for Alfred Gentes (Pontiac, Ill., 1918); 1920 and 1930 U.S. Federal census data, obituary data for Lena and Deloss Gentes; and diaries and daily reminders for various years (1950s-1980s), kept by Lena and Deloss Gentes.

This book is an edited collection, bringing together well-known specialists from Russia, Japan, Western Europe and the USA, providing data about the Russian hydrocarbons sector, its size, economic significance, and taxation. It also offers data about the growth of the Stabilization Fund. In addition, it analyses the role of the hydrocarbons sector in Russia’s post-1998 economic boom, drawing attention to the contribution of remittances to Russia of the proceeds of raw material exports. With respect to international political economy, 'Russia’s Oil and Natural Gas' points out that Russia today, with its large energy exports, helps solve the problem of domestic energy shortages which plague many countries. In this way, Russia is currently a major contributor to world stability and the welfare of the energy importers.

Despite reports of exile proving disastrous to the region, 300,000 Russian subjects, from political dissidents to the elderly and mentally disabled, were deported to Siberia from 1823-61. Their stories of physical and psychological suffering, heroism and personal resurrection, are recounted in this compelling history of tsarist Siberian exile.