The house of the dead : Siberian exile under the tsars / Daniel Beer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Beer, Daniel, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Exile (Punishment)--Russia--History.

Exile (Punishment).

Exile (Punishment)--Russia (Federation)--Siberia--History.

Exiles--Russia (Federation)--Siberia--History.

Exiles.

Political prisoners--Russia (Federation)--Siberia--History.

Political prisoners.

Penal colonies--Russia (Federation)--Siberia--History.

Penal colonies.

Convict labor--Russia (Federation)--Siberia--History.

Convict labor.

Revolutionaries--Russia (Federation)--Siberia--History.

Revolutionaries.

History.

Siberia (Russia)--History--19th century.

Siberia (Russia).

Siberia (Russia)--History--20th century.

Russia--Social conditions--1801-1917.

Russia.

Social conditions.

Russia (Federation)--Siberia.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xxii, 464 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First American edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2017.

Summary:

"The House of the Dead is a history of Siberia with a focus on the last four tsars (1801-1917). Daniel Beer explores the massive penal colony that became an incubator for the radicalism of revolutionaries who would one day rule Russia"-- Provided by publisher.

"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. Siberia was intended to serve not only as a dumping ground for criminals but also as a colony. Just as exile would purge Russia of its villains so too would it purge villains of their vices. In theory, Russia's most unruly criminals would be transformed into hardy frontiersmen and settlers. But in reality, the system peopled Siberia with an army of destitute and desperate vagabonds who visited a plague of crime on the indigenous population. Even the aim of securing law and order in the rest of the Empire met with disaster: Expecting Siberia also to provide the ultimate quarantine against rebellion, the tsars condemned generations of republicans, nationalists and socialists to oblivion thousands of kilometers from Moscow. Over the nineteenth century, however, these political exiles transformed Siberia's mines, settlements and penal forts into a virtual laboratory of revolution. Exile became the defining experience for the men and women who would one day rule the Soviet Union. Unearthing a treasure trove of new archival evidence, this masterly and original work tells the epic story of Russia's struggle to govern its prison continent and Siberia's own decisive influence on the political forces of the modern world." -- Publisher's description

Contents:

Introduction: The Bell of Uglich

Broken Swords

The Boundary Post

The Mines of Nerchinsk

The Academy of Chita

Sibiracy

The Dead House

In the Name of Freedom!

General Cuckoo's Army

Fantasies and Nightmares on Sakhalin Island

The Knout

Woe to the Vanquished!

Towards Abolition : Siberia Re-Imagined

Battlefield of the Revolution

Epilogue: Red Siberia.

Notes:

"This is a Borzoi book."

Includes bibliographical references (pages [379]-440) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Beer, Daniel, author. House of the dead.

ISBN:

9780307958907

0307958906

OCLC:

947953988