Chekhov on the “island of the outcasts” - on Sakhalin. "This is the first Russian writer to travel to Siberia and back"
Sakhalin island
Anton Chekhov
Sakhalin island
I. G. Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. - Steamship "Baikal". - Cape Pronge and the entrance to the Estuary. - Sakhalin Peninsula. - La Perouse, Broughton, Krusenstern and Nevelskoy. Japanese explorers. - Cape Jaore. - Tatar coast. - De-Kastri.
II. Brief geography. - Arrival in Northern Sakhalin. - Fire. - Pier. - In Slobodka. - Lunch at Mr. L. - Dating. - Gen. Kononovich. - Arrival of the Governor General. - Lunch and illumination.
III. Census. - Contents of statistical cards. - What did I ask about, and how did they answer me? - The hut and its inhabitants. - Opinions of exiles about the census.
IV. Duika River. - Alexander Valley. - Slobodka Alexandrovka. Tramp Handsome. - Alexander's post. - His past. - Yurts. Sakhalin Paris.
V. Alexandrovskaya exile prison. - Shared cameras. Shackled. - Golden Handle. - Latrine places. - Maidan. - Hard labor in Aleksandrovsk. - Servant. - Workshops.
VI Egor's Story
VII. Lighthouse. - Korsakovskoe. - Collection of Dr. P.I. Suprunenko. Meteorological station. - Climate of the Aleksandrovsky district. Novo-Mikhailovka. - Potemkin. - Ex-executioner Tersky. - Krasny Yar. - Butakovo.
VIII. Arkan River. - Arkovsky cordon. - First, Second and Third Arkovo. Arkovskaya Valley. - Villages by west coast: Mgachi, Tangi, Khoe, Trambaus, Viakhty and Vangi. - Tunnel. - Cable house. - Due. - Barracks for families. - Duya prison. - Coal mines. - Voivodeship prison. Chained to cars.
IX. Tym, or Tymi. - Lieutenant. Boshniak. - Polyakov. - Upper Armudan. - Lower Armudan. - Derbinskoe. - Walk along Tymi. - Uskovo. - Gypsies. - A walk through the taiga. - Voskresenskoe.
X. Rykovskoe. - The local prison. - Meteorological station M.N. Galkin-Vraskoy. - Palevo. - Mikryukov. - Walzy and Longari. - Mado-Tymovo. - Andree-Ivanovskoe.
XI. Designed district. - Stone Age. - Was there free colonization? Gilyaki. - Their numerical composition, appearance, build, food, clothing, housing, hygienic conditions. - Their character. - Attempts to Russify them. Orochi.
XII. My departure to the south. - Cheerful lady. - West Bank. - Currents. Mauka. - Crillon. - Aniva. - Korsakov post. - New acquaintances. Nord-Ost. - Climate South Sakhalin. - Korsakov prison. - Fire convoy.
XIII. Poro an Tomari. - Muravyovsky post. - First, Second and Third Pad. Solovyovka. - Lutoga. - Naked Cape. - Mitsulka. - Larch. Khomutovka. - Big Yelan. - Vladimirovka. - Farm or company. - Lugovoe. Popovsky Yurts. - Birch forests. - Crosses. - Big and Small Takoe. Galkino-Vraskoe. - Oak trees. - Naibuchi. - Sea.
XIV. Taraika. - Free settlers. - Their failures. - Aino, the boundaries of their distribution, numerical composition, appearance, food, clothing, housing, their customs. - Japanese. - Kusun-Kotan. - Japanese Consulate.
XV. The owners are convicts. - Transfer to settlers. - Selection of sites for new settlements. - Housekeeping. - Half people. - Transfer to peasants. Resettlement of exiled peasants to the mainland. - Life in villages. Proximity to prison. - Composition of the population by place of birth and by class. Village authorities.
XVI. Composition of the exiled population by gender. - Women's question. - Convict women and villages. - Roommates and cohabitants. - Women of free status.
XVII. Composition of the population by age. - Marital status of the exiles. - Marriages. Fertility. - Sakhalin children.
XVIII. Classes for exiles. - Agriculture. - Hunting. - Fishing. Occasional fish: chum salmon and herring. - Prison catches. - Skills.
XIX. Food for exiles. - What and how do prisoners eat? - Cloth. - Church. School. - Literacy.
XX. Free population. - Lower ranks of local military commands. Wardens. - Intelligentsia.
XXI. Morality of the exiled population. - Crime. - Investigation and trial. - Punishment. - Rods and whips. - The death penalty.
XXII. Fugitives on Sakhalin. - Reasons for running away. - Composition of fugitives by origin, rank, etc.
XXIII. Morbidity and mortality of the exiled population. - Medical organization. - Infirmary in Aleksandrovsk.
Sakhalin island. For the first time - journal. "Russian Thought", 1893, Nos. 10-12; 1894, No. 2, 3, 5-7. The journal published chapters I-XIX; with the addition of chapters XX-XXIII, "Sakhalin Island" was published in a separate edition: Anton Chekhov, "Sakhalin Island". From travel notes. M., 1895.
Even while preparing his trip to Sakhalin, Chekhov began compiling a bibliography and even wrote individual parts of a future book that did not require personal Sakhalin observations.
Chekhov returned to Moscow from Sakhalin on December 8, 1890. From his Sakhalin trip A.P. Chekhov brought, in his words, “a chest of all kinds of convict stuff”: 10,000 statistical cards, samples of article lists of convicts, petitions, complaints from the doctor B. Perlin, etc.
Chekhov began work on a book about Sakhalin at the beginning of 1891. In a letter to A.S. To Suvorin on May 27, 1891, Chekhov notes: “...The Sakhalin book will be published in the fall, because, honestly, I am already writing and writing it.” At first, he was definitely going to print the entire book and refused to publish individual chapters or just notes about Sakhalin, but in 1892, in connection with the social upsurge among the Russian intelligentsia caused by the organization of famine relief, Chekhov decided to publish a chapter of his book “Fugitives on Sakhalin” "in the collection "Help to the Starving", M., 1892.
In 1893, when the book was completed, Chekhov began to worry about its volume and style of presentation, which was not suitable for publication in a thick magazine. The editor of Russian Thought, V. M. Lavrov, recalled in his essay “At the Timeless Grave”: “Sakhalin was promised to us, and with great difficulty we defended it in the form in which it appeared in the last books of 1893 and in the first books of 1894." (Russian Gazette, 1904, No. 202).
Despite Chekhov's concerns about the attitude of government authorities towards his work, Sakhalin Island went off with little difficulty. On November 25, 1893, Chekhov wrote to Suvorin: “Galkin-Vraskoy” is the head of the Main Prison Directorate. - P.E. complained to Feoktistov, the head of the Main Directorate for Press Affairs. - P.E."; the November book of "Russian Thought" was delayed for three days. But everything turned out well." Summarizing the history of the publication of “Sakhalin Island” in the journal “Russian Thought”, Chekhov wrote to S.A. Petrov (May 23, 1897): “My travel notes"Everything was published in Russian Thought, except for two chapters, delayed by censorship, which did not make it into the magazine, but did end up in the book."
Even during the period of preparation for the trip to Sakhalin, Chekhov determined the genre of the future book, its scientific and journalistic character. The author’s reflections, excursions of a scientific nature, and artistic sketches of nature, everyday life and the life of people on Sakhalin should have found their place in it; undoubtedly on the genre of the book big influence provided "Notes from a Dead House" by F.M. Dostoevsky and "Siberia and hard labor" by S.V. Maksimov, to which the author repeatedly refers in the text of the narrative.
According to researchers, even in the process of working on the draft of “Sakhalin Islands,” the structure of the entire book was determined: chapters I-XIII are constructed as travel essays, dedicated first to Northern and then to Southern Sakhalin; chapters XIV-XXIII - as problematic essays, devoted to certain aspects of the Sakhalin way of life, agricultural colonization, children, women, fugitives, the work of Sakhalin residents, their morality, etc. In each chapter, the author tried to convey to readers the main idea: Sakhalin is “hell”.
At the beginning of the work, Chekhov did not like the tone of the story; in a letter to Suvorin dated July 28, 1893, he describes the process of crystallization of the book’s style as follows; “I wrote for a long time and felt for a long time that I was going down the wrong road, until I finally caught the falsehood. The falsehood was precisely that it was as if I wanted to teach someone with my “Sakhalin” and at the same time I was hiding something and I restrain myself. But as soon as I began to portray what an eccentric I felt on Sakhalin and what pigs there were, then it became easy for me and my work began to boil..."
In the description of Sakhalin life, a parallel is persistently drawn with the recent serf past of Russia: the same rods, the same domestic and noble slavery, as, for example, in the description of the warden of the Derbinsk prison - “the landowner of the good old days.”
One of the central chapters of the book is Chapter VI - “Egor’s Story”. Yegor's personality and his fate emphasize one of the characteristic features of the convict population of Sakhalin: the randomness of crimes caused in most cases not by the vicious inclinations of the criminal, but by the nature of the life situation, which could not but be resolved by the crime.
The publication of "Sakhalin Islands" on the pages of the magazine "Russian Thought" immediately attracted the attention of metropolitan and provincial newspapers. “The entire book bears the stamp of the author’s talent and his beautiful soul. “Sakhalin Island” is a very serious contribution to the study of Russia, being at the same time an interesting literary work. Many heart-grabbing details are collected in this book, and one only has to wish that they attracted the attention of those on whom the fate of the “unfortunate” depends.” ("Week", 1895, No. 38).
The book by A.P. Chekhov caused a very significant response; so, A.F. Koni wrote: “In order to study this colonization on the spot, he undertook a difficult journey, associated with a mass of trials, anxieties and dangers that had a disastrous effect on his health. The result of this journey, his book about Sakhalin, bears the stamp of extreme preparation and a merciless waste of time and strength. In it, behind the strict form and matter-of-fact tone, behind the multitude of factual and numerical data, one can feel the saddened and indignant heart of the writer" (collection "A.P. Chekhov", L., "Atheneum", 1925). Sister of Mercy E.K. Meyer, having read “Sakhalin Island,” went to the island in 1896, where she founded a “workhouse” that provided work and food for the settlers, and a society for the care of the families of exiled convicts. Published in the St. Petersburg Gazette (1902, No. 321), her report on work on Sakhalin began with the words: “Six years ago... I came across A.P. Chekhov’s book “Sakhalin Island,” and my desire living and working among convicts thanks to her accepted a certain form and direction."
Chekhov's essays served as the motivation for traveling to Sakhalin and writing books about the island, among which were books by the famous journalist Vlas Doroshevich: “How I Got to Sakhalin” (M., 1903) and “Sakhalin” (M., 1903).
The book "Sakhalin Island" drew the attention of officials to the appalling situation of convicts and exiles. The Ministry of Justice and the Main Prison Directorate sent their representatives to the island: in 1893 - Prince. N.S. Golitsyn, in 1894 - M.N. Galkin-Vraskoy, in 1896 - legal adviser D.A. Dril, in 1898 - the new head of the Main Prison Administration A.P. Salomon. Reports from high-ranking officials confirmed the testimony of A.P. Chekhov. In 1902, sending his reports on his trip to Sakhalin, A.P. Salomon wrote to Chekhov: “Let me humbly ask you to accept these two works as a tribute to my deep respect for your works on the study of Sakhalin, works that equally belong to Russian science and Russian literature.”
The reforms carried out by the Russian government were perceived as a concession to public opinion, excited by Chekhov's book: in 1893 - the abolition of corporal punishment for women and changes in the law on marriages of exiles; in 1895 - the assignment of government funds for the maintenance of orphanages; in 1899 - abolition of eternal exile and lifelong hard labor; in 1903 - abolition of corporal punishment and head shaving.
I
Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. - Steamship "Baikal". - Cape Pronge and the entrance to the Estuary. Sakhalin Peninsula. - La Perouse, Broughton, Krusenstern and Nevelskoy. - Japanese researchers. - Cape Jaore. - Tatar coast. - De-Kastri.
On July 5, 1890, I arrived by ship in the city of Nikolaevsk, one of the easternmost points of our fatherland. The Amur is very wide here, there are only 27 miles left to the sea; the place is majestic and beautiful, but the memories of the past of this region, the stories of companions about the fierce winter and no less fierce local customs, the proximity of hard labor and the very sight of an abandoned, dying city completely take away the desire to admire the landscape.
Nikolaevsk was founded not so long ago, in 1850, by the famous Gennady Nevelsky1, and this is perhaps the only bright place in the history of the city. In the fifties and sixties, when culture was being planted along the Amur, not sparing soldiers, prisoners and migrants, officials who ruled the region had their stay in Nikolaevsk, many Russian and foreign adventurers came here, settlers settled, seduced by the extraordinary abundance of fish and animals, and, apparently, the city was not alien to human interests, since there was even a case when one visiting scientist found it necessary and possible to give a public lecture here at the club2. Now, almost half of the houses have been abandoned by their owners, dilapidated, and dark frameless windows look at you like the eye sockets of a skull. The inhabitants lead a sleepy, drunken life and generally live from hand to mouth, which is what God sent them to do. They make a living by supplying fish to Sakhalin, gold predation, exploitation of foreigners, and selling show-offs, that is, deer antlers, from which the Chinese prepare stimulant pills. On the way from Khabarovka3 to Nikolaevsk I had to meet quite a few smugglers; here they do not hide their profession. One of them, showing me golden sand and a couple of show-offs, told me with pride: “And my father was a smuggler!” Exploitation of foreigners, in addition to the usual soldering, fooling, etc., is sometimes expressed in an original form. Thus, the Nikolaev merchant Ivanov, now deceased, traveled to Sakhalin every summer and took tribute there from the Gilyaks, and tortured and hanged faulty payers.
There is no hotel in the city. At a public meeting I was allowed to rest after dinner in a hall with a low ceiling - here in the winter, they say, balls are given; When I asked where I could spend the night, they just shrugged their shoulders. There was nothing to do, I had to spend two nights on the ship; when he went back to Khabarovka, I found myself broke like a crayfish: where should I go? My luggage is on the pier; I walk along the shore and don’t know what to do with myself. Just opposite the city, two or three miles from the shore, there is the steamer "Baikal", on which I will go to the Tatar Strait, but they say that it will leave in four or five days, not earlier, although the retreat flag is already flying on its mast . Is it possible to take it and go to Baikal? But it’s awkward: they probably won’t let me in, they’ll say it’s too early. The wind blew, Cupid frowned and became agitated like the sea. It's getting sad. I go to the meeting, have lunch there for a long time and listen to how at the next table they talk about gold, about show-offs, about a magician who came to Nikolaevsk, about some Japanese who pulls his teeth not with forceps, but simply with his fingers. If you listen carefully and for a long time, then, my God, how far life here is from Russia! Starting with the chum salmon balyk, which is used to snack on vodka here, and ending with the conversations, you can feel something unique, not Russian, in everything. While I was sailing along the Amur, I had a feeling as if I was not in Russia, but somewhere in Patagonia or Texas; not to mention the original, non-Russian nature, it always seemed to me that the structure of our Russian life is completely alien to the native Amurians, that Pushkin and Gogol are incomprehensible here and therefore are not needed, our history is boring And we, visitors from Russia, seem to be foreigners. In terms of religion and politics, I noticed complete indifference here. The priests whom I saw on the Amur eat meat during Lent, and, by the way, they told me about one of them, in a white silk caftan, that he was engaged in gold predation, competing with his spiritual children. If you want to make an Amur citizen feel bored and yawn, then talk to him about politics, about the Russian government, about Russian art. And morality here is somehow special, not ours. Chivalrous treatment of a woman is elevated almost to a cult and at the same time it is not considered reprehensible to give up your wife for money to a friend; or even better: on the one hand, there is the absence of class prejudices - here, even with the exile, they behave like an equal, and on the other, it is not a sin to shoot a Chinese tramp in the forest like a dog, or even to secretly hunt humpbacks.
But I will continue about myself. Not finding shelter, I decided to go to “Baikal” in the evening. But here is a new problem: there is a considerable swell, and the Gilyak boatmen do not agree to carry it for any money. Again I walk along the shore and don’t know what to do with myself. Meanwhile, the sun is already setting, and the waves on the Amur are darkening. On this and on the other bank, Gilyak dogs howl furiously. And why did I come here? - I ask myself, and my journey seems extremely frivolous to me. And the thought that hard labor is already close, that in a few days I will land on Sakhalin soil, without having a single letter of recommendation with me, that I might be asked to go back - this thought worries me unpleasantly. But finally two Gilyaks agree to take me for a ruble, and on a boat made of three boards, I safely reach “Baikal”.
This is a medium-sized marine type steamer, a merchant, which seemed to me, after the Baikal and Amur steamships, quite tolerable. It makes voyages between Nikolaevsk, Vladivostok and Japanese ports, carrying mail, soldiers, prisoners, passengers and cargo, mainly government goods; under a contract concluded with the treasury, which pays him a substantial subsidy, he is obliged to visit Sakhalin several times during the summer: at the Alexander post and at the southern Korsakov post. The tariff is very high, which is probably not found anywhere else in the world. Colonization, which first of all requires freedom and ease of movement, and high tariffs are completely incomprehensible. The wardroom and cabins on the Baikal are cramped, but clean and furnished in a completely European style; there is a piano. The servants here are Chinese with long braids, they are called in English - boi. The cook is also Chinese, but his cuisine is Russian, although all the dishes are bitter from the spicy keri and smell of some kind of perfume, like corylopsis.
Having read about the storms and ice of the Tatar Strait, I expected to meet whalers with hoarse voices on the Baikal, splashing tobacco chewing gum when talking, but in reality I found quite intelligent people. The commander of the ship L.4, a native of the western region, has been sailing in the northern seas for more than 30 years and has passed them length and breadth. In his time he has seen many miracles, knows a lot and talks interestingly. Having spent half his life circling Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands, he, perhaps with more right than Othello, could talk about “the most barren deserts, terrible abysses, inaccessible cliffs”5. I owe him a lot of information that was useful to me for these notes. He has three assistants: Mr. B., the nephew of the famous astronomer B., and two Swedes - Ivan Martynych and Ivan Veniaminych6, kind and friendly people.
On July 8, before lunch, "Baikal" weighed anchor. With us came three hundred soldiers under the command of an officer and several prisoners. One prisoner was accompanied by a five-year-old girl, his daughter, who held his shackles as he ascended the ladder. There was, by the way, one convict woman who attracted attention by the fact that her husband voluntarily followed her to penal servitude. Besides me and the officer, there were several other classy passengers of both sexes and, by the way, even one baroness. Let the reader not be surprised at such an abundance of intelligent people here in the desert. Along the Amur and in the Primorsky region, the intelligentsia, with a generally small population, makes up a considerable percentage, and there is relatively more of it here than in any Russian province. There is a city on the Amur where there are 16 generals alone, military and civilian. Now there are, perhaps, even more of them.
Day was quiet and clear. It's hot on deck, stuffy in the cabins; in water +18°. This weather is just right for the Black Sea. On the right bank the forest was burning; the solid green mass emitted crimson flames; the clouds of smoke have merged into a long, black, motionless strip that hangs over the forest... The fire is huge, but there is peace and quiet all around, no one cares that the forests are dying. Obviously, the green wealth here belongs to God alone.
After lunch, at about six o'clock, we were already at Cape Pronge. Here Asia ends, and one could say that in this place the Amur flows into the Great Ocean, if Fr. Sakhalin. The Liman stretches wide before your eyes, a foggy strip is barely visible ahead - this is a convict island; to the left, lost in its own convolutions, the shore disappears into the darkness, going into the unknown north. It seems that the end of the world is here and that there is nowhere to go further. The soul is overcome by a feeling that Odysseus probably experienced when he sailed on an unfamiliar sea and vaguely anticipated encounters with extraordinary creatures. And in fact, on the right, at the very turn into Liman, where the Gilyak village is nestled on the shallows, some strange creatures are rushing towards us in two boats, screaming in an incomprehensible language and waving something. It's hard to tell what they're holding, but when they get closer, I can make out gray birds.
“They want to sell us dead geese,” someone explains.
We turn right. Along our entire route there are signs showing the fairway. The commander does not leave the bridge, and the mechanic does not get out of the car; "Baikal" begins to go quieter and quieter and goes as if by touch. Great caution is needed, as it is easy to run aground here. The steamer sits 12 feet, but in some places it has to go 14 feet, and there was even a moment when we heard her keel crawling along the sand. It was this shallow fairway and the special picture that the Tatar and Sakhalin coasts give together that served as the main reason that Sakhalin was long considered a peninsula in Europe. In June 1787, the famous French navigator, Count La Perouse8, landed on the western coast of Sakhalin, above 48°, and spoke here with the natives. Judging by the description that he left, on the shore he found not only the Ainos who lived here, but also the Gilyaks who came to trade with them, experienced people who were well acquainted with both Sakhalin and the Tatar coast. Drawing in the sand, they explained to him that the land on which they live is an island and that this island is separated from the mainland and Yesso (Japan) by straits9. Then, sailing further north along the western coast, he hoped that he would find a way out from the North Sea of Japan to the Sea of Okhotsk and thereby significantly shorten his path to Kamchatka; but the higher he moved, the smaller and smaller the strait became. The depth decreased by one fathom every mile. He sailed north as long as the size of his ship allowed him, and, having reached a depth of 9 fathoms, he stopped. Gradually, the uniform rise of the bottom and the fact that the current in the strait was almost imperceptible led him to the conviction that he was not in the strait, but in the gulf and that, therefore, Sakhalin was connected to the mainland by an isthmus. In de-Kastri he once again had a meeting with the Gilyaks. When he drew an island on paper for them, separated from the mainland, one of them took his pencil and, drawing a line across the strait, explained that the Gilyaks sometimes had to drag their boats across this isthmus and that grass even grew on it, as he understood La Perouse. This convinced him even more strongly that Sakhalin is a peninsula10.
Nine years later, the Englishman W. Broughton was in the Tartary Strait. His vessel was small, sitting in water no deeper than 9 feet, so he managed to pass somewhat higher than La Perouse. Stopping at a depth of two fathoms, he sent his assistant to the north to take measurements; this one on his way encountered depths among the shallows, but they gradually decreased and led him first to the Sakhalin shore, then to the low-lying sandy shores of the other side, and at the same time the picture obtained was as if both shores were merging; it seemed as if the bay ended here and there was no passage. Thus, Broughton had to conclude the same thing as La Perouse.
Our famous Kruzenshtern11, who explored the shores of the island in 1805, fell into the same mistake. He sailed to Sakhalin with a preconceived idea, since he used La Perouse’s map. He walked along the eastern shore, and, rounding the northern capes of Sakhalin, entered the strait itself, keeping the direction from north to south, and it seemed that he was already very close to solving the riddle, but a gradual decrease in depth to 3 fathoms, the specific gravity of the water, and most importantly, preconceived thoughts forced him to admit the existence of an isthmus that he had not seen. But he was still haunted by the worm of doubt. “It is very likely,” he writes, “that Sakhalin was once, and perhaps even in recent times, an island.” He returned back, apparently, with a restless soul: when Broughton’s notes first caught his eye in China, he “rejoiced a lot”12.
The error was corrected in 1849 by Nevelsky. The authority of his predecessors, however, was still so great that when he reported his discoveries to St. Petersburg, they did not believe him, considered his act impudent and subject to punishment and “concluded” him to be demoted, and it is unknown what this would have led to if if it weren’t for the intercession of the sovereign himself13, who found his act brave, noble and patriotic14. He was an energetic, hot-tempered man, educated, selfless, humane, imbued with an idea to the marrow of his bones and fanatically devoted to it, morally pure. One of those who knew him writes: “I have never met a more honest person.” On east coast and on Sakhalin he made a brilliant career for himself in just five years, but lost his daughter, who died of hunger, his wife, “a young, pretty and friendly woman” who endured all hardships heroically, grew old and lost her health15.
To put an end to the question of the isthmus and the peninsula, I think it would not be superfluous to provide some more details. In 1710, Beijing missionaries, on behalf of the Chinese Emperor, drew a map of Tartary; when compiling it, the missionaries used Japanese maps, and this is obvious, since at that time only the Japanese could know about the passability of the La Peruzov and Tatar Straits. It was sent to France and became famous because it was included in the atlas of the geographer d'Anville16. This map was the reason for a small misunderstanding to which Sakhalin owes its name. On the western coast of Sakhalin, just opposite the mouth of the Amur, there is an inscription on the map written missionaries: “Saghalien-angahala”, which in Mongolian means “cliffs of the black river.” This name probably referred to some cliff or cape at the mouth of the Amur, but in France it was understood differently and referred to the island itself. Sakhalin, retained by Krusenstern for Russian maps. The Japanese called Sakhalin Karafto or Karafta, which means Chinese island.
In 1869, Sakhalin Island was officially declared a place of royal exile, and until the beginning of the twentieth century, the majority of the island's inhabitants were convicts.
In 1890, the famous Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov traveled to Sakhalin Island to “study the life of convicts and exiles.” In preparation for the trip, Chekhov studied more than a hundred works and notes of travelers, monographs of scientists, ethnographic materials, and records of officials of the 17th-19th centuries.
The creative result of this trip was the artistic and journalistic book “Sakhalin Island” (From Travel Notes), which was based not only on personal impressions from numerous meetings, but also on statistical data collected by the writer on the island.
Thanks to the fact that the writer worked for three months on Sakhalin as a census taker, he was able to get to know in great detail the life and everyday life of settlers and convicts. From the Sakhalin trip, according to the writer, he brought “a chest of all kinds of convict stuff”: ten thousand statistical cards, samples of article lists of convicts, petitions, complaints from doctor Perlin, etc.
Chekhov returned to Moscow on December 8, 1890, and at the beginning of 1891 he began work on a book about Sakhalin: he read the necessary literature, put the collected materials in order, and sketched out the first chapters.
The fact that Chekhov came to Sakhalin and his contribution to the history of the region is a source of pride for Sakhalin residents. In September 1995, thanks to the enthusiasm of the Sakhalin public, a city literary and art museum of A.P. Chekhov’s book “Sakhalin Island” appeared in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Talking about this book, which is the most complete “encyclopedia” about Sakhalin of the 19th century, the museum reveals the beginning of the history of the region from the founding of the hard labor camps of Tsarist Russia, shown by one of the great classical writers.
The museum, along with other exhibits, displays a collection of Chekhov's books "Sakhalin Island", translated and published in different countries world: Japan, USA, Netherlands, Poland, Italy, France, Finland, China, Spain. This is the only museum in the world that houses a large collection of books "Sakhalin Island", published in many languages of the world.
In 1890, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, already a famous writer, traveled across the country to the island of Sakhalin - to the place where convicts and exiles were kept. Chekhov planned his trip to Sakhalin and return by ship around Asia to Odessa as a single trip to the East. But the main goal was Sakhalin. Having learned about his plan, his family, friends and acquaintances tried to dissuade him, but Chekhov was adamant.
Chekhov (in a light jacket) with family and friends on the eve of a trip to Sakhalin
Chekhov traveled with a “correspondent’s ticket” for Novoye Vremya, but at his own expense. The publisher Alexei Sergeevich Suvorin, who was a close friend of Chekhov, provided a substantial loan, and the writer promised to send travel essays to pay off the debt. The expenses would be considerable. The ticket alone for the Volunteer Fleet ship cost about 500 rubles. From a letter to Suvorin: “So, that means, my dear, I’m leaving on Wednesday or, at most, Thursday. Goodbye until December. Happy stay. I feel as if I’m going to war, although I don’t see any dangers ahead, except for toothache, which I will certainly have along the way. Since, speaking of documents, I am armed only with a passport and nothing else, unpleasant clashes with the authorities are possible, but this is a temporary problem. If they don’t show me something, then I’ll just write in my book that they didn’t show me and that’s it, and I won’t worry. In case of drowning or something like that, keep in mind that everything I have and may have in the future belongs to my sister; she will pay my debts.”
Chekhov on the eve of departure to Sakhalin
The writer prepared thoroughly for his journey. The list of literature that he studied before the trip included 65 titles. Shortly before leaving, Chekhov wrote to Suvorin: “I am going with complete confidence that my trip will not make a valuable contribution to either literature or science: there is not enough knowledge, time, or claims for this. I have no Humboldtian or even Kennanian plans. I want to write at least 100-200 pages and with this I want to pay a little to my medicine, before which, as you know, I am a pig.”
On April 21, 1890, Chekhov set off from Moscow from the Yaroslavl station on a journey that took almost three months.
Chekhov Anton Pavlovich
Sakhalin island
Anton Chekhov
Sakhalin island
I. G. Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. - Steamship "Baikal". - Cape Pronge and the entrance to the Estuary. - Sakhalin Peninsula. - La Perouse, Broughton, Krusenstern and Nevelskoy. Japanese researchers. - Cape Jaore. - Tatar coast. - De-Kastri.
II. Brief geography. - Arrival in Northern Sakhalin. - Fire. - Pier. - In Slobodka. - Lunch at Mr. L. - Dating. - Gen. Kononovich. - Arrival of the Governor General. - Lunch and illumination.
III. Census. - Contents of statistical cards. - What did I ask about, and how did they answer me? - The hut and its inhabitants. - Opinions of exiles about the census.
IV. Duika River. - Alexander Valley. - Slobodka Alexandrovka. Tramp Handsome. - Alexander's post. - His past. - Yurts. Sakhalin Paris.
V. Alexandrovskaya exile prison. - Shared cameras. Shackled. - Golden Handle. - Latrine places. - Maidan. - Hard labor in Aleksandrovsk. - Servant. - Workshops.
VI Egor's Story
VII. Lighthouse. - Korsakovskoe. - Collection of Dr. P.I. Suprunenko. Meteorological station. - Climate of the Aleksandrovsky district. Novo-Mikhailovka. - Potemkin. - Ex-executioner Tersky. - Krasny Yar. - Butakovo.
VIII. Arkan River. - Arkovsky cordon. - First, Second and Third Arkovo. Arkovskaya Valley. - Villages along the west coast: Mgachi, Tangi, Khoe, Trambaus, Viakhty and Vangi. - Tunnel. - Cable house. - Due. - Barracks for families. - Duya prison. - Coal mines. - Voivodeship prison. Chained to cars.
IX. Tym, or Tymi. - Lieutenant. Boshniak. - Polyakov. - Upper Armudan. - Lower Armudan. - Derbinskoe. - Walk along Tymi. - Uskovo. - Gypsies. - A walk through the taiga. - Voskresenskoe.
X. Rykovskoe. - The local prison. - Meteorological station M.N. Galkin-Vraskoy. - Palevo. - Mikryukov. - Walzy and Longari. - Mado-Tymovo. - Andree-Ivanovskoe.
XI. Designed district. - Stone Age. - Was there free colonization? Gilyaki. - Their numerical composition, appearance, build, food, clothing, housing, hygienic conditions. - Their character. - Attempts to Russify them. Orochi.
XII. My departure to the south. - Cheerful lady. - West Bank. - Currents. Mauka. - Crillon. - Aniva. - Korsakov post. - New acquaintances. Nord-Ost. - Climate of Southern Sakhalin. - Korsakov prison. - Fire convoy.
XIII. Poro an Tomari. - Muravyovsky post. - First, Second and Third Pad. Solovyovka. - Lutoga. - Naked Cape. - Mitsulka. - Larch. Khomutovka. - Big Yelan. - Vladimirovka. - Farm or company. - Lugovoe. Popovsky Yurts. - Birch forests. - Crosses. - Big and Small Takoe. Galkino-Vraskoe. - Oak trees. - Naibuchi. - Sea.
XIV. Taraika. - Free settlers. - Their failures. - Aino, the boundaries of their distribution, numerical composition, appearance, food, clothing, housing, their customs. - Japanese. - Kusun-Kotan. - Japanese Consulate.
XV. The owners are convicts. - Transfer to settlers. - Selection of sites for new settlements. - Housekeeping. - Half people. - Transfer to peasants. Resettlement of exiled peasants to the mainland. - Life in villages. Proximity to prison. - Composition of the population by place of birth and by class. Village authorities.
XVI. Composition of the exiled population by gender. - Women's question. - Convict women and villages. - Roommates and cohabitants. - Women of free status.
XVII. Composition of the population by age. - Marital status of the exiles. - Marriages. Fertility. - Sakhalin children.
XVIII. Classes for exiles. - Agriculture. - Hunting. - Fishing. Occasional fish: chum salmon and herring. - Prison catches. - Skills.
XIX. Food for exiles. - What and how do prisoners eat? - Cloth. - Church. School. - Literacy.
XX. Free population. - Lower ranks of local military commands. Wardens. - Intelligentsia.
XXI. Morality of the exiled population. - Crime. - Investigation and trial. - Punishment. - Rods and whips. - The death penalty.
XXII. Fugitives on Sakhalin. - Reasons for running away. - Composition of fugitives by origin, rank, etc.
XXIII. Morbidity and mortality of the exiled population. - Medical organization. - Infirmary in Aleksandrovsk.
Sakhalin island. For the first time - journal. "Russian Thought", 1893, Nos. 10-12; 1894, No. 2, 3, 5-7. The journal published chapters I-XIX; with the addition of chapters XX-XXIII, "Sakhalin Island" was published in a separate edition: Anton Chekhov, "Sakhalin Island". From travel notes. M., 1895.
Even while preparing his trip to Sakhalin, Chekhov began compiling a bibliography and even wrote individual parts of a future book that did not require personal Sakhalin observations.
Chekhov returned to Moscow from Sakhalin on December 8, 1890. From his Sakhalin trip A.P. Chekhov brought, in his words, “a chest of all kinds of convict stuff”: 10,000 statistical cards, samples of article lists of convicts, petitions, complaints from the doctor B. Perlin, etc.
Chekhov began work on a book about Sakhalin at the beginning of 1891. In a letter to A.S. To Suvorin on May 27, 1891, Chekhov notes: “...The Sakhalin book will be published in the fall, because, honestly, I am already writing and writing it.” At first, he was definitely going to print the entire book and refused to publish individual chapters or just notes about Sakhalin, but in 1892, in connection with the social upsurge among the Russian intelligentsia caused by the organization of famine relief, Chekhov decided to publish a chapter of his book “Fugitives on Sakhalin” "in the collection "Help to the Starving", M., 1892.
In 1893, when the book was completed, Chekhov began to worry about its volume and style of presentation, which was not suitable for publication in a thick magazine. The editor of Russian Thought, V. M. Lavrov, recalled in his essay “At the Timeless Grave”: “Sakhalin was promised to us, and with great difficulty we defended it in the form in which it appeared in the last books of 1893 and in the first books of 1894." (Russian Gazette, 1904, No. 202).
Despite Chekhov's concerns about the attitude of government authorities towards his work, Sakhalin Island went off with little difficulty. On November 25, 1893, Chekhov wrote to Suvorin: “Galkin-Vraskoy” is the head of the Main Prison Directorate. - P.E. complained to Feoktistov, the head of the Main Directorate for Press Affairs. - P.E."; the November book of "Russian Thought" was delayed for three days. But everything turned out well." Summarizing the history of the publication of “Sakhalin Island” in the journal “Russian Thought”, Chekhov wrote to S.A. Petrov (May 23, 1897): “My travel notes were published in Russian Thought, all except for two chapters, delayed by censorship, which did not make it into the magazine, but did end up in the book.”
Even during the period of preparation for the trip to Sakhalin, Chekhov determined the genre of the future book, its scientific and journalistic character. The author’s reflections, excursions of a scientific nature, and artistic sketches of nature, everyday life and the life of people on Sakhalin should have found their place in it; Undoubtedly, the genre of the book was greatly influenced by “Notes from the House of the Dead” by F.M. Dostoevsky and "Siberia and hard labor" by S.V. Maksimov, to which the author repeatedly refers in the text of the narrative.
Sakhalin - largest island Russia, located in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, east of Russia and north of Japan.
Since in its structure, Sakhalin Island resembles a fish, with a fin and tail, the island has disproportionate dimensions.
Its dimensions are:
- in length, more than 950 kilometers
- in width, in its narrowest part, more than 25 kilometers
- in width, in its widest part, more than 155 kilometers
- the total area of the island reaches more than 76,500 square kilometers
Now let's plunge into the history of Sakhalin Island.
The island was discovered by the Japanese around the middle of the 16th century. And by 1679, a Japanese settlement called Otomari (the current city of Korsakov) was officially formed in the south of the island.
During the same period, the island was given the name Kita-Ezo, which translated means Northern Ezo. Ezo - former name Japanese island Hokkaido. Translated into Russian, the word Ezo means shrimp. This suggests that near these islands there lived a large concentration of one of the main Japanese delicacies, shrimp.
The island was discovered by Russians only at the beginning of the 18th century. And the first official settlements on the current island of Sakhalin were developed by 1805.
I would like to note that when Russian colonists began to create topographic maps Sakhalin, there was one mistake because of which the island got its name, Sakhalin. This is due to the fact that maps were drawn up taking into account rivers, and because of the location from which the colonists began mapping the topography, main river there was the Amur River. Since some of the guides of the Russian colonists through the untouched thickets of Sakhalin were immigrants from China, the Arum River, according to the old written Chinese languages, namely from the Manchu dialect, the Amur River sounded like Sakhalyan-Ulla. Due to the fact that Russian cartographers did not correctly enter this name, namely, the place Sakhalyan-Ulla, they entered it as Sakhalin, and they wrote this name on most maps where there were branches from the Amur River, on mainland they considered that such a name was assigned to this island.
But let's get back to history.
Due to the abundant resettlement of Russian colonists to the island by the Japanese in 1845, the current island of Sakhalin and Kurile Islands, were declared independent, the inviolable property of Japan.
But due to the fact that most of the north of the island was already inhabited by Russian colonists, and the entire territory of present-day Sakhalin was not officially appropriated by Japan and was considered not disbanded, Russia began disputes with Japan about the division of the territory. And by 1855, the Treaty of Shimoda was signed between Russia and Japan, in which it was accepted that Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were a joint undivided possession.
Then in 1875, in St. Petersburg, a new treaty was signed between Russia and Japan, according to which Russia renounced its part of the Kuril Islands in exchange for full ownership of the island.
Photos taken on Sakhalin Island, between the mid-18th and early 19th centuries
In 1905, due to Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, which took place from 1904 to 1905, Sakhalin was divided into 2 parts - the Northern part, which remained under Russian control, and the Southern part, which went to Japan.
In 1907, the southern part of Sakhalin was designated Karafuto Prefecture, with its main centers represented by the first Japanese settlement on Sakhalin Island, the city of Otomari (present-day Korsakov).
Then the main center was moved to another large Japanese city, Toehara (the current city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk).
In 1920, Karafuto Prefecture was officially given the status of an external Japanese territory and, from an independent Japanese territory, came under the control of the Ministry of Colonial Affairs, and by 1943, Karafuto received the status of an internal land of Japan.
August 8, 1945 Soviet Union, declared war on Japan, and 2 years later, namely 1947, the Soviet Union won this, the second Russo-Japanese War, taking for itself Southern part Sakhalin and all the Kuril Islands.
And so, from 1947 to the present day, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands remain part of the Russian Federation.
I would like to note that after the deportation of more than 400,000 Japanese back to their homeland began by the end of 1947, at the same time, mass migration of the Russian population to Sakhalin Island began. This is due to the fact that the infrastructure built by the Japanese on the southern part of the island required labor.
And since there were many minerals on the island, the extraction of which required a lot of labor, mass exile of prisoners began to Sakhalin Island, which was an excellent free labor force.
But due to the fact that the deportation of the Japanese population occurred more slowly than the migration of the Russian population and the Sylochniks, the deportation was finally completed by the end of the 19th century. Russian and Japanese Citizens had to live side by side for a long time.
Photos taken on Sakhalin Island between the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
