Customer Reviews

The Siberians

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What a shame that this book is out of print. It tells of the once-forgotten Small Peoples of the Far North, who live on the frozen tundra. It is masterfully written with understanding, respect and shared love. Through education and respect for the land, Siberia has grown and prospered, perhaps more than any other region of what was then the Soviet Union. This book calls for an up-to-date sequel to show what has happened in and to Siberia since the collapse of the USSR.

Mowat anticipated the ecology movement. Has a lot of interesting commentary on the relationship of our production-based system and our world, and compares it to what he was seeing on his trips to Siberia in the 60s.

It was quite good, but glossed over the lifestyle of Russians, especially in Siberia. Many are quite hearty, and, I feel, must drink lots of their favorite drink, mare's milk (fermented, of course)..They seem quite warm when greeting foreigners, and that's good...but weather is brutal in winter, and I also think I would imbibe lots of vodka (as they do) just to keep warm...I only wish there had been more natural history or info on the wilds of that area.

I get the feeling Intourist wrote this book for Mr. Mowat. His picture of Soviet life is so wonderful that people will wonder how the USSR could ever have collapsed.

"Mirny has everything. Its 38,000 people have a TV and radio station, daily newspaper, library with 200,000 volumes, two theaters, five cinemas, the most modern hospital I have ever seen, paved roads (WOW!), a brewery and a vodka distillery (well, duh), an advanced educational system including a technical school with eleven hundred students, dance groups, choirs, children's musical schools, and...you name it, Mirny has it. Most of its citizens live in cleanly designed five- to seven-story apartment blocks, intelligently sited, and tinted in gentle colors to take away the blight of naked concrete which disfigures so much recent Soviet - not to mention North American - architecture." (Chapter 11, parentheticals mine)

Mr. Mowat isn't even trying here. Happily, most of the prose is totally unlike the dull, fatiguing mass shown above, but the stark difference serves as a reminder that he didn't do all of the writing. He doesn't tell us how much time he spent in this small city, but from what he describes generally we could assume it was a short stay with a factory tour and a lot of drinking and being treated like a big-shot-published-many-times hero by local writers and artists. No library inspections, radio listening, or dance recitals. Though I suppose we can give him credit for actually SEEING the hospital from the outside.

And incidentally, the last sentence of the quote is emblematic of an amusing recurrence in the book. Any idea, fact, or quote given that is tinged with a hint of criticism towards the Soviet system is balanced with a shot at Western democracic government or culture. I mean it, EVERY SINGLE TIME. The credulous reader will be dismayed to realize that our way of life shares only the vices of Soviet Russia, and none of the virtues.

I got about halfway into this book before putting it down in annoyance. The descriptions of lands and people faraway and unknown to me WERE quite interesting. Places like Yakutsk and Mirny are no longer the unfathomable abstractions that they were before. But I came to realize that many of the descriptive passages were just copied out of leaflets and brochures supplied by his wonderful Party escorts. I don't know about any of you, but my time's too short to spend swallowing propaganda. I could be watching Fox News instead! :)P

If you want to learn about Eastern Russia, find a source that isn't so beholden to pleasant pictures of failed ideologies. PJ O'Rourke comes to mind (he has written a wonderful description of a ride on the Trans-Siberian railroad and a visit to the city of Irkutsk and Lake Baikal).

I envy Farley Mowat and his wife Claire for their journey throughout Siberia in the 19060's. Communism was roaring along very well, the Small People of the North (the Native Siberians who had small numbers) were holding on to the past and embracing the present. The State was, overall, welcoming to this Canadian writer, and the people were amazingly hospitable. Farley and Claire were able to see the Sleeping Giant as few others were able to, probably even most Soviet citizens.

While I read of the amazing technological wonders, the fantastic movement of goods, the incredible food and drink, the wonderful education that anyone was able to get, I had, in the back of my mind a huge dose of skepticism. A Soviet explained to the author that *they* knew what was propaganda and what was the truth, whereas North Americans are just the opposite, swallowing marketing and political propaganda without guile. Because the US government is in the midst of a propaganda war, that people actually believe Fox news, that the US has been involved in another oil war, well, yes, I can believe that. I do worry about the path the North of Asian Russia has taken since the fall of communism and what the US style capitalists are doing to the well made plans of the 1960's.

I recommend this book, although it is not an easy nor quick read. The author complains about being bogged down in statistics from proud Siberians, and I felt the same way from him. Some of the organisation seemed a bit scattered; we seemed to return to similar themes, yet in different settings. It was also impossible to tell where the author went on which trip, or even how many trips he took to Siberia. Overall, that doesn't matter I suppose.

Communist manifesto