"Sakhalin Island" (From travel notes) by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. Reference

In 1890, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, already a well-known writer, traveled across the country to the island of Sakhalin - to the place where convicts and exiles were kept. Chekhov planned a trip to Sakhalin and a return by steamboat around Asia to Odessa as a single trip to the East. But the main goal was Sakhalin. Having learned about his plans, relatives, friends and acquaintances dissuaded him, but Chekhov was adamant.

Chekhov (in a light jacket) with family and friends on the eve of a trip to Sakhalin

Chekhov was traveling with a "correspondent ticket" from Novoye Vremya, but at his own expense. The publisher Alexei Sergeevich Suvorin, who was a close friend of Chekhov, provided a solid loan, and the writer promised to send travel essays on account of the debt. The expenses were huge. Only one ticket for the steamship of the Volunteer Fleet cost about 500 rubles. From a letter to Suvorin: “So, then, my dear, I am leaving on Wednesday or, at the most, on Thursday. Goodbye until December. Happy to stay. I feel as if I am going to war, although I see no danger ahead, except for a toothache, which I will certainly have on the road. Since, if we talk about documents, I am armed with only one passport and nothing else, then unpleasant clashes with the powers that be are possible, but this is a transient trouble. 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, but I won’t worry. In case of drowning or anything like that, keep in mind that everything I have and can have in the future belongs to my sister; she will pay my debts.”

Chekhov on the eve of his departure to Sakhalin

The writer prepared thoroughly for his journey. In the list of literature, which he studied before the trip, there were 65 titles. Shortly before his departure, Chekhov wrote to Suvorin: “I am going completely sure that my trip will not make a valuable contribution to either literature or science: neither knowledge, nor time, nor claims will be enough for this. I have no Humboldt or even Kennan plans. I want to write at least 100-200 pages and pay a little bit for my medicine, in front of which, as you know, I am a pig.”

On April 21, 1890, Chekhov set off from Moscow from the Yaroslavsky railway station on a journey that took almost three months.

I posted a note about Sakhalin and illustrated it with such wonderful photographs that I can’t resist reposting it:

Sakhalin is the largest island in Russia. It is located off the eastern coast of Asia, and is washed by the waters of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Sea of ​​Japan. Sakhalin is separated from the mainland by the Tatar Strait, which connects the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Sea of ​​Japan. And from the Japanese island of Hokkaido - the La Perouse Strait. From north to south, Sakhalin stretches for 948 km, with an average width of about 100 km.

Nivkhs. Photo by IK Stardust

Sakhalin Ainu

Many, perhaps, will be surprised to learn that several place names of the Sakhalin region are of French origin. For this, we must thank the great navigator Jean-Francois La Perouse, who, during his round-the-world trip in 1787, plotted the strait between Sakhalin and Hokkaido on the world map. Now this body of water, 101 kilometers long, bears the name of its discoverer. It was sung about him in a soulful Soviet song: "And I throw pebbles from the steep bank of the wide La Perouse Strait."

Strait of La Perouse

The presence of the French in this region, far from the banks of the Seine, is reminded, for example, by the Crillon Peninsula, named after the bravest commander of the time of Henry IV, Louis Balbes Crillon. Fans of Alexandre Dumas remember this colorful character from the novels The Countess de Monsoro and Forty-five. “Why am I not a king,” he whispers to himself on the last page of The Countess, ashamed of his monarch’s indifference to the villainous murder of the Comte de Bussy.

Dinosaurs of Cape Crillon. Photo by Olga Kulikova

By the way, on the Crillon Peninsula there are earthen ramparts of the medieval fortress of Siranusi. It is not known for certain who it was built by - it could be either an outpost of the Mongol empire, or the Tungus tribes of the Jurchens, who created the Jin empire on the territory of Primorye and northern China. One thing is obvious: the fortification was built according to all the rules of fortification of that time.

Ramparts of the fortress of Siranusi and the lighthouse at Cape Crillon

Moneron Island in the Tatar Strait was also named La Perouse, in honor of his associate, engineer Paul Moneron. On this piece of land is the first marine natural park in Russia.

Tourist complex on the island of Moneron

Moneron is famous for its unique waterfalls, columnar rocks and wildlife. The island has every chance of becoming the Mecca of the country's underwater photographers in the near future.

Sea lions on Moneron Island. Photo Vyacheslav Kozlov

On Moneron. Photo Vyacheslav Kozlov

After La Perouse, Russian expeditions began to explore the region. In 1805, a ship under the command of Ivan Krusenstern explored most of the Sakhalin coast. By the way, for a long time on different maps Sakhalin was designated either as an island or a peninsula. And only in 1849, the expedition under the command of Grigory Nevelsky put an end to this issue, passing on the military transport ship "Baikal" between Sakhalin and the mainland.

Lighthouse at Cape Aniva. Anvar Photos

In the 19th century, Sakhalin land was for more than thirty-five years a haven for exiles - the official Russian penal servitude. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, who visited the island in 1890, called it "hell on earth". The most hardened criminals of the empire were serving their sentences here, for example, the thief Sonya the Golden Hand, who tried to escape from here three times and became the only woman who was ordered to be shackled by the penal servitude administration.

The famous thief Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka in Sakhalin penal servitude

After the capture of Sakhalin by the Japanese in 1905 and the signing by the tsarist government, under pressure from the United States, the Portsmouth Treaty was abolished. At the same time, the southern part of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were proclaimed the governorship of Karafuto and went to Japan. 15 years later, the Japanese occupied the northern part of the island and left it only in 1925 thanks to the efforts of Soviet diplomacy. Only after the end of the Second World War did Sakhalin again become part of our state. Although to this day Russia and Japan are arguing about whose foot first set foot on this island.

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk

Monument at the site of Vladimirovka

In 1882, the settlement of Vladimirovka was founded on Sakhalin for the convicts who had served their terms. From 1905 to 1945, when South Sakhalin was a territory of Japan, Vladimirovka was the center of Karafuto Prefecture and bore the name of Toyohara.

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Sir Fisher Photos

In 1945, the territory was occupied by Soviet troops, and South Sakhalin became part of the USSR. A year later, Toyohara was renamed Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and a year later it became the capital of the Sakhalin Region.

Regional Museum. Photo Illusionist

Regional Museum. Photo by Irina V.

Perhaps one of the most striking sights of the island can be called the Sakhalin Regional Museum of Local Lore. It is located in the building of the former Japanese governorship of Karafuto, built in 1937; this is almost the only monument of Japanese architecture in Russia. The museum's collections cover the period from ancient history to the present day.

Eleven-inch gun model 1867. The gun was made in 1875 in St. Petersburg, and during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. took part in the defense of Port Arthur

The museum of Chekhov's book "Sakhalin Island" is another pride of the Sakhalin people. The museum building was built in 1954, has an attic and resembles Chekhov's "house with a mezzanine" in its architecture. This museum can tell a lot of interesting things about the writer's Sakhalin journey: for example, about the fact that Anton Pavlovich took a pistol with him on a voyage to the local shores in order to ... have time to shoot himself if the ship goes down. The classic was terribly afraid of drowning.

Near the station there is a museum of railway equipment, which contains samples of Japanese equipment that worked on Sakhalin, including the Japanese snowplow "Wajima" shown in the photograph and the head section of the Japanese passenger diesel train ("Ki-Ha")

Resurrection Cathedral in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Photo by Igor Smirnov

Skiing is one of the most popular entertainments among Sakhalin residents. The most beautiful place within the boundaries of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is the mountain air camp site. At night, it can be seen from almost anywhere in the city.

View of the "Mountain Air" route from Victory Square

Sakhalin apocalyptic

Damn bridge. Photo father Fedor

Abandoned tunnel and bridge on the old Japanese railway Kholmsk - Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Going into the tunnel, the road deviates to the right and rises, then, after exiting the tunnel, it goes around the hill and then crosses itself over the bridge. above the entrance portal of the tunnel. Thus, a giant coil of a spiral is formed, which ensures the rise of the road to the ridge while maintaining an acceptable slope.

Danger Stone Island

Lighthouse on the stone of Danger

The Danger Stone is a rock located 14 km southeast of Cape Crillon, the southernmost point of Sakhalin Island, in the La Perouse Strait. The rock greatly impeded the movement of ships along the strait. To avoid a collision, sailors were posted on the ships, whose duty it was to listen to the roar of the sea lions located on the Danger Stone. In 1913, a concrete tower with a lighthouse was erected on the rock.

Flora and fauna

Sakhalin crab. Raido Photos

A fish day for a Sakhalin citizen is a common thing. Fish, fish roe, crustaceans, mollusks, algae - all this variety makes incredibly tasty dishes rich in protein.

A giant sandwich with red caviar was prepared for the City Day of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The dimensions of the culinary masterpiece are 3 by 5 m. It was made in the form of a heart, symbolizing love for the birthday man.

Sakhalin fox. Photo Andriy Shpatak

According to scientists, more than 500,000 tons of fish, about 300,000 tons of invertebrates, and about 200,000 tons of algae can be harvested annually in Sakhalin waters without compromising reproduction. The fishing industry has been and remains the main one for the region.

"Sakhalin Island" is a book by the great writer A.P. Chekhov, made in the form of notes during the author's trip to the island in 1890.

Chekhov's journey began with the half-empty city of Nikolaevsky. It was distinguished by a gloomy atmosphere, poor and drunken citizens who somehow made ends meet and survived mainly on smuggling. In general, the city resembled American Texas.

Also, this city did not have a developed infrastructure, and the writer could not even find a hotel for a couple of days. Because of this, he spent 2 nights on the ship, but he had to go on a return flight, and Chekhov was left completely without shelter in this city.

The next point of the journey was the island of Sakhalin, which was mistakenly considered a peninsula in those days. She sailed there on the ship "Baikal". Once Chekhov took a vulgar walk on the deck, he saw ordinary people of the 3rd grade, who were cold and covered with dew from early work.

Upon arrival on the island, in the city of Aleksandrovsk, the writer thought that he was in hell, he was so struck by the dense taiga of Sakhalin. In this city, Anton Pavlovich was able to get a job at the apartment of a local doctor, who told him many secrets of the mysterious island. With sadness, the author observed the injustice to convicts and convicts. He visited several prisons with their inhumane unsanitary conditions, humidity, freezing and hunger. The convicts were forced to work excessively hard in terrible physical conditions - practically without clothes and shoes.

Later, Chekhov took up the census of their population (except for political convicts, to whom he was denied access).

The unpleasant climate added to the difficulties for the inhabitants - the summer was cold, cloudy, snow often fell in June, the autumn was very damp with freezing rains, while the winter months were striking in their severity of frost.

In addition to the prisoners, Chekhov met the main inhabitants of the island - the Gilyaks. They lived so poorly, in special buildings - yurts, their life was hard and joyless, from which they sinned with alcohol and neglect of the women of their people. However, humanly they were quite hospitable and cordial.

Having familiarized himself with the northern part of the island, Anton Pavlovich went to its southern part. There, the indigenous people were the Aino, who amazed Chekhov with their elderly women. Their ugliness, aggravated by the blue paint on their lips, was incredible. They looked like real devils. Another interesting feature was that they ate mainly rice and practically did not use ordinary Russian bread.

After the publication of this book, the Russian public was discouraged by the life of convicts and indigenous people, as a result of which the government was forced to respond. This book shows how harsh conditions our country has, and how indifferent the government was to the life and life of people.

Reader's diary.

Sakhalin is Russia's largest island, 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 a tail, the island does not have proportional 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

And 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, in the south of the island, a Japanese settlement called Otomari (the current city of Korsakov) was officially formed.
During the same period, the island was given its name, Kita-Ezo, which means Northern Ezo. Ezo is the former name of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. Translated into Russian, the word Ezo means shrimp. This suggests that near these islands, there lived a large accumulation of one of the main Japanese delicacy, shrimp.

Russians, the island was discovered only at the beginning of the 18th century. And the first official settlements on the current island of Sakhalin were mastered by 1805.

I would like to note that when the Russian colonists began to create topographic maps of Sakhalin, they had one mistake because of which the island got its name, Sakhalin. All due to the fact that the maps were made taking into account the rivers, and because of the location from which the colonists began the topography of the map, the main river 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 incorrectly entered 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 the mainland they considered what the name was assigned to this island.

But back to history.

Due to the abundant resettlement of Russian colonists to the island, the Japanese, in 1845, the current island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, were declared independent, 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 assigned by Japan and was considered not disbanded, Russia began disputes with Japan about the division of the territory. And already by 1855, the Shimoda Treaty was signed between Russia and Japan, in which it was accepted that Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands are 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 middle of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century

In 1905, due to the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, which took place from 1904 to 1905, Sakhalin was divided into 2 parts - the Northern part, which remained under the control of Russia and the South, which was ceded to Japan.

In 1907, the southern part of Sakhalin was designated Karafuto Prefecture, with its main center represented by the first Japanese settlement on Sakhalin Island, the city of Otomari (now Korsakov).
Then the main center was transferred to another large Japanese city, Toekhara (the current city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk).

In 1920, Karafuto Prefecture was officially given the status of an external Japanese territory and it passed from an independent Japanese territory under the control of the Ministry of Colonial Affairs, and by 1943, Karafuto received the status of Japan's inland lands.

On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, and 2 years later, namely in 1947, the Soviet Union won this, the second Russo-Japanese War, taking the southern part of Sakhalin and all the Kuril Islands.

And so, starting 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, the mass migration of the Russian population to Sakhalin Island began. This is due to the fact that the infrastructure built by the Japanese in the southern part of the island needed labor.
And since there were many minerals on the island, the extraction of which required a lot of labor, a mass exile of prisoners began on Sakhalin Island, which was an excellent free labor force.

But due to the fact that the deportation of the Japanese population was slower than the migration of the Russian population and Sylochnikov, and finally the deportation was 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 end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.

Chekhov Anton Pavlovich

Sakhalin island

Anton Chekhov

Sakhalin island

I. G. Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. - Steamboat "Baikal". - Cape Pronge and the entrance to Liman. - Sakhalin Peninsula. - La Perouse, Brauton, Krusenstern and Nevelskoy. Japanese explorers. - Cape Jaore. - Tatar coast. - De-Kastri.

II. Brief geography. - Arrival in Northern Sakhalin. - Fire. - Pier. - In Slobodka. - Dinner at Mr. L. - Acquaintances. - Gen. Kononovich. - Arrival of the Governor-General. - Dinner and illumination.

III. Census. - The content of statistical cards. - What I asked, and how they answered me. - The hut and its inhabitants. - Opinions of exiles about the census.

IV. Duika river. - Alexander Valley. - Slobidka Aleksandrovka. Tramp Handsome. - Alexander post. - His past. - Yurts. Sakhalin Paris.

V. Aleksandrovsk exile prison. - Shared cameras. Shackled. - Golden Pen. - Outhouses. - Maidan. - Hard labor in Aleksandrovsk. - Servants. - Workshops.

VI Yegor's story

VII. Lighthouse. - Korsakov. - Collection of Dr. P.I. Suprunenko. Meteorological station. - The climate of the Aleksandrovsky district. Novo-Mikhailovka. - Potemkin. - Ex-executioner Tersky. - Krasny Yar. - Butakovo.

VIII. River Arkan. - Arkovsky cordon. - First, Second and Third Arkovo. Arkovskaya valley. - Settlements along the western coast: Mgachi, Tangi, Hoe, Trambaus, Viakhty and Vangi. - Tunnel. - Cable house. - Due. - Barracks for families. - Duja prison. - Coal mines. - Provincial prison. Chained to wheelbarrows.

IX. Tym, or Tym. - Leith. Boschniak. - Polyakov. - Upper Armudan. - Lower Armudan. - Derbinsk. - Walk along Tymi. - Uskovo. - Gypsies. - Walk in the taiga. - Resurrection.

X. Rykovskoe. - The local prison. - Meteorological station M.N. Galkin-Vrasky. - Fawn. - Mikryukov. - Valses and Longari. - Mado-Tymovo. - Andrey-Ivanovskoye.

XI. Designed district. - Stone Age. - Was there a free colonization? Gilyaki. - Their numerical composition, appearance, constitution, food, clothing, dwellings, hygienic conditions. - Their character. - Attempts to Russify them. Orochi.

XII. My departure to the south. - Cheerful lady. - West Coast. - Currents. Mauka. - Crillon. - Aniva. - Korsakov post. - New acquaintances. Nord-ost. - The climate of South Sakhalin. - Korsakov prison. - Fire brigade.

XIII. Poro en Tomari. - Muravyovskiy post. - First, Second and Third Pad. Solovyovka. - Lutoga. - Naked cape. - Mitsulka. - Larch. Khomutovka. - Big Elan. - Vladimirovka. - Farm or firm. - Meadow. Popov Yurts. - Birch forests. - Crosses. - Large and Small Takoe. Galkino-Vraskoe. - Oaks. - Naibuchi. - Sea.

XIV. Taraika. - Free settlers. - Their failures. - Aino, the boundaries of their distribution, numerical composition, appearance, food, clothing, dwellings, their customs. - The Japanese. - Kusun-Kotan. - Japanese Consulate.

XV. The hosts are convicts. - Transfer to the settlers. - Selection of places for new villages. - Home improvement. - Halfers. - Transfer to the peasants. Resettlement of peasants from exiles to the mainland. - Life in the villages. Proximity to prison. - The composition of the population by place of birth and by class. rural authorities.

XVI. Composition of the exiled population by sex. - Women's issue. - Hard labor women and settlements. - Cohabitants and cohabitants. - Women of the free state.

XVII. Composition of the population by age. - Marital status of the exiles. - Marriages. Fertility. - Sakhalin children.

XVIII. The occupations of the exiles. - Agriculture. - Hunting. - Fishing. Periodic fish: chum salmon and herring. - Prison catches. - Mastery.

XIX. The food of the exiles. - What and how prisoners eat. - Cloth. - Church. School. - Literacy.

XX. Free population. - Lower ranks of local military teams. Overseers. - Intelligentsia.

XXI. Morality of the exiled population. - Crime. - Investigation and trial. - Punishment. - Rods and whips. - The death penalty.

XXII. Runaways on Sakhalin. - Reasons for running away. - The composition of the fugitives by origin, ranks, 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, Nos. 2, 3, 5-7. The journal published chapters I-XIX; with the addition of chapters XX-XXIII "Sakhalin Island" was published as a separate publication: Anton Chekhov, "Sakhalin Island". From travel notes. M., 1895.

Even during the preparation of the trip to Sakhalin, Chekhov began compiling a bibliography and even wrote separate pieces of a future book that did not require personal observations from Sakhalin.

Chekhov returned to Moscow from Sakhalin on December 8, 1890. A.P. Chekhov brought, in his words, "a chest of all sorts of convict things": 10,000 statistical cards, samples of article lists of convicts, petitions, complaints from doctor B. Perlin, etc.

Chekhov began work on a book about Sakhalin in early 1891. In a letter to A.S. Suvorin dated May 27, 1891, Chekhov remarks: "... The Sakhalin book will be published in the fall, because, honestly, I am already writing and writing it." At first, he was going to print the entire book without fail and refused to publish individual chapters or just notes about Sakhalin, but in 1892, in connection with the public upsurge among the Russian intelligentsia, caused by the organization of assistance to the starving, Chekhov decided to publish a chapter of his book "The Runaways on Sakhalin " in the collection "Help for the Starving", M., 1892.

In 1893, when the book was finished, 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 Untimely Grave”: “Sakhalin was promised to us, and we defended it with great difficulty in the form in which it appeared in the last books of 1893 and in the first books of 1894." ("Russian Vedomosti", 1904, No. 202).

Despite Chekhov's fears about the attitude of government authorities to his work, "Sakhalin Island" passed with little difficulty. November 25, 1893 Chekhov wrote to Suvorin: "Galkin-Vraskoy" head of the Main Prison Department. - P.E." complained to Feoktistov "to 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." Summing up 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 that were detained by censorship, which did not get into the magazine, but did get into the book."

Even in the period of preparation for the trip to Sakhalin, Chekhov determined the genre of the future book, its scientific and journalistic nature. It should have found its place and author's reflections, and excursions of a scientific nature, and artistic sketches of nature, life and life of people on Sakhalin; undoubtedly, the genre of the book was greatly influenced by "Notes from the Dead House" by F.M. Dostoevsky and "Siberia and penal servitude" by S.V. Maksimov, to which the author repeatedly refers in the text of the narrative.

According to the researchers, even in the process of working on the draft of Sakhalin Island, the structure of the entire book was determined: chapters I-XIII are built as travel essays, devoted first to Northern and then 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 the Sakhalin people, their morality, etc. In each chapter, the author tried to convey to the 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 style of the book as follows; “I wrote for a long time and felt for a long time that I was going the wrong way, until I finally caught the falsehood. The falsehood was precisely in the fact that I seemed to want to teach someone with my Sakhalin and at the same time I was hiding something and restrain myself. But as soon as I began to portray what an eccentric I felt on Sakhalin and what pigs there, 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 fine slavery, as, for example, in the description of the caretaker 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". One of the characteristic features of the convict population of Sakhalin is emphasized in the personality of Yegor and in his fate: 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 be resolved by the crime.

The publication of "Sakhalin Island" on the pages of the journal "Russian Thought" immediately attracted the attention of metropolitan and provincial newspapers. "The whole 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 you only need to wish that they attracted the attention of those on whom the fate of the "unfortunate" depends. ("Week", 1895, No. 38).