A Journey to the End of the Russian Empire

A short excerpt book, as a part of the Penguin Great Journeys set.

In 1890 Chekhov travelled across Russia to the labour camp / penal colony island of Sakhalin. This book is made up of two sections: the first a series of heavily abridged letters to family and friends covering the journey eastwards. The writing in this section is jocular and informing, makes for a very interesting travelogue. There are good descriptions of the tundra and taiga, which remind me of the scenery I saw when I travelled on the TransSiberian a number of years ago (the TransMongolian actually, as I turned off South to Ulaan Bataar).

The second part of the book contains excerpts from a report on the conditions of life on Sakhalin. It stops short of being detached, but is still written in almost a report formate. Each town is discussed, and statistics are quoted:
Voskresenskoye is twice as large as Uskovo. Inhabitants, 183: 175 male and 8 female. There are 7 free families but not one legally married. There are few children in the settlement and only one girl. It has 97 homesteads and 77 co-owners.

It does however cover most aspects of life on the island, including a large section on the re-sentencing of those who commit crimes or attempt escape from the convict colonies, including the vigorous torture and executions.It also covers the local inhabitants, the native Gilyak people, and their life on the island.

Unfortunately the excerpt doesn't cover the history of the island, which has been argued over by Russia and Japan for hundreds of years.