''Siberia, Siberia'' (russian: Сибирь, Сибирь...) is a non-fiction book by the Russian writer Valentin Rasputin. It was originally published in Russian in 1991 by Molodaya Gvardiya (Young Guard). The second and third editions appeared in 2000 and 2006; an English translation is available as well. Rasputin is a Russian novelist based in

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and mn, Эрхүү, ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 617,473 as of the 2010 Census, Irkutsk is ...

in Eastern Siberia, and a master of the genre known as '' village prose''. His fiction centers around the conflict of the traditional Siberian village lifestyle, characterized by its

family values Family values, sometimes referred to as familial values, are traditional or cultural values that pertain to the family's structure, function, roles, beliefs, attitudes, and ideals. In the social sciences and U.S. political discourse, the conventi ...

, unambiguous morality, and strong connection with one's ancestral culture and natural environment, with the modernizing developments of the post-World War II period. Since the mid-1970s, he has been increasingly involved in writing non-fiction essays and article, protesting against projects he views as environmentally destructive and advocating for the restoration of "Russian national consciousness". His Siberia, Siberia is both an excursion into the human history of the region, and a diatribe against the industrial developments and infrastructure projects "of the last three decades" (i.e. roughly 1960–1990) that he views as wrecking not only the region's natural environments and the rural way of life, but also the very moral fibre of the nation.

Book summary

Besides an introductory overview chapters and the conclusion, the book consists of several chapters which are dedicated to particular regions: Tobolsk, the old capital of Russian Siberia;

Lake Baikal Lake Baikal (, russian: Oзеро Байкал, Ozero Baykal ); mn, Байгал нуур, Baigal nuur) is a rift lake in Russia. It is situated in southern Siberia, between the federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Repu ...

;

, the city on the

Angara The Angara ( Buryat and mn, Ангар, ''Angar'', "Cleft"; russian: Ангара́, ''Angará'') is a major river in Siberia, which traces a course through Russia's Irkutsk Oblast and Krasnoyarsk Krai. It drains out of Lake Baikal and is ...

which the author has long made his made home;

Altai Altai or Altay may refer to: Places *Altai Mountains, in Central and East Asia, a region shared by China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Russia In China * Altay Prefecture (阿勒泰地区), Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China * Altay City (阿� ...

; Kyakhta, the 18–19th century entrepôt for China tea trade; and the isolated Arctic community of Russkoye Ustye with its archaic customs and dialect. Later Russian editions had additional chapters added. As usual in Rasputin's writing, his greatest ire is reserved for the masterminds of the river damming and

water export Water exports involve exporting freshwater from one country to another. Large increases in human population and economic growth throughout the world during the twentieth century placed a huge stress on the world’s freshwater resources. Combine ...

schemes, such as the Siberian river reversal project, which was shelved (not without Rasputin's contribution to its criticism) in 1986.

erever dams are put up and reservoirs swell, a river ceases to be a river and becomes a disfigured beast of burden with the life squeezed out of it. After that, the river contain no fish, no life, no beauty.

Translations into foreign languages

An English translation by Margaret Winchell and Gerald Mikkelson was published by Northwestern University Press in 1996.

Awards

The third Russian edition of the book, which appeared in 2006, earned the 2007 Book of the Year Award of the Moscow Book Fair in the "Literary Russian Language" ("Русский литературный") category.

Criticism

Some Western critics claim that while Rasputin is vocal in defending the Siberia's long-established Russian community against Moscow's central planners and the carpetbaggers brought to the region by the development projects, he disregards the plight of the region's aboriginal people and their intrinsic property rights in the region's natural resources.

Ewa M. Thompson Ewa M. Thompson (born Ewa Majewska; 1937 in Kaunas) is Polish-American Slavist at Rice University. She is the editor of The Sarmatian Review. She publishes about imperial motives in Russian literature. Post-colonialism Thompson's book ''Imperi ...

Rasputin's Siberia, Siberia, and Russian Colonialism --Soviet and Post-Soviet
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References

{{Reflist 1991 in the environment 2000 in the environment 2006 in the environment Environmental non-fiction books Russian non-fiction books Siberia Books about Russia Molodaya Gvardiya (publisher) books