East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia

by Benson Bobrick

Book Overview

The history of the vast expanse of land that soon became the dreaded symbol of Soviet terror details Siberia's great events with portraits of the men and women who created or were crushed by them.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805029818
• ISBN13: 9780805029819
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Length: 542 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

remarkable journey through a tragic history

Bobrick does an excellent job of tracking the long-suffering of Siberia and its peoples through many centuries. He also brings to life in vivid detail the adventures of some of the early explorers who journeyed with good or bad motives through that vast region. Some of the expeditions ended in the death for most if not all of those in the party, while other expeditions met with success through miraculous circumstances under the worst conditions.The plight of the indigenous throughout it all makes the heartwant to cry out in protest. It certainly is a tragic history.

The Land of Sables and Gulags

Siberia evokes a host of mental images for any Westerner, most of them negative. Bobrick goes completely beyond the superficial "Gulag" images to reveal a vast and romantic land. He masterfully tells the story of how Russian pioneers battled the Khan tribes to conquer this weird country, river by river, valley by valley. Disasters abounded - particularly the near-extermination of the sable - but Siberia also gave us epic stories of exploration, culminating in the journeys of the great Danish explorer, Bering. Bobrick is as adept at telling their story as he is the stories of the settlers, many of them exiles or convicts, and their new life. There are also chapters devoted to "Russian America," i.e. Alaska, and other Pacific escapades such as the San Francisco base. We learn of border clashes with the Chinese over the Amur, and, later, the Russo-Japanese War, in which the Trans-Siberian railway played a pivotal role. Finally, Bobrick reveals in unflinching detail the Gulag system. This book is pure adventure and is surely deserves to be reissued.

Siberian epic

A pity that this book is out of print. A very intersting survey of the conquest of Siberia. Chilly and chilling even in its writing. No real glorious epic here although lots of gumption and bravery tales of the daring folks that settled Siberia. Just a tale of woe, but a woe that built a nation. Also a few questions about the mentality of a people still little known who forged itself in such hardship and near animalistic conditions. A must read to understand the influence of Siberia in today's Russia. One objection, many editing errors that cost it a star.

How the East was won

There are a lot of parallels between the conquest of Siberia by Russia and the taming of the American West. For starters, there is the way each country treated the indigenous population as it conquered them. Compared to your avearge Cossack, George Armstrong Custer was a weeping humanitarian. This book follows the epic history of Siberia from the sixteenth century through the Bolshevik revolution that turned the countryside into a massive prison colony. Bobrick is an excellent storyteller and his history is as entertaining as it is informative.

Easy reading of a broad subject

I found this book in the bargain section for $5 and now see it is out of print. What a shame. The book covers the hisotry of Siberia from pre-history to modern times. Perhaps the most interesting chapters cover the exploration of Siberia by Bering in the late 18th C. - this epic conquest pales the Lewis and Clark expedition in scope and time and is writen with such vivid description it would make a wonderfull movie. For these few chapters alone this book is worth seeking out. Overall a very intersting book covering a very broad topic