Into Siberia : George Kennan's epic journey through the brutal, frozen heart of Russia
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-250) and index.

"In the late nineteenth century, close diplomatic relations existed between the United States and Russia. That changed when George Kennan went to Siberia in 1885 to investigate the exile system and he learned of the brutality Russia was wielding to suppress dissent. Over ten months, he traveled eight thousand miles, enduring sandstorms and blizzards. His interviews with convicts and political exiles revealed how Russia ran on inflicted pain and fear. Prisoners in the mines were chained day and night to their wheelbarrows as punishment. Babies froze to death as their mothers held them. After returning to the United States, he set out to generate public outrage over the plight of the imprisoned, writing the renowned Siberia and the Exile System. He then went on a nine-year lecture tour to spread the truth of the Siberian exiles' suffering, intensifying the newly-emerging diplomatic conflicts between the two countries, which last to this day"--,Dust jacket.