B) The “World's End” Lost in Taiga

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov traveled to Sakhalin in 1890 to study the life, customs and manners of Sakhalin’s penal servitude. He thought it would be the act of humanness which could attract the attention of people and press to terrible conditions in which the convicts lived. He traveled there across Siberia, Zabaykalye and Priamurye. He wrote:” I am in love with the Amur. I would like to live there for about two years. It is beautiful, free and warm here”. But at that time he did not know anything about the real life of convicts yet …After his visit to Sakhalin servitude he wrote: “My God, even remembering gives you the creeps!... A lot of things I saw, and a lot of things I experienced”.

Active recruitment of peasants from European Russia to move to the Far East began in 1861 with the Stolypin’s agricultural reforms. Freedom from serfdom and free land were offered in exchange for relocation.

In 1882, the Russian government funded a campaign to bring 2,500 families annually from Odessa, Ukraine to the Far East. Later, the settlement was continued by the GULAG and the WWII prisoners. 

These unwitting settlers took part in the building of new roads and gold mines. Sakhalin Island and the city of Magadan became centers of exile. More than a million people who were declared by Stalin enemies of the state spent their lives in Magadan camps in the 1930s. So during a long period of time the Far East was considered to be the “world's end” lost in taiga. Is it the “world's end” nowadays too?

16. Visit the Local Lore Museum of N. I. Grodekov. Prepare a topic about the life of the first settlers of the Far East.

UNIT VII. DEVELOPMENT OF ECONOMY DURING THE GREAT AMUR CAMPAIGN

Lesson 20. Construction of the First Railway in the Far East and its Importance for the Economic Development