Through Siberia by Accident

by Dervla Murphy

Through Siberia by Accident is an account of a journey that didn’t happen—and what happened instead. While still thousands of miles from her original destination, Ussuriland in the Russian Far East, Dervla Murphy found herself stymied by multiple minor injuries. This book is an extraordinary story of fortitude and resourcefulness as Murphy finds friendship and culture in one of the world’s bleakest, most inhospitable regions.

Genres: Travel, Russia, Nonfiction, Travelogue, Memoir, Adventure, 21st Century

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Dervla Murphy’s first book, Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle, was published in 1965. Over twenty travel books followed including her highly acclaimed autobiography, Wheels Within Wheels.

Dervla won worldwide praise for her writing and many awards, including the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize, the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing and the Royal Geographical Award for the popularisation of geography.

Few of the epithets used to describe her – ‘travel legend’, ‘intrepid’ or ‘the first lady of Irish cycling’ – quite do justice to her extraordinary achievement.

She was born in 1931 and remained passionate about travel, writing, politics, Palestine, conservation, bicycling and beer until her death in 2022.

Reviews

[Daren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read a number of Dervla Murphy books, and consider myself a fan, so it wasn't without some trepidation I read this one. This is because, as alluded to in the title, despite planning another of her numerous cycle tours (yes, she has also used beasts of burden), a chance fall on a train in transit to the starting point leaves Murphy unable to walk, let a lone cycle for the most part of her time in Siberia. And so her plans are scratched, and she re-cuts a new plan - one that involved no cycling, and little walking. Which brings me to the concerns I had going in - I really enjoy her tried and tested format for books - a little about the cycling and physical hardship (or animal husbandry in the case of a non-cycle book), a lot about the people and places, a little about the history.

There is no doubt in this book, and this is influenced not only by her lack of movement, but also the location, contains a significant amount more detail on history, and many people and their roles in the history of the area of Siberia that she visits. There are still the personal interactions with all those who she comes into contact along the way, and there is still plenty of hardship with the travel, mostly train related, with a bus journey and some ferry jaunts, etc. But it is reasonable to say the history and background took over - although as noted above, contemporary Russia in general appears to only be explainable by delving into its history, and Siberia is no exception.

So where did she go? He journey was based around the BAM railway (the Baikal–Amur Mainline) which leaves the main Trans-Siberian railway line at Taishet and heads north, above Lake Baikal. Murphy makes a number of side trips in this general area, visiting each of the relevant towns / cities, where inevitably she is sought out by the few English speakers, and treated with what can only be described as overwhelming hospitality. Time after time she is accommodated and overfed, they accompany her to show her places and things, and won't allow her to pay her way.

If anything this book is a testament to the generosity and hospitality of the Siberian people, as time and again they go out of their way to accommodate and assist the non-Russian speaking foreigner, despite the hardship of their lives, and their relative lack of finances.

Probably 3.5 stars, rounded down because so many good books i have read lately have been 4 stars, and for me, this didn't quite make it.

[Dеnnis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book on Russians EVER!!!

Strongly recommend to anyone interested in Russia/Russians. I am Russian. And I am all ears when it comes to foreigners trying to explore and explain the essence of this enormous country and its controversial folk. That is why I try not to miss such kinds of books. Mostly what I fish out is just a crusade for confirmation of deep rooted stereotypes/myths or very shallow account a-la Marco Polo.

I must say this book is a precious exception. With surprising astuteness she slices open the notorious "Russian soul" and identifies motives underlying many Russian behavior modes, views, philosophy etc.

All during the journey to the most godforsaken (or government/Moscow forsaken) places.

I am impressed! Many of her conclusions really stroke me and find the whole account astonishingly trustworthy.

Of course exposing some unpleasant features of current (or ancestral) mindset and collective unconscious might hurt some purists or idealists, but isn't bitter truth better than sweet fables?

I strongly recommend the book to all my foreign friends and for you as well.

[ALLEN · Rating 3 out of 5]

Irish writer Dervla Murphy has made a career -- no, a life -- by going to out-of-the-way places, interacting with the locals, and writing brilliantly about the experience. Books like In Ethiopia with a Mule and Where the Indus is Young secured her reputation -- this time, however, she may have asked too much of that rep. The trouble is, her preferred mode of travel after reaching Siberia on the relatively new BAM (Baikal-Amur-Mainline) railway line was a heavyweight bicycle, which she couldn't ride after injuring a knee enroute.

Books about train rides can be fun; one thinks of The Great Railway Bazaar or The Big Red Train Ride. But this one, though at time enthralling, has too much improvisation once the bicycle became unusable. I must concede that Murphy does a good job conveying in words what, at heart, is an abbreviated journey through the crumbling splendor of post-Soviet Siberia: how it differs from European Russia, the experience of traveling inland waters by paddle-wheel steamer and hydrofoil, how the quality of formal education has suffered. Sadly, there are no photos -- none! -- just a couple of maps. This is a signal omission in a book where the self-described "babushka" is helped, repeatedly, by ordinary Siberians and makes lots of new friends. If this book had contained a few photographs I could have rated it four stars, not three, for the quality of Murphy's prose alone.

from the book:
[at a local dog show]: The Rottweilers, Alsatians and Mastiffs . . . were muzzled until entering the ring. Those breeds longed to get at the tinies, some actually licking their lips as they strained on their chains . . . But the Great Danes, Afghans and Borzois -- were enchanted by the other extreme, wagged their tails, wanted to make friends. Most of the tinies were secure personalities and wagged in response but one Chihuahua peed in terror when a Great Dane, its head twice the size of the Chihuahua, bent down to convey an amiable interest in that strange ball of fluff. (p. 206)

Even allowing for [the highway's] seventy years of existence, the durability as litter, of tires, seemed unaccountably bizarre, not to say profligate . . . In sensibly frugal societies, worn tires serve as raw material for footwear, floor coverings, draft excluders, children's toys and roof anchors. (p. 218)

[zunggg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Septuagenarian Murphy’s plan to solo-cycle thousands of miles through one of the most sparsely-populated and harsh environments on earth is foiled by a knee-knackering slip in a train toilet and then a further leg-wrenching misstep while recuperating at a spa on the shores of Lake Baikal. Hence the title. Of course she still manages to get around, to-ing and fro-ing on the Baikal-Amur Mainline or BAM, the Trans-Siberian’s cursed northern double, and enjoying, in typical “Type 3 fun” Murphy fashion, a tragicomic bus odyssey from Yakutsk to the benighted mining town of Neryungri. And despite her linguistic ineptitude she fills her book with the usual plurality of voices, many of them “children of BAM” who worked, or whose parents or even grandparents worked, on the decades-long railway project and became Siberianised in the process. Putin has recently ascended to the throne and the Russians in their Russian way have both the intelligence to know they’re in for a bad time and the fatalism to know there’s not much they can do about it (other than join the bastards if you’re willing and able). Here’s the perceptive Olga from Severobaikalsk, diagnosing her own country’s situation and that of America 23 years in the future:

Putin wants to keep democracy out! Under Yeltsin, even under Gorbachev, we relaxed and felt more free to criticize openly. Since 1 January 2000 that’s been changing, at first slowly, now faster and faster. Putin cuts back on support for most state institutions but gives extra power and funding to law-enforcement agencies. The police beat up opposition political meetings. The Kremlin again controls most of the media, taken over from the big-business gangs who’d got control by the end of Yeltsin’s time. Putin loves the Americans’ “War Against Terrorism”, all groups he doesn’t like can be called “terrorists”, given no media space to make their arguments, imprisoned without trial for ever. When the US is doing that to groups they don’t like, the West can’t criticize Putin for doing the same!

Sometimes one gets the impression that Murphy, irrationally guilty at not delivering on her initial plan, tries to compensate with tangentially-relevant background and research — e.g. excursuses on the history of vodka in Russia, or the evolution of the Russian church and its relations with the state — which while not uninteresting don’t add much to her Siberian story. This book should be shorter, but like all her books it’s a uniquely human adventure tale, a diagnostic of a place, a time, and a people based on listening, patience, perseverance, and plenty of the local pivo.

[Tuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

not sure exactly how full of shit this lady is, but very enjoyable travelogue of her journey to Siberia to ride her bike and take a big bike tour. but then she injured her knee and such so got way sidetracked on the bike portion, but did travel around and stay are various and sundry places centered roughly around lake Baikal. she seems pretty snappy this old Irish lady. i want to read her book about biking in south Africa now. and she really likes beer.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book about a trip that didn’t happen. Dervla, queen of the world's class-B roads, was due to cycle her way across part of Siberia, but then right at the start of her journey she hurt her knee. So, instead of cycling, she took to BAM – The Baikal-Amur Mainline railway – and explored those bits of Siberia around Lake Baikal and the lower reaches of the River Lena instead.

Dervla is the sort of woman you must refer to by christian rather than surname, she is so down to earth and gutsy. The greatest joy of her writing is to be found in her conversations with people. In this book we hear people talking about Communism, Perestroika and the revolution of 1991; work, the Russian Orthodox Church, the isolation of Siberia, vandalism, ecology, modern Russia, foreign investment, the toughness of Russian survival skills and the very Russian-ness of Russians. (In spite of them rubbing shoulders with Europe they have never really adopted our namby-pamby ways....)

She also writes fascinatingly about other aspects of Siberia and Russia.

* The building of the BAM railways in Siberia (even if you haven’t the remotest interest in engineering challenges, the harshness of the building of this railway line, in terms of manpower and the obstacles overcome, will leave your jaw sagging.)
*The permafrost ( thousands of miles of frozen soil, hundreds of yards thick, left over from the last Ice Age. Surprisingly vulnerable when disturbed.)
*Russia’s history with alcohol (Not good. Beer now taking over from vodka, but still not good.)
*Several of the positive achievements of Communism (like 98% literacy, the sense of job security that people enjoyed, and people having access to all sorts of communal facilities, from theaters to sports grounds.)
*The wonders of Lake Baikal (at least 20 million and possibly 30 million years old, with a huge list of plant and animal species found only here.)
*The role of the dacha in people’s lives (it ain't no weekend retreat for enjoying life's little luxuries.)
*The harsh lives that many elderly now experience.
*Russian’s obsession with elegance and fashion. (I personally think they are outstanding in this field, and it was interesting to hear more about it.)


Dervla travels round with her eyes and mind open, and a warmth in her heart which endears her to other people...and accordingly she really gets to hear what's on their minds. The Siberians are also outstandingly friendly and hospitable. I enjoyed this book enormously, and along the way learnt a lot more about Siberia - and Russia generally. Highly recommended

[Peter Perhac · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a suspicion I found my favorite travel writer when I first read "Full Tilt" by Dervla. This was the next book I picked up and was amazed by it in the beginning. I can imagine not everyone would enjoy this book as I did and I don't say it's a must-read for everyone. Not to get your hopes up, I only gave it four stars, so you don't expect too much from it. However, for me, personally, this was such an extremely interesting read, it's going on my favorites shelf.

Dervla is in her 70's and due to an injury does not do any cycling in this book. She still managed to spend a good few months in the lake Baikal region of Siberia and met a with variety of kind people, with whom she discusses a wide range of subjects. She relates these meetings, conversations, disputes with her Siberian friends in not over-long sections of her book, and I found every single one them interesting.

It's a book about the Siberians, Russians, Soviet Union, lake Baikal and the Siberian taiga. I have plans to re-read this piece later again.

[Debby · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed from this book .I was looking forward to get to know the places and the people she met ,instead the book was full of data . I liked her early books as the historical or informative date was kept less then the travel experience . Maybe Dervla or the editor thought there was not enough material for a book and all this information was showed in . Of course at some point I started skipping them frustrated as if I wanted to read the history of the place would have preferred another book . I ordered this book together with another more recent book of hers I hope will be more travel than facts and information anyone can get from the library or internet .

[Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe a bad place to start with Murphy's travel writing - here, direct experience mostly consists of a 70 something woman being doted on by locals interspersed with lots of rapidly tiresome remarks about how terrible the globalised 21st century is.
For someone so open and proud of her bohemian and daring lifestyle, which I'm well aware was especially unique for an Irishwoman of her generation, Murphy spends far too much time getting in these little digs about consumerism and trying to assert her own worldview, which, as it appeared from my reading, to be some kind of anarcho-primitivist nightmare. Of course, we have to allow seniors the right to grumble, but this is definitely not a good place to start reading her books.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of Dervla Murphy's travel anecdotes reinforce stereotypes - bleak urban landscapes, say, or endless tracts of irreparably polluted land, yet others break them down - the book is nothing if not a showcase of Siberian hospitality toward strangers, and her descriptions of the immense variability and beauty of the landscape shattered my notions of a dreary, Siberian monotony. Ms. Murphy also manages to effectively intersperse fascinating tidbits of Russian/Siberian history throughout. In sum, Through Siberia By Accident may not be the most exciting travelogue I've ever read (I shouldn't be that surprised given the author is a septuagenarian), but it does offer a well-balanced, empathic look into Siberian society. This book has piqued my interest in the region (especially concerning the native peoples, sadly as afflicted as the American ones) and I'm looking forward to learning more about it.

Three Favorite Passages:

1) "Olekminsk thrived after the arrival of the Skoptsi in the 1860s. This dotty cult had been banished from European Russia, as the Old Believers were in the mid-seventeenth century to punish them for their rejection of Patriarch Nikon's reforms. But the Skoptsi were far odder than the merely inflexible Old Believers. They lived in communes known as 'ships' and each 'crew' was led by an autocratic 'helmsman'. They were teetotalers, non-smokers and celibates who addressed each other as 'brother' and 'sister'. Salvation they believed was conditional on sexual abstinence ... and caring helmsmen had their male crew members castrated. However new recruits arrived at intervals and the colony survived for a few generations."

2) "Here in times past scientists did ingenious experiments and made discoveries without which modern Yakutsk could not have happened, or so the scientists say. The city's first high-rise buildings soon melted the permafrost and had to be demolished hastily after they fell apart. The second generation stood on iron pile sub-foundations, extending far below ground level, but their walls too cracked open, the piles having conveyed heat to the permafrost. With hindsight, the solution sounds obvious; leave a six-foot gap between buildings and ground and use wooden piles which do not conduct heat."

3) "As the Cossacks and traders told one another, 'God is high and the Czar is far away'."

[Ian Houston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now some 15 years old, experienced travel writer Dervla Murphy recounts her journey by train through Siberia. In it she loses her luggage, finds friends, experiences lavish hospitality and watches environmental destruction. To many in the West, the term 'Siberia' conjures up images of gulags and salt mines with political prisoners working under brutal conditions. But Murphy tells another story: of isolated settlements 'planted' by the Soviet authorities to support grandiose plans for development (and whose inhabitants were almost as much captive as those in the camps) and now left to rot as their importance has ended; of transport links failing as the State withdraws subsidy and of pristine environments threatened by commercial interests. Yet, through all the hardships, the innate cheerfulness and hardihood of the people shines out clearly.
If travel does broaden the mind, then reading well-written accounts of travelling also helps to do the same for the armchair voyager.

[Wieke Van Der Kroef · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, easy read. For me a good example of how to take life as it comes, instead of forcing your way. Also a good 'how to travel slow & really get to know a place'.

Not very useful for anyone else as a guidebook, as the author has some privileges like being a well-known author an having Russian connections (even if it is just a few).

[A. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I dnf'd this because I just couldn't care about her story. It was like a personal journal instead of a memoir, and it was just too much--even though I am very interested in where she was. I just couldn't care about the interminable slew of meaningless anecdotes about farting dogs and picnics with locals.

[Gail Kennon · Rating 2 out of 5]

i didn't enjoy it...long digressions into info dumps since she didn't get to take the trip she meant to due to an accident..but strangely with all encyclopedia like passages she never names the little forest creatures she so enjoys.

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

plans changed due to a leg injury. So, this was a different kind of book. She stayed mostly in the same place and really tried to see the culture there. But her joie de vivre was not as pronounced as we see in her other stories.

[Haulie (Michael) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost as good as travelling myself. She tells her story about exploring Siberia on the BAM a slower alternative to the Trans Siberian Railway.

[Sophia Rigby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it.

[Antony · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book - after a series of accidents Dervla ditches the bicycle for a train and boat tour around Siberia. Whilst there were some interesting moments I felt the book a little long.

[Fiona Hurley · Rating 4 out of 5]

RIP Dervla Murphy 1931-2022. A life fully lived in all senses.
Murphy's previous books mostly involved some physical hardship, cycling or hiking with a pack animal in some of the world's most inhospitable places. In her 70s, she planned to cycle through the Russian far east, but the "accident" (slipping on some baby-sick on a train and breaking her leg) meant she had to change track. And so she found herself bumping around on the Baikal-Amur Mainline railway, the Trans-Siberian's lesser-known sibling. Siberia has attracted some odd characters, so Murphy fits right in and gathers plenty of stories as she goes.
Memorable moments:
- Yakutsk, where the pipes are snaking around over the ground (they can't be underground without melting the permafrost)
- The difference a vegetable garden makes (Siberians who can grow their own look much healthier than those who can't)
- The bleak beauty of Lake Baikal
- The kindness of strangers

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Dervla Murphy. In this trip to Siberia, she has an accident that makes continuing in her regular fashion by bicycle impossible. Instead she meets lots of people and takes the train and the bus and the ferry around part of Siberia – a lot of it near Lake Baikal. I was particularly fond of her descriptions of travel by BAM, a sort of off shoot of the better known Trans Siberian Railway. I loved the description of her experiences on and around Lake Baikal. The environmental issues are concerning – but then we knew that, just not the extent. It is worth reading the book for her summaries of Russian and SIberian history alone. One of my favorite of her books.

I also liked the parts of the book when she reflects back on earlier travels and her discussion of her difficulty learning foreign languages. I always wondered why she never seemed to learn the languages of the places she traveled.

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

this great octogenerian, an Irish Lady who travels to remote places of the globe by bicycle or on foot, is so entertaining and fun to see the world through her eyes. This is my first of her books, but I hope to read more. She is also deeply concerned about saving the environment. She is indomitable and her books are a great gift to those of us who don't have her ability or courage to see first hand for themselves how our world is developing and our need to converve and protect its resources. I shall never have the same view of Siberia after reading her account of her travels there. I highly recommend it.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read Murphy's first travel book Full Tilt - about her bike trip through Afghanistan, Pakistan and India and it was awkward and charming. Written as a diary, it focused on the mundane details of her daily struggles and also the joys of bike travel.
This book is written at a much later date and sets out to provide too much historical and contextual information about Siberia and the Russian far east. Instead of making a richer text, it only bogs itself down and makes for a much less enjoyable read. I didn't have any picture of what Murphy was doing day to day and the landscapes became less of a focus which is really too bad.
Read Ian Frazier's Travels in Siberia instead.

[Jackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read half way through this book and then read the last pages. I saw no changes in the book from beginning to end. Dervla continues to travel through Siberia meeting and eating the food of wonderfully generous natives. The descriptions were all very much surface, lacking depth exploration of personalities met. I had a very hard time maintaining interest. I have to admit that I learned a very different view of Siberia than I held previously, but half the book did it for me.

[Ruth Downie]

Dervla Murphy was 73 when she travelled to Russia and bought a bike, expecting to make a long lone cycle ride. Her plans were wrecked by injury and "Pushkin" (the bike) saw hardly any use at all. Instead, she discovered the warmth of Siberian hospitality. The result is an account of scenery, history, lots of food, lots of beer and frank conversations with ordinary people who lived through events that most of us only see on the news bulletins. Fascinating, inspiring and humbling.

[Muff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've wanted to see Siberia for decades. Now that I've seen it through the author's eyes, I don't think I'll ever go. It would break my heart. I would like to experience the people, though. Murphy's descriptions were honest and sincere, wry, yet understanding of the many challenges the Siberians have overcome foe centuries and will have to face in the future. I learned so much from this book; will seek out others by this author.

[Steve Chilton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Travel writing is about people's lives and situations. Here Murphy delves into the history of Siberia in this very disjointed book, which I found much less interesting than her 'pure' travel writing. She is as critical of the systems but remains sentimental about Russia. Maybe worth a read if you are interested in the area, but be prepared to be frustrated by her commentary.

[scarlettraces · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.5) I like this lady. Although I was kind of horrified by her choice of supplies for a multi-day train trip - tea bags and a kilo of nuts and sultanas. (I can't tell whether she appreciates or disapproves of the lavish quantities of Siberian food her hosts press on her later. Probably both.)

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bit heavy going at times with all the Russian/Siberian names but really enjoyed it and learnt some things too!