Siberia, Siberia

by Valentin Rasputin, Margaret Winchell (Translator), Gerald Mikkelson (Translator)

Valentin Rasputin—one of the most gifted and influential Russian prose writers of the past thirty years—offers a sweeping account of and penetrating reflection on the Russians' four hundred years of experience in Siberia. Beginning with Yermak, whose Cossacks crossed into Siberia in the 1580s, through the rapid Russian exploration, conquest, and colonialization, to today, Rasputin reveals the peculiarities of the Siberians, studying the gap between dreams and reality that has plagued Russians in Siberia for centuries.

Genres: Russia, History, Essays

438 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

See also: Валентин Распутин
Valentin Grigoriyevich Rasputin (Russian: Валентин Григорьевич Распутин; born March 15, 1937 in village of Ust-Uda in Irkutsk Oblast, Russian Federation) was a Russian writer. He was born and lived much of his life in the Irkutsk Oblast in Eastern Siberia. Rasputin's works depict rootless urban characters and the fight for survival of centuries-old traditional rural ways of life. Rasputin covers complex questions of ethics and spiritual revival.