A number of excellent books have been written about the Trans-Siberian railway. Several are unfortunately out of print, though they’re often available through inter-library loan. The following are well worth reading before you go:
- Journey Into the Mind’s Eye: Fragments of an Autobiography by Lesley Blanch (1988) is a fascinating book: a witty, semi-autobiographical story of the author’s romantic obsession with Russia and the Trans-Siberian Railway.
- To the Great Ocean by Harmon Tupper (1965, out of print) gives an entertaining account of Siberia and the building of the railway.
- Guide to the Great Siberian Railway 1900 by AI Dmitriev-Mamanov (David and Charles 1971 and also out of print) a reprint of the guide originally published by the Tsar’s government to publicize their new railway. Highly detailed but interesting to look at.
- Peking to Paris: A Journey across two Continents by Luigi Barzini (1973, out of print) tells the story of the Peking to Paris Rally in 1907. The author accompanied the Italian Prince Borghese and his chauffeur in the winning car, a 40hp Itala. Their route took them across Mongolia and Siberia and for some of the journey they actually drove along the railway tracks.
- The Big Red Train Ride by Eric Newby. This is a perceptive and entertaining account of the journey he made in the Soviet era, written in Newby’s characteristically humorous style.
- Through Siberia by Accident, by Dervla Murphy, is a warm and witty account of this very readable adventurer’s travels in Siberia and the BAM region in 2003-4.
- In Siberia by Colin Thubron is the best modern book for background on Siberia and certainly one you should either read before you go or take with you on the trip. Thubron’s excellent earlier travelogue, Among the Russians, was written after his travels in Soviet times.
- The Trans-Siberian Railway: A Traveller’s Anthology, edited by Deborah Manley, is well worth taking on the trip for a greater insight into the railway and the journey, through the eyes of travellers from Annette Meakin to Bob Geldof. Now out of print but available in libraries.
- Paddy Linehan’s Trans-Siberia (2001) is a warm and easily readable account of a trip made recently – the contemporary flavour shines out a-plenty. You quickly warm to the author’s unpretentious style.
- The Princess of Siberia (1984) is Christine Sutherland’s very readable biography of Princess Maria Volkonskaya, who followed her husband Sergei Volkonsky to Siberia after he’d been exiled for his part in the Decembrists’ Uprising. Her house in Irkutsk is now a museum.
- As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me (1955, reprinted 2003) is the true story of the escape of German prisoner of war, Clemens Forell, from the Siberian gulag where he was serving a 25-year hard-labour sentence. It’s a gripping adventure tale.
Stalin’s Nose: Travels Around the Bloc by Rory Maclean (1992). Maclean explores the former Eastern Bloc in a battered Trabant with his elderly aunt Zita and a pig named Winston. He recounts the histories of some of his more notorious relatives, providing in the process a surreal, darkly humorous commentary on communism and its demise.
Lenin’s Tomb by David Remnick (1993) is an eyewitness account of the heady Gorbachev era by this articulate former Washington Post correspondent.
Between the Hammer and the Sickle: Across Russia by Cycle by Simon Vickers (1994) is a highly entertaining account of an epic bicycle journey from St Petersburg to Vladivostok in 1990. Out of print but available from libraries.
East of the Sun: The Conquest and Settlement of Siberia by Benson Bobrick (1993, reprinted 1997). A readable narrative of Russia’s conquest of Siberia, a saga which in colour and drama rivals the taming of the American West.
Around The Sacred Sea: Mongolia and Lake Baikal on Horseback by Bartle Bull (1999). In 1993 Bull and two photographers rode north from Mongolia into Siberia and around Lake Baikal, partly a Boys-Own adventure and partly to report on the growing environmental threat to the lake after the collapse of the USSR. The result is an engaging true-life adventure story.
The Conquest of a Continent: Siberia and the Russians by American historian W Bruce Lincoln (1993) captures the ambition and cruelty of Cossacks, fur trappers and military adventurers in the region.
A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924 by British historian Orlando Figes (1997) is a scholarly work of social and political history that brings this turning point in Russia’s history to life. Winner of the 1997 NCR Book Award.
A History of Twentieth-Century Russia by Robert W Service (1997). The eminent British scholar of Russian history looks back at the entire Soviet experiment, from the rise of communism to the collapse of the USSR.
Holy Russia by Fitzroy Maclean (1979, out of print), probably the most articulate and readable of many summaries of European Russian history, includes several topical walking tours.
However well written and accurate they may be, these books are only the impressions of foreign scholars and visitors. You will get a better idea of the Russian mind and soul from Russians’ own literature, even the pre-Revolution classics. If you haven’t already read them you might try some of the following:
- Dostoyevsky’s thought-provoking, atmospheric Crime and Punishment (set in the Haymarket in St Petersburg).
- Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
- Mikhail Bulgakov’s surreal masterpiece, The Master and Margarita.
- Dr Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (whose grave you can visit in Moscow).
- Memories from the House of the Dead, a semi-autobiographical account of Dostoyevsky’s life as a convict in Omsk.
- A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, detailing 24 hours in the life of a Siberian convict.
- The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
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