IN MODERNISED SIBERIA

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30977, 5 February 1966, Page 4

IN MODERNISED SIBERIA

One Chilly Siberian Morning. By Douglas Botting. Hodder and Stoughton. 192 PP-

So many books have been written about modern Russia with a propaganda slant to them that it is a pleasure to read this off-the-cuff example of straight reporting. Douglas Botting, and his friend John Bayliss went to Russia with the intention of making a film of the travelogue sort, but once they had been induced by a Communist friend to visit Siberia, the rest of their stay was spent in that vast area of the Soviet Union. Fortunately some good maps enable the reader to plot the course of the traveller’s journey, and the tragic history of this enormous slab of Slav territory unfolds as the story proceeds. Irkutsk, not far from the shores of Lake Baikal, which was the southernmost starting point of their Odyssey was founded in 1652. and the numerous malefactors (which might mean anything from a murderer to a petty thief) who were deported there had to cover the journey by foot—about 90 per cent of them dying on the ghastly fourmonths’ trek. Those that survived kept the Tsarist regime supplied With furs. Stalin not unmindful of the benefits of slavery, stepped up the number of deportees from about 350,000 to 2 million, whose journey by the Trans-Siberian railway, though shorter, was very nearly as lethal from the point of view of the victims sent thither in unheated cattle trucks. Irkutsk is now a town of 400,000 inhabitants.

and has a university and power-station, besides being an air-junction for places as far apart as Peking, Moscow and the towns of the Arctic North. It is also the scene of unceasing Soviet industry, in which a certain number of politically unwanted citizens are made to participate, but in which a large number of enthusiastic and well-paid volunteers employed on a short time basis, willingly participate. Lake Baikal boasts the world’s record for depth (it is over 6000 feet deep) and coldness. It also boasts 10 per cent of the world’s fresh fish supply, and though nowhere near the sea, some salt-water varieties as well. To the great chagrin of the author he was forbidden to photograph any part of this apparently harmless stretch of water or fauna or flora, being directed instead to record the glories of museums and sanatoria. This kind of frustration followed the English couple wherever they went—or rather were conducted—though they did manage, through clever camera work, to give some idea of their travel experiences, including the dam at Bratsk (another world record for size:) which serves “the biggest hydro-electric station ever built.” It is small wonder that young Soviet citizens see in such achievements a global significance of ultimate power, yet the travellers found, in the midst of much kindly hospitality, and a welcome absence of too much ideological propaganda, a certain deadly dullness in the social set-up of the com-

munities they visited. Natural plagues like mosquitoes, and temperatures ranging from blistering heating to hideous cold, not to mention the Arctic phenomena of almost perpetual daylight for a few months (in the farthest north) to perpetual twilight for the rest of the year, no doubt contributes to the ennui which the author noticed in the inhabitants. Knock-out drinking-parties without which no social occasion seemed to be complete, undoubtedly contributed to a prevalent malaise.

Botting and Bayliss did enjoy one brief sense of wellbeing, when after returning from a trip of several miles north to Chukotka—the most distant Arctic province—they found (in Irkutsk once more) that following a brief downpour of rain a lovely summerscene of colour, warmth and peace surrounded them. The book is full of information concerning the centuries-long development of this outpost, including its fossilised mammoths, its bloody and relentless wars, the gradual discovery of its boundless wealth in minerals, timber and furs, and the millions of lives it has ruthlessly immolated over the heedless aeons. The fact that it is now becoming increasingly inhabited by workers owning neat houses, in neat settlements with modern conveniences, and that the intrusion of radio keeps them in tenuous touch with outside influences, must be accounted for righteousness to the Government which has made such things possible.