Vagabond Life The Caucasus Journals of George Kennan
Edited by Frith Maier,
with contributions by Daniel C. Waugh
University of Washington Press • March 2003
288 pages, hardcover • $30
In 1870, two years after the adventure that would soon be famously published under the title Tent Life in Siberia, George Kennan set off alone to traverse the Caucasus, newly [thirty years previous] absorbed into the Russian empire. He knew no Caucasian languages, had just a smattering of conversational Russian, knew little or nothing about the region in which he would travel, and had just $600 in his pocket.
But Kennan loved the excitement and unpredictability of travel, of “vagabonding.” And, at 25, he would become the first American known to travel through Dagestan and the Northern Caucasus.
That Kennan went on to become one of the most influential opinion makers on US policy toward Russia in the late 19th and early 20th century makes this book—based on his previously unpublished journals of his travels—invaluable. Yet quite apart from that, Kennan was a marvelous observer of his surroundings. He alternates from copious recording of seemingly innocuous details (“For supper at Bezhuta we had trout, round thin bread pancakes about 10 inches in diameter, salty white Lezgin cheese newly taken out of brine, Siberian youkala soup and boiled mutton and fried lumps of lean mutton. No vegetables.”), to vivid descriptions of landscape and surroundings (“The road from the station of Lars begins to be shut in closer and closer by enormous, precipitous mountains; the descent becomes steeper, the cliffs on both sides approach nearer and nearer to the perpendicular, until at last you enter a dark, tremendous canyon only thirty or forty feet in width, through which boils and roars the river Terek between perpendicular walls of black rock seven or eight hundred feet in height, in the face of which has been blasted out a narrow road.”) .
Certainly the Caucasus met by Kennan in 1870 are a far cry from the war-torn region we know today. The region was just beginning to discover what having a Russian overlord meant. And Russia had yet to discover the fruitlessness of its effort to bring unity and servility to this diverse and independent region.
As such, this carefully-edited volume is a fascinating snapshot of ways of life, habitats and worlds that have since disappeared under the rubble of the 20th century. Assuredly, Kennan shows only some aspects of life in some parts of the Caucasus. And he does struggle with the bias and prejudices typical of that era. But, because these were journals meant to be the raw material from which Kennan later constructed his essays and speeches, there is a striking honesty here that is compelling in our world of endless spin.
Palace Websites
Can’t make it to St. Petersburg in 2003 for the anniversary celebrations? Do the next best thing: take a virtual tour of some of the palaces online.
These award-winning, colorful sites are rich with information about the palaces’ history and have lots of great photos (even panoramics, which are really quite cool).
The sites are also great tools to aid in preparation for a trip and can help you hone in on what you want to see when you get there.
www.peterhof.org
www.pavlovsk.org
eng.tzar.ru
www.gatchina.spb.ru
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