Irkutsk

“ Another element of the importance of Irkutsk is to be found in the circumstance that it is the commercial centre of Eastern Siberia. The houses of business of the out-stations, such as Kiachta, have mostly their head-quarters in Irkutsk. It is the principal dépôt on the highway between Western Russia, and China and the Amoor provinces; and a great deal of wealth has been accumulated there by persons engaged in trade. ”

“ Perhaps it is not just or fair to take the capital of Siberia as a specimen of ordinary moral life in Russia, but one might well say at Irkutsk that all save the spirit of man is divine. We had been to a certain extent prepared by our previous tour to disbelieve in the horrors of the climate of Siberia, but what we saw and heard at Irkutsk has convinced me that Siberia should rank high among the places that are reckoned pleasant for human habitation. Siberia, or certainly the eastern part of Siberia, is not the dreary plain, wind-swept and miserable, that one read of in one's childhood. ”

“ From Krasnoyarsk it began to be hot and dusty. The heat was terrible. My sheepskin and cap lie buried away. The dust is in my mouth, in my nose, down my neck—tfoo! We were approaching Irkutsk—we had to cross the Angara by ferry. As though to mock us a high wind sprang up. My military companions and I, after dreaming for ten days of a bath, dinner, and sleep, stood on the bank and turned pale at the thought that we should have to spend the night not at Irkutsk, but in the village. The ferry could not succeed in reaching the bank. ”

“ Vices go in flocks, therefore laziness perhaps accounts for the amazing state of things which exists in Irkutsk. The town is as full of officers as Eton is of boys. Epaulettes jostle you in the streets, you tumble over swords in the restaurants, and with all this force at the disposal of the authorities—for I conclude that some at least of these officers have soldiers under them—the streets of Irkutsk are unsafe after dark. Person after person warned us of the danger of being unarmed at night, at any rate in the by-streets. People are murdered in their own houses in the suburbs ”

“ Irkutsk is inhabited by the representatives of a great variety of races, who there retain not only their physical type, but their costumes and manners; the aspect of the streets is therefore extremely picturesque. At every moment you pass on the way Buriats, Tungus, Samoyeds, and then Chinese and Mongols, and Mantchous and even some Kirghiz, who have been permitted by the Government of Omsk to quit their districts. But I will first present to my readers the Russian society of Irkutsk and the Polish exiles. ”

“ And I have passed that terrible age limit and have missed most things I have set my heart upon, but still there are moments when life is well worth living. Strange and bitter is the teaching of the years—bitter but kindly, too.
We passed Irkutsk where East and West meet, a great city with church spires and cupolas and buildings overlooking the broad and frozen Angara. ”

“ Irkutsk (421) , a central Siberian province, separated from China by the Sayan Mountains; it has Lake Baikal on the E., Yenisei and Yakutsk on the W. and N.; a rich pastoral country, watered by the navigable rivers Angara and the Lena, agriculture, cattle rearing are prosperous industries; there are gold, iron, and salt mines; one-third of the population are forced colonists; the capital, Irkutsk (45) , is the seat of government for Eastern Siberia, an ecclesiastical centre, and the chief emporium of commerce; it is the finest city in Siberia. ”

“ But although Irkutsk has a certain comeliness of appearance, and is the centre of intellectual activity in Siberia, it is not altogether a desirable place to live in, for not only is the climate trying, but report says that it is imprudent for any one to go about unarmed. The great prisons in the neighbourhood of Irkutsk have for generations been the place where the worst criminals of the Empire, as well as political exiles have been sent, and when their term of service has expired they are let loose on the community, the only regulation being that they shall remain there. ”

“ He himself had nothing, so there and then we got into one of the usual decrepit landaus and went to the town, to Irkutsk on the Angara, in the heart of Siberia. If in my girlish days when I studied the atlas of the world so carefully I could have known that one day I should be driving into Irkutsk, that map would have been glorified for ever and a day; but I could never have realised, never, that it would be set in a summer land, warm as my own country, and that I should feel it a great step on towards the civilisation of the West. ”

“ I remained in Irkutsk until snow fell, and the winter roads were suitable for travel. One day the moving portion of the city was on wheels: the next saw it gliding on runners. The little sleighs of the isvoshchiks are exactly like those of St. Petersburg and Moscow,—miniature affairs where you sit with your face within six inches of the driver’s back, and cannot take a friend at your side without much crowding. They move rapidly, and it is a fortunate provision that they are cheap. In all large cities and towns of Russia many isvoshchiks go to spend the winter. ”

“ There are in Irkutsk a theatre, a library, a museum, a meteorological station, and a branch of the Imperial Geographical Society. The manufactures are unimportant, and go mostly to satisfy domestic demands. The commerce is of great importance. Irkutsk being one of the chief centres of the Russian tea trade, as well as one of the principal stations on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Population, in 1897, 51,400, including 4500 exiles. Irkutsk was founded by Cossacks in 1653, created a town in 1686, and soon became the centre of the Russo-Chinese tea trade. ”

“ IRKUTSK, the capital of Eastern Siberia, is a populous town, containing, in ordinary times, thirty thousand inhabitants. On the right side of the Angara rises a hill, on which are built numerous churches, a lofty cathedral, and dwellings disposed in picturesque disorder.
Seen at a distance, from the top of the mountain which rises at about twenty versts off along the Siberian highroad, this town, with its cupolas, its bell-towers, its steeples slender as minarets, its domes like pot-bellied Chinese jars, presents something of an oriental aspect. ”

“ Irkutsk is a fine town. Quite a cultured town. There is a theatre, a museum, a town garden with a band, a good hotel.... No hideous fences, no absurd shop-signs, and no waste places with warming placards. There is a tavern called “Taganrog”; sugar costs twenty-four kopecks a pound, pine kernels six kopecks a pound.
I am quite well. My money is safe. I am saving up my coffee for Sahalin. I have splendid tea here, after which I am aware of an agreeable excitement. I see Chinamen. They are a good-natured and intelligent people. ”

“ When, on reaching Irkutsk, I washed at the baths, the soapsuds off my head were not white but of an ashen brown colour, as though I were washing a horse.
When I get home I will tell you about the Yenissey and the Taiga—very interesting and curious, for it is something quite new to a European; everything else is ordinary and monotonous. Roughly speaking, the scenery of Siberia is not very different from that of European Russia; there are differences, but they are not very noticeable. Travelling is perfectly safe.
Robbers and highwaymen are all nonsense and fairy tales. ”

“ IRKUTSK, a government of Asiatic Russia, in East Siberia, bounded on the W. by the government of Yeniseisk, on the N. by Yakutsk, on the E. by Lake Baikal and Transbaikalia and on the S. and S.W. by Mongolia; area, 287,061 sq. m. The most populous region is a belt of plains 1200 to 2000 ft. in altitude, which stretch north-west to south-east, having the Sayan mountains on the south and the Baikal mountains on the north, and narrowing as it approaches the town of Irkutsk. The high road, now the Trans-Siberian railway, follows this belt. ”

“ Irkutsk takes in a large portion of Lake Baikal. The mountains of Irkutsk are rich in minerals, containing deposits of iron, coal, graphite, and salt. The climate is raw and severe, the annual average temperature at the capital being about 32°. Only an insignificant portion of the cultivable land has been cleared, by far the larger part of the country being covered with forests, filled with fur-bearing animals. The land wherever cultivated is fertile and yields ample crops of rye, wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat, and potatoes. The raising of domestic animals is confined mostly to the natives. ”

“ For the first time since the encounter with Ivan Ogareff at Omsk, the courier of the Czar felt less uneasy, and began to hope that no fresh obstacle would delay his progress.
The road was good, for that part of it which extends between Krasnoiarsk and Irkutsk is considered the best in the whole journey; fewer jolts for travelers, large trees to shade them from the heat of the sun, sometimes forests of pines or cedars covering an extent of a hundred versts. It was no longer the wide steppe with limitless horizon; but the rich country was empty. Everywhere they came upon deserted villages. ”

“ I had visited Irkutsk, several times during the Kolchak regime, when it was a thriving trading centre, and now I found it hard to realize that this red-beflagged, poster-besmirched conglomeration of buildings could constitute the same town. The prosperous, well dressed, happy looking townspeople of the past had been replaced by drab and dirty workpeople, peasants and soldiers, all liberally bedecked with red stars. I discovered later that all those who wore red stars were by no means Bolsheviks ”

“ About four thousand gold miners spend the winter and their money in the city. Geographically it is in Latitude 52° 40′ north, and Longitude 104° 20′ east from Greenwich. Little wind blows there, and storms are less frequent than at Moscow or St. Petersburg. The snows are not abundant, the quantity that falls being smaller than in Boston and very much less than in Montreal or Quebec. In summer or winter the panorama of Irkutsk and its surroundings is one of great beauty.
VIEW IN IRKUTSK.
There are twenty or more churches, of which nearly all are large and finely placed. ”

“ I shall be in Irkutsk in five or six days, shall spend as many days there, then drive on to Sryetensk—and that will be the end of my journey on land. For more than a fortnight I have been driving without a break, I think about nothing else, I live for nothing else; every morning I see the sunrise from beginning to end. I’ve grown so used to it that it seems as though all my life I had been driving and struggling with the muddy roads. When it does not rain, and there are no pits of mud on the road, one feels queer and even a little bored. ”

“ The navigation of the river Selenga, Lake Baikal, and the river Angara is at present only carried on by nine steamers, only three of which ply between Irkutsk and the rapids. All these vessels, except one, are owned by Russians. The one exception is owned and worked by an Englishman resident in Irkutsk, Mr. Charles Lee, a gentleman to whom I have already referred. The Russian steamers offer but little of interest, having been purchased in Russia, and only put together in Siberia. ”

“ A delayed dispatch from the American Consul at Irkutsk, dated August 13, 1918, brought word that the Bolsheviki army east of Lake Baikal had been destroyed and on September 4, 1918, telegraphic communication between Irkutsk and Vladivostok was reopened. On the same day it was announced that the Czecho-Slovaks and the Cossacks and Japanese under Semenov had joined hands at Chita and that that main stronghold was taken. This gave the Allied forces entire control of the railways in Siberia as far west as Samara, on the Volga River, a few hundred miles from Moscow. ”

“ The Krasnoyarsk and the Ussurie movements of the Bolsheviks were under the direction of able officers appointed by the Red Guard Headquarters at Moscow, with whom they were in constant communication.
Passing Irkutsk, we again struck the Baikal—looking more glorious than before. The warm south-west winds had cleared the snow from the western hills and thawed the ice from that half of the sea. The other half was still ice-bound. In the morning sunshine the snow-covered mountains in the east pierced the heavens with the radiance of eternal day. ”

“ Two of the most interesting politicals whom we met in Irkutsk were Mr. and Mrs. Ivan Cherniávski, who were banished to Siberia by administrative process in 1878. I became very well acquainted with them, and for Mrs. Cherniávski especially I came to feel the profoundest pity and regard. Few women, even in Russia, have had before the age of thirty-five so tragic and heart-breaking a life, and still fewer have maintained through hardships, sickness, and bereavement such cheerfulness and courage. ”

“ The authorities had therefore no fear with regard to admitting the peasants of the valley of the Angara, and leaving a desert between the invaders and the town.
Irkutsk is the residence of the governor-general of Eastern Siberia. Below him acts a civil governor, in whose hands is the administration of the province; a head of police, who has much to do in a town where exiles abound; and, lastly, a mayor, chief of the merchants, and a person of some importance, from his immense fortune and the influence which he exercises over the people. ”