Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. - Steamship "Baikal". – Cape Pronge and the entrance to the Liman. – Sakhalin Peninsula. - La Perouse, Broughton, Krusenstern and Nevelskoy. – Japanese researchers. - Cape Jaore. - Tatar coast. - De-Kastri.
On July 5, 1890, I arrived by ship in the city of Nikolaevsk, one of the easternmost points of our fatherland. The Amur is very wide here, there are only 27 miles left to the sea; the place is majestic and beautiful, but the memories of the past of this region, the stories of companions about the fierce winter and no less fierce local customs, the proximity of hard labor and the very sight of an abandoned, dying city completely take away the desire to admire the landscape.
Nikolaevsk was founded not so long ago, in 1850, by the famous Gennady Nevelsky, and this is perhaps the only bright place in the history of the city. In the fifties and sixties, when culture was being planted along the Amur, not sparing soldiers, prisoners and migrants, officials who ruled the region had their stay in Nikolaevsk, many Russian and foreign adventurers came here, settlers settled, seduced by the extraordinary abundance of fish and animals, and, apparently, the city was not alien to human interests, since there was even a case that one visiting scientist found it necessary and possible to give a public lecture here at the club. Now, almost half of the houses have been abandoned by their owners, dilapidated, and dark frameless windows look at you like the eye sockets of a skull. The inhabitants lead a sleepy, drunken life and generally live from hand to mouth, which is what God sent them to do. They make a living by supplying fish to Sakhalin, gold predation, exploitation of foreigners, and selling show-offs, that is, deer antlers, from which the Chinese prepare stimulant pills. On the way from Khabarovka to Nikolaevsk I had to meet quite a few smugglers; here they do not hide their profession. One of them, showing me golden sand and a couple of show-offs, told me with pride: “And my father was a smuggler!” The exploitation of foreigners, in addition to the usual soldering, fooling, etc., is sometimes expressed in an original form. Thus, the Nikolaev merchant Ivanov, now deceased, traveled to Sakhalin every summer and took tribute there from the Gilyaks, and tortured and hanged faulty payers.
There is no hotel in the city. At a public meeting I was allowed to rest after dinner in a hall with a low ceiling - here in the winter, they say, balls are given; When I asked where I could spend the night, they just shrugged their shoulders. There was nothing to do, I had to spend two nights on the ship; when he went back to Khabarovka, I found myself broke like a crayfish: where will I go? My luggage is on the pier; I walk along the shore and don’t know what to do with myself. Just opposite the city, two or three miles from the shore, there is the steamship “Baikal”, on which I will go to the Tatar Strait, but they say that it will leave in four or five days, not earlier, although the retreat flag is already flying on its mast . Is it possible to take it and go to Baikal? But it’s awkward: they probably won’t let me in, they’ll say it’s too early. The wind blew, Cupid frowned and became agitated like the sea. It's getting sad. I go to the meeting, have lunch there for a long time and listen to how at the next table they talk about gold, about show-offs, about a magician who came to Nikolaevsk, about some Japanese who pulls his teeth not with forceps, but simply with his fingers. If you listen carefully and for a long time, then, my God, how far life here is from Russia! Starting with the chum salmon balyk, which is used to snack on vodka here, and ending with the conversations, you can feel something unique, not Russian, in everything. While I was sailing along the Amur, I had a feeling as if I was not in Russia, but somewhere in Patagonia or Texas; not to mention the original, non-Russian nature, it always seemed to me that the structure of our Russian life is completely alien to the native Amur people, that Pushkin and Gogol are incomprehensible here and therefore are not needed, our history is boring and we, visitors from Russia, seem to be foreigners. In terms of religion and politics, I noticed complete indifference here. The priests whom I saw on the Amur eat meat during Lent, and, by the way, they told me about one of them, in a white silk caftan, that he was engaged in gold predation, competing with his spiritual children. If you want to make an Amur citizen feel bored and yawn, then talk to him about politics, about the Russian government, about Russian art. And morality here is somehow special, not ours. Chivalrous treatment of a woman is elevated almost to a cult and at the same time it is not considered reprehensible to give up your wife for money to a friend; or even better: on the one hand, there is the absence of class prejudices - here even with the exile they behave as if they were an equal, and on the other hand, it is not a sin to shoot a Chinese tramp in the forest like a dog, or even to secretly hunt humpbacks.
But I will continue about myself. Not finding shelter, I decided to go to Baikal in the evening. But here is a new problem: there is a considerable swell, and the Gilyak boatmen do not agree to carry it for any money. Again I walk along the shore and don’t know what to do with myself. Meanwhile, the sun is already setting, and the waves on the Amur are darkening. On this and on the other bank, Gilyak dogs howl furiously. And why did I come here? - I ask myself, and my journey seems extremely frivolous to me. And the thought that hard labor is already close, that in a few days I will land on Sakhalin soil, without having a single letter of recommendation with me, that I might be asked to go back - this thought worries me unpleasantly. But finally two Gilyaks agree to take me for a ruble, and on a boat made of three planks, I safely reach “Baikal”.
This is a steamer marine type of medium size, a merchant who seemed to me, after the Baikal and Amur steamships, quite tolerable. It makes voyages between Nikolaevsk, Vladivostok and Japanese ports, carrying mail, soldiers, prisoners, passengers and cargo, mainly government goods; under a contract concluded with the treasury, which pays him a substantial subsidy, he is obliged to visit Sakhalin several times during the summer: at the Alexander post and at the southern Korsakov post. The tariff is very high, which is probably not found anywhere else in the world. Colonization, which first of all requires freedom and ease of movement, and high tariffs - this is completely incomprehensible. The wardroom and cabins on the Baikal are cramped, but clean and furnished in a completely European style; there is a piano. The servants here are Chinese with long braids, they are called in English - fight. The cook is also Chinese, but his cuisine is Russian, although all the dishes are bitter from the spicy keri and smell of some kind of perfume, like corylopsis.
Having read about the storms and ice of the Tartar Strait, I expected to meet whalers with hoarse voices on “Baikal”, splashing tobacco chewing gum when talking, but in reality I found quite intelligent people. The commander of the steamship, Mr. L., a native of the western region, has been sailing in the northern seas for more than 30 years and has traveled them length and breadth. In his time he has seen many miracles, knows a lot and talks interestingly. Having spent half his life circling Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands, he, perhaps with more right than Othello, could talk about “the most barren deserts, terrible abysses, inaccessible cliffs.” I owe him a lot of information that was useful to me for these notes. He has three assistants: Mr. B., the nephew of the famous astronomer B., and two Swedes - Ivan Martynych and Ivan Veniaminych, kind and friendly people.
On July 8, before lunch, the Baikal weighed anchor. With us came three hundred soldiers under the command of an officer and several prisoners. One prisoner was accompanied by a five-year-old girl, his daughter, who held his shackles as he ascended the ladder. There was, by the way, one convict woman who attracted attention by the fact that her husband voluntarily followed her to hard labor. Besides me and the officer, there were several other classy passengers of both sexes and, by the way, even one baroness. Let the reader not be surprised at such an abundance of intelligent people here in the desert. Along the Amur and in the Primorsky region, the intelligentsia, with a generally small population, makes up a considerable percentage, and there is relatively more of it here than in any Russian province. There is a city on the Amur where there are 16 generals alone, military and civilian. Now there are, perhaps, even more of them.
Sakhalin island
Anton Chekhov
Sakhalin island
I. G. Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. - Steamship "Baikal". - Cape Pronge and the entrance to the Estuary. - Sakhalin Peninsula. - La Perouse, Broughton, Krusenstern and Nevelskoy. Japanese researchers. - Cape Jaore. - Tatar coast. - De-Kastri.
II. Brief geography. - Arrival in Northern Sakhalin. - Fire. - Pier. - In Slobodka. - Lunch at Mr. L. - Dating. - Gen. Kononovich. - Arrival of the Governor General. - Lunch and illumination.
III. Census. - Contents of statistical cards. - What did I ask about, and how did they answer me? - The hut and its inhabitants. - Opinions of exiles about the census.
IV. Duika River. - Alexander Valley. - Slobodka Alexandrovka. Tramp Handsome. - Alexander's post. - His past. - Yurts. Sakhalin Paris.
V. Alexandrovskaya exile prison. - Shared cameras. Shackled. - Golden Handle. - Latrine places. - Maidan. - Hard labor in Aleksandrovsk. - Servant. - Workshops.
VI Egor's Story
VII. Lighthouse. - Korsakovskoe. - Collection of Dr. P.I. Suprunenko. Meteorological station. - Climate of the Aleksandrovsky district. Novo-Mikhailovka. - Potemkin. - Ex-executioner Tersky. - Krasny Yar. - Butakovo.
VIII. Arkan River. - Arkovsky cordon. - First, Second and Third Arkovo. Arkovskaya Valley. - Villages by west coast: Mgachi, Tangi, Khoe, Trambaus, Viakhty and Vangi. - Tunnel. - Cable house. - Due. - Barracks for families. - Duya prison. - Coal mines. - Voivodeship prison. Chained to cars.
IX. Tym, or Tymi. - Lieutenant. Boshniak. - Polyakov. - Upper Armudan. - Lower Armudan. - Derbinskoe. - Walk along Tymi. - Uskovo. - Gypsies. - A walk through the taiga. - Voskresenskoe.
X. Rykovskoe. - The local prison. - Meteorological station M.N. Galkin-Vraskoy. - Palevo. - Mikryukov. - Walzy and Longari. - Mado-Tymovo. - Andree-Ivanovskoe.
XI. Designed district. - Stone Age. - Was there free colonization? Gilyaki. - Their numerical composition, appearance, build, food, clothing, housing, hygienic conditions. - Their character. - Attempts to Russify them. Orochi.
XII. My departure to the south. - Cheerful lady. - West Bank. - Currents. Mauka. - Crillon. - Aniva. - Korsakov post. - New acquaintances. Nord-Ost. - Climate of Southern Sakhalin. - Korsakov prison. - Fire convoy.
XIII. Poro an Tomari. - Muravyovsky post. - First, Second and Third Pad. Solovyovka. - Lutoga. - Naked Cape. - Mitsulka. - Larch. Khomutovka. - Big Yelan. - Vladimirovka. - Farm or company. - Lugovoe. Popovsky Yurts. - Birch forests. - Crosses. - Big and Small Takoe. Galkino-Vraskoe. - Oak trees. - Naibuchi. - Sea.
XIV. Taraika. - Free settlers. - Their failures. - Aino, the boundaries of their distribution, numerical composition, appearance, food, clothing, housing, their customs. - Japanese. - Kusun-Kotan. - Japanese Consulate.
XV. The owners are convicts. - Transfer to settlers. - Selection of sites for new settlements. - Housekeeping. - Half people. - Transfer to peasants. Resettlement of exiled peasants to the mainland. - Life in villages. Proximity to prison. - Composition of the population by place of birth and by class. Village authorities.
XVI. Composition of the exiled population by gender. - Women's question. - Convict women and villages. - Roommates and cohabitants. - Women of free status.
XVII. Composition of the population by age. - Marital status of the exiles. - Marriages. Fertility. - Sakhalin children.
XVIII. Classes for exiles. - Agriculture. - Hunting. - Fishing. Occasional fish: chum salmon and herring. - Prison catches. - Mastery.
XIX. Food of exiles. - What and how do prisoners eat? - Cloth. - Church. School. - Literacy.
XX. Free population. - Lower ranks of local military commands. Wardens. - Intelligentsia.
XXI. Morality of the exiled population. - Crime. - Investigation and trial. - Punishment. - Rods and whips. - The death penalty.
XXII. Fugitives on Sakhalin. - Reasons for running away. - Composition of fugitives by origin, rank, etc.
XXIII. Morbidity and mortality of the exiled population. - Medical organization. - Infirmary in Aleksandrovsk.
Sakhalin island. For the first time - journal. "Russian Thought", 1893, Nos. 10-12; 1894, No. 2, 3, 5-7. The magazine published chapters I-XIX; with the addition of chapters XX-XXIII, "Sakhalin Island" was published in a separate edition: Anton Chekhov, "Sakhalin Island". From travel notes. M., 1895.
Even while preparing his trip to Sakhalin, Chekhov began compiling a bibliography and even wrote individual parts of a future book that did not require personal Sakhalin observations.
Chekhov returned to Moscow from Sakhalin on December 8, 1890. From his Sakhalin trip A.P. Chekhov brought, in his words, “a chest of all kinds of convict stuff”: 10,000 statistical cards, samples of article lists of convicts, petitions, complaints from the doctor B. Perlin, etc.
Chekhov began work on a book about Sakhalin at the beginning of 1891. In a letter to A.S. To Suvorin on May 27, 1891, Chekhov notes: “...The Sakhalin book will be published in the fall, because, honestly, I am already writing and writing it.” At first, he was definitely going to print the entire book and refused to publish individual chapters or just notes about Sakhalin, but in 1892, in connection with the social upsurge among the Russian intelligentsia caused by the organization of famine relief, Chekhov decided to publish a chapter of his book “Fugitives on Sakhalin” "in the collection "Help to the Starving", M., 1892.
In 1893, when the book was completed, Chekhov began to worry about its volume and style of presentation, which was not suitable for publication in a thick magazine. The editor of Russian Thought, V. M. Lavrov, recalled in his essay “At the Timeless Grave”: “Sakhalin was promised to us, and with great difficulty we defended it in the form in which it appeared in the last books of 1893 and in the first books of 1894." (Russian Gazette, 1904, No. 202).
Despite Chekhov's concerns about the attitude of government authorities towards his work, Sakhalin Island went off with little difficulty. On November 25, 1893, Chekhov wrote to Suvorin: “Galkin-Vraskoy” is the head of the Main Prison Directorate. - P.E. complained to Feoktistov, the head of the Main Directorate for Press Affairs. - P.E."; the November book of "Russian Thought" was delayed for three days. But everything turned out well." Summarizing the history of the publication of “Sakhalin Island” in the journal “Russian Thought”, Chekhov wrote to S.A. Petrov (May 23, 1897): “My travel notes"Everything was published in Russian Thought, except for two chapters, delayed by censorship, which did not make it into the magazine, but did end up in the book."
Even during the period of preparation for the trip to Sakhalin, Chekhov determined the genre of the future book, its scientific and journalistic character. The author’s reflections, excursions of a scientific nature, and artistic sketches of nature, everyday life and the life of people on Sakhalin should have found their place in it; Undoubtedly, the genre of the book was greatly influenced by “Notes from the House of the Dead” by F.M. Dostoevsky and "Siberia and hard labor" by S.V. Maksimov, to which the author repeatedly refers in the text of the narrative.
According to researchers, even in the process of working on the draft of “Sakhalin Islands,” the structure of the entire book was determined: chapters I-XIII are constructed as travel sketches, dedicated first to the North, and then South Sakhalin; chapters XIV-XXIII - as problematic essays, devoted to certain aspects of the Sakhalin way of life, agricultural colonization, children, women, fugitives, the work of Sakhalin residents, their morality, etc. In each chapter, the author tried to convey to readers the main idea: Sakhalin is “hell.”
At the beginning of the work, Chekhov did not like the tone of the story; in a letter to Suvorin dated July 28, 1893, he describes the process of crystallization of the book’s style as follows; “I wrote for a long time and felt for a long time that I was going down the wrong road, until I finally caught the falsehood. The falsehood was precisely that it was as if I wanted to teach someone with my “Sakhalin” and at the same time I was hiding something and restrain myself. But as soon as I began to portray what an eccentric I felt on Sakhalin and what pigs there were, then it became easy for me and my work began to boil..."
In the description of Sakhalin life, a parallel is persistently drawn with the recent serf past of Russia: the same rods, the same domestic and noble slavery, as, for example, in the description of the warden of the Derbinsk prison - “the landowner of the good old days.”
One of the central chapters of the book is Chapter VI - “Egor’s Story”. Yegor's personality and his fate emphasize one of the characteristic features of the convict population of Sakhalin: the randomness of crimes caused in most cases not by the vicious inclinations of the criminal, but by the nature of the life situation, which could not but be resolved by the crime.
The publication of "Sakhalin Islands" on the pages of the magazine "Russian Thought" immediately attracted the attention of metropolitan and provincial newspapers. “The entire book bears the stamp of the author’s talent and his beautiful soul. “Sakhalin Island” is a very serious contribution to the study of Russia, being at the same time an interesting literary work. Many heart-grabbing details are collected in this book, and one only has to wish that they attracted the attention of those on whom the fate of the “unfortunate” depends.” ("Week", 1895, No. 38).
The book by A.P. Chekhov caused a very significant response; so, A.F. Koni wrote: “In order to study this colonization on the spot, he undertook a difficult journey, associated with a mass of trials, anxieties and dangers that had a disastrous effect on his health. The result of this journey, his book about Sakhalin, bears the stamp of extreme preparation and a merciless waste of time and strength. In it, behind the strict form and business-like tone, behind the multitude of factual and numerical data, one can feel the saddened and indignant heart of the writer" (collection "A.P. Chekhov", Leningrad, "Atheneum", 1925). Sister of Mercy E.K. Meyer, having read “Sakhalin Island,” went to the island in 1896, where she founded a “workhouse” that provided work and food for the settlers, and a society for the care of the families of exiled convicts. Published in the St. Petersburg Gazette (1902, No. 321), her report on work on Sakhalin began with the words: “Six years ago... I came across A.P. Chekhov’s book “Sakhalin Island,” and my desire living and working among convicts took on a certain form and direction thanks to her.”
Chekhov's essays served as the motivation for traveling to Sakhalin and writing books about the island, among which were books by the famous journalist Vlas Doroshevich: “How I Got to Sakhalin” (M., 1903) and “Sakhalin” (M., 1903).
The book "Sakhalin Island" drew the attention of officials to the appalling situation of convicts and exiles. The Ministry of Justice and the Main Prison Directorate sent their representatives to the island: in 1893 - Prince. N.S. Golitsyn, in 1894 - M.N. Galkin-Vraskoy, in 1896 - legal adviser D.A. Dril, in 1898 - the new head of the Main Prison Administration A.P. Salomon. Reports from high-ranking officials confirmed the testimony of A.P. Chekhov. In 1902, sending his reports on his trip to Sakhalin, A.P. Salomon wrote to Chekhov: “Let me humbly ask you to accept these two works as a tribute to my deep respect for your works on the study of Sakhalin, works that equally belong to Russian science and Russian literature.”
The reforms carried out by the Russian government were perceived as a concession to public opinion, excited by Chekhov's book: in 1893 - the abolition of corporal punishment for women and changes in the law on marriages of exiles; in 1895 - the assignment of government funds for the maintenance of orphanages; in 1899 - abolition of eternal exile and lifelong hard labor; in 1903 - abolition of corporal punishment and head shaving.
I
Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. - Steamship "Baikal". - Cape Pronge and the entrance to the Estuary. Sakhalin Peninsula. - La Perouse, Broughton, Krusenstern and Nevelskoy. - Japanese researchers. - Cape Jaore. - Tatar coast. - De-Kastri.
On July 5, 1890, I arrived by ship in the city of Nikolaevsk, one of the easternmost points of our fatherland. The Amur is very wide here, there are only 27 miles left to the sea; the place is majestic and beautiful, but the memories of the past of this region, the stories of companions about the fierce winter and no less fierce local customs, the proximity of hard labor and the very sight of an abandoned, dying city completely take away the desire to admire the landscape.
Nikolaevsk was founded not so long ago, in 1850, by the famous Gennady Nevelsky1, and this is perhaps the only bright place in the history of the city. In the fifties and sixties, when culture was being planted along the Amur, not sparing soldiers, prisoners and migrants, officials who ruled the region had their stay in Nikolaevsk, many Russian and foreign adventurers came here, settlers settled, seduced by the extraordinary abundance of fish and animals, and, apparently, the city was not alien to human interests, since there was even a case when one visiting scientist found it necessary and possible to give a public lecture here at the club2. Now, almost half of the houses have been abandoned by their owners, dilapidated, and dark frameless windows look at you like the eye sockets of a skull. The inhabitants lead a sleepy, drunken life and generally live from hand to mouth, which is what God sent them to do. They make a living by supplying fish to Sakhalin, gold predation, exploitation of foreigners, and selling show-offs, that is, deer antlers, from which the Chinese prepare stimulant pills. On the way from Khabarovka3 to Nikolaevsk I had to meet quite a few smugglers; here they do not hide their profession. One of them, showing me golden sand and a couple of show-offs, told me with pride: “And my father was a smuggler!” Exploitation of foreigners, in addition to the usual soldering, fooling, etc., is sometimes expressed in an original form. Thus, the Nikolaev merchant Ivanov, now deceased, traveled to Sakhalin every summer and took tribute there from the Gilyaks, and tortured and hanged faulty payers.
There is no hotel in the city. At a public meeting I was allowed to rest after dinner in a hall with a low ceiling - here in the winter, they say, balls are given; When I asked where I could spend the night, they just shrugged their shoulders. There was nothing to do, I had to spend two nights on the ship; when he went back to Khabarovka, I found myself broke like a crayfish: where will I go? My luggage is on the pier; I walk along the shore and don’t know what to do with myself. Just opposite the city, two or three miles from the shore, there is the steamer "Baikal", on which I will go to the Tatar Strait, but they say that it will leave in four or five days, not earlier, although the retreat flag is already flying on its mast . Is it possible to take it and go to Baikal? But it’s awkward: they probably won’t let me in, they’ll say it’s too early. The wind blew, Cupid frowned and became agitated like the sea. It's getting sad. I go to the meeting, have lunch there for a long time and listen to how at the next table they talk about gold, about show-offs, about a magician who came to Nikolaevsk, about some Japanese who pulls his teeth not with forceps, but simply with his fingers. If you listen carefully and for a long time, then, my God, how far life here is from Russia! Starting with the chum salmon balyk, which is used to snack on vodka here, and ending with the conversations, you can feel something unique, not Russian, in everything. While I was sailing along the Amur, I had a feeling as if I was not in Russia, but somewhere in Patagonia or Texas; not to mention the original, non-Russian nature, it always seemed to me that the structure of our Russian life is completely alien to the native Amurians, that Pushkin and Gogol are incomprehensible here and therefore are not needed, our history is boring And we, visitors from Russia, seem to be foreigners. In terms of religion and politics, I noticed complete indifference here. The priests whom I saw on the Amur eat meat during Lent, and, by the way, they told me about one of them, in a white silk caftan, that he was engaged in gold predation, competing with his spiritual children. If you want to make an Amur citizen feel bored and yawn, then talk to him about politics, about the Russian government, about Russian art. And morality here is somehow special, not ours. Chivalrous treatment of a woman is elevated almost to a cult and at the same time it is not considered reprehensible to give up your wife for money to a friend; or even better: on the one hand, there is the absence of class prejudices - here, even with the exile, they behave like an equal, and on the other, it is not a sin to shoot a Chinese tramp in the forest like a dog, or even to secretly hunt humpbacks.
But I will continue about myself. Not finding shelter, I decided to go to “Baikal” in the evening. But here is a new problem: there is a considerable swell, and the Gilyak boatmen do not agree to carry it for any money. Again I walk along the shore and don’t know what to do with myself. Meanwhile, the sun is already setting, and the waves on the Amur are darkening. On this and on the other bank, Gilyak dogs howl furiously. And why did I come here? - I ask myself, and my journey seems extremely frivolous to me. And the thought that hard labor is already close, that in a few days I will land on Sakhalin soil, without having a single letter of recommendation with me, that I may be asked to go back - this thought worries me unpleasantly. But finally two Gilyaks agree to take me for a ruble, and on a boat made of three boards, I safely reach “Baikal”.
This is a medium-sized marine type steamer, a merchant, which seemed to me, after the Baikal and Amur steamships, quite tolerable. It makes voyages between Nikolaevsk, Vladivostok and Japanese ports, carrying mail, soldiers, prisoners, passengers and cargo, mainly government goods; under a contract concluded with the treasury, which pays him a substantial subsidy, he is obliged to visit Sakhalin several times during the summer: at the Alexander post and at the southern Korsakov post. The tariff is very high, which is probably not found anywhere else in the world. Colonization, which first of all requires freedom and ease of movement, and high tariffs are completely incomprehensible. The wardroom and cabins on the Baikal are cramped, but clean and furnished in a completely European style; there is a piano. The servants here are Chinese with long braids, they are called in English - boi. The cook is also Chinese, but his cuisine is Russian, although all the dishes are bitter from the spicy keri and smell of some kind of perfume, like corylopsis.
Having read about the storms and ice of the Tartar Strait, I expected to meet whalers with hoarse voices on the Baikal, splashing tobacco chewing gum when talking, but in reality I found quite intelligent people. The commander of the ship L.4, a native of the western region, has been sailing in the northern seas for more than 30 years and has passed them length and breadth. In his time he has seen many miracles, knows a lot and talks interestingly. Having spent half his life circling Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands, he, perhaps with more right than Othello, could talk about “the most barren deserts, terrible abysses, inaccessible cliffs”5. I owe him a lot of information that was useful to me for these notes. He has three assistants: Mr. B., the nephew of the famous astronomer B., and two Swedes - Ivan Martynych and Ivan Veniaminych6, kind and friendly people.
On July 8, before lunch, "Baikal" weighed anchor. With us came three hundred soldiers under the command of an officer and several prisoners. One prisoner was accompanied by a five-year-old girl, his daughter, who held his shackles as he ascended the ladder. There was, by the way, one convict woman who attracted attention by the fact that her husband voluntarily followed her to penal servitude. Besides me and the officer, there were several other classy passengers of both sexes and, by the way, even one baroness. Let the reader not be surprised at such an abundance of intelligent people here in the desert. Along the Amur and in the Primorsky region, the intelligentsia, with a generally small population, makes up a considerable percentage, and there is relatively more of it here than in any Russian province. There is a city on the Amur where there are 16 generals alone, military and civilian. Now there are, perhaps, even more of them.
Day was quiet and clear. It's hot on deck, stuffy in the cabins; in water +18°. This weather is just right for the Black Sea. On the right bank the forest was burning; the solid green mass emitted crimson flames; the clouds of smoke have merged into a long, black, motionless strip that hangs over the forest... The fire is huge, but there is peace and quiet all around, no one cares that the forests are dying. Obviously, the green wealth here belongs to God alone.
After lunch, at about six o'clock, we were already at Cape Pronge. Here Asia ends, and one could say that in this place the Amur flows into the Great Ocean, if Fr. Sakhalin. The Liman stretches wide before your eyes, a foggy strip is barely visible ahead - this is a convict island; to the left, lost in its own convolutions, the shore disappears into the darkness, going into the unknown north. It seems that the end of the world is here and that there is nowhere to go further. The soul is overcome by a feeling that Odysseus probably experienced when he sailed on an unfamiliar sea and vaguely anticipated encounters with extraordinary creatures. And in fact, on the right, at the very turn into Liman, where the Gilyak village is nestled on the shallows, some strange creatures are rushing towards us in two boats, screaming in an incomprehensible language and waving something. It's hard to tell what they're holding, but when they get closer, I can make out gray birds.
“They want to sell us dead geese,” someone explains.
We turn right. Along our entire route there are signs showing the fairway. The commander does not leave the bridge, and the mechanic does not get out of the car; "Baikal" begins to go quieter and quieter and goes as if by touch. Great caution is needed, as it is easy to run aground here. The steamer sits 12 feet, but in some places it has to go 14 feet, and there was even a moment when we heard her keel crawling along the sand. It was this shallow fairway and the special picture that the Tatar and Sakhalin coasts give together that served as the main reason that Sakhalin was long considered a peninsula in Europe. In June 1787, the famous French navigator, Count La Perouse8, landed on the western coast of Sakhalin, above 48°, and spoke here with the natives. Judging by the description that he left, on the shore he found not only the Ainos who lived here, but also the Gilyaks who came to trade with them, experienced people who were well acquainted with both Sakhalin and the Tatar coast. Drawing in the sand, they explained to him that the land on which they live is an island and that this island is separated from the mainland and Yesso (Japan) by straits9. Then, sailing further north along the western coast, he hoped that he would find a way out from the North Sea of Japan to the Sea of Okhotsk and thereby significantly shorten his path to Kamchatka; but the higher he moved, the shallower the strait became. The depth decreased by one fathom every mile. He sailed north as long as the size of his ship allowed him, and, having reached a depth of 9 fathoms, he stopped. Gradually, the uniform rise of the bottom and the fact that the current in the strait was almost imperceptible led him to the conviction that he was not in the strait, but in the gulf and that, therefore, Sakhalin was connected to the mainland by an isthmus. In de-Kastri he once again had a meeting with the Gilyaks. When he drew an island on paper for them, separated from the mainland, one of them took his pencil and, drawing a line across the strait, explained that the Gilyaks sometimes had to drag their boats across this isthmus and that grass even grew on it, as he understood La Perouse. This convinced him even more strongly that Sakhalin is a peninsula10.
Nine years later, the Englishman W. Broughton was in the Tartary Strait. His vessel was small, sitting in water no deeper than 9 feet, so he managed to pass somewhat higher than La Perouse. Stopping at a depth of two fathoms, he sent his assistant to the north to take measurements; This one on his way encountered depths among the shallows, but they gradually decreased and led him first to the Sakhalin coast, then to the low-lying sandy shores on the other side, and at the same time the resulting picture was as if both banks were merging; it seemed as if the bay ended here and there was no passage. Thus, Broughton had to conclude the same thing as La Perouse.
Our famous Kruzenshtern11, who explored the shores of the island in 1805, fell into the same mistake. He sailed to Sakhalin with a preconceived idea, since he used La Perouse’s map. He walked along the eastern shore, and, rounding northern capes Sakhalin, entered the strait itself, keeping a direction from north to south, and it seemed that he was already very close to solving the riddle, but a gradual decrease in depth to 3 fathoms, the specific gravity of the water, and most importantly, a preconceived idea forced him to admit the existence of an isthmus, which he did not see. But he was still haunted by the worm of doubt. “It is very likely,” he writes, “that Sakhalin was once, and perhaps even in recent times, an island.” He returned back, apparently, with a restless soul: when Broughton’s notes first caught his eye in China, he “rejoiced a lot”12.
The error was corrected in 1849 by Nevelsky. The authority of his predecessors, however, was still so great that when he reported his discoveries to St. Petersburg, they did not believe him, considered his act impudent and subject to punishment and “concluded” him to be demoted, and it is unknown what this would have led to if if it weren’t for the intercession of the sovereign himself13, who found his act brave, noble and patriotic14. He was an energetic, hot-tempered man, educated, selfless, humane, imbued with an idea to the marrow of his bones and fanatically devoted to it, morally pure. One of those who knew him writes: “I have never met a more honest person.” On east coast and on Sakhalin he made a brilliant career for himself in just five years, but lost his daughter, who died of hunger, his wife, “a young, pretty and friendly woman” who endured all hardships heroically, grew old and lost her health15.
To put an end to the question of the isthmus and the peninsula, I think it would not be superfluous to provide some more details. In 1710, Beijing missionaries, on behalf of the Chinese Emperor, drew a map of Tartary; when compiling it, the missionaries used Japanese maps, and this is obvious, since at that time only the Japanese could know about the passability of the La Peruzov and Tatar Straits. It was sent to France and became famous because it was included in the atlas of the geographer d'Anville16. This map was the reason for a small misunderstanding to which Sakhalin owes its name. On the western coast of Sakhalin, just opposite the mouth of the Amur, there is an inscription on the map written missionaries: "Saghalien-angahala", which in Mongolian means "cliffs of the black river". This name probably referred to some cliff or cape at the mouth of the Amur River, but in France it was understood differently and attributed to the island itself. Hence the name Sakhalin, retained by Kruzenshtern and for Russian maps.The Japanese called Sakhalin Karafto or Karafta, which means Chinese island.
Chekhov Anton Pavlovich
Sakhalin island
Anton Chekhov
Sakhalin island
I. G. Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. - Steamship "Baikal". - Cape Pronge and the entrance to the Estuary. - Sakhalin Peninsula. - La Perouse, Broughton, Krusenstern and Nevelskoy. Japanese researchers. - Cape Jaore. - Tatar coast. - De-Kastri.
II. Brief geography. - Arrival in Northern Sakhalin. - Fire. - Pier. - In Slobodka. - Lunch at Mr. L. - Dating. - Gen. Kononovich. - Arrival of the Governor General. - Lunch and illumination.
III. Census. - Contents of statistical cards. - What did I ask about, and how did they answer me? - The hut and its inhabitants. - Opinions of exiles about the census.
IV. Duika River. - Alexander Valley. - Slobodka Alexandrovka. Tramp Handsome. - Alexander's post. - His past. - Yurts. Sakhalin Paris.
V. Alexandrovskaya exile prison. - Shared cameras. Shackled. - Golden Handle. - Latrine places. - Maidan. - Hard labor in Aleksandrovsk. - Servant. - Workshops.
VI Egor's Story
VII. Lighthouse. - Korsakovskoe. - Collection of Dr. P.I. Suprunenko. Meteorological station. - Climate of the Aleksandrovsky district. Novo-Mikhailovka. - Potemkin. - Ex-executioner Tersky. - Krasny Yar. - Butakovo.
VIII. Arkan River. - Arkovsky cordon. - First, Second and Third Arkovo. Arkovskaya Valley. - Villages along the west coast: Mgachi, Tangi, Khoe, Trambaus, Viakhty and Vangi. - Tunnel. - Cable house. - Due. - Barracks for families. - Duya prison. - Coal mines. - Voivodeship prison. Chained to cars.
IX. Tym, or Tymi. - Lieutenant. Boshniak. - Polyakov. - Upper Armudan. - Lower Armudan. - Derbinskoe. - Walk along Tymi. - Uskovo. - Gypsies. - A walk through the taiga. - Voskresenskoe.
X. Rykovskoe. - The local prison. - Meteorological station M.N. Galkin-Vraskoy. - Palevo. - Mikryukov. - Walzy and Longari. - Mado-Tymovo. - Andree-Ivanovskoe.
XI. Designed district. - Stone Age. - Was there free colonization? Gilyaki. - Their numerical composition, appearance, build, food, clothing, housing, hygienic conditions. - Their character. - Attempts to Russify them. Orochi.
XII. My departure to the south. - Cheerful lady. - West Bank. - Currents. Mauka. - Crillon. - Aniva. - Korsakov post. - New acquaintances. Nord-Ost. - Climate of Southern Sakhalin. - Korsakov prison. - Fire convoy.
XIII. Poro an Tomari. - Muravyovsky post. - First, Second and Third Pad. Solovyovka. - Lutoga. - Naked Cape. - Mitsulka. - Larch. Khomutovka. - Big Yelan. - Vladimirovka. - Farm or company. - Lugovoe. Popovsky Yurts. - Birch forests. - Crosses. - Big and Small Takoe. Galkino-Vraskoe. - Oak trees. - Naibuchi. - Sea.
XIV. Taraika. - Free settlers. - Their failures. - Aino, the boundaries of their distribution, numerical composition, appearance, food, clothing, housing, their customs. - Japanese. - Kusun-Kotan. - Japanese Consulate.
XV. The owners are convicts. - Transfer to settlers. - Selection of sites for new settlements. - Housekeeping. - Half people. - Transfer to peasants. Resettlement of exiled peasants to the mainland. - Life in villages. Proximity to prison. - Composition of the population by place of birth and by class. Village authorities.
XVI. Composition of the exiled population by gender. - Women's question. - Convict women and villages. - Roommates and cohabitants. - Women of free status.
XVII. Composition of the population by age. - Marital status of the exiles. - Marriages. Fertility. - Sakhalin children.
XVIII. Classes for exiles. - Agriculture. - Hunting. - Fishing. Occasional fish: chum salmon and herring. - Prison catches. - Mastery.
XIX. Food of exiles. - What and how do prisoners eat? - Cloth. - Church. School. - Literacy.
XX. Free population. - Lower ranks of local military commands. Wardens. - Intelligentsia.
XXI. Morality of the exiled population. - Crime. - Investigation and trial. - Punishment. - Rods and whips. - The death penalty.
XXII. Fugitives on Sakhalin. - Reasons for running away. - Composition of fugitives by origin, rank, etc.
XXIII. Morbidity and mortality of the exiled population. - Medical organization. - Infirmary in Aleksandrovsk.
Sakhalin island. For the first time - journal. "Russian Thought", 1893, Nos. 10-12; 1894, No. 2, 3, 5-7. The magazine published chapters I-XIX; with the addition of chapters XX-XXIII, "Sakhalin Island" was published in a separate edition: Anton Chekhov, "Sakhalin Island". From travel notes. M., 1895.
Even while preparing his trip to Sakhalin, Chekhov began compiling a bibliography and even wrote individual parts of a future book that did not require personal Sakhalin observations.
Chekhov returned to Moscow from Sakhalin on December 8, 1890. From his Sakhalin trip A.P. Chekhov brought, in his words, “a chest of all kinds of convict stuff”: 10,000 statistical cards, samples of article lists of convicts, petitions, complaints from the doctor B. Perlin, etc.
Chekhov began work on a book about Sakhalin at the beginning of 1891. In a letter to A.S. To Suvorin on May 27, 1891, Chekhov notes: “...The Sakhalin book will be published in the fall, because, honestly, I am already writing and writing it.” At first, he was definitely going to print the entire book and refused to publish individual chapters or just notes about Sakhalin, but in 1892, in connection with the social upsurge among the Russian intelligentsia caused by the organization of famine relief, Chekhov decided to publish a chapter of his book “Fugitives on Sakhalin” "in the collection "Help to the Starving", M., 1892.
In 1893, when the book was completed, Chekhov began to worry about its volume and style of presentation, which was not suitable for publication in a thick magazine. The editor of Russian Thought, V. M. Lavrov, recalled in his essay “At the Timeless Grave”: “Sakhalin was promised to us, and with great difficulty we defended it in the form in which it appeared in the last books of 1893 and in the first books of 1894." (Russian Gazette, 1904, No. 202).
Despite Chekhov's concerns about the attitude of government authorities towards his work, Sakhalin Island went off with little difficulty. On November 25, 1893, Chekhov wrote to Suvorin: “Galkin-Vraskoy” is the head of the Main Prison Directorate. - P.E. complained to Feoktistov, the head of the Main Directorate for Press Affairs. - P.E."; the November book of "Russian Thought" was delayed for three days. But everything turned out well." Summarizing the history of the publication of “Sakhalin Island” in the journal “Russian Thought”, Chekhov wrote to S.A. Petrov (May 23, 1897): “My travel notes were published in Russian Thought, all except for two chapters, delayed by censorship, which did not make it into the magazine, but did end up in the book.”
Even during the period of preparation for the trip to Sakhalin, Chekhov determined the genre of the future book, its scientific and journalistic character. The author’s reflections, excursions of a scientific nature, and artistic sketches of nature, everyday life and the life of people on Sakhalin should have found their place in it; Undoubtedly, the genre of the book was greatly influenced by “Notes from the House of the Dead” by F.M. Dostoevsky and "Siberia and hard labor" by S.V. Maksimov, to which the author repeatedly refers in the text of the narrative.
According to researchers, even in the process of working on the draft of “Sakhalin Islands,” the structure of the entire book was determined: chapters I-XIII are constructed as travel essays, dedicated first to Northern and then to Southern Sakhalin; chapters XIV-XXIII - as problematic essays, devoted to certain aspects of the Sakhalin way of life, agricultural colonization, children, women, fugitives, the work of Sakhalin residents, their morality, etc. In each chapter, the author tried to convey to readers the main idea: Sakhalin is “hell.”
At the beginning of the work, Chekhov did not like the tone of the story; in a letter to Suvorin dated July 28, 1893, he describes the process of crystallization of the book’s style as follows; “I wrote for a long time and felt for a long time that I was going down the wrong road, until I finally caught the falsehood. The falsehood was precisely that it was as if I wanted to teach someone with my “Sakhalin” and at the same time I was hiding something and restrain myself. But as soon as I began to portray what an eccentric I felt on Sakhalin and what pigs there were, then it became easy for me and my work began to boil..."
In the description of Sakhalin life, a parallel is persistently drawn with the recent serf past of Russia: the same rods, the same domestic and noble slavery, as, for example, in the description of the warden of the Derbinsk prison - “the landowner of the good old days.”
One of the central chapters of the book is Chapter VI - “Egor’s Story”. Yegor's personality and his fate emphasize one of the characteristic features of the convict population of Sakhalin: the randomness of crimes caused in most cases not by the vicious inclinations of the criminal, but by the nature of the life situation, which could not but be resolved by the crime.
The publication of "Sakhalin Islands" on the pages of the magazine "Russian Thought" immediately attracted the attention of metropolitan and provincial newspapers. “The entire book bears the stamp of the author’s talent and his beautiful soul. “Sakhalin Island” is a very serious contribution to the study of Russia, being at the same time an interesting literary work. Many heart-grabbing details are collected in this book, and one only has to wish that they attracted the attention of those on whom the fate of the “unfortunate” depends.” ("Week", 1895, No. 38).
The book “Sakhalin Island” was written by Chekhov in 1891-1893 during his trip to the island in mid-1890. In addition to the author's personal observations, the content travel notes Other information was also included in the form of eyewitness accounts and factual data. Also, according to experts, the creation of the book was strongly influenced by the work of F.M. Dostoevsky "Notes from the House of the Dead".
The main goal that the writer pursued on his journey was to study the lifestyle of “convicts and exiles.” On Sakhalin, Chekhov was engaged in the census of the population, thanks to which he was able to become closely acquainted with local life and the living conditions of prisoners. At the end of the trip, the writer collected a whole “chest” of different stories and facts. When the book was written, Chekhov each time refused to publish individual chapters; he wanted the world to see the entire book. However, in 1892, the author nevertheless agreed to the publication of one chapter in a scientific and literary collection. The book was published in its entirety in 1895.
The story is based on the fate of a convict, whose life has turned into a real hell. Throughout all the chapters there is a description of the life and customs of the settlers, their hard physical labor. The author focuses on the living conditions of people - the state of prisons, hospitals, educational institutions.
The main plot load falls on the chapter “Egor’s Story”. It tells about the fate of a man who, like most other convicts, found himself in a difficult life situation, the only way out of which was to commit a criminal act.
The book had a great influence on the fate of the island, and in particular on the lives of its settlers. Thanks to truthful descriptions of the difficult life of the exiles, government authorities drew attention to their situation and sent their representatives there to clarify the situation and subsequently resolve it.
Read the retelling
The work entitled "Sakhalin Island" was written by such a famous writer as Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. He wrote this work after he visited Sakhalin Island. Before going there in 1890, the writer was dissuaded by absolutely all the people with whom he came into contact, from acquaintances and colleagues to close friends and relatives. The book was written in the form of simple essays that described the ordinary life and life of those people who lived there. Without any authorial embellishment, he described the deplorable state of the hospitals, schools and prisons there. With this work he was able to raise public awareness and draw people's attention to a truly serious problem.
During his visit, Anton Pavlovich was busy writing down stories for himself ordinary people, which I heard among them, who, by terrible will, found themselves in those truly unbearable and terrible conditions. Some people were so unlucky that they ended up there not for some bad deeds and harm to people, but simply because the authorities of that time could not simply do otherwise. This can best be seen, understood and felt only in the chapter entitled “Egorka’s Stories”. In this chapter, the author describes the difficult life story of one of the convicts, which he hears literally first-hand.
Anton Pavlovich is trying to convey to the whole world how life flows on this small piece of the world, isolated from the normal rest of the world, how people not only live here, but actually survive, how they raise and raise their own children, try to run a household, and how it seems At first glance, they live an ordinary, but completely different life. In this place, time literally froze and there are still very ancient remnants of the past, such as those that existed under serfdom, corporal punishment for offenses, forced bald shaving.
After the book was written, the public finally paid attention to such important problems, thereby Anton Pavlovich Chekhov rendered a great service to all residents of Sakhalin. The information was able to reach the highest echelon of power, thanks to this, all those Sakhalin residents who were tortured and tired of such a life were heard and now a large number of things will be changed in their way of life. The people of Sakhalin were very grateful to the author and therefore they consider this book one of the main assets of their culture.
Picture or drawing Sakhalin Island
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My homeland is Sakhalin. I am extremely pleased to know that Anton Pavlovich Chekhov visited this wonderful island... Once in my youth I read Chekhov’s book about Sakhalin. Now I’m returning to this book with pleasure - I found very interesting retro photographs about Sakhalin at that time
In 1890, Chekhov made a difficult trip to Sakhalin - the “convict island”, a place of exile for prisoners. “Sensational news,” wrote the newspaper “News of the Day” on January 26, 1890. “A.P. Chekhov is taking a trip to Siberia to study the life of convicts... This is the first Russian writer to travel to Siberia and back."
Post of Douai on Sakhalin at the end of the 19th century. Photo from Chekhov's collection.
Chekhov prepared for the trip for a long time: he studied the history of the Russian prison and the colonization of the island, as well as works on history, ethnography, geography and notes from travelers.
At that time, Sakhalin was a little-studied, “interesting” place; there was not even data on the population of the island. During the three months that the trip lasted, the writer did a tremendous amount of work, including conducting a census of the island’s population and studying the life and living conditions of convicts. Sakhalin doctor N.S. Lobas noted: “With the light hand of Chekhov, both Russian and foreign researchers began to visit Sakhalin.”
The result of Chekhov's trip was the publication of the books "From Siberia" and "Sakhalin Island (From Travel Notes)", in which he described both the unbearable life of convicts and the arbitrariness of officials. “Sakhalin is a place of unbearable suffering... - the author wrote. -... We rotted millions of people in prisons, rotted in vain, without reasoning, barbarically; we drove people through the cold in shackles for tens of thousands of miles... multiplied criminals and blamed it all on the red-nosed prison guards … It’s not the caretakers who are to blame, it’s all of us.”
During a trip to Sakhalin, Chekhov met with Sonya the Golden Hand
An important result of Chekhov’s trip to Sakhalin was the census of the island’s population, most which consisted of exiled convicts and their families. Chekhov traveled from the northern tip of the island to the southern one, visiting almost all the villages. “There is not a single convict or settler on Sakhalin who does not talk to me,” he wrote.
Shackling Sophia Bluvshtein. Photo from Chekhov's collection
Among the convicts living on Sakhalin was Sofya Bluvshtein - Sonya the Golden Hand. The legendary thief, who easily transformed into aristocratic women, spoke several languages and thought through her crimes so carefully that the police could not find justice for her for a long time, was sent into exile for several thefts of jewelry worth a large amount.
On the island, Sonya made three attempts to escape, all unsuccessful, was shackled and eventually broke down. Chekhov, who met her in 1890, described the legendary swindler as follows: “This is a small, thin, already graying woman with a rumpled, old woman’s face. She has shackles on her hands; on her bunk there is only a fur coat made of gray sheepskin, which serves as her warm clothing and the bed. She walks around her cell from corner to corner, and it seems that she is constantly sniffing the air, like a mouse in a mousetrap, and her facial expression is mouselike.” At that time, Sonya was only 45 years old. 
Chekhov among family and friends before leaving for Sakhalin. A.P. Chekhov before leaving for Sakhalin. Standing: A.I.Ivanenko, I.P.Chekhov, P.E.Chekhov, A.Korneev. Sitting: M. Korneeva, M. P. Chekhov, L. S. Mizinova, M. P. Chekhova, A. P. Chekhov, E. Ya. Chekhova. Moscow.
Chekhov dreamed of illustrating his book with Sakhalin photographs, but, unfortunately, he was unable to do this. 115 years after the first edition of the book “Sakhalin Island”, Sakhalin residents published a brochure, it is possible for the first time to show most of the places and villages that Anton Pavlovich visited in 1890, as they looked in the 19th century. This publication publishes photographs by A.A. von Fricken, I.I. Pavlovsky, A. Dienes, P. Labbe - photographers of the late 19th century. Modern photographs show what Chekhov's Sakhalin looks like today. 
Not everyone was sympathetic to the upcoming trip. Many considered it an “unnecessary matter” and a “wild fantasy.” A.P. Chekhov himself was aware of the difficulties of the upcoming journey, but saw his civic and literary duty in attracting public attention to Sakhalin, “a place of unbearable suffering.” According to Mikhail, the writer’s younger brother, Anton Pavlovich “prepared for the trip in the fall, winter and part of the spring.” He read a lot of books about Sakhalin and compiled an extensive bibliography. The great preparatory work of the writer is also evidenced by the fact that even before the trip, Anton Pavlovich wrote some sections of his future book. 
On April 21, 1890, A.P. Chekhov, with the ID of a correspondent for the newspaper “Novoye Vremya”, left Moscow for Sakhalin. The trip across all of Russia took almost three months and turned out to be incredibly difficult for the writer, who was already suffering from tuberculosis at that time. The entire “horse and horse journey,” as the writer called it, amounted to four and a half thousand miles. 
The Swedish steamship Atlas, washed ashore near the Aleksandrovsky post in May 1890. Photo from the 19th century. author unknown
Alexandrovsk
A.P. Chekhov arrived at the Aleksandrovsky post on Sakhalin on July 11, 1890. “There is no harbor here and the shores are dangerous, as impressively evidenced by the Swedish steamer Atlas, which was wrecked shortly before my arrival and now lies on the shore.” It is with these lines that Anton Chekhov’s story about his stay on Sakhalin begins; it was the sight of this broken steamer that was his first impression of the island. 
To this day, at the site of the Atlas wreck, during a strong low tide, the remains of ship equipment are exposed. Photo 2009 
Duty house on the sea pier at the Aleksandrovsky post. Photo by I.I. Pavlovsky
There is a pier, but only for boats and barges. This is a large log house, several fathoms long, protruding into the sea in the shape of the letter T... At the wide end of the T there is a pretty house - the office of the pier - and right there is a tall black mast. The structure is solid, but short-lived. 
The pier at the Aleksandrovsky post, destroyed by ice. Photo by P. Labbe
During his three months and two days on the island, A.P. Chekhov worked hard, studying the life of convicts and settlers, and at the same time the life and customs of local officials. He single-handedly undertook a census of the exiled convict population, filling out about 10,000 cards. About this feat of Anton Pavlovich, the writer Mikhail Sholokhov said: “Chekhov, even being seriously ill, found strength in himself and, driven by a great love for people and a real professional writer’s curiosity, still went to Sakhalin.”
The cards, by special order of the writer, were printed in a small printing house at the local police department in the Aleksandrovsky post. 
Questionnaires for the population census of Sakhalin Island, compiled and filled out by A.P. Chekhov. For statistics, women's cards were crossed out with a red pencil.
A.P. Chekhov was also given a document that allowed him to travel throughout the island. “Identification. This was given from the head of the island of Sakhalin to the doctor Anton Pavlovich Chekhov in that he, Mr. Chekhov, is allowed to collect various statistical information and materials necessary for literary work about the organization of hard labor on the island of Sakhalin. I propose to the heads of the districts to provide Mr. Chekhov with legal assistance for this purpose when visiting prisons and settlements, and, if necessary, provide Mr. Chekhov with the opportunity to make various extracts from official documents. We certify this by signing and attaching the government seal, July 30th day, 1890, Aleksandrovsky post. The head of the island is Major General Kononovich. Ruler of the chancellery I. Vologdin. Vr. etc. clerk Andreev."
With this document, Chekhov examined the most remote prisons and settlements of the island. “I visited all the settlements, went into all the huts and spoke with everyone; I used the card system for the census, and I have already recorded about ten thousand convicts and settlers. In other words, there is not a single convict or settler on Sakhalin who would not talk to me,” wrote A.P. Chekhov to the publisher A.S. Suvorin on September 11, 1890. 
Exiled settlers of one of the villages on Sakhalin Island. Photo by P. Labbe
On Sakhalin, Chekhov was interested in literally everything: the climate, the hygienic conditions of prisons, the food and clothing of prisoners, the homes of exiles, the state of agriculture and crafts, the system of punishments to which exiles were subjected, the situation of women, the lives of children and schools, medical statistics and hospitals, meteorological stations, the life of the indigenous population and Sakhalin antiquities, the work of the Japanese consulate in the Korsakov post and much more.
Of the 65 Russian villages indicated on the map of Sakhalin in 1890, Anton Pavlovich described or mentioned 54, and personally visited 39 villages. In the conditions of the then impassable conditions and the unsettled life on the island, only such a selfless person as A.P. Chekhov could have done this.
From July 11 to September 10, A.P. Chekhov remained in northern Sakhalin, visiting the villages of the Aleksandrovsky and Tymovsky districts. He stopped at the Aleksandrovsky post (now the city of Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky), visited villages located in the valley of the Duika River: Korsakovka (currently within the city), Novo-Mikhailovka (Mikhailovka), Krasny Yar (abolished in 1978).
“Having finished with the Duika Valley,” Anton Pavlovich conducted a population census in three small villages located in the Arkovo River valley. At the mouth of the Arkai (Arkovo) River, Chekhov visited the Arkovsky cordon (Arkovo-Bereg), the villages of First Arkovo (Chekhovskoye), Second Arkovo, Arkovsky Stanok and Third Arkovo (now all these villages are united into one village). The first time he went there was on the morning of July 31st.
There are two roads leading from Aleksandrovsk to the Arkovskaya Valley: one is a mountain road, along which I did not travel, and the other along the seashore; According to this latter, driving is possible only during low tide. The cloudy sky, the sea on which not a single sail was visible, and the steep clayey shore were harsh; The waves roared dully and sadly. Stunted, diseased trees looked down from the high bank. 
The coast between Aleksandrovsk and Arkovo. Photo 2009
The Arkovsky cordon is located near the Gilyak village. Previously, it had the significance of a guard post; soldiers lived in it and caught fugitives... 
Mouth of the Arkovo River. Photo by A.A. von Fricken
Between the Second and Third Arkovo there is Arkovsky Stanok, where they change horses when going to the Tymovsky district. 
Arkovsky machine. Photo by A.A. von Fricken
If a landscape artist happens to be on Sakhalin, I recommend the Arkov Valley to his attention. This place... is extremely rich in colors.... 
View of the Arkov Valley. Photo 2009
All three Arkovo belong to the poorest villages of Northern Sakhalin. There is arable land here, there are livestock, but there has never been a harvest. 
Settlement in the Arkovskaya Valley. Photo by P. Labbe 
Arkovskaya Valley in July. Photo 2009
Cape Jonquière
Just south of the Alexander post there was only one locality- “Douai, a terrible, ugly and in every way a crappy place.” On his way there, Anton Pavlovich repeatedly passed through a tunnel built by convicts in 1880–1883.
Cape Jonquière with its entire mass fell onto the coastal sandbank, and passage along it would have been completely impossible if a tunnel had not been dug. 
Cape Jonquiere. Photo 2009
They dug it without consulting an engineer, without any fuss, and as a result it turned out dark, crooked and dirty. 
Tunnel at Cape Jonquiere. Photo 2008
Immediately after leaving the tunnel, near the coastal road there is a saltworks and a cable house, from which a telegraph cable runs down the sand into the sea. 
Between the Alexander post and the Douai post in a deep narrow valley, or, in the words of A.P. Chekhov, a “cleft,” “The terrible Voivodeship prison stands alone.”
The voivodeship prison consists of three main buildings and one small one, which houses punishment cells. It was built in the seventies, and to create the area on which it now stands, it was necessary to tear down the mountainous coast in an area of 480 square meters. fathoms. 
Voivodeship prison. Photo by I.I. Pavlovsky
In the Voivodeship prison they are kept chained to wheelbarrows... Each of them is shackled in hand and leg shackles; from the middle of the hand shackles there is a long chain of 3–4 arshins, which is attached to the bottom of a small wheelbarrow. 
Wheelbarrow workers of the Voivodeship prison. Photo by I.I. Pavlovsky
All the way to Douai, the steep, steep bank presents screes, on which here and there there are black spots and stripes, ranging from an arshin to a fathom in width. This is coal. 
The coast between Cape Zhonkier and Voevodskaya Pad. Photo 2008
Post Douay
Douai post pier. Photo from 1886. author unknown
This is a post; the population calls it a port.
In the first minutes, when you enter the street, Douai gives the impression of a small ancient fortress: a flat and smooth street, like a parade ground for marching, clean white houses, a striped booth, striped posts; All that's missing to complete the impressions is a drum roll. 
The main street of Douai post. Photo by I.I. Pavlovsky
Where the short street ends, a gray wooden church stands across it, blocking the viewer from the unofficial part of the port; here the crevice doubles in the form of the letter “Y”, sending ditches away from it to the right and left. 
Duya Church. Photo by I.I. Pavlovsky
On the left there is a settlement, which was formerly called Zhidovskaya...
A lane in the village of Due, which formerly housed the Zhidovskaya Slobodka, with houses built during the period of the Japanese concession. Photo 2009
Currently, the Dui mines are in the exclusive use of the Sakhalin private society, whose representatives live in St. Petersburg. 
Marina of the Sakhalin society and mine. Photo by I.I. Pavlovsky
Near the mine office there is a barracks for settlers working in the mines, a small old barn, somehow adapted for overnight accommodation. I was here at 5 o'clock in the morning, when the settlers were just getting up. What a stench, darkness, crush! 
Remains of the pier in the village of Due. Photo 2007 
Historical and Literary Museum "A.P. Chekhov and Sakhalin" in the city of Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky, Chekhov St., 19 
Literary and Art Museum of A.P. Chekhov’s book “Sakhalin Island” in the city of Yuzhno-
Documentary photographs were provided by the Historical and Literary Museum "A.P. Chekhov and Sakhalin", the Sakhalin Regional Art Museum, and the Museum of the Book of A.P. Chekhov "Sakhalin Island".
Sources.
