Chekhov on the “island of the outcasts” - on Sakhalin. "This is the first Russian writer to travel to Siberia and back"
In 1869, Sakhalin Island was officially declared a place of royal exile, and until the beginning of the twentieth century, the majority of the island's inhabitants were convicts.
In 1890, the famous Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov traveled to Sakhalin Island to “study the life of convicts and exiles.” In preparation for the trip, Chekhov studied more than a hundred works and notes of travelers, monographs of scientists, ethnographic materials, and records of officials of the 17th-19th centuries.
The creative result of this trip was the artistic and journalistic book “Sakhalin Island” (From Travel Notes), which was based not only on personal impressions from numerous meetings, but also on statistical data collected by the writer on the island.
Thanks to the fact that the writer worked for three months on Sakhalin as a census taker, he was able to get to know in great detail the life and everyday life of settlers and convicts. From the Sakhalin trip, according to the writer, he brought “a chest of all kinds of convict stuff”: ten thousand statistical cards, samples of article lists of convicts, petitions, complaints from doctor Perlin, etc.
Chekhov returned to Moscow on December 8, 1890, and at the beginning of 1891 he began work on a book about Sakhalin: he read the necessary literature, put the collected materials in order, and sketched out the first chapters.
The fact that Chekhov came to Sakhalin and his contribution to the history of the region is a source of pride for Sakhalin residents. In September 1995, thanks to the enthusiasm of the Sakhalin public, a city literary and art museum of A.P. Chekhov’s book “Sakhalin Island” appeared in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Talking about this book, which is the most complete “encyclopedia” about Sakhalin of the 19th century, the museum reveals the beginning of the history of the region from the founding of the hard labor camps of Tsarist Russia, shown by one of the great classical writers.
The museum, along with other exhibits, displays a collection of Chekhov's books "Sakhalin Island", translated and published in different countries world: Japan, USA, Netherlands, Poland, Italy, France, Finland, China, Spain. This is the only museum in the world that houses a large collection of books "Sakhalin Island", published in many languages of the world.
Introduction
1. Ideological and compositional originality of the cycle of essays “Sakhalin Island” by A.P. Chekhov
2. Features of A.P.’s narrative style Chekhov in the cycle of essays “Sakhalin Island”
2.1 Genre specificity of the work by A.P. Chekhov
2.2 The originality of A.P.’s narrative style Chekhov in "Sakhalin Island"
Conclusion
List of used literature
“Sakhalin Island” (1890 - 1894) by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov is a unique work in his creative heritage, the only one in the genre of documentary essay, but characteristic of Chekhov - a writer and a citizen. From the moment its first chapters were published to the present day, literary scholars have indisputed the question of the enormous significance for Chekhov’s work of his trip to Sakhalin, the book that followed, as well as the reflection of the “Sakhalin theme” in the works of the 90s - 900s.
By this time, Chekhov had already gained fame: in 1887, for the collection of stories “At Twilight,” he received half the Pushkin Prize of the Academy of Sciences, ceasing his constant collaboration with Oskolki in the same year, and in March 1888 he made his debut in the “thick” magazine with the story "Steppe". Thus, he moved from the category of literary journalists writing exclusively for thin publications to the category of writers publishing in “serious” magazines. A creative style and manner of the artist had developed, but Chekhov was implementing his bold project, which influenced his life and further work. In Sakhalin Island, some ideas are expressed restrainedly and cautiously, characterizing the general state of mind of the writer and his views of the first half of the nineties. At the same time, the author of “Sakhalin Island” is largely inspired by the novelist Chekhov. He does not make an artistic representation of what he sees, does not introduce any concepts in advance. He only wants to sternly talk about what he witnessed, he only wants to be a writer - a social activist. Apparently this is why the first attempts to critically comprehend the meaning of Chekhov’s work were expressed in a negative assessment. In particular, the contemporary literary critic Mikhailovsky, who was critical of the perception of his work, but managed to accurately understand the essence of Chekhov’s creative method, seemed to demand from the writer: “Give us direct answers to the damned questions.” But for Chekhov, what is more important is not the answer, but the correctly posed question. This is not enough for Mikhailovsky. Therefore, he ranked all the works of the “Sakhalin theme” (and this includes “Ward N6”!) below “A Boring Story”. However, another critic of that time, M. Nevedomsky, in his article “Without Wings” summarizes about this work: “... a sadly skeptical attitude towards all “theories of progress”, towards all the mottos of humanity fighting for its dignity and happiness, is apparently bleak - a pessimistic attitude towards life itself, a philistine limited outlook and - broad artistic generalizations, filled with the true poetry of an artistic creation! This is the “antinomy” that Chekhov’s work contains” (28, 819).
Modern researchers E. Polotskaya, A. Zakharkin, M. Semanova, E. Guseva, I. Gurvich and others note that in “Sakhalin Island” Chekhov abandoned his previous artistic techniques, discarded everything that seemed “literary”, simplified his style and form in order to develop a new style, characterized by a clearer sound and a sense of the relationship between social phenomena. The book was the result of a trip to the peninsula, scientific work in the region, as well as meetings with people cut off from civilization, and significantly influenced the entire subsequent work of the writer. Exploring the poetic world of the work, its place in Chekhov’s artistic heritage and noting the change in the writer’s creative method, E. Polotskaya argues that this work is important in developing a new style and searching for new creative horizons: “It is difficult to give up the idea that Chekhov’s desire is prose to restraint and precision, reflected especially in the book “Sakhalin Island,” a scientific and documentary study in the genre of “travel notes,” was ingrained in him from childhood” (33, 71). In our opinion, this can be confirmed by the fact that Chekhov did not write other essay books, “like Sakhalin,” although he intended to do so based on the material zemstvo schools(1, vol. 5 414). He also did not create artistic works about Sakhalin life, which his contemporaries expected from him. However, the Sakhalin trip opened a new period of his creativity, contributed, in the words of Chekhov himself, to his “maturity” and gave rise to “a damn abyss of plans.” Thus, after Sakhalin, the theme of protest entered Chekhov’s work. The hero of the first post-Sakhalin story, “Gusev” (1890), Pavel Ivanovich, calls himself “protest incarnate.” Often an equal sign is put between the position of Pavel Ivanovich and Chekhov’s protest: the writer is credited with the intention to “convict” together with Pavel Ivanovich (“through his mouth”); This is supported by the hero’s sincerity and justice, the indisputability of almost all of his attacks and accusations. Chekhov does not openly accuse anyone, the style of his narration is not accusatory, but stating. Another thing is the facts that he cites, the portraits and destinies that the artist selected for sketches. This is their main difference. The stories “Gloomy People” (1890) and “Ward No. 6” (1893), “Duel” (1891) and “Women” (1891), “In Exile” (1892) and “In the Ravine” (1900) were some of the the most tragic works in Chekhov’s work, in which the author depicted the main conflict between the human individual and society.
In modern literary criticism, the significance of this landmark work for the work of A.P. is highly appreciated. Chekhov and his contribution to the development of all Russian literature. In the works of A.P. Skaftymova, G.A. Byaly, Z.S. Paperny, N.Ya. Berkovsky, G.P. Berdnikova, I.A. Gurvich, V. Strada and other researchers of Chekhov’s work and “Sakhalin Island” in particular, the social origins of Chekhov’s work are considered, the problem of the unity of the artistic world is posed, the significance of transition period creativity of the 90-900s. The main subject of the researchers' analysis was Chekhov's “representation of the world” (M. Gorky), which became the “formative idea” of the writer. At the same time, not all literary scholars consider this work a serious object for literary analysis. Thus, E. Polotskaya, speaking about the fact that the modern approach to Czech studies had an impact in the 80s - 90s of the twentieth century after the publication of the thirty-volume Complete Works and Letters, believes that the framework for studying specific problems of Chekhov’s work as a phenomenon of art has expanded, but He mentions this work in his own works only in connection with works of the “Sakhalin theme” (33, 12).
Examining the figurative structure of the essays, the nature of the use of statistical data, and stylistic features, researcher T. Kharazishvili concludes about the organic fusion in “Sakhalin Island” of the talent of a scientist, publicist and artist (52, 314). The object of study in his work is the language and style of the work using the example of the description of key images, the mechanism for including dialogues, stories, sketches, census data and their meaning.
Studying the laws of tragic existence discovered by Chekhov in his contemporary life, researcher N.N. Sobolevskaya notes the overlap between Chekhov and Shakespearean poetics: “What is important is not how the story ends, but the story itself, the dramatic situation in which nature is revealed to be different from what it seemed at the beginning, new form"(42.133). In his article “The Poetics of the Tragic in Chekhov” N.N. Sobolevskaya examines the evolution of the tragic conflict in connection with a landmark work - the cycle of essays “Sakhalin Island” and points out that “tragic collisions relentlessly attracted Chekhov’s artistic attention, which became especially acute after his visit to the convict island of Sakhalin” (42, 128).
In the works of M.L. Semanova explores for the first time the role of the narrator, reflected in the style, choice of plots, and the role of references and notes in Sakhalin Island. She showed that “... like other great artists, Chekhov breaks out of the captivity of facts even when he creates essays, documentary works of art; he does not fetishize facts, but selects and groups them in accordance with the general concept of the work, his understanding of the logic of life. The Sakhalin travel notes organically combine original documents, statistical data and plot-complete parts, portraits, landscape sketches... This versatile material in “Sakhalin” is united by the author’s humanistic thought about a humiliated person... Sakhalin seems to Chekhov “a whole hell,” and this formative image seems to spread throughout the entire book of essays” (39, 50 - 52). Book by M.L. Semanova’s “Chekhov the Artist” forced many researchers of Chekhov’s work to look at the work about Sakhalin in a new way. Thus, the object of attention in the article by E.A. Guseva becomes the connection between man and nature, which can be traced throughout Chekhov’s prose, and, according to the researcher, “is characteristic... of a book about a convict island... Pictures of nature most often shade the inner psychological world of Chekhov’s heroes, and in a book of essays it is primarily its author, on whose behalf the story is told, through whose eyes the reader sees the world” (12, 82 - 83). In this work E.A. Guseva concludes that pictures of nature are organized not only to indicate the time and place of action, but are also “a sign of a certain feeling, they constitute the psychological background of what is depicted, i.e. they are lyrical" (13, 87).
For the disclosure of our chosen topic, the results of scientific research by I.N. are of particular importance. Dry ones that are on this moment are the most complete, especially regarding the narrative organization of the book. The researcher also presented an analysis of the composition of Chekhov’s work, showed the role of the “micro-plot” in the fabric of the book (45, 72 - 84), which, in his opinion, is a cycle-forming factor, pointed out the importance of anecdotes and the “open” ending of the book.
G. 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 planted along the Amur River, not sparing soldiers, prisoners and settlers, 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 versts 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 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 they behave with the exile 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 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 - 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 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 L., a native of the western region, sails in northern seas for more than 30 years and has gone through them far and wide. 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.
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 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 big 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 the stories of ordinary people that he 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 or 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 tortured and tired of such life Sakhalin residents were heard and now a large number of things will change in their way of life. The people of Sakhalin were very grateful to the author and therefore this book they consider it one of the main assets of their culture.
Picture or drawing Sakhalin Island
Other retellings and reviews for the reader's diary
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I posted a note about Sakhalin and illustrated it with such wonderful photographs that I can’t resist reposting it:
Sakhalin is the most big Island Russia. It is located at east coast Asia, and is washed by the waters of the Sea of Okhotsk and Japan. Sakhalin is separated from the mainland by the Tatar Strait, which connects Okhotsk and Japanese sea. And from Japanese island Hokkaido - La Perouse Strait. From north to south, Sakhalin stretches for 948 km, with an average width of about 100 km.
Nivkhi. Photo by IK Stardust
The indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin - the Nivkhs (in the north of the island) and the Ainu (in the south) - appeared on the island during the Middle Ages. At the same time, the Nivkhs migrated between Sakhalin and the lower Amur, and the Ainu - between Sakhalin and Hokkaido. In the 16th century, Tungus-speaking peoples—Evenks and Oroks—came to Sakhalin from the mainland and began to engage in reindeer herding.
Sakhalin Ainu
Many may be surprised to learn that several geographical names Sakhalin region are of French origin. For this we must thank the great navigator Jean-François La Perouse, who during trip around the world in 1787 he put the strait between Sakhalin and Hokkaido on the world map. Nowadays this 101-kilometer-long body of water bears the name of its discoverer. They sang about him in the soul Soviet song: “And I throw pebbles from the steep bank of the wide La Perouse Strait.”
Strait of La Perouse
The presence of the French in this region far from the banks of the Seine is reminiscent, for example, of the Crillon Peninsula, named after the bravest military leader of the times of Henry IV, Louis Balbes Crillon. Fans of Alexandre Dumas remember this colorful character from the novels “The Countess de Monsoreau” and “Forty-Five.” “Why am I not a king,” he whispers to himself on the last page of “The Countess,” ashamed of his monarch’s indifference to the villainous murder of Comte de Bussy.
Dinosaurs of Cape Crillon. Photo Olga Kulikova
By the way, there are earthen ramparts on the Krillon Peninsula medieval fortress Shiranusi. It is not known for certain who built it - it could have been either an outpost of the Mongol Empire or the Tungus tribes of the Jurchens, who created the Jin Empire in the territory of Primorye and northern China. One thing is obvious: the fortification was built according to all the rules of fortification of that time.
The ramparts of the Siranusi fortress and the lighthouse at Cape Crillon
The island of Moneron in the Strait of Tartary was also named La Pérouse, in honor of his associate, the engineer Paul Moneron. On this piece of land is located the first marine natural park in Russia.
Tourist complex on Moneron Island
Moneron is famous unique waterfalls, columnar rocks and wildlife. The island has every chance of becoming a Mecca for the country’s underwater photographers in the near future.
Sea lions on Moneron Island. Photo by Vyacheslav Kozlov
On Moneron. Photo by Vyacheslav Kozlov
After La Perouse, Russian expeditions began exploring the region. In 1805, a ship under the command of Ivan Kruzenshtern explored most of the Sakhalin coast. By the way, for a long time On different maps, Sakhalin was designated either an island or a peninsula. And only in 1849, an expedition under the command of Grigory Nevelsky put a final point on this issue, passing on the military transport ship “Baikal” between Sakhalin and the mainland.
Lighthouse on Cape Aniva. Photo by Anvar
In the 19th century, the Sakhalin land was a refuge for exiles for more than thirty-five years - the official Russian penal servitude. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, who visited the island in 1890, called it “hell on earth.” The most inveterate criminals of the empire served their sentences here, for example, the thief Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka, who tried to escape from here three times and became the only woman whom the penal servitude administration ordered to be shackled.
The famous thief Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka in Sakhalin penal servitude
After the capture of Sakhalin by the Japanese in 1905 and the signing by the tsarist government, under pressure from the United States, of the “Treaty of Portsmouth,” hard labor was abolished. Wherein South part Sakhalin and Kurile Islands were proclaimed the governorate of Karafuto and transferred to Japan. 15 years later, the Japanese occupied the northern part of the island and left it thanks to the efforts of Soviet diplomacy only in 1925. Only after the end of the Second World War did Sakhalin again become part of our state. Although to this day Russia and Japan argue about whose foot first set foot on this island.
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
Monument at the birthplace of Vladimirovka
In 1882, the settlement of Vladimirovka was founded for convicts who had served their time on Sakhalin. From 1905 to 1945, when Southern Sakhalin was the territory of Japan, Vladimirovka was the center of Karafuto Prefecture and bore the name Toyohara.
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Photo by Sir Fisher
In 1945 the territory was occupied Soviet troops, and Southern Sakhalin became part of the USSR. A year later, Toyohara was renamed Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and a year later it became the capital of the Sakhalin region.
Museum of Local Lore. Photo Illusionist
Museum of Local Lore. Photo by Irina V.
Perhaps one of the most striking attractions of the island can be called the Sakhalin Regional local history museum. It is located in the building of the former Japanese governorate of Karafuto, built in 1937; this is almost the only monument of Japanese architecture in Russia. The museum's collections span the period from ancient history to the present day.
Model 1867 eleven-inch gun. The cannon was manufactured in 1875 in St. Petersburg, and during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. took part in the defense of Port Arthur
The Museum of Chekhov's Book "Sakhalin Island" is another pride of Sakhalin residents. The museum building was built in 1954, has an attic and its architecture resembles Chekhov’s “house with a mezzanine”. This museum can tell a lot of interesting things about the writer’s Sakhalin journey: for example, about the fact that Anton Pavlovich took a pistol with him on his voyage to these shores in order... to have time to shoot himself if the ship sank. The classic was terribly afraid of drowning.
Near the station there is a museum of railway equipment, where samples of Japanese equipment that worked on Sakhalin are collected, including the Japanese snowplow "Wajima" and the head section of the Japanese passenger diesel train ("Ki-Ha") shown in the photograph.
Voskresensky Cathedral in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Photo by Igor Smirnov
Skiing is one of the most popular entertainments among Sakhalin residents. The most a nice place within the boundaries of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk there is the Mountain Air tourist center. At night, it can be seen from almost anywhere in the city.
View of the Mountain Air route from Victory Square
Sakhalin apocalypse
Damn bridge. Photo by Father Fedor
Abandoned tunnel and bridge on the old Japanese railway Kholmsk - Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Going into the tunnel, the road deviates to the right and rises, then, after exiting the tunnel, it goes around the hill and then crosses itself along a bridge. above the entrance portal of the tunnel. In this way, a giant spiral is formed, ensuring that the road rises to the ridge while maintaining an acceptable slope.
And here are the remains of the steamship "Luga", which ran aground at Cape Crillon sixty years ago.
Danger Stone Island
Lighthouse on the Danger Stone
The Stone of Danger is a rock located 14 km southeast of Cape Crillon - the southernmost point of Sakhalin Island - in the La Perouse Strait. The rock greatly hampered the movement of ships through the strait. To avoid a collision, sailors were posted on the ships, whose duty was to listen to the roar of the sea lions located on the Danger Stone. In 1913, a concrete tower with a lighthouse was erected on the rock.
Flora and fauna
Sakhalin crab. Raido Photos
Fish day is a common thing for Sakhalin residents. Fish, fish caviar, crustaceans, mollusks, algae - all this variety makes incredible delicious dishes, rich in protein.
A giant sandwich with red caviar was prepared for Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk City Day. The dimensions of the culinary masterpiece are 3 by 5 m. It was made in the shape of a heart, symbolizing love for the birthday person.
Sakhalin fox. Photo by Andrey Shpatak
According to scientists, without compromising reproduction, more than 500 thousand tons of fish, about 300 thousand tons of invertebrates, and about 200 thousand tons of algae can be harvested annually in Sakhalin waters. The fishing industry has been and remains the main one for the region.
