Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: April 6, 2021 at 11:14:28 AM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Environment]: Jones on Steller, 'Eastbound through > Siberia: Observations from the Great Northern Expedition' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Georg Wilhelm Engel Steller. Eastbound through Siberia: Observations > from the Great Northern Expedition. Trans. and ed. Margritt A. Engel > and Karen E. Willmore. Bloomington Indiana University Press, 2020. > xxv + 220 pp. $32.00 (paper), ISBN 978-0-253-04778-6. > > Reviewed by Ryan Jones (University of Oregon) > Published on H-Environment (April, 2021) > Commissioned by Daniella McCahey > > I have to admit: ever since beginning my own dissertation research, > Georg Wilhelm Steller has been my one true historical hero. An > opinionated, resourceful, and polyglot German natural historian, > Steller played a key role in the Russian state's eighteenth-century > exploration of Siberia and Alaska. He provided heroic service after > Vitus Bering's shipwreck on the North Pacific's Commander Islands in > 1742, tending selflessly to his dying companions while still finding > time to compile the only scientific description of the now-extinct > Steller's sea cow. Another of the species he described on that > voyage, the Steller's jay, frequently visits my house in Oregon, > reminding me almost daily of Steller's life. While Steller survived > the Commander Islands shipwreck, he died--not yet forty--on the > return trip to St. Petersburg. In _Empire of Extinction: Russians and > the Strange Beasts of the Sea, 1742-1867 _(2014), I cast > Steller--admiringly, but fairly I thought--as a conscientious > objector to the worst excesses of Russian colonialism and > environmental destruction, even as he often benefited from those same > processes. > > Steller's extensive unpublished notes and journals from the Second > Kamchatka Expedition--of which Bering's voyages to Alaska were but > one part--are still being published in various languages. Margritt > Engel and Karen Willmore, both emerita professors at the University > of Alaska Anchorage, have played a valuable part in this work. Their > translation of Steller's _History of Kamchatka _was a scholarly > tour-de-force, turning one of Steller's masterpieces into accessible > and conscientiously footnoted English. Meanwhile, Wieland Hintzsche > has led a decades-long project of publishing as much of Steller's > material in German as possible. Working from Hintzsche's > transcriptions of Steller's Siberian notebooks, Engel and Willmore > have now produced another wonderful translation. _Eastbound through > Siberia _is Steller's journal of his overland voyage from the > Siberian city of Irkutsk to Kamchatka, from whence he sailed onward > to Alaska. This journal is much more than a prologue to that more > famous voyage. Instead, the journal provides valuable firsthand > observations of Siberian life and Russian colonialism in the > mid-eighteenth century. It also offers--as the translators discuss in > a substantive preface and afterword--the chance to reassess Steller > himself. > > The journal begins in Irkutsk, then Russia's most important Siberian > bureaucratic and economic center. Steller, writing for government > officials in St. Petersburg, provides a detailed account of life in > Irkutsk, one that would be exceptionally useful for students in > Russian imperial history, and which holds interest for experts as > well. He chronicles the decline in fur-bearing animals in the region, > the central place brandy played in the local and imperial economy, > and the fraught relations between Russians and Buryats. Steller's > extended discussion of the important trade with China, much of which > went through Irkutsk, is valuable for global economic history. In > particular, his description of Russia's declining terms of trade and > the power of Chinese consumer goods will resonate with > twenty-first-century readers. All in all, Steller paints a picture of > a frontier town in uncertain transition, rife with both bureaucracy > and bootlegging. "Murder" there, he claimed, was "no longer a rarity" > (p. 42). > > Departing eastward from Irkutsk, up the Lena River to Yakutsk, and > thence across some of the most challenging terrain in all of Siberia > down to the port of Okhotsk, Steller's journal focuses on the > region's plant and animal life, its Indigenous inhabitants, and the > rigors of eighteenth-century travel. As the translators note, > Steller's precise botanical and zoological descriptions serve as > valuable "baseline" data for contemporary environmental assessments, > giving a sense of how much Siberia's natural world has changed in the > last three centuries. Engel and Willmore have done exceptional work > here, relying on a network of biologists to help them clarify some of > Steller's obscure or imprecise observations. Much as he had done in > Irkutsk, Steller also closely noted the many signs of decline in > species abundance, especially fish, that was already following > Russian exploitation of the region. > > Steller clearly loved conversation, and he spent many of the hours > during the trip talking with his travel companions, especially the > Yakuts and Tungus who inhabited these regions and whose support was > essential for the success of the Kamchatka Expedition. The Yakuts > barked like dogs when their spirits ran high, making Steller laugh. > He questioned the Tungus closely about their naming practices, > finding again a lively sense of humor. One of his male companion's > name, for example, translated to "dog's daughter," while another was > "fat lip," appellations which derived from notable birth and > childhood events. To the north, the Chukchi, Steller reported, > insisted that their land and their numbers were far bigger than those > of the Russians who pretended to be their conquerors. Such intense > engagement with peoples of foreign, fascinating cultures turned > Steller from a simple botanist into a first-rate ethnographer, and > Engel and Willmore's translation will be very valuable for > ethnohistorians and historians of empire. Not that Steller was > anything near an impartial observer--his committed Christianity and > sense of cultural superiority would not allow him to be. Thus, even > when a Yakut shaman prophesied, with eerie accuracy, that Steller > would travel beyond Kamchatka (something not then clear to Steller) > and that his wife was his greatest enemy (she had refused to > accompany him on the trip and was even then squandering his money), > he could only scoff at these pagan superstitions. The Yakuts, he > wrote, dismissively, "have no insight into physical phenomena" (p. > 142). Steller also feared that some Siberian settlers were becoming > too indigenized, forgetting agriculture and the Russian language, > though he did seem upset by the shocking disease-caused declines he > detected in Siberian populations. > > What gives Steller's journals a special intimacy is the way he > relates the day-to-day vagaries and frustrations of life on the road > in colonial Siberia. Frequently cold, often wet, many times lonely, > and sometimes elated at the incredibly beautiful scenery, his mood on > the journey changed by the hour. Retiring to bed at the end of a day > marked by a river soaking, Steller wrote that "a nice fur coat did > feel good" (p. 113), and the reader almost experiences along with him > a palpable sense of relief. Similarly, the "dreadful gas" (p. 36) > Steller reports as the result of too much hardtack will likely also > stir the imagination. On the other hand, Steller expresses no emotion > at times we might expect it. His journal provides a vivid reminder of > the close proximity with all number of animals that everyday life > then entailed. The frequent, and often violent deaths along the trail > of horses, cows, oxen, and dogs evinced in Steller no surprise, but > more often macabre jokes at how well he and his companions would eat. > > If this sounds like a smooth-flowing narrative, I want to acknowledge > the miracles the translators have performed with this material, > synthesizing and rearranging it in ways that make sense of Steller's > probable intentions for later editing. When I worked with Hintzsche's > transcriptions years ago, I found them almost unreadable thanks to > their fragmentation, and while that format served some audiences well > with its fidelity to the source material, Engel and Willmore's work > has unlocked this engaging, often truly delightful, narrative for a > much broader swath of scholars and students. > > In their afterword, Engel and Willmore state that these journals > reveal a Steller far more likeable than the picture other > commentators and biographers have drawn of him. Instead of arrogant > and irascible, the Steller of these journals is modest and > personable. I agree that the journals reveal new sides to the man, > but I am not as sure they are so positive. Instead, Steller presents > himself as an eager supporter of some the imperial government's more > oppressive practices. He advocates for harsher enforcement of the > empire's notoriously punitive internal passport policy. He gives St. > Petersburg details for how to better crack down on those who would > evade its monopolies and taxes. He charges the Russian settlers with > laziness and immorality when they fail to make imperialism pay for > St. Petersburg. In fairness, Steller also attempts to provide > information that might allow for fairer taxation. Still, his very > agreeableness in these pages often looks, from this distance, to be > an agreement with things he ought to have questioned. Once, in a > memorable passage written as he stared, for the first time, upon the > endless undulations of the mountains guarding the approaches to > Okhotsk, this awareness seemed to have begun dawning on him: "I > wished the esteemed senators in St. Petersburg could have this view > from their windows for half an hour to properly evaluate this project > of the Kamchatka Expedition and the insight and conscience of its > planners" (p. 134). Indeed, when Steller explored Kamchatka and saw > how cruelly the expedition's demands had fallen on the native > Itelmen, he began a far deeper questioning of Russian imperial > policy. _Eastbound through Siberia_, in that sense, shows Steller at > the beginning of his journey, from Russia to Alaska, from naïve > supporter of empire to skeptic, a journey from which he never > returned. > > Citation: Ryan Jones. Review of Steller, Georg Wilhelm Engel, > _Eastbound through Siberia: Observations from the Great Northern > Expedition_. H-Environment, H-Net Reviews. April, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=56295 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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