"An enthralling story." Saturday Review, 1914.
"One of the most valuable and interesting books of travel that has been written on Siberia." Bulletin, 1915
"The name of the author is a guarantee that the book is worth reading." American Geographical Society, 1915
"His power as a graphic writer and unusually equipped observer finds full expression in his remarkably interesting book." The Bookseller, 1914
"One is amazed at the scope of his book and the mass of interesting matter it contains." Geographical Journal, 1915
Nansen's book "Through Siberia" is an exciting account of the author's eventful journey by sea, river and rail from Norway, via the Kara Sea, to eastern Siberia. Published in 1914 as "Gjennem Sibirien," an English translation by Arthur Grosvenor Chater (1866-1951) was published in 1914.
In August 1913, the steamer Correct left Norway loaded with goods for Siberia to make an attempt to open up a regular trade connection with the Yenisei River. August 27, the vessel safely reached the mouth of the Yenisei, discharged her cargo into river boats and returned to Norway without at any time being obstructed by the ice.
Fridtjof Nansen (1861 –1930), who was a guest of the Siberian Company continued the journey up the Yenisei to Krasnoyarsk, and from there, as a guest of the chief engineer of the Imperial Russian railways, continued the trip over the Siberian Railroad to Vladivostok. From Vladivostok the journey homeward was via the new line of railroad being constructed along the Amur River, using steamboat and motor car where the railroad is in construction, and railway hand car over the completed sections, to the main Siberian line and thence to Europe.
We are fortunate in having his account of that journey by water and land from Norway to Vladivostok. In wealth of information "Through Siberia" is premier among works on Siberia, while it possesses all the charm of description of those earlier books, "First Crossing of Greenland" and "Farthest North". As a lifelong student of out-of-door Nature Nansen sees what he looks at and makes scientific inferences from what he sees; his inferences reach into deep waters and beneath tundra and mountain; they connect the present with a prehistoric past. Needless to say, there is not a dull page or superfluous paragraph in the volume, and Nansen has lost none of his descriptive power.
The author sees and describes the native Samoyedes, the Russian traders, political exiles, and the Siberian peasant, as well as ethnological and geological questions, industrial, social and political conditions, and the China-Russian problems created by the Japanese war.
Regarding the Chinese, Nansen writes:
"When it comes to fleecing natives, no European is a match for the Chinese. They poison them with their pernicious Chinese spirit, khanshin, and they also give them opium; they coax their sables and other valuable furs out of them at a ridiculous price, and charge heavily for their own goods which they supply in return; they contrive to get the natives so deeply into their debt that they can never be free, but must always procure them furs. They use their power over the natives to make them fear the Russians as their enemies and see in the Chinese their friends and saviours."
Nansen notes that "Russia is unwilling to have her territory populated by Chinese and she has passed severe legislation against their immigration; but she is utterly unable without their labor to develop the resources of her eastern country. One of the results of her attitude is the growth of a strong feeling of hostility on the part of the Chinese.
