Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Through the Forest-Region
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smoke. The further away from the centre, the smaller
and more poor-looking do these houses and huts become,
till they reach the forest as mere earth-covered yurtas.
The inhabitants of these izbas and huts are the
foster-children of the prison, which they have more or less
recently left, and year after year this row of huts increases.
The villages present a many-coloured picture of different
nationalities, costumes, and architectures. Beside the
Russian izba with its ornamented window-frames you see the
earthen hut of the Bashkir with its open fire-place instead
of the Russian oven, and the ox-bladder in lieu of glass
for window-pane. You note the Asiatic summer kaftan
worn by the Sibiriak in his high boots, the black suit of
the modern city-dweller, and the beschmet of the Tatar.
And these different elements have evidently not entered
into any organised union, but are only by outward forces
pressed together into a loose conglomerate. Each man
lives his own life. Even if the South-Russian wears the
Asiatic kaftan, he is none the less a South-Russian; the
gipsy has not commenced to wash his dark face; and the
chaotic sounds of ten different languages strike your ear
as you saunter down the street.
On our way to Irkutsk we met with many Siberians of
the old type. If I happened in conversation with them to
say: “You Russians,” they would exclaim: “We are
not Russians, we are Siberians!” Their self-asserting,
independent manners, which sometimes bordered on impudence,
contrasted sharply with the servility of the Russian peasants.
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