In 1894, Eleanor L. Pray left her New England home to move with her merchant husband to Vladivostok in the Russian Far East. Over the next thirty-six years — from the time of Tsar Alexander III to the early years of Stalin’s rule — she wrote more than 2,000 letters chronicling her family life and the tumultuous social and political events she witnessed. Vladivostok, 5,600 miles east of Moscow, was shaped by a rich intersection of Asian cultures, and Pray’s witty and observant writing paints a vivid picture of the city and its denizens during a period of momentous social change. The book offers highlights from Pray’s letters along with illuminating historical and biographical information.

These are the complete letters written Pavel Florensky after his arrest in 1933 and before his transfer to the Solovki Islands in 1934. They reveal a character which accepted misfortune and injustice with dignity and hope, a keen mind ready to apply itself to new circumstances, and a heart full of longing and gentle love for his family. Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky, born in Azerbaijan in 1882, was a gifted polymath who studied nearly every science available to him and was also well-versed in art and literature. He was also a Russian Orthodox priest and noted theologian. In his time at the gulag in Russia's Amur Region, he applied himself to the study of permafrost and wrote letters to his children, often guiding them in their studies, drawing from his wealth of expertise.

Around 1880, two teenagers left their village on the Kama river, 1000 km east of Moscow. Their father wanted them to earn cash in Siberia and send it home. The result: scores of letters over a period of 16 years (1881-1896). The parents, two brothers and a sister reported on harvests and family finances, on marriages, births, and deaths, asked for money, offered religious instruction and moral advice, described their daily lives, and shared their worries about their alcoholic father and their desire to see the world and succeed in it. Meanwhile, the family's activity steadily expanded, as their side business grew from a single leaky rowboat to a fleet of steamships. These unique letters, preserved in a Siberian archive, appear here in English translation for the first time. The accompanying detailed commentaries, based on meticulous archival research, recreate these peasants' social, cultural, and economic milieu. The family's letters thus document the complex changes that led to upward mobility in an era that saw the rapid growth of capitalism and urbanization during late imperial Russia. Facsimiles and photographs are included.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... LETTERS FROM THE FAR EAST INTRODUCTION The letters here republished consist of contributions written for the Westminster Gazette during a brief visit to China and Japan in the summer and autumn of 1906, together with some additions. I had travelled before in Kashgaria and the frontier provinces of China, reaching them by crossing Asia, but this was my first visit to the coast and the betterknown provinces of the empire. The main object of my journey was to obtain some practical know-fi ledge of the languages and creeds of the Far East, and, in particular, to study the curious development which Buddhism has undergone in those countries; for it is difficult to form a correct and comprehensive idea of the part which this religion has played in the world by the mere study of Sanskrit and Pali literature. I trust that I may some day be able to publish the result of these and other investigations in a con- nected form. Meantime, it is with some hesitation that I reproduce these fragmentary impressions de voyage. But, slight as they are, they seem to me to bring out in relief the fact which struck me most during my travels--namely, the distinctness of China and Japan from the rest of Asia, and particularly from the Indian and Mohammedan East. This is, of course, obvious the moment it is pointed out, but by a vice of thought as well as of language such words as 'east' and 'orientals' are made to apply to all countries from Turkey to the Pacific. The enormous strides which were being made by Japan were long not appreciated at their true value, because she was thought to be an oriental country, and as such unable to overstep the limits which European ideas thought probable for oriental progress; and at the present day the gist of much criticism on...