A review by msgtdameron
Sakhalin Island by Anton Chekhov

3.0

Chekov should have stuck to writing plays and fiction. His foray into documentaries is a lot of stats and travel log. I was hoping for more stories of the inhabitants, but those are few and far between. Mostly the stories one does get are from guards, officers, and the people who followed their family member onto Sakhalin. The prisoner stories aren't told often. this is probably because Chekov was forbidden to talk to any political prisoners and only talked to the common criminal, mostly murders. Chekov does bring out many problems with the Russian prison system and these problems continued under the Soviets; bad food, terrible working conditions, terrible housing, lack of sanitation, poor hospitals, no hope for escape, parole, or return. Over all this is a sad work that at times is quite tedious. For a student of penal systems, Russian history, or those who like oddball locals (I fit all three.) it is a useful read. If you don't fit these three categories, skip it.