Siberia: Lost in Translation?

[William Ryan]

I have just dug out my copy of vol. 2  of Aziatskaia Rossiia, SPb, 1914 
(I don't have vol. 1, alas), a fairly lavish illustrated official 
publication, and in view of the date perhaps one of the last such 
publications before the Revolution. The usage within the volume is a bit 
inconsistent, but in general it suggests that Siberia was understood 
then as stretching from the Urals to the Pacific. On p. 6 of the 
introduction I found 'Kamchatka ... imeet bolee tepluiu zimu  ... chem 
ostal'naia chast' Sibiri.' The book also contains a reproduction of a 
polar projection map by Lomonosov which shows that in the 18th c. Sibir' 
extended from the Urals to Kamchatka. I have found some Russian books 
which continue this historical usage, but the official Russian 
geographical definition at present seems to be that the Pacific 
watershed  (not a very precise line) is the current eastern boundary and 
that Siberia and the Russian Far East are distinct entities. MSN World 
Atlas and many other English-language reference works include Kamchatka 
in E. Siberia.

All this seems to suggest that Siberia is/was whatever the government of 
Russia, cartographers, geographers, encyclopedia compilers etc say/said  
it is/was (but not always in agreement), and subjectively it may be 
whatever the various inhabitants of trans-Uralic Russia think it is.

Which is just about as precise as the line of the Pacific watershed.

Will Ryan


John Dunn wrote:
> Brokgauz-Efron's Malyj enciklopedicheskij slovar', vol. IV, coll. 1441-3 (SPb, 1909), defines the eastern boundary of Siberia as being Russia's far-eastern coastline.  As far as I can make out from its concise account of the area's administrative history, Siberia stretching as far as the Pacific seems to have been a single administrative unit up until 1821 and even thereafter the three gubernii set up in that year seem to have been regarded as belonging to the same distinctive category. 
>
> John Dunn.
>
> -----
> From: Josh Wilson <jwilson at SRAS.ORG>
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:56:27 +0300
> Subject: [SEELANGS] Siberia: Lost in Translation?
>
> Dear Seelangers, 
>
>  
>
> I recently had the occasion to look up "Siberia" in Russian and English. It
> seems that every English language dictionary defines Siberia as running from
> the Urals to the Pacific. Russian dictionaries, however, have Siberia
> running only "do gornyx khrbtov tikhookeanskogo vodorazdela." The difference
> is fairly substantial. 
>
>  
>
> In speaking with Russians, it seems that none of them would consider
> Chukotka, Kamchatka, or Khabarovsk to be Siberia. One woman who I know in
> Blagoveshensk actually went on at length about how tour companies in her
> city bill it as being in Siberia - and about how they are wrong - very, very
> wrong. 
>
>  
>
> Does anyone know the historical explanation as to why "Siberia" in English
> seems to be much bigger than "Sibir'" in Russian? 
>
>  
>
>  
>
> Josh Wilson
>
> Asst. Director
>
> The School of Russian and Asian Studies
>
> Editor-in-Chief
>
> Vestnik, The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies
>
> www.sras.org
>
> jwilson at sras.org
>
>  
>
>
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>
> John Dunn
> Honorary Research Fellow, SMLC (Slavonic Studies)
> University of Glasgow, Scotland
>
> Address:
> Via Carolina Coronedi Berti 6
> 40137 Bologna
> Italy
> Tel.: +39 051/1889 8661
> e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk
> johnanthony.dunn at fastwebnet.it
>
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