Siberia: Lost in Translation?

[Kevin Windle]

The 22-volume Bol'shaia entsiklopediia (SPb, c. 1900) pod. red. S. N.
Iuzhakova, vol. 17, p. 334, says, 'granitsy S. ponimaiutsia ves'ma
razlichno... Zdes' pod S. razumeetsia vsia obshirnaia oblast' severnoi
Azii ... i imeiushchaia estestven. granitsami na vostoke chasti Velikago
okeana (Okhotskoe i Beringovoe [sic] moria), na severe Ledovityi okean
...' The accompanying map includes Amurskaia oblast' and Primorskaia
oblast', which covered Chukotka and Kamchatka, which is all very
different from modern usage.

Kevin Windle

-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of John Dunn
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 11:22 PM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Siberia: Lost in Translation?

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.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Dr K. M. Windle,
Reader, School of Language Studies,
Faculty of Arts,
Australian National University,
Canberra,
A.C.T. 0200,
Australia
Telephone: (61) (02) 6125-2885
Fax: (61) (02) 6125-3252
E-mail: Kevin.Windle at anu.edu.au

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------