A Prison Without Walls? Eastern Siberian Exile in the Last Years of Tsarism

A Prison Without Walls? presents a snapshot of daily life for exiles and their dependents in eastern Siberia during the very last years of the Tsarist regime, from the 1905 revolution to the collapse of the Tsarist regime in 1917. This was an extraordinary period in Siberia's history as a place of punishment. There was an unprecedented rise of Siberia's penal use in this fifteen-year window, and a dramatic increase in the number of exiles punished for political offences. This work focuses on the region of Eastern Siberia, taking the regions of Irkutsk and Yakutsk in north-eastern Siberia as its focal points. Siberian exile was the antithesis of Foucault's modern prison. The State did not observe, monitor, and control its exiles closely; often not even knowing where the exiles were. Exiles were free to govern their daily lives; free of fences and free from close observation and supervision, but despite these freedoms, Siberian exile represented one of Russia's most feared punishments.

In this volume, Sarah Badcock seeks to humanise the individuals who made up the mass of exiles, and the men, women, and children who followed them voluntarily into exile. A Prison Without Walls? is structured in a broad narrative arc that moves from travel to exile, life and communities in exile, work and escape, and finally illness in exile. The book gives a personal, human, empathetic insight into what exilic experience entailed, and allows us to comprehend why eastern Siberia was regarded as a terrible punishment, despite its apparent freedoms.

Sarah Badcock was born in County Durham, and lived in the north-east of England until she moved 'south' to study history and roman civilisation at the University of Leeds, where she graduated with first class honours in 1995. She moved back up north to start her graduate studies at the University of Durham's department of Russian studies, and successfully defended her doctoral thesis there at the end of 2000. She spent 2001 studying in archives around Russia, supported by a Leverhulme study abroad fellowship. She joined the University of Nottingham at the beginning of 2002, and has been there ever since as Associate Professor in the department of History. Her research focuses on lower class experience in revolutionary Russia, comparative perspectives on penal systems and use of exile, and lived experiences of punishment.