George Kennan (1845-1924) was a pioneering explorer, writer, and
lecturer on Russia in the nineteenth century, the author of classic
works such as Tent Life in Siberia and Siberia and the Exile
System, and great-uncle of George Frost Kennan, the noted historian
and diplomat of the Cold War. In 1870, Kennan became the first
American to explore the highlands of Dagestan, a remote Muslim
region of herders, silversmiths, carpet-weavers, and other
craftsmen southeast of Chechnya, only a decade after Russia
violently absorbed the region into its empire. He kept detailed
journals of his adventures, which today form a small part of his
voluminous archive in the Library of Congress. Frith Maier has
combined the diaries with selected letters and Kennan's published
articles on the Caucasus to create a vivid narrative of his
six-month odyssey. The journals have been organized into three
parts. The first covers Kennan's journey to the Caucasus, a
significant feat in itself. The second chronicles his expedition
across the main Caucasus Ridge with the Georgian nobleman Prince
Jorjadze. In the final part, Kennan circles back through the lands
of Chechnya to slip once again into the Dagestan highlands.
Kennan's remarkable curiosity and perception come through in this
lively and accessible narrative, as does his humor at the
challenges of his travels. In her introduction, Maier discusses
Kennan's illustrious career and his reliability as an observer,
while providing background on the Caucasus to help clarify Kennan's
descriptions of daily life, religion, etiquette, customary law, and
local government. In an Afterword, she retraces Kennan's steps to
find descendants of Prince Jorjadze and describes her work in
coproducing, with filmmaker Christopher Allingham, a documentary
inspired by Kennan's Caucasus journey.
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