Background
George Kennan was born on February 16, 1845, in Norwalk, Ohio, United States. He was the son of John Ivennan and Mary Ann Morse.
(In this book, Kennan emphasized the cultural differences ...)
In this book, Kennan emphasized the cultural differences between the members of the expedition and Russian peasants and spoke of the unique situations that arose between them. Through this culture clash, he was able to tell touching and humorous anecdotes, from a Siberian peasant who cut out a picture of a major-general from the U.S. Army from Harper’s Magazine and worshiped it as a Russian saint to the Siberian locals’ confusion about the use of telephone poles.
https://www.amazon.com/Tent-Life-Siberia-George-Kennan/dp/1461068053/?tag=2022091-20
1870
(Excerpt from A Russian Comedy of Errors: With Other Stori...)
Excerpt from A Russian Comedy of Errors: With Other Stories and Sketches of Russian Life.
https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Comedy-Errors-Stories-Sketches/dp/1330475356/?tag=2022091-20
1915
(In 1900, the California Development Company began constru...)
In 1900, the California Development Company began construction of irrigation canals to divert water from the Colorado River into the Salton Sink, a dry lake bed. After construction of these irrigation canals, the Salton Sink became fertile for a time, allowing farmers to plant crops. Within two years, the Imperial Canal became filled with silt from the Colorado River.
https://www.amazon.com/Salton-Account-Harrimans-Fight-Colorado-ebook/dp/B00WC90KGQ/?tag=2022091-20
1917
George Kennan was born on February 16, 1845, in Norwalk, Ohio, United States. He was the son of John Ivennan and Mary Ann Morse.
Kennan studied in common and high schools of Norwalk and Columbus, Ohio.
During Kennan’s adolescence, he became a skillful telegraph expert, but was unable to serve in the Civil War because of a physical problem. Instead, he became a military telegrapher. After the war, Kennan’s skills soon caught the attention of the Western Union Telegraph Company, which chose him for a very special assignment. The first attempt to build a cable connecting North America to Europe had failed, forcing Western Union to the alternative plan of building a line from the United States through Canada and Alaska, across the Bering Strait and Siberia. Kennan’s skills as a telegrapher made him a perfect candidate for the expedition. On July 1865, at the age of twenty, he embarked on a journey that would take him across six thousand miles of wilderness. Kennan’s experience on this expedition led him to write Tent Life in Siberia (1870), one of his most successful books. Its success not only established him as a traveler and writer, but also as an expert in Russian matters.
Unfortunately, Kennan’s telegraph expedition was cut short when the team received the news that the Atlantic cable had been successfully completed. Ordered to return to America, Kennan chose to return home via a five-thousand-mile dog sled run from Siberia to Moscow. Once home, Kennan went on to lecture about his experience in Siberia before returning to Russia to study the people of Caucasus. Between the 1870s and the 1880s, he made many trips to lecture in Russia.
In 1885, he returned to Siberia to study the exiles and Russia’s prison system and was shocked by new discoveries. Although Kennan’s telegraph expedition took him all over Siberia, he mainly explored the wilderness and studied its indigenous people. His affectionate tone in Tent Life in Siberia indicated his favorable attitude toward the Russian people and its czar ruler. However, Kennan soon discovered that the political situation had changed in Russia. Russia’s new czar, Alexander III, was on a mission to capture and destroy revolutionary organizations that opposed him. He sent the leaders of such organizations into exile in Siberia. Fully expecting the exiles to be irrational, violent, and uneducated beings, Kennan was shocked to discover that they were intelligent and cultured people who fought for justice and were being punished by their unwillingness to submit to the czar’s rule. He witnessed firsthand the cruelties the exiles had to live with every day, trying to survive in a harsh environment while suffering from hunger and sickness. Listening to the tragic stories of the exiles and living in harsh conditions took an emotional toll on Kennan.
After studying the exiles for a year, Kennan’s attitude toward the Russian situation reversed - he supported the cause of the exiles and opposed the czar and the government. Kennan found the treatment of the exiles to be deplorable, and he went on to write about his experience in Siberia and the Exile System (1891). The two-volume set was eventually translated and illegally circulated throughout Russia. Many early twentieth-century socialist revolutionists used his books as a guide in their struggle for freedom. Although Siberia and the Exile System proved invaluable to the revolutionists in Russia and was well reviewed, it, unfortunately, did not sell well in America. Kennan used another way to bring his message to the public - a lecture tour. He traveled throughout the country, giving over eight hundred lectures. Wearing the clothes - including the shackles - of a Russian exile, Kennan lectured about the plight of Russian exiles to an estimated one million people.
Kennan continued to travel to different countries and write about his experiences abroad. Between 1898 and 1899, he traveled to Cuba as a war correspondent. He covered the withdrawal of Spain from Cuba and the American occupation. In 1902, he traveled to Martinique to view the volcanic activities of Mount Pelee. He wrote about his experience in The Tragedy of Pelee: A Narrative of Personal Experience and Observation in Martinique (1902). He also traveled to Japan to cover the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and learned about the life and culture of Japan and its people.
In addition to his travel books, Kennan also wrote books in other genres, such as A Russian Comedy of Errors, with Other Stories and Sketches of Russian Life (1915). In this collection of sketches, he captured Russia’s politics, government, and social conditions using a combination of humor and drama. Kennan’s last book was a two-volume biography on railroad executive and capitalist Edward Henry Harriman. Fascinated with Harriman’s life, Kennan wrote various pamphlets about Harriman’s life and work before writing E. II. Harriman: A Biography (1922).
(In this book, Kennan emphasized the cultural differences ...)
1870(In 1900, the California Development Company began constru...)
1917(Excerpt from A Russian Comedy of Errors: With Other Stori...)
1915Kennan was vehemently against the October Revolution because he felt the Bolsheviks lacked the "knowledge, experience, or education to deal successfully with the tremendous problems that have come up for solutions since the overthrow of the Tsar." President Woodrow Wilson read and weighed Kennan's report in 1918 criticizing the Bolsheviks, but Kennan eventually criticized Wilson's administration for being too timid in intervening against Bolshevism.
Kennan was the best-known member of the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom, whose membership included Mark Twain and Julia Ward Howe, and also helped found Free Russia, the first English-language journal to oppose Tsarist Russia.
Quotes from others about the person
“Siberia and the Exile System reinforced Kennan’s reputation as a travel writer and firmly established him as the foremost expert in the nation on Russian affairs.” - Kevin J. Hayes
“Mr. Kennan’s work is a noteworthy and valuable contribution to biographical literature. It is well written, well arranged, and a fascinating account of the life of E. H. Harriman. Unfortunately, however, Mr. Kennan appears to be unwilling to admit that Mr. Harriman ever made mistakes.” - a reviewer for the Literary Review
“Few writers of short stories have at their command material of so much intrinsic interest as has Mr. Kennan, and few have used more discreetly and effectively than he those exceptional facts which tax the story-teller’s power no less because they happen to be true.” - a reviewer for North American
In 1879, Kennan married Emiline Weld, daughter of J. R. Wold.