Authors

Discussion

This paper will explore the role and lived experience of cold for exiles to eastern Siberia in the early twentieth century. The first section sets a ‘baseline’ for understanding experience of cold by exploring how rural people adapted their lives to live with cold in late Imperial Russia. The second section asks what role cold played in the cultural construction of eastern Siberia as a terrifying (strashnyi) place. The third section will look at the ways in which exiles to eastern Siberia prepared for their encounter with the climate and landscape. We will explore anticipation and fear as articulated through ego-documents, and at practical preparations that exiles made for their encounter with cold, including clothing, supplies and the acquisition of knowledge. The final section will focus on experiencing cold in eastern Siberia, reflecting on bodily hurt, illness, work and gendered cold.