This work offers an account of the Russians' 400 years of experience in Siberia. Rasputin looks at the the peculiar physical and character traits of the Siberian Russian type, and at the gap between dreams and reality that have plagued Russians in Siberia.

Siberia on Fire brings together some of the best stories and essays by Valentin Rasputin, widely regarded as the finest writer in the Soviet Union today. Although the people and places that make up his fiction are characteristically Siberian, Rasputin's broad appeal and international recognition stem from universal themes--the interdependent elements of nature; the cultural and historical continuum maintained by past, present, and future generations; and the clash between modern and traditional mores. Rasputin was born in a small Siberian village on the Angara River in 1937 and educated at...