In the World of the Outcasts ― Notes of a Former Penal Laborer

P. F. Iakubovich represents the many young people whose opposition to the Russian state turned to extremism during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His conviction and banishment to forced labor and settlement in Siberia was an experience many shared. But unlike most, he detailed his experiences in a thrilling and insightful roman a clef. Like Dostoyevsky’s and Chekhov’s better-known accounts, Iakubovich’s novel paints a picture of fellow criminal inmates that is both objective and insightful. “In the World of the Outcasts” proved especially popular, appearing first in serial form between 1895 and 1898, and then as a book through three editions prior to 1917. Along with other exposes of official malfeasance and corruption, it helped to focus popular resentment against the Romanovs. The book reappeared in 1964, in one of the last breaths of fresh air before Khrushchev was supplanted by Brezhnev’s neo-Stalinism. Like Dostoyevsky’s “Notes from a Dead House” before it, and Solzhenitsyn’s “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” after it, Iakubovich’s “Outcasts” is both an historical document and a work of literary fiction, though all three laid bare the facts of Russia’s penal system. This translation marks the first appearance of Iakubovich’s masterpiece in English.

Petr F. Iakubovich was a Russian dissident imprisoned in the late nineteenth century.

Andrew A. Gentes is an historian and translator who lives with his wife in New Hampshire.