Kennan, George

Kennan, George, 1845–1924, American authority on Siberia, b. Norwalk, Ohio. In 1864 he made the first of his journeys to East Asia as an engineer. His articles on Siberia, for many years almost the sole authoritative source of information on that region, were published as Tent Life in Siberia (1870) and Siberia and the Exile System (2 vol., 1891).

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Kennan, George (1845–1924) explorer, journalist; born in Norwalk, Ohio. Without a college education, he became an expert telegrapher and writer. He traveled extensively in Russia and wrote Tent Life in Siberia (1870) and Siberia and the Exile System (1891). His reputation for integrity made him the White House telegrapher during President Garfield's final weeks of life after being shot (1881).

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Kennan, George 

Born Feb. 16, 1845, in Norwalk, Ohio, USA; died May 10, 1924. American journalist.

Kennan made frequent trips to Russia. In 1885–86 he inspected the convict prisons and places where Russian revolutionaries were exiled in Siberia. In a two-volume work (Siberia and the Exile System, 1891; in Russian, Siberia and Exile, 1906) and lectures delivered in the USA and Great Britain he gave a true description of the intolerable conditions in which political exiles lived. His book was translated into all the European languages and made a great impression on American and European public opinion. Kennan hailed the overthrow of the Russian autocracy and spoke out against the armed intervention in Soviet Russia.