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EA-Biography

[Jeanette Kennan Hotchkiss]

GEORGE KENNAN

        George Kennan (1845-1924) was born in Norwalk, Ohio, February 16, 1845.

His parents were Thomas Kennan, graduate of Hamilton College, teacher, lawyer,

and early telegrapher, and Mary Anne (Morse) Kennan, a relative of the inven–

tor of the telegraphic alphabet. The electric telegraph played an important

part in George Kennan's life and career. His first American ancestor, on the

Kennan side, was James MacKennan who came over from Scotland about 1718. From

his forebears George inherited a strong moral sense, a scholarly mind, tenacity

of purpose, and longevity.

        His schooling wasconcluded at the age of twelve when he had to go to work

in his father's Western Union office in Norwalk, but he continued his studies,

with his parents' help, preparing himself for the college he was never to attend.

Perhaps more important than his books were his Saturday excursions into the

neighboring woods, beginning often at midnight on Fridays. His father encouraged

his interest in nature and woodlore and this aspect of his education was to stand

him in good stead in later years, especially on his first Siberian expedition.

In spite of his lack of formal education, he later received honorary degrees

from Williams College (1910) and the University of Richester (1916). He was

also made honorary member of several high school classes as well as the [ ?]

Wellesley College Class of 1892.

        By the age of eighteen he was holding the positions of assistant chief

operator of the Western Union office and Associated Press agent in Cincinnati,

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Ohio. Early in 1864, he received, over the wires, an offer of a job with the

Alaskan-Siberian expedition of the Western Union Extension. At that time the

Atlantic cable appeared to be a failure and the Russian-American Telegraph

Company was organized at New York in the summer of 1864. The Western Union

extension was planned to establish telegraphic communication between Europe

and America by way of Canada, Alaska, Bering Strait, Siberia, and Russia.

        On July 1st young Kennan, with three companions of the expedition, set

sail from San Francisco on the Russian brig Olga for Petropavlovsk, a trip of

fifty-two days. Here the party divided, Mahood and Bush going south to the

mouth of the Amur River on the Chinese frontier while Kennan and Major Abaza

(chief of Asiatic exploration) set forth by horseback and canoe up the wild,

sparsely populated Kamchatka peninsula. At the town of Gizhiga, Major Abaza went

west to meet Mahood and Bush at Okhotsk while Kennan, with one helper, a young

American fur trader named Dodd, was [ ?] assigned to survey the line between

Gizhiga n and Anadyrsk, a settlement not far from the Arctic Circle. The prob–

lems involved in this assignment would have offered a challenge to a seasoned

explorer. The Ohio boy and his young helper were thrown on their own resources

in a wild, trackless country, remote from civilization and inhabited by [ ?]

primitive nomadic tribes, with all details of transportation and subsistence

left to their own devices. Yet, in spite of temperatures as low as 50 to 60

degrees below zero, blinding storms, and uncharted routes, Kennan and Dodd

finally arrived at Anadyrsk early in January.

        Not long after their arrival there, the young men organized and successfully

carried out an expedition to rescue three Americans who had been stranded since

September near the mouth of the Anadyr River. This trip, because of the barren

character of that country, was considered by the natives themselves as very

dangerous at any time and quite impossible in January.

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        The rest of the first winter was spent in search of a more favorable route

for the [ ?] telegraph line than the one they had already traversed, and they

found a chain of wooded rivers connecting Okhotsk Sea with the Pacific Ocean

near Bering Strait. In April they returned to Gizhiga to wait until late

summer for the arrival of boats with supplies. The second winter was occupied

with construction, the actual cutting of poles, but it did not lack arctic ad–

venture at the same time. There was still much perilous travel in very low

temperatures, experience with famine at Anadyrsk, and an expedition from [ ?]

Gizhiga to Yamsk over rugged, almost impassable mountains. After January, 1867,

Kennan was made chief of the Asiatic division, directing construction.

        In July 1866 the [ ?] trans-atlantic cable was successfully laid but the

official news of the abandonment of the overland telegraph project did not reach

the men in Siberia until July, 1867. Kennan was ordered to sell as much as

possible of the equipment on hand and return home as best he could. He tra–

veled to St. Petersburg from Okhotsk, a distance of 5,714 miles, in eleven

weeks by sleigh drawn by horses, reindeer, and dogs.

        The details of this expedition are contained in his first book Tent Life

in Siberia (1870), a revised edition of which was published in 1910. His in–

tentions, as he wrote in the preface, were "to convey as clear and accurate an

idea as possible of the inhabitants, scenery, customs and general external features

of a new and comparatively unknown country," and he succeeded admirably in so

doing. The book has the added value which a youthful zest for adventure and a

lively sense of humor give to it and, although the young author had not had a

scientific education, his thoughtful observations were worthy of a scientist.

        By the time he reached Norwalk again in April 1868, almost three years of

his life had been spent on a project which had ostensibly been a failure. It

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had cost the Western Union Company about three million dollars but it had laid

for Kennan the foundation for his future career. He had obtained material for

lectures, a working knowledge of the Russian language, and an undying interest

in Russian affairs.

        He gave his first lecture at Monroeville Corners, Ohio, to an audience of

four who had to be hailed back, as they started to leave, with the promise of

a "bang-up" lecture. This was the small beginning of a lifelong career as a

lecturer in England, Canada, and Japan as well as throughout the United States.

        In 1870, he went again to Russia but this time to the Caucasus. He tra–

veled down the Volga and across the Caspian Sea to Petrovsk, Daghestan, and

then spent about two months in the Caucasus, learning all he could of that

part of Russia, its history, people, music, and natural phenomena. When he

returned home, he added to his Siberian talks new lectures on "The Mountains

and Mountaineers of the Caucasus."

        For the next five years he held stock and the position of cashier in the

Union Bank of Medina, New York, but quit the life of a business man forever

when he went to New York City with his books and fifty dollars in his pocket.

In 1878 he was sent to Washington to report the decisions of the United States

Supreme Court for the New York Associated Press and in 1879, when President

Garfield was shot, Kennan was put in charge of all the wires from the White

House as long as the President stayed there.

        He was married to Miss Emeline Rathbone Weld of Medina, New York, in

September 1879.

        On May 1, 1885, Kennan signed a contract with the Century Company for

a series of articles on the exile system of the Russian Czars. Back in 1877

he had written for the New York Tribune an article entitled "A Defense of

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Russia and the Emperor Nicholas and the Crimean War." The Russian government

feeling him to be kindly disposed toward its activities, gave him permission to

visit the prisons and penal colonies of Siberia. He left St. Petersburg on

May 31, 1885, and did not return to that city until March 20, 1886, after

covering Siberia from the Urals to the Amur River.

        This expedition involved much emotional strain as well as physical hard–

ship. The latter consisted of extremes of temperatures, 8,000 miles of travel

over Siberian roads in springless vehicles, loss of sleep, and exposure to

vermin and fevers as he mingled with the exiles in their crowde d "etapes" and

hospitals. He was now a man of forty and did not have the resilience which

had come to his aid as a youth in the wilds of Siberia. More trying than even

the physical hardship, however, was the strain on his sympathies as he learned

firsthand of the sufferings of the exiles.

        Always a conservative in politices, Kennan had set forth on thisexpedition

with the sincere belief that the mass of political exiles were wild-eyed

anarchists. He did meet a few violent revolutionists in Siberia but, in the

main, he discovered the political prisoners to be people of refinement and

culture, often young, and fired with humanitarian zeal. Such a one, for example,

was Catherine Breshkovsky, "the little Grandmother of the Revolution," who later

became one of his good friends among the revolutionists. Concern for land reform

and constitutional change, desire for the three freedoms of speech, assembly,

and press had sent many of them to Siberia. Some had had a semblance of trial,

but many had been exiled by administrative process. In cases where the revo–

lutionists had resorted to violence, he even condoned their actions, to some

extent at least. after discovering the oppression and injudstices they had under–

gone. An article in the Century , "A Visit to Count Tolstoi," revealed Kennan's

views on resistance as well as those of the Count.

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        Before very long, Kennan found himself carrying [ ?] messages between the

exiles. In this capacity, as a sort of one-man clearing house of revolutionary

data as well as personal letters, he had to watch his step carefully to avoid

involving himself with the police or endangering the safety of the more friendly

officials and the prisoners themselves.

        His subsequent articles in the Century Magazine caused a widespread sen–

sation, even though the author leaned over backward to be fair to both sides

and to be factual rather than emotional in the presentation of his findings.

Most of the articles were later incorporated in his two-volume book Siberia

and the Exile System , published in 1891. This book not only received wide

circulation in this country but was translated into a number of foreign

languages and made a deep impression upon the entire liberal world of that day.

The late President Kalinin of the Soviet Union is known to have remarked that

the Russian translation which was illegally circulated among the Russian

oppositionists became "the Bible of the early Bolsheviks." There is irony in

the fact that Kennan never approved of the Bolshevist regime after the passing

of the Kerensky phase.

        One of the outstanding features of the book is the careful documentation of

the facts recorded in it. This concern for accuracy is characteristic of the

author, who was ever [ ?] thorough in his investigations. The quantity of facts

and figures, however, does not make this a dull book. It abounds in vivid

descriptions of the exiles and their wretched living conditions, the Siberian

countryside in all its variation of topography and season, and means of Siberian

travel in the year 1885. And, in spite of its tragic message, it is lightened

whenever possible by Kennan's appreciation of humor. The illustrations by

George Frost, the artist who accompanied Kennan, also made an important contri–

bution to the effectiveness and popularity of the book.

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        Frost [ ?] became very ill toward the end of the trip and Kennan took

him to London, where he stayed with him until he was well enough to sail for

home. Then Kennan, this time with his wife for a companion, returned to

European Russia where he continued his prison investigations, delivered letters

from the exiles to their friends and families, and met and talked with as many

officials, liberals, and revolutionists as possible. He was to go to Russia once

more, in 1901 for the Outlook, [ ?] but on that occasion he was expelled from

the country by police order after only three weeks. In all, he made six trips

to the Russian Empire and much of the material he collected there, manuscript,

pictorial, and printed, is now contained in the Kennan Collection at the New

York Public Library. A pamphlet, published by the library in 1921, describes

a veritable treasury of source material for students of Siberia, the Caucasus

and especially the Russian Revolution.

        He never lost interest in the cause of Russian freedom. The attitude

with which he returned from Russia in August, 1886, persisted to the end of

his life and was clearly expressed in his Century article, "A Voice for the

People of Russia" — "As for me, my sympathies are with the Russia of the

[ ?] people, not the Russia of the [ ?] Czars, with the Russia of the provincial

assemblies, not the Russia of the secret police, with the Russia of the future,

not the Russia of the past."

        He was made an honorary member of the [ ?] National Polish Alliance of

America and belonged to "The Friends of Russian Freedom" from its inception.

A Kennan Testimonial Committee was organized in Philadelphia in 1890, its name

changed later to "Siberian Exile Petition Committee." His interest in the

political exiles in whose escapes he sometimes had a hand led him into a long,

hard but unavailing fight against the Russian Extradition Treaty and, in 1893,

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he went to England to interest Baron Hirsch in the cause of Russian freedom.

He lived to see the Revolution of 1917 but the sense of triumph with which he

and his Russian friends greeted the overthrow of the Czarist regime had been

sadly extinguished when he wrote, in 1923, "The Russian leopard has not changed

its spots. The first essentials of republican institutions are freedom of

elections, freedom of assembly and freedom of the press, and these things the

new Bolshevist 'constitution' does not guarantee — nor even promise." ( National

Republican , Washington, D.C., August 11, 1923) Many of the revolutionists he had

known were as unwelcome in the country of Lenin and Trotsky as they had been in

the Russia of the [ ?] Czars.

        The years from 1887 [ ?] to 1898 were largely occupied with literature and

lectures. In 1898 the predominantly journalistic phase of his career began

when he signed a contract to go to Cuba as a special war cor r espondent. He went

there in a double capacity, for he was also vice president of the American Red

Cross. A book, Campaigning in Cuba (1899), incorporated many of his Outlook

articles. Another book, The Tragedy of Pelee , was the result of an expedition

to Martinique to report the eruption of Mount Pelee. Other Outlook assignments

were in connection with the Philippine question and the Russo-Japanes war. He

and Mrs. Kennan sailed for the Far East in January, 1904, visiting Hawaii, the

Philippines, Japan, Korea, and China. They spent the major part of their time

in Japan and returned home in June 1905.

        Kennan was also associated with McClure's and wrote articles for other

papers as well on many varied subjects. He took considerable interest in rail–

way problems, in particular a controversy between President Theodore Roosevelt

and the railway magnate, E. H. Harriman, and in 1923 published a two-volume

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biography of Harriman. A small book, The Salton Sea , preceded this. In these

later years, however, he did not completely neglect Russia in his writings, for

in 1915 he published an entertaining book of short stories and sketches, A Rus–

sian Comedy of Errors . He said of this book in a letter to a friend "there is

no fiction in it except 'Napoleander'".

        In 1888, the Kennans had visited their good friends, the Alexander Graham

Bells, at Baddeck on Cape Breton Island and had purchased a home for themselves

nearby. This Nova Scotian home became a haven from the strains of travel and

life in Washington and frequentlyKennan went there to recuperate from illnesses

brought on by his travels, such as Cuban fever contracted during the Spanish

American War and a nervous breakdown suffered in 1908. In his last years he

and his wife settled in Medina, New York, where Mrs. Kennan had lived as a girl.

Here he became vice president of the Medina Publishing Company and wrote from

time to time for the Medina Tribune under the heading "G.K.'s Column." Here,

after a three-day illness, he died on May 10, 1924.

        Such a long and varied life was not all composed of work. Kennan had

many resources for recreation. Music, camping trips, sailing, and gardening

ranked high among them. In religion he had, with much spiritual travail,

abandoned the Calvinistic faith of his ancestors and his own childhood but

he had established for himself a philosophy which he never clearly defined

but which his life story proves to have been good. He had known many famous

people during the course of his long life, received outstanding honors, and

had been a member of several important [ ?] societies. (He was, for instance,

a charter member and first secretary of the National Geographic Society.) He neither

over- nor under-estimated his own importance. It was a source of deep regret

to him that he had no children, for he had acquired, in Japan, a strong feeling

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for the value of family continuity. He had one namesake in the Kennan family,

the grandson of a cousin, but he did not live to see George F. Kennan become,

in his turn, a recognized authority on Russian affairs.

        Lecturing and journalism are careers whose fame is transitory but George

Kennan's memory will endure because of the information he amassed and left

behind for future students of Siberia and of the Russian Revolution.

---

Bibliography

The Kennan Family , by T. L. Kennan

Chronology of George Kennan's Life, by Mrs. George Kennan

The Kennan Collection, New York Public Library

Family Letters owned by George F. Kennan

The Writings of George Kennan, books, magazine and newspaper articles.

       

Jeanette Kennan Hotchkiss