2-510-750 - © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images

Prisoners at work, Sakhalin, Russia, 1890s. A large island off the Pacific coast of Siberia, Sakhalin became the site of prison labour camps known as katorga from 1857. In 1891 Russian author Anton Chekhov visited Sakhalin and wrote about the conditions in the camps in his book Sakhalin Island. Found in the collection of the Institut of Russian Literature IRLI (Pushkin-House).