2-548-139 - © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images

Caged prisoners cage on the steamer 'Petersburg' on the way to Sakhalin, Russia, 1890. A large island off the Pacific coast of Siberia, Sakhalin became the site of prison labour camps known as katorga from 1857. In 1890 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 Russian State Library, Moscow.