Glorious Sea the Sacred Baikal: History
In 1848, the district school superintendent of Upper Udinsk, a local historian and writer, Dmitri Pavlovich Davydov (1811-1888), wrote the poem “Thoughts of a fugitive on Baikal.” It was devoted to the fugitives from prison. In an interview, the author told the St. Petersburg newspaper Golden Fleece:
“Fugitives from factories and settlements are generally known as “passers” They are extraordinarily courageous in overcoming the natural obstacles along the way. They go across mountain ridges, through swamps, swim enormous rivers on fragments of wood, and there were some cases where they risked crossing Lake Baikal in barrels that they sometimes found on its shores.” The fugitives were supplied with bread and other items by local inhabitants, who would leave them outside of their houses at night.
