By tramp steamer, carriage and horse, Chekhov journeyed to the far reaches of Siberia and the Russian Far East in the 1890s. The first part of this brief account, taken from A Life in Letters, focuses on his adventures around Baikal. The second half, from The Island, A Journey to Sakhalin," is a piercing account of exiled convicts and native peoples.  (RUS350, $10.00)