The novel <Father and Son> by the well-known Soviet writer, Hero of Socialist Labor Georgy Markov—as well as the novels <Strogovs> and <Salt of the Earth>—is devoted to Siberians. The writer takes us back to the first years of Soviet power. The story takes place in the year nineteen twenty-one. A young taiga commune, barely standing on its feet, reaches out with help and friendship to the Khants who are being oppressed and robbed by the merchant Porfiry Isaev. In this struggle, the chairman of the commune, the Bolshevik partisan Roman Bastrykov, dies. His father is replaced by his son, Alyoshka, raised by the old Bolshevik Tikhon Ivanovich Skobeyev. Becoming a Komsomol member, Alyoshka continues his father’s fight for a revolutionary remaking of a vast country.
The novel vividly conveys the stern beauty of Siberia, the inward purity and grandeur of its people, and their whole and strong characters.