You think it’s cold where you are — here are images from the land of ‘intolerable suffering’

Snow has been on the mind a lot lately for people in Boston. The city is breaking records for snowfall.

The streets are slick, sidewalks are retreating and cars parked on the sides of the streets are no longer visable. It's kind of miserable. Where once there was gleeful sledders home from school, there are now darker moods descending on the region. Oh, and more snow is on the way.

But, there's one thing the people of Boston know for sure, spring is coming … eventually.

In the end of this deluge, the Earth will inevitably continue on its path closer to the sun and flowers will once again bloom. Smiling faces will return.

It's out of the ordinary for Boston to see weather conditions like we are experiencing. Imagine life in a place described by Anton Chekhov as "the land of intolerable suffering."

In 1890, Chekhov traveled to Sakhalin island, to investigate the penal conditions in the Russian Far East.

What resulted was his book "The Island: A Journey to Sakhalin," which pointed a bright spotlight on the prisons and the grim reality of life there.

Photographer Oleg Klimov traveled to Sakhalin and retraced Chekhov’s steps to see what it's like there now, more than 120 years later.

The photo series, paired with Chekhov's writing, offer's a new glimpse at the land of intolerable suffering.

Meduza, who published Klimov's work, has kindly allowed us to cross-post a few of his images and Chekhov's words here.

Excerpt from Anton Chekhov, "The Island: A Journey to Sakhalin," translated by Luba and Michael Terpak, New York: Washington Square Press, 1967.