Ussurijským krajem – Arseňjev Vladimir Klavdijevič (2021)

The first part of the famous dilogy (which continues with the novel Dersu Uzala) tells the story of two expeditions undertaken by the Russian traveler and writer Vladimir Arsenyev in 1902 and 1906. During the first expedition, the author became acquainted with the indigenous hunter and tracker Dersu from the Uzala clan. The two men, coming from completely different cultures and backgrounds, met again four years later, and during a long and arduous journey, a strong friendship gradually developed between them. The book, which stands at the intersection of factual travelogue and adventure novel, introduces readers to the wild nature of the Ussuri region as well as the local peoples and their daily lives, customs, and religious beliefs. It vividly and engagingly narrates life in the taiga, where every wrong step can mean death, where hunters do not kill animals for fun but purely for survival, and where people help each other survive without expecting anything in return. The dilogy has seen numerous editions and has been translated into more than thirty languages. It also inspired the renowned Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, who made a film based on it that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1975.