Vladimir Klavdievich Arseniev (1872-1930) undertook twelve major
scientific expeditions between 1902 and 1930 in the Siberian Far
East, and authored some sixty works from the geographical,
geological, botanical, and ethnographic data he amassed. Among
these, Dersu the Trapper has earned a privileged place in Russian
literature. In this Russian counterpart to The Journals of Lewis
and Clark and the novels of James Fenimore Cooper, Arseniev
combines the precise observations of a naturalist with an exciting
narrative of real-life adventure.
Arseniev describes three explorations in the Ussurian taiga
along the Sea of Japan above Vladivostok, beginning with his first
encounter of the solitary aboriginal hunter named Dersu, a member
of the Gold tribe, who thereafter becomes his guide. Each
expedition is beset with hardship and danger: through blizzard and
flood and assorted deprivations, these two men forge an exceptional
friendship in their mutual respect for the immense grandeur of the
wilderness. But the bridges across language, race and culture also
have limitations, and the incursion of civilization exacts its
toll. Dersu the Trapper is at once a witnessing of Russia's last
frontier and a poignant memoir of rare cross-cultural
understanding. Originally published in 1941, this English
translation is reprinted in its entirety now for the first
time.
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