Timeless Tales of Adventure and Discovery in the Russian Far East

                   By Melissa Mooza

Our knowledge and understanding of the Russian Far East would be incomplete were it not for the work of many renown researchers, scientists, and explorers who braved the perils of this wild and unforgiving land to embark on adventurous voyages of scientific and cultural discovery. One of the first Europeans to extensively explore the Russian Far East was the remarkable Vladimir K. Arseniev. Arseniev, who was dispatched to Vladivostok from Saint Petersburg in 1900 as a young officer with the Imperial army, spent 30 years in the Russian Far East. During this time, he completed 12 rigorous expeditions, during which he and his teams traveled thousands of kilometers through the near impenetrable and previously unmapped taiga of Primorsky and Khabarovsky Territories, making many important discoveries about the region’s natural features and physical geography along the way.

Arseniev was the first person to provide detailed topographical information about the Sikhote-Alin Range. He also mapped the region’s rivers and their main tributaries, documenting their course, depth, and flow. Many of the peaks, passes, and other significant sites the exploratory party encountered were given names by Arseniev, who in doing so, often incorporated terms used by the local indigenous Chinese, Oroch, and Udege people. The region’s charismatic flora and fauna fascinated Arseniev. He identified biogeographic borders for many plant and animal species and was also one of the first individuals to identify two separate floral communities within the region- one on the Japanese Sea Coast, and one in the central Sikhote-Alin area. Passionate about ethnography, Arseniev also made many important observations about the region’s indigenous cultures and traditions and amassed an extensive collection of archeological findings, many of which are housed to this day in regional museum collections.

Arseniev carefully and copiously documented his expeditions. During his lifetime, he wrote more than 60 articles for publication and his work appeared in over 20 books and brochures. Since his death in 1930, Arseniev’s writing has been featured in no fewer than 130 publications and translated into a number of languages including German, English, and Japanese. Universally accessible, Arseniev’s writing has found a broad audience among wide-eyed schoolchildren, inquisitive academics, and rough-hewn outdoorsmen alike. Whether describing birds in flight over Lake Khanka, or the clarion call of a mature bull elk bugling from high atop a ridgeline in the Sikhote-Alin, Arseniev united in balanced composition the soulful lyricism of a poet with the astute perception and meticulousness of a scientist.

Among Arseniev’s body of work, those publications most widely read are a trilogy of books documenting three expeditions undertaken between 1906 and 1910. The first expedition, during which Arseniev and his team explored the southern part of the Sikhote-Alin Range, venturing as far north as the Bay of Ternei and as far west as the Ussuri River Basin, is detailed in Around Ussuri Territory. In Dersu Uzala, the second book in the series, readers follow the expeditionists as they continue their route, journeying north to Gilek Point, and from Bikin and Iman River basins in the west to the sea. The last of the three expeditions, which brought the team further north still, as they forged their way from Khabarovsk to what is now Sovetsky Gavan on the Pacific Coast, is rendered in the trilogy’s final installment, In the Mountains of Sikhote Alin.

In addition to presenting important geographic and scientific information, the books also capture and crystallize significant moments and moods in Russian history that coincided with the expeditions. The first expedition, for example, was commissioned by the Governor of the Amur River Region, on behalf of the Russian government, which, still reeling from unexpected military defeat at the hands of the Japanese the year previous, was interested in developing a detailed strategic map of the region. The last expedition was organized by the Russian Geographic Society to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Russia’s acquisition of the Priamursky region from the Chinese.

Forever immortalized in Arseniev’s work are the intrepid members of his expeditions, a cast of unforgettable characters including, most significantly, Dersu Uzala. Dersu Uzala was an elderly Udege hunter, who agreed to shepherd Arseniev’s party through the taiga. Arseniev forged a deep and respectful bond with Dersu, who knew no home other than that which he might find beneath a canopy of stars. He taught Arseniev much about how man might live harmoniously with nature and how nature might, in turn, live within man. Even after his death in 1909, Dersu lingered long in Arseniev’s mind, his spirit and lessons often invoked in Arseniev’s subsequent writings.

The compelling figures of Vladimir Arseniev and Dersu Uzala have been forever written into the mythology of the Russian Far East. We at RCN are sure that the themes their story evokes will help guide those hoping to learn more about this fascinating region and to better understand how the delicate balance between man and nature might be maintained.

Melissa Mooza is Assistant Editor of Russian Conservation News.

More detailed information about RCN: http://www.russianconservation.org/