You have opened an interesting, educational book about the Ussuri taiga, about hunting and taiga adventures. And don’t put this small collection of fascinating stories, essays and fairy tales aside until you finish reading it to the end. The author colorfully describes the amazing nature of the Far East, entertainingly talks about the life of rangers and hunters, and the habits of wild animals. He knows the Ussuri taiga well, where he has been many times as a correspondent for a Primorye newspaper, meeting with fishermen, tiger catchers and other lovers of taiga exotics. The impressions from these meetings formed the basis of stories that reveal a mysterious, beautiful, unique, but easily vulnerable world. Primorye researcher V.K. Arsenyev has already touched upon the topic of ecology of the Ussuri region in his works. But in his time, nature had not yet suffered so much from its “conqueror”. And we must pay tribute to the author’s resourcefulness. Having such a predecessor as V.K. Arsenyev with his wonderful books “Along the Ussuri Region” and “Dersu Uzala”, Gennady Gusachenko, however, was not afraid to try his hand at the same material and found his tone in the depiction of the Ussuri fauna. He combines the accuracy of a naturalist with literary talent, which is the main artistic merit of the book. The author shows the relationship between man and wildlife using examples of exciting taiga incidents. Simplicity in communication, nobility of soul, kindness and courage, love of nature are the main character traits that the heroes of Gennady Gusachenko’s action-packed adventure stories are endowed with. They do not lose their composure in danger, are not devoid of humor and romanticism, and are true to the principle of life - to treat the taiga and its inhabitants with care.

I conclude the selection of stories about taiga adventures in the winter hut of grandfather Dymar with the hiking notes of an old huntsman. And let it not seem strange to the reader that Grandfather Dymar depicts the nature around him in a literary style that is not typical for a taiga resident. Well, what kind of huntsman would write in his diary about how a drop of dew glistens? The huntsman always writes briefly and to the point. Undoubtedly, grandfather Dymar’s naturalistic notes were made by the light of a smokehouse, without artistic pretensions, but they are interesting for their accurate observations of the life of the taiga. The grimy pages of a worn-out Jaeger notebook are replete with expressions that are far from the books. Dymar's style, not to mention spelling, also leaves much to be desired. The huntsman's diary, of course, could not be accepted for publication without editorial correction. Actually, Samson Pavlovich Dymar did not even think of publishing his “creation”. He recorded various taiga cases, as he said, “just out of interest.” I had to work hard, correcting and supplementing Dymarev’s notes, before the awkward lines took on the desired form. While working on it, I tried to preserve the main thing in them - the spontaneity of the huntsman’s impressions of what he saw.