Valerian Pavlovich Pravdukhin was born on January 21, 1892 in the village of Tanalykskaya, Orenburg province, into the family of a psalm-reader. For many years he taught and traveled around his native Orenburg region and Western Siberia. His travel notes formed the basis of the first big book, “Years, Trails, Guns,” which was published in 1930. In it, Valerian Pravdukhin introduces the reader to the nature of various parts of Russia and exciting hunting adventures. The Orenburg steppes, the Urals, Siberia, Altai, Kazakhstan - wherever the writer has ever been with a gun and a notebook in his hands!