The book is dedicated to the life and work of Vladimir Ivanovich Dal, a man of rare talents and diverse interests. The author of the immortal “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language” was not only a famous writer, ethnographer, folklorist, but also a naval officer, a talented surgeon who went through the path of a military doctor, a naturalist scientist, whom the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences elected as its corresponding member. Much attention is paid to the little-known Orenburg period of V.I.’s life. Dahl (1833-1841). New materials from the Orenburg archives, the RAS Archive and the Pushkin House were used. For a wide range of readers interested in the development of social science.