It is always necessary to remember those who created and developed the culture of hunting and universal values in our country. No matter what is the name of this Great country from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok! On the birthday of Valery Yurievich Yankovsky-tiger and leopard hunter, naturalist, writer. He would have celebrated 110 this year.
“Whatever we do on the Khasan land, we must remember about the Yankovskys’ experience. Their experience in arranging Sidemi is unique and has no equal in the economic practice of the region. On the Yankovsky Peninsula, a whole industry – antler reindeer husbandry-has developed. Its foundations were laid by two generations of representatives of this glorious family."
Deputy Chairman Legislative Assembly of Primorsky Krai D.A. Tekiev.
I stood near the coffin where he laid, watched the picture, set at the head and made when he was alive and couldn’t believe that he’d never greet me and said “Welcome!” as he was used to say when I entered his apartment where he lived with his wife Irina Kazimirovna. His heart stopped on April 17th, 2010. He did not live a little more than a month before his 99th birthday. he died from hitting the back of his head on a small block of wood in the fall. It happened when he (99 years old) was pulling up on the horizontal bar. A small ceremony hall couldn’t accommodate everyone who wants to say goodbye. People was constantly coming in and out. I knew several of them. But not all.
The priest, who was invited to perform a farewell memorial service, began the rite Later the Governor of the region N.V. Vinogradov arrived to pay tribute to the memory of the GULAG prisoner and express words of condolences to his wife, who passed the same GULAG.
Vladimir Maykovsky could say about such people like Valery Yurievich, his Dad and his Grandfather - "This is a HUMAN BEING!" I was watching people who were coming in and out. NO! NO! None of them had the inner core and the indomitable will and optimism as he and the members of his family, risen by his grandfather, had. The motherland tried to break them but they remained loyal to the country that became their motherland. Their ancestors ended up here as a result of exile for the political uprising of 1863 in Poland. Valery Yurievich told a lot about life of his family clan and I saw that the feelings of patriotism and love for their native land was brought up in children unobtrusively, gradually throughout their lives. Children were taught to love nature and animals. The elder generation showed them the beauty of mountains, valleys, rivers and lakes, located around there family house in Sidemi. Yankovsky grew roots in their land. They protected that land from hónghúzi and their feelings of love to the native land became stronger. They always knew what they were fighting for. Freedom-loving carriers of highly cultural values didn’t allow robbers to become the owners on their land, the bandits that were used to take from the nature and give nothing back. Russia grew and became stronger thanks to such families but other times came and those who were nothing and who were called nothing came to power. Could those people, who were not brought up on the in the spirit of patriotism and love for the native land, create something valuable and worthwhile. There were no such miracles in nature and in the history of human society. Till the basic and then...
Yankovsky family didn't want to see the ruin of their dreams how other people would mock the results of their work and had to immigrate. But even after the great migration, the Yankovsky clan continued to work on what they had begun in Russia. They built the new Novin estate in Korea. How strong were they to start from the very beginning, on the new place? Yankovsky once again demonstrated their best moral and strong-willed qualities. To survive in those difficult period, they began to organize hunting trips for foreigners, arrived to Korea for a hunting exotic. Once Valery Yurievich told me that none of them liked of the outfitter career. It was hard for their free-loving nature to serve to people who were not ready for a hunting and didn't understand and shared their hunting values. Born free and being a free hunters they were used to accustomed from an early age to endure the inconveniences and privations of hunting wanderings, the scarcity of food and the weather vagaries of nature. Those difficulties built their characters, and brought up the skill to work together, to understand the partner.
Hunting was actually a school of life and life itself for all the men of the Yankovsky family. They had to have great health, to be in a good physical form and to have deep knowledge of nature, the habits of wild animals, and feathered game to go hunting. Children from their childhood learned to recognize the tracks of animals. They became good trackers and deerslayer already directly on hunts. Their hunting would not have been possible without knowledge of the basics of topography and the ability to navigate in unfamiliar terrain. All family members, including girls, studied to shoot from the very early childhood. There were always a lot of different firearms in the house, including machine guns. The ability to shoot well was in their blood. They all shot a lot and very well. It was the necessity dictated by not only hunting but the need for self-defense. The honghuzi attack (Chinise bandits) during the development of Primorye were not uncommon. The hunter and the writer. Valery Yurievich repeated many times that he didn't understand hunting from the towers that is practiced in many hunting farms. He was used to hunt for several days spending in the forest from one-two days to several weeks.
Thanks to his literally talent, we know what kind of animals and how his ancestors hunted. Hunting for ducks, gooses, boars, deer and pheasants are described in all details in his books. The special place takes hunting for Ussuri tigers and snow leopards of the Far East. We can understand from his books that hunting for a tiger was not an ordinary hunting but the fight with the competitor. Tigers caused significant damage to their farm. The tigers destroyed the most valuable breeding material of horses, with which they worked to breed a horse adapted to help people in the development of Primorye. After migration to the North Korea, their family saved lots of locals. In the first third of the twentieth century the Korea citizens were occupied by Japan and had no right to have their own arms. The predators used the situation and the density of their population was very high at that time. The very intelligent and careful Ussuri tigers were known for their special treachery. They dragged livestock directly from the pens in the yards. The old tigers who couldn’t hunt for the livestock entered the dilapidated homes of Koreans and took people.
The local boars were not particularly friendly either. The herd of boars could destroy the a crop of potatoes or corn in one of the fields near a Korean village in one night.
Yankovsky described his hunts for tigers, leopards, wild boars, roe deer and deer in great detail. The reader can know in what conditions and what clothes people hunted in 30s and 40s of the last century. Those huntings demanded the hunter to be a great physical form, they should resist the harsh climate, when in winter the temperature dropped below -25 degrees and the wind blew piercing. That situations were ideal to present all those moral and strong-willed qualities that were brought up in them from childhood were manifested. The skills of deerslayers and the knowledge of predator’s habits helped them a lot when hunting tigers and leopards. A sense of courage and self-control saved their lives in the most difficult situations. As an example, I remember the scene described by Valery Yurievich when his younger brother saved his Dad when made the accurate shot to the wounded tiger. Arseniy (the brother) was not twenty years old at that time.
I think that I will express the opinion of those who have read such works of Yankovsky as "Nanuni the Four-eyed" "On the trail of the tiger". “Korea for Yankovsky” can be used as the textbook for those who want to to understand the mystery of the life and habits of wild animals in nature, about nature itself in all its manifestations.
These books will study the reader to love their native land to respect it and treat to it as a person who hasn't come to this world for a single day. The ability to admire the beauty of the first spring flower and the sunset over the sea can make our younger generation kinder and more sensual, which in the era of modern technocracy is illegally losing its relevance. Yankovsky- the writer and the local historian All his books reflect the real events and talk about real people. His heroes were real people who lived near him or visited his farm and his family or accompanied him during his life. That's why the interest in the work of Yankovsky does not fade among specialists in the field of history, local lore, natural history and hunters. His two earliest printed works, "On the Verge of Survival" and "In Search of Ginseng", were clear evidence against the predatory and thoughtlessly irrational exploitation of natural resources and his reverent attitude to nature conservation.
The books about hunting and travels to taiga, in North Korea or Manchuria take a special place. The first test of the pen in the genre of hunting literature was "In search of ginseng". That book is the first one where he described the ways of hunting, animal’s habits and behavior of people who were with him in the hunting expedition. He showed how he relied on them in the very serious moments.
Yankovsky's attitude to his historical homeland – Primorsky Krai is most clearly expressed in his essay " The Land of the Fathers. Last bow.” he talks about what his native land has become and what it could be. He was shocked that mink farm has been built in the center of their estate Sideme and the the fetid smell spreds throughout the area where the Yankovsky estate has been previously located. Personal qualities. Decency, punctuality, loyalty to your family, native land and country. Valery Yurievich always considered it necessary to express his opinion. I liked the way he was talking because I’m used to hear this language when I was young. “I'm invited” “I’ve taken the invitation” "Bow to your ladies!” It’s an interesting fact that I discovered when he was alive and that was confirmed with absolute historical accuracy after his death. It turned out that both the Yankovskys and the Briners had been guests of one of my relatives on my father's and grandfather's side more than once. They were the guests in the house of Vstovsky, located in 20 versts from Vladivostok. Both families had similar cultural and universal values, that got me closer with the descendant of the famous Yankovsky family. It is difficult to overestimate the contribution of the Yankovskys to the development of the Russian Primorye. They were actually the founders of antler reindeer husbandry, made a great contribution to the botanical, ornithological and entomological sections of all-Russian science. One of the peninsulas of Primorye is named after Yankovsky. One of the species of bunting, named after Yankovsky, lives in Primorye, as well as some species of butterflies. The breed of horses bred by his grandfather was the only one suitable for the development of this territory. They were the first to create a wild ginseng plantation.
The exiled Poles Mikhail Yankovsky and Benedikt Dybovsky, as well as the Swiss Julius Brynner, and the Finn Friedolf Heck, can rightly be called the pride of the Russian Far East. These foreigners contributed to the development of the Far East in general and Primorye in particular. Being foreigners by origin, but having become Russians in essence, they defended this territory from Chinese and other bandits and swindlers. It's a pity that honghuzi but in the other "peaceful" appearance develop our Far East, entering there with their toxic plastic goods, supplying our market with fruits and vegetables grown at home and already in our territories with a high content of toxic substances, poisoning our clean Siberian rivers with poisons, in order to purge all amphibians from these rivers.
Probably we need new foreigners to save the natural resources of our great Russia, because the Russians themselves calmly contemplate this quiet expansion, with deforestation and plundering of our natural resources.
