Dersu Usala

Dersu Uzala

Dersu Usala (right in the picture) and his friend Arsenyev studying a route during an expedition in 1906 near the Pacific coast in the Ternejskie District near the Kulumbe River ( called Peschternaya since 1972 )

Dersu Usala , also Dersu Uzala , ([ ˈdɛrsʊ ˈuzala ], Russian Дерсу Узала , * 1849 , † 1908 ) was a Nanaier from the Russian Far East who lived in the area of the Ussuri River. The hunter and ranger was immortalized literarily by Vladimir Klawdijewitsch Arsenjew in the book Dersu Usala, the Taiga hunter . His life story has been filmed several times.

Life

The Russian explorer Vladimir Arsenyev undertook twelve large expeditions from 1902 to the then largely unexplored area between the coast of the Pacific Ocean and the Ussuri River. There he carried out scientific studies and described the animal and plant world as well as the geology and topography of the unknown country, but above all he was interested in the local tribes of the Nanaians, Udehe and Orotschen , whose customs and languages he researched.

Memorial stone not far from the place of his murder in Korfowski

Monument to Usala in Arsenyev

After the smallpox death of his wife and children, Usala had lived alone in the forest before he met Arsenyev and accompanied him on several expeditions. A deep friendship developed between the two . Dersu Usala showed Arsenyev many previously unknown plants and animals to Arsenyev during the joint expeditions and explored the regions around the Sichote-Alin massif and the Ussuri tributary Bikin with him . He saves Arseniev's life several times, for example in a storm on Lake Khanka . Since Usala became increasingly blind with advancing age, Arsenyev offered him to live with him in the city. Usala, however, could not take advantage of life in the city. In the spring of 1908 he returned to the Ussuri region. There he was murdered near Korfowski not far from Khabarovsk , presumably because of a valuable rifle that Arsenyev had given him as a farewell.

Aftermath

Vladimir Arsenjew published his travelogue Dersu Usala in 1923 , which has been available in German translation since 1967 as Dersu Usala, der Taiga hunter .

Usala's life story has been filmed twice. In 1961, directed by Agassi Arutjunowitsch Babajan, the film Dersu Usala was made , in which Kassym Shakibayev played the role of Usala. The film adaptation of the same name from 1975 by Akira Kurosawa became better known . In this film adaptation, Usala was portrayed by Maxim Munsuk . The film was named best foreign language film at the 1976 Academy Awards .

After the border disputes between China and Russia, which culminated in the 1969 incident on the Ussuri , a village in Krasnoarmeiski Rajon of the Primorye region with the previously Chinese name Laul was renamed Dersu in his honor .

A monument to Vladimir Arsenyev and Dersu Usala was erected above the city of Arsenyev in the 1970s.

The asteroid of the main belt (4142) Dersu-Uzala , discovered in 1981, is also named after the ranger.

literature

Vladimir Arsenjew: In the wilderness of East Siberia (research trips in the Ussuri region) , first volume, Verlag Scherl, 1924, 443 pages

Wladimir Arsenjew: Dersu Usala (Russian Дерсу Узала / Dersu Uzala), 1923 (German Dersu Usala, der Taiga hunter , GDR 1967; German der Taiga hunter Dersu Usala , translated by Gisela Churs, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-293- 20457-7 )

Web links

Commons : Dersu Uzala - collection of images, videos and audio files

personal data
SURNAME	Usala, Dersu
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Uzala, Dersu; Узала, Дерсу (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Nanaians; Hunters and rangers
DATE OF BIRTH	1849
DATE OF DEATH	1908