Sportsmen in Old Russia, 1870-1935

edited by Kenneth Czech

Sportsmen in Old Russia, 1870-1935

Asia, like Africa, is one of the Valhallas of big-game hunting. After the solid success of Czech’s book on Chinese hunting (Hunting in the Land of the Dragon), he decided to do a book on the other Asian giant: Russia. And when we speak of Russia, we talk of all the terrain that goes from the Polish border in Europe to the Kamchatka Peninsula just above Japan. With a plethora of game animals, Russia has always had a rich big-game hunting history. Ken Czech, one of the foremost experts on Asian big-game hunting literature, chose some of the best-known names to contribute to his work. The stories are all about hunting big game, and the contributors are a who‘s who of hunting in Imperial Russia: Prince Demidoff, Frank Wallace, George Littledale, Duc d’Orleans, Anthony Buxton, Paul Niedieck, and Ralph Cobbold, to name a few. Whether it is pursuing snow sheep in Kamchatka, red deer in the Urals, tur in the Caucasus, or tiger on the Amur River, this book covers all the big-game hunting that was once found in Russia. A wonderful collection of stories that is the best of the best from the great and varied literature that has sprung forth on Russian hunting in the last 150 years.