Vladimir Klavdiyevich Arsenyev, was an explorer of the Far East of the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union who recounted his travels in a series of books — "По Уссурийскому Краю" (1921) and "Дерсу Узала" (1923) — telling of his military journeys to the Ussuri basin with Dersu Uzala, a native hunter, from 1902 to 1907. He was the first to describe numerous species of Siberian flora and the lifestyles of native ethnic peoples.