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simtan1 simtan1 at yandex.ru
Wed Aug 30 00:29:56 EDT 2006



Dear Colleagues,
I need an advice concerning the possibility to publish a book, which seems interesting to me. For about 10 years already I have been making research on the history of Russian-Korean relations. Some time ago I got acquainted with Valery Yurievich Yankovski. He lives in a small town of Vladimir some 200 km away from Moscow. He is 95 years old and is the only living in Russia former ⌠white■ emigrant in Korea. It sounds improbable but he is writing books, has a very good memory and often goes out for hunting. 
For more than 20 years (in 1922-1946) the big Yankovskys family (father George, mother Margarita, their 3 sons and 2 daughters, cousins and other relatives) lived near Cheongjin, North Hamgyeong Province in North Korea. They had a resort called ⌠Novina■ there and many foreigners from other parts of Korea and from China (Harbin and Shanghai) spent summer there. The Yankovskys were famous hunters and many adventurous people from Europe came to Novina for hunting. Hunting was the Yankovskys hobby and most profitable occupation. G. Yankovsky wrote a book ⌠Half a Century of Tiger Hunting■. It was published in Harbin in 1944. This family also had a deer farm, they planted ginseng, and their income grew with years. Their way of living in colonial Korea was unique. In the book by D. Clark Living Dangerously in Korea. The Western Experience. 1900√1950. ≈ Norwalk (CT, USA), 2003, there is a part about this family and their activities (Pp. 147√155). TheYankovskys▓ hunting skill was described by a Swedish zoologyst and traveller Sten Bergman (See his book In Korean Wilds and Villages. Transl. by Frederic Whyte. ≈ London: J. Gifford, 1938. Pp. 119-135). They were mentioned by F. Ossendovsky. An English-American writer M. Taylor wrote a book about her visit to Novina in the beginning of 1930▓s (Taylor, Mary Linley. ╚The Tiger▓s Claw. The Life-Story of East Asia▓s Mighty Hunter╩. ≈ London: Burke Publishing Co., Ltd., 1956). I think that some other Western authors also mentioned the Yankovskys in their books.
In 1945 the Soviet Army came to North Korea. Some months later all the Yankovsky family was arrested and their property was all robbed by NKVD (the name for KGB at that time). A prosperous settlement disappeared within 1 day. George Yankovsky died in Siberia in GULAG in 1956. His son Valery also spent 10 years in GULAG but was lucky to survive.
In 2000 Valery Yankovsky wrote a book about his family, their life in Korea and his years in GULAG. It was in Russian but Michael Hintze, a friend of the family, presently living in Australia, translated the book into English and produced several copies of it at his own expense. Mr. Hintze did the translation for the relatives of V. Yankovsky who presently live in the USA and can▓t read in Russian. Mr. Hintze also has a lot of good photos of Novina, the Yankovskys and their guests in 1930▓s because he used to spent summer vacations in Novina when he was a boy. Mr. Hintse still has several copies of his translation. It cost 50$ per copy and can be bought directly from him. His address is: mhintze at bigpond.com.
My question is follows: Can such a book be of any interest in the West, so that the translation into English by Mr. Hintze could be published in a proper way? To what publishing house such a book can be shown? I will be grateful for any advice or additional information. Tatiana Simbirtseva, Ph.D. in Korean Studies (History), Moscow. (simtan1 at yandex.ru)





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