Александр БИЗЭ
Отважный Русич

Пролог. От автора

The events, which were described in the legend, are not imaginary, of course. When I was on a trip in Siberia near the river Angara, I became acquainted with a wise old man under very interesting circumstances (in a forest watchman’s box). Without pen and paper I was sitting with him until dawn near a small fire, and was listening and listening without interrupting a wonderful story-teller, a person who had great knowledge, who was well-read and knew the history of the Ancient Russia very well.

An experienced hunter, he gave argumentative answers to all my questions, confirming his history with exact excerpts and dates from history books and encyclopedias.

Having listened to my new acquaintance attentively, I understood that I should write as exactly as I could all I have heard and report to my readers. Later it happened so.

Years passed by, and now «The brave Russian» is being read not only by children, but also by people who went through the war, who protected bounds and frontiers of our Motherland in the Great Patriotic War, and also by soldiers who fought in Afghanistan, and participants of the Chechnya’s War — by young boys-soldiers who took part in military operations and lost close friends or their health. It is being read by eighteen-year-old boys who are only going to serve in the army and who have yet to accomplish kind things in this life.

Returning a lot of times to what was typed, I often think that a person who gave his life for the most precious thing — Motherland — is an example to follow. That’s why I want the boys who will have to put on military uniforms to remember the most important thing: the work on the field of battle is as responsible work as bringing up a child or, if you want, as taking care of a blooming garden. In the first and in the second case it is necessary to do your work not only consciously, but doing all your best.

For example, Gleb is one of the heroes of the legend. By his noble action he shows us how we must love earth, bread and how we must treat the enemy. Without thinking for a minute, quite a young fellow of seventeen years old decides for himself the most important problem: to go and to fight with thousands of enemies: Tartars, usurpers and oppressors, who united in one numerous army and risked to enslave all the Russian folk. Killed in an unequal battle, Gleb fought like a brave man and didn’t shame his name.

Let this sad story about the family of Siberians, which our contemporaries also among our generations, to whom I address with the help of this beautifully illustrated book, which teaches and brings us up.

Read, discuss. And I, like an author, will be glad to realize that I kept the promised word to my night story-teller. The book lives. And everyone who will read it, I hope, will think over things happening on our planet.