My World by Viktor Grebennikov: Dedication and Preface.
Dedication
I dedicate this work to Anatoly, my dear brother who died fighting for my beloved homeland of Crimea in 1942. It was a year filled with agony and terror.
Preface
Many wonderful people have helped me to publish this book. Unfortunately, I only have enough space to express my gratitude to a few of them. I’d like to thank:
Vladimir Yartsev, my chief editor and Alissa Tobuch and Vladimir Minko, my literary editors. Thank you for getting the book ready for publication.
Maria Cherkasova, Socio-Ecological Union Director, and Svyatoslav Zabelin, Socio-Ecological Union Coordination Division Director (based in Moscow). Thank you for your moral, financial and logistical support.
Aman Tuleev, the Chairman of the Council of People’s Deputies of Kemerovo Oblast and member of the Federation Council. Thank you for printing colorful ads necessary for publication and your precious spiritual guidance.
Olga Shiganova, EnSi Group Director from Novosibirsk. Thank you for taking care of all the logistics involved in this project: business trips, paperwork, office supplies, etc.
My son Sergey, my wife Tamara, my grandson Andrey. Thank you for all the ways you’ve helped me throughout the years and putting up with me (most of my writings and drawings were produced at home). This book only exists because of you.
I absolutely must thank all entomologists who shared their collections (some of them are very rare) with me:
V. Ivonin,Y. Korshunov, V. Dubatolov, P. Ustyuzhanin from Novosibirsk.
V. Kuznetsov from the Far East.
L. Slavgorodskaya, Y. Budashkin, S. Ivanov from Crimea.
P. Marikovsky from Almaty.
A. Osychnuk, M. Nesterov, N. Scherbak from Ukraine.
G. Petere from Germany.
P. Gallant from France.
Occasionally you’ll see two dates on my drawings. This means I had to make a particular drawing twice: before my arrest in 1947 and after my release in 1953 during the Khrushchev Thaw.
I’d also like to mention V. Zolotarev, a physicist from St Petersburg. He greatly contributed to elucidating my discovery of the Cavity Structure Effect which led to so many more fascinating findings.
And most of my gratitude goes to my dear students, both young and old. Had it not been for you, I would have become another hardened cog in the bureaucratic machine a long time ago. I especially dedicate my humble — yet perhaps somewhat extraordinary — work to my young students.
