- Narrator: [Opening lines] I'm writing you this letter from a distant land. Its name is Siberia. For most of us, that name suggests nothing but a frozen devil's island. And for the Czarist general Andreyevich, it was the biggest vacant lot in the world. Fortunately, there are more things on heaven and earth than any general, Siberian or not, has ever dreamed of.
- Narrator: According to a Siberian proverb, the forest was made by the devil. The devil did a good job; His forest is as big as the United States of America. But maybe the devil made the United States too.