The book is dedicated to the activities of A.V. Dattan, a German by birth, who made a significant contribution to the development of the productive forces of the Russian Far East in the late XIX - early XX centuries. On the basis of historical documents, the authors tried to reveal the complex, sometimes tragic fate of a man whom contemporaries rightly called the great citizen of Vladivostok. Some of his proposals for the activation of commercial activities in Primorye are relevant today.