presents
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Krymov, Yuri Solomonovich. Pen-name of Yuri S. Beklemishev, born in 1908 in St. Petersburg. His mother was a writer. Young Yuri also wanted to be a writer and began with some short stories in the early 1930s. But he also recognized the need to get work and life experience. So Krymov qualilfied himself as an engineer and went to the Caspian Sea where he worked adjusting the wireless apparatus on powerful new tankers. It was there in the Caspian that Kymov gained experience and ideas which were used to produce his first major work, The Tanker Derbent. Published in 1938, this tale begins with a rag-tag crew of riff-raff and misfits being assigned to a new oil tanker. They are undisciplined and uncaring, and their ship has one of the worst records in the fleet. But then, led by the example of an "ordinary" Communist, the crew gets swept up in the excitement of the Stakhanovite movement and completely transform themselves. Not only do they become the most efficient crew in the fleet, but they also show personal bravery, undertaking a dangerous rescue of another crew from a disabled and burning tanker in the middle of a fierce gale. Along the way--just like the real Stakhanov--they have to battle entrenched unimaginative administrators afraid of anything new. And although spending months at sea at a time takes a great personal toll on the hero of the work, in the end, the scanctity of marriage wins out. Krymov's second major work was Inzheniri ("Engineers", 1940), a tale of the erection oil-mining installations. Krymov joined the Communist Party in 1941. His career, however, was cut short by the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, also known as World War II. He became a soldier and was killed in battle on 20 September 1941. |