“Derbent Tanker” ( 1938 ) is the story of the Russian Soviet writer Yuri Krymov , telling about the origin of the Stakhanov movement on the Caspian oil vessels in the mid -1930s and about the heroism of sailors in saving a burning ship.
| Tanker Derbent | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Story |
| Author | Yuri Krymov |
| Original language | Russian |
| Date of writing | 1938 |
| Date of first publication | |
It is considered one of the classic works of Soviet socialist realism of the 1930s, along with such novels as “ Time, Go! ” Valentina Kataeva ,“ Hydrocentral ” Marietta Shaginyan or“ Cement ”by Fedor Gladkov [1] .
The story has withstood many editions and has been translated into a number of foreign languages.
Based on the story, the movie of the same name was staged ( 1941 ).
Content
Creation History
After graduating from the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow State University ( 1930 ), Yuri Krymov worked on the construction of a radio station, conducted tests at the Caspian shipyards , and in 1935 he went on to research at the Moscow Petroleum Institute . In 1936 he sailed on the tanker Profintern on the Caspian Sea. Impressions of work in the Caspian Sea formed the basis of the plot of the story.
The story was published in the journal Krasnaya nov (No. 5, 1938 ). Soon in the journal Literary Review (No. 13-14, 1938), a large review by Andrei Platonov appeared on her, praising the story. July 27, 1938 Yuri Krymov was admitted to the Union of Writers of the USSR .
In 1939, Yuri Krymov and playwright Nikolai Otten created a play of the same name in 3 acts. In the same year, film director Faynzimmer began shooting a film based on the story [2] .
Story
The action takes place in the mid-1930s in Baku and on the tankers of the Caspian Shipping Company .
By the start of navigation to the recently repaired Derbent tanker, a team was being formed. The elderly (and weak-willed) captain Kutasov and navigator Kasatsky are older people, and they also have “sins” associated with their dubious behavior during the revolutionary events of 1905 and 1917 . The young Communist Alexander Basov, who they have long wanted to get rid of at his factory, is appointed as a mechanic, because he constantly puts forward new initiatives related to increasing labor productivity due to a more rational technical organization. Basov’s wife, Musya Beletskaya, is also not enthusiastic about her husband’s initiatives and considers him a failure, who “needs most”; before the ship leaves, they quarrel.
The Derbent tanker transports oil from Baku to Astrakhan . Due to technical malfunctions and delays during parking, he remains at the tail and does not fulfill the norm, unlike the Agamali tanker, which burst into production drums . At Derbent apathy , team members are considering leaving the ship at the end of the voyage. However, at some point, Basov manages to infect people with his energy and the team decides to declare “Agamali” a competition; at this time, the newspaper published news about the labor feat of the miner Stakhanov , and the team carried out the first “Stakhanov voyage” in the shipping company. Gradually, Derbent manages to increase speed, reduce downtime and exceed the norm.
In November, at the end of navigation, the tanker was sent to Krasnovodsk , where he needed to tow the faulty ship “ Uzbekistan ” with a load of light oil and bring it to Makhachkala . It turns out that the deck of Uzbekistan has gaps, but the flight cannot be canceled. Not far from the island of Chechnya, oil on "Uzbekistan" lights up, the ship begins to sink. The navigator Kasatsky cuts off the cable and, having persuaded the captain, tries to get away from the fire (all the more so since Derbent also has a load of oil). But Basov removes him and, showing heroism and risking his life, Derbent sailors approach the sinking ship and save his crew. Musia, who works at a radio station , has been worried all along the coast; she understands that her husband was right in his choice of the way, and comes to meet him at the port.
Reviews of the story
- “ A Brief Literary Encyclopedia ” (Volume 3, p. 856–857) [3] :
| Krymov’s novel “Tanker Derbent” (1938) became widely known — one of the best productions. Soviet prose of the 30s, where the growth of an ordinary party member, who turns into a talented leader of the masses, is truthfully and strongly shown. In severe trials, the tanker team is gaining strength and tempering, socialist competition is emerging. |
- Andrey Platonov [4] :
| The true theme of this work lies in the origin and development of the Stakhanov movement in maritime transport, that is, in the image of the deepest and most interesting people of our time - the Stakhanovites. The artistic execution of such a responsible topic was excellent for the author. We must declare it right here ... What was the most good that the author managed to create in his story? The most difficult thing for him is the most difficult: the protagonist of the work, one of the very first Stakhanovites ... The protagonist of his story, Basov, is not deprived, not bloodless by the author, in order to portray other, less important people in the work due to Basov. Krymov writes Basov in person, point blank, not shifting to the side, in a more “lighter” direction, and from here additional artistic results are obtained. Namely: all the “second” characters, illuminated by Basov’s central image, are enriched, cease to be “second”, non-principal, grow up to a high level of the first hero, become on a par with him ... The author deeply, with full knowledge of the subject, shows us the creative insight of the sailor workers, and the reader faces a broad, concrete picture of the competition as mass creativity, as the content of a full socialist life ... It must be emphasized that the author knows exactly his material - achievement, which not all Soviet writers took possession of. |
- A. A. Pavlovsky [5] :
| Despite the fact that the action of the story unfolds in a well-developed, mainstream direction for Soviet prose, the theme of the formation of new production and human relations receives a special sound from K (Rymov). Both readers and critics were attracted by a kind of natural, light - without deliberate social accents - the psychology of K (Rymov) prose, his desire to speak simply about ordinary things, freely about human feelings. The lyrics are clearly supplanted here by the common newspaper and journalistic cliches of the so-called production prose. |
Interesting Facts
- Due to the great popularity of both the story and the film on it, the name of the tanker Derbent has become quite common and is used in a number of works in which the ships of the Caspian Sea are mentioned in the plot, for example:
- Kir Bulychev . “The genius from Guslyar” (Moscow: Eksmo , 2005. P. 288):
| It was his gang that was responsible for the explosion of the house of border guards in the village of Primorsky, it was his people who brutally shot the officers of our department in the open sea when we caught them loading transshipment of black caviar into the Derbent tanker , which was leaving for Iran. |
- Alexander Belov. “ The brigade . Prince 10: From Sumy to Prison ”(M., 2004. S. 316.):
| He told them that he was traveling with their common fund to Baku to invest in the purchase of the Derbent oil tanker . |
Wed also the following famous scene from the novel by Sergey Dovlatov “The Reserve” [6] :
| “Aurora,” she said, holding out a sticky hand. “And I,” I say, “the tanker Derbent .” The girl was not offended. |
Literature
- Platonov A. Reflections of the reader: Articles / Comp. M.A. Platonova. - M .: Owls. writer, 1970. PDF
- Shaginyan M. Tanker “Derbent” // Shaginyan M. About art and literature, 1953-1957. M., 1958.
- Malysheva I.V. Creative history of the story of Yuri Krymov “Tanker Derbent” // Scientific notes of the Perm state. ped Institute. Vol. 16. Perm , 1957.
Notes
- ↑ Big school encyclopedia. T. 2. Humanities. M., 2003.S. 526.
- ↑ 1939 in cinema - RuData
- ↑ Lib.ru/Classics: Krymov Yuri Solomonovich. Yuri Krymov: biographical information
- ↑ Platonov A. Reflections of the reader: Articles / Comp. M.A. Platonova. - M .: Owls. writer, 1970. PDF
- ↑ Russian literature of the 20th century: prose writers, poets, playwrights. Bibliographic dictionary in 3 vols. T. 2. З — О. M., 2006.S. 332.
- ↑ Sergey Dovlatov. Nature reserve
Links
- Yuri Krymov. Tanker Derbent in the Aldebaran Library (inaccessible link)
- Yuri Krymov. Tanker Derbent on Lib.ru