The novel reflects a complex period of domestic history connected with the formation of the Murmansk railway and the flotilla of the Arctic Ocean, from which later the heroic Northern Fleet was born. The Russian cruiser “Askold” began its combat service in the Dardanelles operation, but entered the revolution as a ship of the Northern flotilla. Much of the novel is devoted to the struggle against foreign intervention in Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, and Karelia.