The book is based on real events described in the diaries of the hydrometeorologist of the Four Pillars polar station on an island in the East Siberian Sea, by Alexander Kuznetsov.
So what does the hydrometeorologist write in his diary? This case happened in April 1951 and lasted for one and a half years. Polar worker Alexander Kuznetsov, Victor Pysin, and the Yakutian kaуr (sled driver) Nikolay Danilov found themselves in open sea on an ice floe that had broken away.