The Possessed

Vladimir Markovich Sanin (1928–1989) was an indefatigable traveler who visited the most inaccessible places on Earth—Arctic, Antarctica, and the equator—one of the last Soviet romantics, who sang praises to long-distance journeys and heroic professions. Most of his books are devoted to sailors and polar explorers, about whose lives the author knew first-hand. Such is the novella “Possessed,” included in the collection, about the death of a ship during ice-freezing experiments.