Seventy-Two Degrees Below Zero

Vladimir Markovich Sanin (1929—1989) wrote about people who chose a difficult and dangerous path in life—polar explorers, firefighters, travelers. And he himself belonged to the same restless human breed: as a boy, Sanin managed to take part in the Great Patriotic War, after the war he finished the Economics faculty of Moscow State University, worked for a newspaper, became a writer, and more than once crossed the Arctic Circle, in the Arctic and Antarctica.\n\nThe plots of his works are often based on real events, developing in nontrivial circumstances and enclosed communities (such as, for example, a ship’s crew or an avalanche station).\n\nAntarctica, the beginning of autumn. Polar explorers must ferry the tractors from the Vostok station to the Mirny station—1,500 kilometers, 30 days of travel, but no one has ever returned to Mirny at this time of year… If the tractors aren’t returned to Mirny, the Vostok station will be sealed for a whole year since it will run out of fuel. So there’s only one decision: to transfer the equipment. Starting this march, the polar explorers still don’t know what kinds of technical and natural difficulties they will have to face.