Swim from the USSR: the most daring escape, which was silent for a long time
Swim from the USSR: the most daring escape, which was silent for a long time

Video: Swim from the USSR: the most daring escape, which was silent for a long time

Video: Swim from the USSR: the most daring escape, which was silent for a long time
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Oceanologist Stanislav Kurilov
Oceanologist Stanislav Kurilov

On December 13, 1974, the most daring and famous escape from the USSR took place. Ocean scientist Stanislav Kurilov jumped overboard from a passenger steamer in the Pacific Ocean and, having covered a distance of more than a hundred kilometers, reached the Philippine island.

By profession - an oceanographer, by nature - a romantic, by vocation - a citizen of the Universe, Slava Kurilov was declared restricted to travel abroad in the Soviet Union, but he did not want to accept it.

The steamer "Sovetsky Soyuz" made a cruise across the Pacific Ocean from Vladivostok to the equator and back. Due to the fact that for Soviet tourists a 20-day voyage took place without a single (!) Call to foreign ports, the travelers did not need to issue visas. For Kurilov, who was not allowed to travel abroad, participation in this cruise was the only way to escape the borders of the USSR and try to carry out his plan of escape from this country. No one believed that one could escape from the Soviet Union, no one except Kurilov.

Steamship "Sovetsky Soyuz", on which Stanislav Kurilov went on a cruise
Steamship "Sovetsky Soyuz", on which Stanislav Kurilov went on a cruise

The cruise ship on which Stanislav Kurilov purchased the tour sailed from Vladivostok on December 8, 1974. He was least of all adapted to escape. At the bottom, the sides were rounded. These were tanks of the passive roll stabilization system. In addition, this system included underwater metal wings about one and a half meters wide. So it was impossible to leave the ship by jumping from side to side. They should have jumped only in one place, behind, into the breaker behind the propeller blades. That is what Slava Kurilov did on the night of December 13, when the ship sailed about 100 kilometers west of the Philippine island of Siargao.

The route of the Soviet cruise liner
The route of the Soviet cruise liner

He swam 100 kilometers in a little less than three days. How did you survive? Because of your health? Or the ability to stay on the water is no worse than the mythical Ichthyander? Or willpower did not allow him to get scared and go astray, to get lost among the waves? Or did the right equipment help? It seems that everything is taken together. And Slava Kurilov was very lucky. The ancient Greeks would say that the great Poseidon loved him. And the storm passed by, not covering the lone swimmer with huge waves. And the sun hardly appeared for two days because of the clouds, so Slava was burned just a little. While swimming, he barely touched a cluster of jellyfish, touching which caused paralysis. And sharks, of which there are a lot in these parts, passed over Glory. On December 15, 1974, solid ground turned out to be under the feet of Slava Kurilov. The Philippines was not on friendly terms with the Soviet Union and the fugitive was not given back.

Siargao Island, which became the salvation for Stanislav Kurilov
Siargao Island, which became the salvation for Stanislav Kurilov

A little later in the USSR, where Kurilov lived for 38 years, a commission met on his escape, which decided to imprison him for another 10 years, "for treason." But Slava Kurilov was no longer worried about this, he began to live and implement everything that he dreamed of for many years - he studied the ocean, made travels and expeditions, including to the North Pole.

Stanislav Kurilov practices yoga
Stanislav Kurilov practices yoga

From the book Slava Kurilov "Alone in the Ocean": "."

A person's heart is born to be free - you just need to have the courage to hear his voice.

Stanislav Kurilov died on January 29, 1998 while diving on Lake Tiberias in Israel. Freeing the equipment installed at the bottom together with his partner from the fishing nets, Kurilov got entangled in the nets and exhausted all the air. He was buried in Jerusalem in a little-known cemetery of the German Templar community.

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