The novel “Two Captains” is the most famous book by the Soviet writer Veniamin Kaverin. The first chapters were published in 1938 in the “Koster” (Campfire) magazine, and the full edition was published seven years later. The book has been translated into many languages and reprinted hundreds of times.
The main storyline of the novel is based on the story of Valerian Albanov, who was a navigator and explorer of the Arctic and the North. He managed to survive after going adrift on Brusilov’s ship “Saint Anna” during the expedition of 1912, where 22 people died.
The boy Sanya from the provincial town of Ensk is one of the two captains in the novel.
He was destined to go through the trials of orphanhood, coming of age and war to finally win the heart of the girl he loved and solve the mystery with which their fate is closely connected. As a child, the boy listened to his neighbor reading letters from the bag of a drowned postman, and memorized the words of the polar explorers whose ship froze in the Kara Sea. Later, Sanya found out about the missing expedition of Captain Tatarinov at the North Pole.
In the 1976 film adaptation, the role of captain Alexander Grigoriev (Sanya as an adult) was played by Boris Tokarev. In 2022, during an event in Ufa dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the birth of the writer Veniamin Kaverin and the 140th anniversary of the birth of the polar navigator Valerian Albanov, he signed this copy of the book.
Boris Vasilyevich Tokarev is an actor, film director, Honored Artist of the RSFSR, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, First Vice President of the Guild of Film Actors of Russia. He made his film debut at the age of 12, playing Viktor in Georgy Pobedonostsev’s film “The Saved Generation”. A year later, he was invited to the Pushkin Theater to take part in the play “Pillars of Society” — thus becoming an actor on the big stage, while still studying at school.
While studying at VGIK, Tokarev starred in several movies: “The Road to the Sea”, “The Sixth Summer”, “Loyalty”. After graduating, he got a job at the Theater of the Soviet Army, but he worked there for only a year, because he aspired to become a movie star. Boris Tokarev has been awarded dozens of state and international awards, including the Order of the Commonwealth for active participation in the activities of the Interparliamentary Assembly, an award for his contribution to the strengthening of friendships between the peoples of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), and the Order of Honor — for merits in the development of national culture and art, and many years of fruitful activity.
