The name of Novikov-Priboy (1877–1944), an original marine painter, is familiar not only to sailors. A peasant who dreamed of serving in the navy, who went through the Tsushima hell and Japanese captivity, who plowed many seas and oceans, became a writer. Critics reproached him for his flowery language and fictional cliches, and readers swept multimillion-dollar copies of his books off the shelves. The creation of the epic novel “Tsushima” required from the writer no less courage than that shown by Russian sailors in the battle with the Japanese fleet; the history of its creation is complex and dramatic, full of bright, sharp collisions. “I cannot stand the flabbiness of the human soul” - these words of one of his heroes can become an epigraph to the biography of the writer himself, who forged his character by conquering and defeating fate, which was not always favorable to him.