By profession - an oceanographer, by nature - a romantic, by vocation - a citizen of the Universe, Slava Kurilov was declared prohibited from traveling abroad in the Soviet Union, but did not want to come to terms with this. In December 1974, he escaped from the Soviet Union tourist liner near the Philippines. Without food or drink, without sea equipment, equipped only with a mask, fins and snorkel, he swam about a hundred kilometers to the Philippine coast, spending almost three days in the ocean. This book is about his path to freedom, written by himself and published after his death.© Kurilov, heirs, 2004