Krymov graduated from Moscow State University in 1930[1] and first found work building a radio station.

[1] In 1932 he joined Narkomvod ("the People's Commissariat for Water Transport") and in 1936 he served on the oil tanker Profintern on the Caspian Sea, and saw the Stakhanovite movement take hold.

[1] Krymov volunteered for the Red Army and joined the Communist Party in response to the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.

Krymov named his fictional ship after the city of Derbent on the Caspian coast of the then Dagestan ASSR.

The novel illustrates how an ordinary communist turns an undisciplined crew into an efficient, cohesive collective.