Stanislav Kurilov

Stanislav Vasilyevich 'Slava' Kurilov (; July 17, 1936 – January 29, 1998) was a Soviet, Canadian and Israeli oceanographer. He escaped from the Soviet Union by jumping overboard from a cruise liner in the open ocean and swimming to the Philippines.

Biography

Early life Stanislav Kurilov was born in 1936 in Vladikavkaz, then known as Ordzhonikidze. He grew up in Semipalatinsk, in Soviet Kazakhstan. As a young child, he learned to swim in secret from his own parents, who forbade him to enter open water. At the age of 10, on a dare, he swam across the Irtysh.

From his early years, Kurilov dreamed of a life of sailing the seas. However, doctors told him that due to a vision problem he would not be eligible for either a Soviet Navy or merchant marine career. After doing his military service, as a chemical warfare instructor of a sapper battalion, he graduated from the Leningrad Meteorology Institute (ru) as an oceanographer. While a student, he learned scuba diving. because his father had been a prisoner of war during World War II,

After sunset on December 13, in stormy weather, Kurilov jumped overboard from the stern of the cruise ship, with a snorkeling mask and fins. Luckily, he was neither immediately noticed by the crew, or struck by the ship's propeller. Because of the strong currents, it took him three nights and two days to reach the land. In his own memoir, he recalls reaching the Philippine shore on his own, by swimming all the way. After about six months of investigation, first in Cagayan de Oro,

Yuri Vetokhin, a former computer programmer from Leningrad, escaped in a similar way to Indonesia in December 1979. He later gave an account of his escape, as well as of two previous, failed, escape attempts on the Black Sea, in his memoir.

In culture In 2017, the Ukrainian music band Antytila published a music video of the song "TDME" dedicated to Kurilov.