Stanislav Kurilov

Stanislav Kurilov was born in 1936 in Vladikavkaz

Kurilov was born in 1936 in Vladikavkaz and grew up in Semipalatinsk, in Soviet Kazakhstan. He learned to swim as a child against his parents' wishes and dreamed of a life at sea. Doctors ruled him out of a naval career because of a vision problem.

After his military service he studied oceanography at the Leningrad Meteorology Institute, where he also learned scuba diving. He later took up yoga and meditation.

He worked at the Institute of Oceanology of the USSR Academy of Sciences and at the Marine Biology Institute in Vladivostok. The authorities barred him from overseas expeditions, so his work stayed in Soviet coastal waters. From 1970, joint projects with Jacques-Yves Cousteau fell through because he was refused a passport.

In December 1974 he jumped from the cruise liner Sovetsky Soyuz near Siargao Island and reached the Philippine shore after three nights and two days. After about six months of investigation he left for Canada. The Soviet Union sentenced him in absentia to 10 years in prison.

In 1986 he moved to Israel, married Lena Gendelev and worked at the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research institute in Haifa. He wrote about his escape and other stories. He died in 1998 in a diving accident in the Sea of Galilee and was buried in Jerusalem.