Two Captains is the most renowned novel of the Russian writer Veniamin Kaverin. The plot spans from 1912 to 1944, capturing the hearts of both children and adults alike for more than half a century.

The novel has undergone over 100 printings and translations into various languages. Its story has inspired plays, an opera, and two movies released in 1955 and 1976. In 1995, a monument was erected in Pskov, the author's hometown, to honor the book's characters, alongside the opening of a "Two Captains" museum.

The real-life inspiration for Captain Tatarinov was Lieutenant Georgii Brusilov, who organized a privately funded expedition in 1912, seeking a west-to-east Northern sea route. The steamship "St. Anna", specially built for the expedition, left Petersburg on July 28, 1912. Near the Yamal peninsula, it was seized by ice and carried north of the Kara Sea. The expedition survived two harsh winters. Of the 14 people who left the stranded steamship in 1914, only two reached one of the islands of Frants-Joseph Land and were rescued by "St. Foka," the ship of G. Y. Sedov's expedition. The ship log they preserved contained crucial scientific data, leading to the discovery of the previously unknown Vize Island in the Kara Sea. The ultimate fate of "St. Anna" and its remaining crew remains unknown.

Veniamin Kaverin (1902-1989) penned novels, short stories, fairy tales, memoirs, and biographies. In the early 1920s, he was part of the experimental literary group "Serapionovi bratya". In 1946, Two Captains won the USSR State Literature Award.