title: A Russian Intellectual Odyssey 1879-1919
author: Nikolai A Borodin
description: Nicholas A. Borodin was an accomplished ichthyologist, fisheries expert, Member of the First Russian Duma, Harvard curator, and the author of more than a hundred scientific, technological, journalistic, and biographical works.
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  ![Cover](Ivan%20Yafremov%20-%20The%20Land%20of%20Foam.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  # THE LAND OF FOAM
  
  
  # Ivan Yefremov
  
  
  
  
  
  FOREIGN LANGUAGES PUBLISHING HOUSE
  
  
  Moscow
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ##
  
  
  ## Introduction
  
  
  In 1922, when Ivan Yefremov, at the age of 16, passed his matriculation
  examination in Petrograd, it is doubtful whether he even thought that one day
  he might become a writer.
  
  
  He had been early left an orphan and went through the Civil War as the protégé
  of a Red Army Regiment. He had read many books, but the one with the wonderful
  pictures and descriptions of strange animals had always attracted him more
  than any other.
  
  
  … Academician Sushkin’s study opened its doors to him without any letters of
  recommendation -- the Academician devoted the youngster the hours torn from
  the days already packed tight with work; it was something of great
  significance, something they both had in common, that brought the fifty-five-
  year-old scholar and the sixteen-year-old boy together.
  
  
  In 1927 Ivan Yefremov publis