After introducing the other men of his crew, he recounts his early life in Siberia. His parents were both members of the Communist Party, educated, and somewhat outsiders in the village of Sukhoi, but valued for their literacy. In his late teens, in 1940, Abdulin left school to join his father in the Miasski gold mines. As a miner he was exempt from military service, but soon after the German invasion he and three of his friends managed to persuade local officials to allow them to enlist. Of the four, only Abdulin would survive the war.