About the book: 1928 / "The sweltering January night of the Argentine summer had arrived. The black sky was covered with stars. "Medusa" calmly stood at anchor The silence of the night was not disturbed by the splash of a wave or the creaking of gear. It seemed that the ocean was sleeping in a deep sleep..." - this is how this novel begins in its usual version. And here is the first version of the novel, as it was published in 1928 in the magazine " Around the world." In the same year, it was published as a separate book by the publishing house "Earth and Factory", but with a circulation of only 5,000 copies. At that time, for a huge reading country, it was a meager circulation, so the book had long become an inaccessible rarity. For the next edition, which had to wait for 10 years, the author thoroughly revised the novel. The entire chapter “Underwater Enemy” disappeared from the text, the revolutionary storyline was significantly shortened, the results of Salvator’s experiments on Indian children were removed, and much more. Something was adapted for a children's audience, something was corrected in connection with the general change in the attitude of the country's leadership to the idea of ​​world revolution. Over the next 80 years, the novel went through more than 100 reprints; the book was printed in huge editions, which were not even dreamed of by modern pygmies of the publishing industry. It is quite difficult to calculate the total circulation of the novel; it is probably close to 14 million copies! But, the second revised version was always published. Now you, the reader, have the opportunity to decide which version of the novel is better: the “classic” or the early one; did such a deep revision benefit him, and what is it in the end: censorship editing, or polishing of the master. The novel is illustrated with wonderful drawings by A. Shpir and is equipped with a very interesting afterword by the author.