Vasili Arkhipov
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2010) |
| Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 1926 Staraya Kupavna, Moscow Oblast, Soviet Union |
| Died | 1999 (aged 72–73) |
| Allegiance |  Soviet Union |
| Service/branch |  Soviet Navy |
| Years of service | 1945-1980s |
| Rank | Vice Admiral |
| Battles/wars | World War II Cuban Missile Crisis |
| Awards | Order of the Red Banner Order of the Red Star |
Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov (Russian: Василий Александрович Архипов) (30 January 1926 – 1999) was a Soviet naval officer. During the Cuban Missile Crisis he prevented the launch of a nuclear torpedo and therefore a possible nuclear war. His story is to this day unknown to the wider public, although some believe that (as the director of the National Security Archive Thomas Blanton expressed it in 2002), "a guy called Vasili Arkhipov saved the world."[1]
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Arkhipov was born in a peasant family near Moscow.[2] He was educated in the Pacific Higher Naval School and participated in the Soviet war against Japan in August 1945 serving aboard a minesweeper. He transferred to the Caspian Higher Naval School and graduated in 1947.[2] He served in the submarine service aboard boats in the Black Sea, Northern and Baltic Fleets.[citation needed]
[edit] K19 Accident
In July 1961 Arkhipov was appointed deputy commander or executive officer of the new Hotel-class ballistic missile submarine K-19.[2] He backed Captain Nikolai Vladimirovich Zateyev during the potential mutiny and received a dose of radiation after the accident.[citation needed] This incident is depicted in the American film K-19: The Widowmaker.
[edit] Cuban Missile Crisis
On October 27, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a group of eleven United States Navy destroyers and the aircraft carrier USS Randolph trapped a nuclear-armed Soviet Foxtrot class submarine B-59 near Cuba and started dropping practice depth charges, explosives intended to force the submarine to come to the surface for identification. The captain of the submarine, Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky, believing that a war might already have started, wanted to launch a nuclear-tipped torpedo, despite the Soviets' being informed that practice depth charges were being used.[3]
Three officers on board the submarine — Savitsky, the Political Officer Ivan Semonovich Maslennikov, and the second in command Arkhipov — were authorized to launch the torpedo if agreeing unanimously in favor of doing so. An argument broke out among the three, in which only Arkhipov was against the launch,[4] eventually persuading Savitsky to surface the submarine and await orders from Moscow. The nuclear warfare which presumably would have ensued was thus averted.[5] Arkhipov's actions served, in part, as the inspiration for the American film Crimson Tide.[citation needed]
[edit] Later life
After the Cuban Crisis Arkhipov continued in Soviet Navy service, commanding submarines and later submarine squadrons. He was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1975 and became head of the Kirov Naval Academy. He was promoted to Vice Admiral in 1981 and retired in the mid 1980s. He subsequently settled in Zheleznodorozhny, Moscow Oblast where he died in 1999.[citation needed]
At the conference commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis held in Havana on 13 October 2002, Robert McNamara admitted that nuclear war had come much closer than people had thought.[citation needed]
In Aleksandr Mozgovoy's 2002 book, Kubinskaya Samba Kvarteta Fokstrotov (Cuban Samba of the Foxtrot Quartet), retired Commander Vadim Pavlovich Orlov, a participant in the events, presents them less dramatically, saying the captain lost his temper, but eventually calmed down.[6]
[edit] See also
- Stanislav Petrov, a Russian duty officer at a missile warning station who averted a possible nuclear war in 1983.
- K-19: The Widowmaker, a 2002 film depicting the nuclear reactor accident aboard the K-19 Soviet submarine.
- Crimson Tide, a 1995 film depicting a fictional stand-off between officers aboard a submarine relating to the launch of a nuclear salvo, for which Arkhipov's actions during the Cuban missile crisis served as partial inspiration.
[edit] References
- This Article incorporates Material translated from Russian Wikipedia
- ^ Marion Lloyd (October 13, 2002). "SOVIETS CLOSE TO USING A-BOMB IN 1962 CRISIS, FORUM IS TOLD". Boston Globe. http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cold-war/sovietsbomb.htm. Retrieved 2010-09-25.
- ^ a b c Russian Wikipedia
- ^ "Chronology of Submarine Contact During the Cuban Missile Crisis". National Security Archive of the George Washington University. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB75/subchron.htm. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
- ^ Noam Chomsky (2004). Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance. New York: Henry Holt. pp. 74. ISBN 0-8050-7688-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=Xx3ptbzQ8L4C&pg=PA74.
- ^ Blanton, Thomas S. (16 October 2002). The Cuban Missile Crisis: 40 Years Later. Interview with washingtonpost.com. Forum users. http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/zforum/02/sp_world_blanton101602.htm. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
- ^ VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV (June 21, 2002). "Russian Book Looks at Missile Crisis". johnson. http://65.120.76.252/russia/johnson/6320-12.cfm. Retrieved 2008-05-03.
