Vasili Arkhipov

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For a World War II Hero of the Soviet Union, see Vasili Sergeyevich Arkhipov.
Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov
Native name Василий Александрович Архипов
Born (1926-01-30)30 January 1926
Zvorkovo, Moscow Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died 19 August 1998(1998-08-19) (aged 72)
Zheleznodorozhny, Moscow Oblast, Russia
Allegiance  Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Service/branch  Soviet Navy
Years of service 1945–1980s
Rank Vice Admiral
Battles/wars
Awards

Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov (Russian: Василий Александрович Архипов) (30 January 1926 – 19 August 1998) was a Soviet Navy officer. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, he prevented the launch of a nuclear torpedo and thereby prevented a nuclear war. Thomas Blanton (then director of the National Security Archive) said in 2002 that "a guy called Vasili Arkhipov saved the world".[2]

Early life

Arkhipov was born into a peasant family near Moscow. He was educated in the Pacific Higher Naval School and participated in the Soviet–Japanese War in August 1945, serving aboard a minesweeper. He transferred to the Caspian Higher Naval School and graduated in 1947.[3]

Career

After graduating in 1947, Arkhipov served in the submarine service aboard boats in the Black Sea, Northern and Baltic Fleets.[3]

K-19 accident

Main article: Soviet submarine K-19

In July 1961, Arkhipov was appointed deputy commander or executive officer of the new Hotel-class ballistic missile submarine K-19.[3] During its nuclear accident, he backed Captain Nikolai Vladimirovich Zateyev during the potential mutiny. While assisting with engineering work to deal with the overheating reactor, he was exposed to a harmful level of radiation.[4] This incident is depicted in the American film K-19: The Widowmaker.

Involvement in Cuban Missile Crisis

Soviet submarine B-59, in the Caribbean near Cuba.[1]

On 27 October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a group of eleven United States Navy destroyers and the aircraft carrier USS Randolph located the diesel-powered nuclear-armed Soviet Foxtrot-class submarine B-59 near Cuba. Despite being in international waters, the Americans started dropping practice depth charges, explosives intended to force the submarine to come to the surface for identification. There had been no contact from Moscow for a number of days and, although the submarine's crew had earlier been picking up U.S. civilian radio broadcasts, once B-59 began attempting to hide from its U.S. Navy pursuers, it was too deep to monitor any radio traffic, so those on board did not know whether war had broken out.[5] The captain of the submarine, Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky, believing that a war might already have started, wanted to launch a nuclear torpedo.[6]

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.[7] Although Arkhipov was only second-in-command of submarine B-59, he was actually commander of the flotilla of submarines, including B-4, B-36 and B-130, and of equal rank to Captain Savitsky. According to author Edward Wilson, the reputation Arkhipov gained from his courageous conduct in the previous year's K-19 incident also helped him prevail in the debate.[4] Arkhipov eventually persuaded Savitsky to surface the submarine and await orders from Moscow. This presumably averted the nuclear warfare which could possibly have ensued had the torpedo been fired.[8] The submarine's batteries had run very low and the air-conditioning had failed, so it was forced to surface amidst its U.S. pursuers and head home.[9] Washington's message that practice depth charges were being used to signal the submarines to surface never reached B-59, and Moscow claims it has no record of receiving it either.

Aftermath

When discussing the Cuban missile crisis in 2002, Robert McNamara, who was U.S. Secretary of Defense during the crisis, stated that "we came very close" to nuclear war, "closer than we knew at the time."[10]

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 that Captain Savitsky had merely lost his temper, but eventually calmed down.[11]

Later life and death

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 Kupavna (incorporated into Zheleznodorozhny, Moscow Oblast, in 2004), where he died on 19 August 1998.[3] The radiation to which he had been exposed in 1961 contributed to his death.[4][12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Burr and, William; Blanton, Thomas S., eds. (31 October 2002). The submarines of October- U.S. and Soviet Naval Encounters During the Cuban Missile Crisis. National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book. No. 75. Archived from the original on 11 May 2012. 
  2. ↑ Lloyd, Marion (13 October 2002). "Soviets Close to Using A-Bomb in 1962 Crisis, Forum is Told". Boston Globe. pp. A20. Retrieved 7 August 2012. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Roberts, Priscilla Mary (2012). "Arkhipov, Vasili Alexandrovich". Cuban Missile Crisis: The Essential Reference Guide. Abc-Clio Inc. pp. 13–14. ISBN 9781610690652. Retrieved 11 May 2012. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Edward Wilson (2012-10-27). "Thank you Vasili Arkhipov, the man who stopped nuclear war". The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-10-31. 
  5. ↑ Michael Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, Vintage, Random House, 2009. Includes photograph of B-59 surfacing.
  6. ↑ "Chronology of Submarine Contact During the Cuban Missile Crisis". National Security Archive of the George Washington University. Retrieved 15 November 2010. 
  7. ↑ Noam Chomsky (2004). Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance. New York: Henry Holt. p. 74. ISBN 0-8050-7688-3. 
  8. ↑ Blanton, Thomas S. (16 October 2002). The Cuban Missile Crisis: 40 Years Later. Interview with washingtonpost.com. Forum users. Archived from the original on 2008-08-30. http://web.archive.org/web/20080830221337/http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/zforum/02/sp_world_blanton101602.htm. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
  9. ↑ Watson, Leon, & Duell, Mark (2012-09-25). "The Man Who Saved the World". Daily Mail. Retrieved 2012-10-12. 
  10. ↑ "'I don't think anybody thought much about whether Agent Orange was against the rules of war'". guardian.co.uk. May 19, 2002. Retrieved 22 June 2012. 
  11. ↑ Isachsnkov, Vladimir (21 June 2002). "Russian Book Looks at Missile Crisis". johnson. Archived from the original on 2011-05-30. Retrieved 2008-05-03. 
  12. ↑ "The Man Who Saved the World". Secrets of the Dead. PBS. 10/24/2012. http://video.pbs.org/video/2295274962.

External links

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