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The outstanding Soviet officer Vasily Arkhipov (19261998) managed to prevent a nuclear holocaust in the Caribbean Sea
8 hours ago
It was October 27, 1962. And the world was on the brink.
The Cuban Missile Crisis between the USA and the Soviet Union could escalate at any time and trigger a nuclear war.
Washington demanded that Moscow withdraw its nuclear missiles stationed on the island of Cuba, almost 200 km from the American coast. Amid the crisis, military ships from both countries have been engaged in a strategic battle to maintain control of their territories in the face of a possible global conflict.
The Soviet submarine fleet was tasked with patrolling the area around Cuban waters for reconnaissance and control purposes. And some of the submarines were equipped with torpedoes with nuclear warheads.
An incident that could have triggered a nuclear conflict occurred inside one of the B59 submarines in the Soviet fleet. The submarine lost communication with the rest of the fleet and the crew believed the war had begun.
Three commanders decided whether to fire a nuclear torpedo. Soviet Navy protocol stipulated that to fire a nuclear torpedo, the unanimous consent of the three fleet commanders was required.
Two of them supported the launch, but a third refused to take part.
His name was Vasily Alexandrovich Arkhipov.
“This man actually saved the world from a nuclear holocaust, largely because he did not allow himself to be carried away by his impulses and strictly followed the protocol set by Moscow,” Edward Wilson told BBC News Mundo (the BBC’s Spanish service is the author of the book The Midnight Swimmer, which details Arkhipov’s story.
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US President John F. Kennedy informed Americans on television about the Sovietbuilt nuclear missile base in Cuba
“But there were many factors that prevented the attack from being carried out, and it is surprising that Arkhipov did not receive the recognition he deserved,” Wilson points out.
The officer’s appreciation only began after his death in 1998. An American organization even awarded him the posthumous Future of Life Award in 2018 for his actions to prevent a nuclear conflict.
The world in crisis
On October 22, 1962, the world crisis broke out. The then American President John F. Kennedy (19171963) reported that he had discovered a Soviet nuclear missile base in Cuba.
The base was not yet operational, but could be ready for a possible attack at any time. And just 200 km from the United States, missiles could reach major North American cities and destroy them within minutes.
In the same message, Kennedy announced defensive measures and the deployment of troops and ships on a rarely seen scale, including the establishment of a naval siege around Cuba to establish a military blockade.
The aim was to prevent the arrival of material for further construction of the base.
Moscow was not afraid. In response, he placed his entire army and the Soviet ships present in the region on alert in the face of impending joint pressure from the task force command and North American units.
According to the United States National Archives and the memoirs of Russian Captain Vadim Orlov, who was on the submarine, the situation inside the B59 on October 27 could not have been worse.
The submarine was specifically designed to fire nuclear torpedoes. But it was designed to sail in the cold waters of the Northern Hemisphere and the Caribbean was too hot for this ship. This caused the air conditioning to break down and the temperature inside was oppressive.
In addition, the submarine had reached a higher speed than the other ships in the fleet in the hours before the incident and was spotted by a North American battleship.
“The battleship began firing nonlethal munitions to bring the submarine to the surface, according to the Pentagon report,” Wilson explains. “But within the B59, they thought the war had begun, given all the previous tensions and lack of communication.”
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The B59 submarines were part of the brigade of Soviet ships that patrolled around Cuba during the 1962 missile crisis.
Tripartite decision
The submarine was commanded by Soviet captain Valentin Savitsky. Faced with the American ship’s attack, he called a meeting between the fleet’s three highestranking officers.
One of these officers was Arkhipov, second in command. The captain, alarmed by the munitions raining down from the surface, declared that the best response would be to fire one of the nuclear torpedoes.
“We will destroy them now! We will die, but we will all perish; We will not be the disgrace of the fleet,” Savitsky shouted, according to Orlov’s report.
Wilson points out that “at that time, Soviet submarines did not need authorization or direct orders from Moscow to launch a nuclear attack. All that was required was the consent of the three commanders, nothing more.”
But Arkhipov enjoyed a certain prestige among the commanders and refused to support the captain’s decision. “Arkhipov was the only one who refused,” Wilson said.
“It is clear that Arkhipov’s reputation was a key factor in the debate in the control room. “The previous year, the young officer was exposed to strong radiation to save a submarine with an overheated reactor,” says the author.
In a report submitted some time later by Arkhipov himself, he highlighted the reasons that led to their failure to respond to the attack. According to him, although there was a “tense situation” when they left the base, he argued that this incident was not a situation of military confrontation.
“Thanks to him and the captain, who calmed down after being disturbed by the heat of the submarine and the pursuit of the US Navy, a Third World War with apocalyptic consequences did not occur,” emphasizes Wilson.
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Photos from American intelligence showed the construction of a nuclear missile launch base in Cuba
“The Shame of the Fleet”
In the early hours of October 28, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to dismantle the base in Cuba in exchange for dismantling a North American nuclear base in Turkey.
Most Uboats returned to their home ports. But when it was expected that the crew would receive a hero’s welcome, exactly the opposite happened.
In the documentary about the incident produced by PBS (the United States public radio and television network), Arkhipov’s wife, Olga, stated that her husband was very disappointed with how his superiors viewed his involvement in this decision.
Another witness emphasizes that one of the highranking Moscow officers told the commanders of the submarine brigade that “it would have been better if they had died there” than returning without a win.
Arkhipov ended his military career and died in 1998 at the age of 72, without his intervention receiving due recognition.
It was only in 2000 that officer Vadim Orlov reported what had happened in the submarine. He emphasized that it was thanks to Arkhipov that the torpedoes were not fired and only then was the soldier’s contribution recognized.
In 2007, the director of the United States National Security Archive, Tom Blanton, held an exhibition on the subject and concluded: “This man really saved the world.”
“I don’t know what would have happened if a nuclear war had actually started,” Wilson says. “What is perhaps most clear is that Europe would have been most harmed because the Soviet Union did not have missiles with a range to reach the United States.”
“I believe that Arkhipov’s role was monumental and that he definitely needs to be thanked for preventing nuclear war,” the author concludes.