Russia's Unkown Heroes

Russia's Unknown Heroes

Men Who Saved The World


Sweat dripped off the brows and clothing adhered to their bodies as the temperature soared.
'I need more water', one member complained',
'I've had my Rashon of one cup a day', another moaned.
The Foxtrot B59 Submarine was run on diesel and batteries were failing. To charge the batteries, the submarine had to surface. Up above them, US destroyers and aircraft carriers as sharks encircling their prey.
The year was October 1st 1961.
On board were Officer Vasili Arkhipov, Captain Savisky and Political Officer Orlov.
Unbeknown to the USA, four of these Soviet submarines sleeking their way through the Sargasso Sea carrying 15 kilotons of nuclear missiles, for support to Cuba.
The year was October 27, 1962. A US spy plane had photographed nuclear Russian nuclear missiles in Cuba. As a result, President J.F. Kennedy ordered a blockade.

The submarine violently oscillated as USS Blandy above them dropped depth charges. The men had to brace themselves against a wall, or back of a chair.
Captain Arkhipov was on the phone for instructions from Moscow but did not get a response. For them to fire this lethal weapon, all three Captains had to agree. As the cramped spaces became airless, Arkhipov was trying to keep a cool head.
Two members wanted to fire, Arkhipov did not.
'It might not be an act of aggression, but an invitation to surface', he reasoned with this Co-Captains. They all knew what was at stake, to fire would be Catastrophic including for the USSR.
After the Submarine signaled back to the US warship to indicate it was surfacing, it found itself surrounded by warships and circulating planes. Communication between the sub and warship took place without anyone boarding the hostile vessels.
The Russian fleet was ordered back to Russia. Negotiations then took place between Washington and Russia. Russia removed their warheads out of Cuba and America removed their Jupiter missiles from Turkiye.

Arkhipov received no praise after the crisis was resolved, at least officially. The whole story remained classified. Arkhipov continued his naval service, reaching the rank of vice admiral in 1981. After retirement, he quietly lived with his family in the Moscow Region.
In 2002, during a conference dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis, intelligence officer Vadim Orlov disclosed details of those events, including how close the world came to a nuclear holocaust and Arkhipov’s role in preventing it.

***

In the early hours of the morning, September 26th1983, Stanislav Petrov was on duty to observe incoming enemy missiles. He was ultimately responsible for responsive action. The night thus far had been uneventful. Suddenly, the alarms screamed out alerting of an incoming missile attack from America. If he reported it, the response would have been to lunch a counterattack.
One minute later, the siren wailed again, frozen in his spot, sweat pouring from his brow, the alarm went again. Five consecutive times.
All expectant eyes were on him, awaiting their order to fire. Petrov stalled.
Adrenalin pumping, he reasoned the new system had malfunctioned. America would not need to send five missiles, and nothing was coming up on radar, even though they could be silhouetted against the night sky. However, if he was wrong, the first missile would have struck minutes later.
After a tense twenty-three minutes, the missile would have hit. Relief swept over all in the room.
He had been correct and lucky in calculating the system had malfunctioned.
He should have been branded a hero. Instead, he was thrown over the coals for not reporting it, even though the response would have been to launch their counter missile.
He was demoted. Russia was too embarrassed to admit to installing a faulty system.
He was late branded a Hero by President Reagan and named 'The Man Who Saved the World'.
Back in Russia, who he was and what he did was unknown. Unfortunately died a poor, unknown hero.

***
It is ironic these two thinking men from Russia saved the world from a nuclear catastrophe when someone else calling the shots might have fired.
We can only hope if the call ever rises, some logical, thinking human might act contrary to 'protocol' and save the world.

There is only one country who has dropped the nuclear bomb on civilization...not once, but twice.
Let's us all hope we never see a repeat of that.

Documentary on Vasili Arkhipov, is found on Youtube
Documentary/Movie about Stanislav Petrov is screened on Tubi.

Other information -
National Security Archives
BBC
Guardian
The National Interest
Wikipeadia

by Sandra Jones