Who is Soviet Commander Vasily Arkhipov?

After the bloody years of the Second World War, a period of peace began. But this period of peace was not very peaceful because today we remember it as the years when agents were wandering around and the danger of nuclear war was at the door. It was such a time The Soviets and America had placed nuclear bombs all over the world. A few of them were in the submarine fleet under the command of Vasily Arkhipov.

We are sure that not many people have heard of Vasily Arkhipov. He has saved humanity from a third world war and furthermore from a nuclear war in which the world as we know it today would no longer exist. In fact, at that moment both he and his crew were in a difficult situation, but for one simple reason, he did not allow the world to go into nuclear war, and Vasily Arkhipov name written next to the most important heroes of history. Let’s take a closer look at this story.

First, let’s recall the Cold War period in which our story takes place:

The Second World War, a black mark in the history of humanity in which millions of people lost their lives, ended in 1945. However peace period was not rosy because the world was divided between the United States of America and its supporters and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and its supporters.

Worse still, these two superpowers had numerous nuclear weapons at their disposal. The Soviets launched their nuclear missiles at Cuba; America had placed its nuclear missiles in Turkey and Italy. During these events, which took place during the Cold War and called the Cuban Missile Crisis, both sides were like bombs ready to explode. If one fired a missile, the other would, too, and at that moment a nuclear war would begin that would flatten the world.

Who is the hero of our story, Vasily Arkhipov? A soldier who sees the nuclear danger closely:

Vasily Alexandrovich Arkhipov, with his full name, was born on January 30, 1926, in a small town near Moscow, to a peasant family. After basic training, he received military training at the Pacific High Naval School. He served on a minesweeper in the 1945 Soviet-Japanese War. He later graduated from the Caspian Higher Naval School as an officer and joined the army.

The first time Vasili Arkhipov came face to face with death was in 1961. At that time He was serving as the deputy commander of a ballistic missile submarine called K-19. During standard exercise, it was revealed that there was a leak in the reactor cooling system.

The submarine had been cut off from Moscow and had no backup system. After a long struggle, the engineering team found a second cooling system and prevented the explosion. But the entire crew was exposed to radiation. The entire team of most exposed engineers died within a month. Vasily Arkhipov and all other crew members were permanently damaged.

The Soviet submarine was trapped and the captain’s ‘Shoot!’ had the command:

On October 27, 1962, the Soviet nuclear submarine B-59, It was blockaded by 11 destroyers of the United States Navy and the aircraft carrier USS Randolph. The captain of the B-59 submarine was Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky, his political officer Ivan Semonovich Maslennikov and his commodore, namely the captain of the fleet, Vasili Arkhipov.

The B-59 nuclear submarine was extremely important to the Soviets and therefore it was not wanted to be known by the USA. It was too deep to get hung up on radio signals for exactly that reason. But somehow he was noticed and the harassment attacks began for him to come to the surface. Then the captain’s hand reached for the nuclear missile button.

Vasily Arkhipov was clear: ‘Never without my consent!’

Under normal circumstances, the approval of the captain and political official was sufficient for a Soviet submarine to launch a nuclear missile. However, due to the importance of the B-59 submarine, for nuclear missiles to be launched from here the three most senior officers that is, the approval of the captain, the political official and the fleet commander was required.

In the submarine B-59, Vasily Arkhipov was actually in second place, because the captain of each ship is the most authoritative. But Vasili Arkhipov like B-59, B-4, B-36 and B-130 for being the commander of a fleet of many submarines With the rank of commodore, that is, the fleet commander, he had the power to interfere with missile launches.

Experienced as a young soldier what nuclear means A big argument broke out between Vasily Arkhipov and both the captain and the political official. Arkhipov convinced the officers that this attack was only for attention and to await orders from Moscow.

B-59’s long wait:

Vasily Arkhipov had convinced the captain so that the nuclear missiles remained in place. But the B-59 was not in good condition. The air conditioner was not working because the submarine’s batteries were low. For a submarine, no air conditioning means a lack of oxygen and an increase in carbon dioxide. In the meantime, it should not be forgotten that the fire of harassment continues.

After a few hours of wait that felt like years to the crew The B-59 finally got the order and digging deep, he made his way home. Thus, the nuclear war that would drag the world into a great disaster was over before it started.

Vasily Arkhipov unfortunately died years ago due to radiation exposure:

If you think that Vasili Arkhipov was welcomed like a hero, you would be wrong because at that time it was considered ordinary because there were countless events like this. Arkhipov as a successful soldier soared in his career. He became president and vice-admiral of the Kirov Naval Academy. He retired to a quiet life in the 1980s.

Unfortunately, his retirement life wasn’t very peaceful because of the radiation he was exposed to as a young soldier many years ago, just like all the crew exposed with him, His kidneys were severely damaged and he was cancer. Vasily Arkhipov died on August 19, 1998. Interestingly, the captain of the submarine to which he was exposed to radiation also died 9 days after Arkhipov for the same reason.

Bringing the world from the brink of nuclear war Who is Vasily Arkhipov, the secret hero of the Cold War era? Answering the question, we talked about the story of the Soviet commander. We hope that one day, as humans, we will live in a world where science and art are the greatest power, not weapons.

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