Ever heard of Vasili Arkhipov?

2015-08-21T09:57:47-04:00

On 27 October 1962, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, second-in-command Vasili Arkhipov of the Soviet submarine B-59 refused to agree with his Captain's order to launch nuclear torpedos against US warships and setting off what might well have been a terminal superpower nuclear war.

The US had been dropping depth charges near the submarine in an attempt to force it to surface, unaware it was carrying nuclear arms. The Soviet officers, who had lost radio contact with Moscow, concluded that World War 3 had begun, and 2 of the officers agreed to 'blast the warships out of the water'. Arkhipov refused to agree - unanimous consent of 3 officers was required - and thanks to him, we are here to talk about it.

His story is finally being told - the BBC is airing a documentary on it.

Raise a glass to Vasili Arkhipov - the Man Who Saved the World.

PS - The PBS documentary, 'The Man who Saved the World', is online here:
http://video.pbs.org/video/ [login to see]

The documentary claims the facts of the matter were only 'recently' revealed. This is not quite true; the Boston Globe reported on it 10 years ago in 2002:
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cold-war/sovietsbomb.htm

The Wikipedia article was created in 2005, citing a 2004 book by Noam Chomsky:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vasili_Arkhipov

Watch now: Secrets of the Dead | The Man Who Saved the World | PBS Video

Watch the full episode of The Man Who Saved the World

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 21 at 2015 10:07 AM

2015-08-21T10:07:31-04:00

SPC David S., sounds like this may have been the event that The Hunt for the Red October was based on. Very interesting story that's going to have me getting lost in Wikipedia for hours!

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 21 at 2015 10:26 AM

2015-08-21T10:26:56-04:00

Wow! very interesting, a hero I never heard of. RIP Vasili Arkhipov.

Response by CPO Joseph Grant made Aug 21 at 2015 11:04 AM

2015-08-21T11:04:44-04:00

He's well known in the Submarine force.

Response by SN Greg Wright made Aug 21 at 2015 12:55 PM

2015-08-21T12:55:53-04:00

SPC David S. I actually did know about him -- as well as General Yury Votintsev, then commander of the Soviet Air Defense's Missiles, who refused to launch when their early-warning detection system said we'd fired ICBMS at them. It's funny, the closest we ever came to all-out nuclear war was, both times, prevented by Russians. Goes to show that they weren't as crazy as the West likes to make them out to be.