#Russian submarine news archive#

The Arkhipov presentation implicitly confirms reports that, on the night of October 27, B-59 experienced an extraordinary situation in which the captain could have used a nuclear torpedo against U.S. In addition to Savitsky’s recollections, today’s posting also features a core collection of previously published records on the underwater Cuban Missile Crisis based on 20 years of research by the National Security Archive. Arkhipov shared his memories of the incident during a presentation at a conference to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis held in Moscow on October 14, 1997.

#Russian submarine news archive#

Today, the Archive marks the 60th anniversary of the underwater Cuban Missile Crisis by publishing for the first time in English the only public recollection of Vasily Arkhipov, the submarine brigade’s chief of staff, who was on board B-59 at the critical moment and helped Captain Savitsky avoid making the potentially catastrophic decision to launch a nuclear attack. The episode has since become a focus of public debate about the dangers of nuclear weapons and has inspired many sensationalist accounts. Although the Americans weren’t even aware of it at the time, it happened on the most dangerous day of the crisis, October 27.

An incident occurred on one of the submarines, B-59, when its captain, Valentin Savitsky, came close to using his nuclear torpedo.

Washington, D.C., OctoSixty years ago, on October 1, 1962, four Soviet Foxtrot-class diesel submarines, each of which carried one nuclear-armed torpedo, left their base in the Kola Bay, part of the massive Soviet deployment to Cuba that precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis.

FOIA Advisory Committee Oversight Reports.