Vasily Arkhipov

{{For|the Soviet general twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union|Vasily Arkhipov (general)}}

{{Family name hatnote|Aleksandrovich|Arkhipov|lang=Eastern Slavic}}

{{Short description|Soviet naval officer credited with averting a nuclear incident (1926–1998)}}

{{Infobox military person

| honorific_prefix = Vice Admiral

| name = Vasily Arkhipov
{{nobold|{{lang|ru|Василий Архипов}}}}

| image = Vasili Arkhipov (cropped).jpg

| caption =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1926|1|30|df=y}}

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1998|8|19|1926|1|30|df=y}}

| birth_place = Zvorkovo, Moscow Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union

| death_place = Zheleznodorozhny, Moscow Oblast, Russia

| placeofburial = Purshevskoe Cemetery

Moscow Oblast, Russia

| nickname =

| birth_name = Vasily Aleksandrovich Arkhipov

| branch = Soviet Navy

| serviceyears = 1945–1988

| rank = Vice admiral

| commands =

| awards = {{Unbulleted list|Order of the Red Banner|Order of the Red Star|[https://futureoflife.org/fla-award/future-of-life-award-2017/ Future of Life Award]}}

| unit =

| battles = {{Unbulleted list|World War II|Cuban Missile Crisis}}

| spouse = Olga Arkhipova

| children = Yelena Andriukova

}}

Vasily Aleksandrovich Arkhipov ({{lang-rus|Василий Александрович Архипов|p=vɐˈsʲilʲɪj ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ arˈxʲipəf}}; 30 January 1926 – 19 August 1998; sometimes romanized as Vasili Arkhipov) was a senior Soviet Naval officer who prevented a Soviet submarine from launching a nuclear torpedo against ships of the United States Navy at a crucial moment in the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. The course of events that would have followed such an action cannot be known, but speculations have been advanced, up to and including global thermonuclear war.

Off the coast of Cuba, US ships had dropped depth charges. The captain of the diesel-powered Soviet submarine {{ship|Soviet submarine|B-59||2}} and the political officer believed that war had started and that they were under attack. Arkhipov, as flotilla chief of staff and executive officer on board the submarine, refused to consent to the use of nuclear weapons in retaliation, a decision which required the agreement of all three officers. In 2002, Thomas S. Blanton, then director of the U.S. National Security Archive, credited Arkhipov as "the man who saved the world".

He was promoted to rear admiral in 1975 and became head of the Kirov Naval Academy. He was promoted to vice admiral in 1981 and retired in the mid-1980s.{{cite web|last1=Davis|first1=Nicola|date=27 October 2017|title=Soviet submarine officer who averted nuclear war honoured with prize|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/27/vasili-arkhipov-soviet-submarine-captain-who-averted-nuclear-war-awarded-future-of-life-prize|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210719102239/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/27/vasili-arkhipov-soviet-submarine-captain-who-averted-nuclear-war-awarded-future-of-life-prize|archive-date=19 July 2021|access-date=7 November 2017|website=The Guardian}} He subsequently settled in Zheleznodorozhny, Moscow Oblast, where he died on 19 August 1998 due to kidney cancer, which might have been induced by his occupational radiation exposure.https://www.historyhit.com/vasili-arkhipov-the-soviet-officer-who-averted-nuclear-war/

Early life

Arkhipov was born into a Russian peasant family in the town of Staraya Kupavna, near Moscow. He was educated in the Pacific Higher Naval School and participated in the Soviet–Japanese War in August 1945, serving aboard a minesweeper. He transferred to the Azerbaijan Higher Naval School and graduated in 1947.{{cite book|last=Roberts|first=Priscilla Mary|title=Cuban Missile Crisis: The Essential Reference Guide|publisher=Abc-Clio Inc|year=2012|isbn=9781610690652|pages=13–14|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P-VNltHyq0sC&pg=PA13|chapter=Arkhipov, Vasily Alexandrovich (1926-1999)}}

Early career

After graduation in 1947, Arkhipov served in the submarine service aboard boats in the Black Sea, Northern, and Baltic Fleets.

= ''K-19'' accident =

In July 1961, Arkhipov was appointed deputy commander and therefore executive officer of the new {{sclass2|Hotel|submarine|0}} ballistic missile submarine K-19. After a few days of conducting exercises off the south-east coast of Greenland, the submarine developed an extreme leak in its reactor coolant system. This leak led to a failure of the cooling system. Radio communications were also affected, and the crew was unable to make contact with Moscow.

With no backup systems, Captain Nikolai Zateyev ordered the seven members of the engineer crew to come up with a solution to avoid nuclear meltdown. This required the men to work in high radiation levels for extended periods. They eventually came up with a secondary coolant system and were able to prevent a reactor meltdown.

Although they were able to save themselves from a nuclear meltdown, the entire crew, including Arkhipov, were irradiated. All members of the engineer crew and their divisional officer died within a month of the incident from acute radiation syndrome. Over the course of two years, 15 more sailors on the crew died from the aftereffects.{{cite web|title=Epilogue: Tragedy Upon Tragedy|url=http://www.nationalgeographic.com/k19/k19_html_scene10.html|work=K-19: The History|publisher=National Geographic|access-date=May 5, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110218061001/http://www.nationalgeographic.com/k19/k19_html_scene10.html|archive-date=February 18, 2011}}

Involvement in the Cuban Missile Crisis<span class="anchor" id="Cuban Missile Crisis"></span>

File:Soviet b-59 submarine.jpg Electronic Briefing Book|issue=75|editor1-first=William|editor1-last=Burr|editor2-first=Thomas S.|editor2-last=Blanton|date=31 October 2002|url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB75#IV|archive-date=18 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120518142419/http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB75/#IV|url-status=dead|access-date=21 November 2008}}]]

On 27 October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a group of 11 United States Navy destroyers and the aircraft carrier {{USS|Randolph|CV-15|6}} located the diesel-powered, nuclear-armed {{sclass2|Foxtrot|submarine|1}} {{ship|Soviet submarine|B-59||2}} near Cuba. The B-59 was one of four Foxtrot submarines sent by the USSR to the area around Cuba. Despite being in international waters, the United States Navy started dropping signaling depth charges, which were intended to force the submarine to come to the surface for identification.Michael Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, Vintage, Random House, 2009. Includes photograph of B-59 surfacing.{{cite web|url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB75/subchron.htm|title=Chronology of Submarine Contact During the Cuban Missile Crisis|publisher=National Security Archive of the George Washington University|access-date=15 November 2010}}

By then, there had been no contact from Moscow for a number of days, and although the B-59{{'}}s crew had been picking up U.S. civilian radio broadcasts earlier on, the submarine was too deep to monitor any radio traffic, as it was busy trying to hide from its American pursuers. Those on board did not know whether war had broken out or not.Michael Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, Vintage, Random House, 2009. Includes photograph of B-59 surfacing.{{cite web|url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB75/subchron.htm|title=Chronology of Submarine Contact During the Cuban Missile Crisis|publisher=National Security Archive of the George Washington University|access-date=15 November 2010}} The captain of the submarine, Valentin Grigoryevich Savitsky, decided that a war might already have started and wanted to launch a T-5 nuclear torpedo.{{Cite news|author=Wilson|first=Edward|author-link=Edward Wilson (novelist)|date=27 October 2012|title=Thank you Vasili Arkhipov, the man who stopped nuclear war|newspaper=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/27/vasili-arkhipov-stopped-nuclear-war|access-date=31 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210702044712/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/27/vasili-arkhipov-stopped-nuclear-war|archive-date=2 July 2021}}

Unlike other Soviet submarines armed with the "special weapon", where only the captain and the political officer were required to authorize a nuclear launch, three officers on board the B-59 were required to authorize the launch because Arkhipov was also the chief of staff of the brigade (not the commander as is often incorrectly reported, who was in fact Captain First Rank Vasili Naumovich Agafonov).{{Cite web|title=Excerpt from report [undated, circa December 1962, prepared by the USSR Northern Fleet Headquarters] about participation of submarines "B-4," "B-36," "B-59," "B-130" of the 69th Submarine Brigade of the Northern Fleet in Operation "Anadyr" during the period of October-December, 1962 /CARIBBEAN CRISIS/ {{!}} National Security Archive|url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/29079-document-2-excerpt-report-undated-circa-december-1962-prepared-ussr-northern-fleet|access-date=2023-08-22|website=nsarchive.gwu.edu}}{{Cite web|title=The Underwater Cuban Missile Crisis at 60 {{!}} National Security Archive|url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2022-10-03/soviet-submarines-nuclear-torpedoes-cuban-missile-crisis|access-date=2023-08-22|website=nsarchive.gwu.edu|language=en}} The three men were Captain Savitsky, Political Officer Ivan Semyonovich Maslennikov, and Executive Officer Arkhipov. An argument broke out among the three of them, with only Arkhipov against the launch.{{Cite book|author=Chomsky|first=Noam|title=Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance|publisher=Henry Holt|year=2004|isbn=0-8050-7688-3|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/hegemonyorsurviv00chom_0/page/74 74]|author-link=Noam Chomsky}}

Although Arkhipov was only second-in-command of the B-59, he was also the chief of staff of the flotilla. According to author Edward Wilson, the reputation Arkhipov had gained from his courageous conduct in the previous year's K-19 incident played a large role in the debate to launch the torpedo. Arkhipov eventually persuaded Savitsky to surface and await orders from Moscow. His persuasion effectively averted a nuclear war that would probably have ensued if the nuclear weapon had been fired.{{cite interview|last=Blanton|first=Thomas S.|interviewer=The Washington Post|interviewer2=Forum users|title=The Cuban Missile Crisis: 40 Years Later|url=http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/zforum/02/sp_world_blanton101602.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080830221337/http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/zforum/02/sp_world_blanton101602.htm|archive-date=30 August 2008|date=16 October 2002|url-status=dead|access-date=15 November 2010}} The batteries of the B-59 ran very low and its air conditioning failed, which caused extreme heat and generated high levels of carbon dioxide inside the submarine.{{Cite web|title=About participation of submarines "B-4," "B-36," "B-59," "B-130" of the 69th submarine brigade of the Northern Fleet in the Operation "Anadyr" during the period of October–December, 1962/CARIBBEAN CRISIS/|url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB399/docs/Report%20of%20the%20submarine%20mission.pdf|access-date=26 October 2019|website=National Security Archive}} It surfaced amid the U.S. warships pursuing it and made contact with a U.S. destroyer. After discussions with the ship, B-59 was ordered by the Russian fleet to set course back to the Soviet Union.{{cite web|url= https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/b-59-submarine-crimson-tide/|title= A Russian submarine had a 'Crimson Tide' moment near Cuba|date= 20 May 2022|website=We Are The Mighty}}

In 1997, Arkhipov wrote that after surfacing, his submarine was fired on with warning shots by American aircraft: "the plane, flying over the conning tower, 1 to 3 seconds before the start of fire

turned on powerful searchlights and blinded the people on the bridge... when [the commander] blinked and blinked his eyes and could see again, it became clear that the plane was firing past and along the boat. And the subsequent similar actions (there were 12 overflights altogether) were not as worrisome any longer."{{cite web|url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/29078-document-1-vice-admiral-vasili-arkhipov|title=Vice-Admiral Vasili Arkhipov | National Security Archive}}{{cite web|url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2022-10-03/soviet-submarines-nuclear-torpedoes-cuban-missile-crisis|title=The Underwater Cuban Missile Crisis at 60 | National Security Archive}}

In 2024, Sergey Radchenko, a British historian, said in the interview that the evidence on Arkhipov's involvement in the Cuban Crisis is based on the oral history published by Svetlana Savranskaya. When the Ministry of Defense of Russia in 2022 declassified materials related to the crisis, the material did not mention the Arkhipov incident.{{cite news |title=‘Closer now than ever’ Historian Sergey Radchenko assesses Tucker Carlson’s claim that U.S.-Russian tensions in Ukraine risk nuclear war more than the Cuban Missile Crisis |url=https://meduza.io/en/feature/2024/12/04/closer-now-than-ever |work=Meduza |date=4 December 2024}}

= Aftermath =

Immediately upon return to Russia, many crew members were faced with disgrace from their superiors. One admiral told them "It would have been better if you'd gone down with your ship". Olga, Arkhipov's wife, said that "he didn't like talking about it, he felt they hadn't appreciated what they had gone through".{{cite episode|url=http://video.pbs.org/video/2295274962|series=Secrets of the Dead|title=The Man Who Saved the World|publisher=PBS|date=24 October 2012}} Each captain was required to present a report of events during the mission to Marshal Andrei Grechko, who substituted for the ill Soviet defense minister.{{cite journal|last1=Savranskaya|first1=Svetlana|title=New Sources on the Role of Soviet Submarines in the Cuban Missile Crisis|journal=Journal of Strategic Studies|date=24 January 2007|volume=28|issue=2|page=248|url=http://www.belfercenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/files/CMC50/SavranskayaJSSNewsourcesonroleofSovietsubmarinesinCMC.pdf|access-date=21 February 2017|doi=10.1080/01402390500088312|s2cid=154967351}}

Soviet military officials were infuriated with the crew's failure to follow their strict orders of secrecy, but this anger was mitigated when the Collegium learned that diesel-electric submarines had been involved—not, as originally planned, nuclear submarines. The diesel-electric submarines were not so well-suited for long-range voyages in Caribbean waters as the nuclear ones. Researcher Alexander Mozgovoi has written that when Grechko learned about this discrepancy, he "removed his glasses and hit them against the table in fury, breaking them into small pieces and abruptly leaving the room after that".{{cite journal|last1=Savranskaya|first1=Svetlana|title=New Sources on the Role of Soviet Submarines in the Cuban Missile Crisis|journal=Journal of Strategic Studies|date=24 January 2007|volume=28|issue=2|pages=247–249|url=http://www.belfercenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/files/CMC50/SavranskayaJSSNewsourcesonroleofSovietsubmarinesinCMC.pdf|access-date=21 February 2017|doi=10.1080/01402390500088312|s2cid=154967351}}

In 2002, retired Commander Vadim Pavlovich Orlov, a participant in the events, held an interview revealing that the submarines were armed with nuclear torpedoes and that Arkhipov was the reason those weapons had not been fired. Orlov presented the events less dramatically, saying that Captain Savitsky lost his temper, but eventually calmed down.{{cite web|date=21 June 2002|url = http://65.120.76.252/russia/johnson/6320-12.cfm|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110530221205/http://65.120.76.252/russia/johnson/6320-12.cfm|archive-date = 30 May 2011|title = Russian Book Looks at Missile Crisis|website=Johnson's Russia List| access-date =21 June 2019| first=Vladimir|last=Isachsnkov}}

Robert McNamara, U.S. Secretary of Defense at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, stated in 2002 that "We came very, very close [to nuclear war], closer than we knew at the time."{{cite web|last1=Leonard|first1=Mark|last2=Blackhurst|first2=Rob|date=19 May 2002|title='I don't think anybody thought much about whether Agent Orange was against the rules of war'|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/19/theobserver|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210314175542/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/19/theobserver|archive-date=14 March 2021|access-date=22 June 2012|work=The Observer}} Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., an advisor for the John F. Kennedy administration and a historian, continued this thought by stating "This was not only the most dangerous moment of the Cold War. It was the most dangerous moment in human history."{{cite news|last1=Lloyd|first1=Marion|date=13 October 2002|title=Soviets Close to Using A-Bomb in 1962 Crisis, Forum is Told|work=The Boston Globe|url=http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cold-war/sovietsbomb.htm|access-date=21 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210710213948/http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cold-war/sovietsbomb.htm|archive-date=10 July 2021}}

Later life and death

Arkhipov continued in Soviet Navy service, commanding submarines and later submarine squadrons. He was promoted to rear admiral in 1975, and became head of the Kirov Naval Academy. Arkhipov was promoted to vice admiral in 1981 and retired in 1988.

He settled in Kupavna (which was incorporated into Zheleznodorozhny, Moscow Oblast, in 2004), where he died on 19 August 1998. The radiation to which Arkhipov had been exposed in 1961 may have contributed to his kidney cancer, as it did for the illnesses of many others who served with him in the K-19 accident.

Nikolai Zateyev, the commander of the submarine K-19 at the time of its onboard nuclear accident, died on 28 August 1998. Both Arkhipov and Zateyev were 72 at the time of their deaths.

Personal life

Arkhipov was known to be a shy and humble man. In a 2012 PBS documentary titled The Man Who Saved the World,{{cite web|title = The Man Who Saved the World|website = pbs.org|date = 2012| url = https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/the-man-who-saved-the-world-about-this-episode/871/|access-date = 27 October 2019}} his wife, Olga, described him as intelligent, polite, and very calm. Much of what is known about his personality comes from her. According to her, he enjoyed searching for newspapers during their vacations and tried to stay up-to-date with the modern world as much as possible. In this same interview, Olga alluded to her husband's possible superstitious beliefs as well. She recalls walking in on Vasily burning a bundle of their love letters inside their house and that he claimed that keeping the letters would mean "bad luck".{{Citation|last=Codi von Richthofen|title=Missile Crisis: The Man Who Saved the World|date=21 February 2015|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr_WkfOMx4c|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/qr_WkfOMx4c|archive-date=13 December 2021|url-status=live|access-date=26 February 2017}}{{cbignore}}

In popular culture

Leon Ockenden portrayed Arkhipov in Season 12 Episode 1 of Secrets of the Dead, entitled "The Man Who Saved the World". It was aired 23 October 2012 on the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis.{{Cite web|title=The Man Who Saved the World|url=https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2449004/?ref_=m_ttep_ep_ep1|publisher=imdb.com|access-date=31 March 2022}}

The 2021 novel Red Traitor by Owen Matthews includes Arkhipov as a major viewpoint character, and is dedicated to him.

The character of Captain Mikhail Polenin, portrayed by Liam Neeson, in the 2002 film K-19: The Widowmaker was closely based on Arkhipov's tenure on Soviet submarine K-19.{{Cite web|title=K-19: The Widowmaker|url=https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0267626|publisher=imdb.com|access-date=31 March 2022}}{{Cite web|title=Gorbachev Proposes Soviet Sub Crew For Nobel Peace Prize|url=https://sgp.fas.org/news/2006/02/gorb020106.html|publisher=Federation of American Scientists|access-date=31 March 2022}}

The musical group Converge dedicated a composition called "[https://convergecult.bandcamp.com/track/arkhipov-calm Arkhipov Calm]" to Arkhipov in 2017.

Awards and honors

In recognition of his actions onboard B-59, Arkhipov received the first "Future of Life Award", which was presented posthumously to his family in 2017.{{cite web|last1=Davis|first1=Nicola|date=27 October 2017|title=Soviet submarine officer who averted nuclear war honoured with prize|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/27/vasili-arkhipov-soviet-submarine-captain-who-averted-nuclear-war-awarded-future-of-life-prize|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210719102239/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/27/vasili-arkhipov-soviet-submarine-captain-who-averted-nuclear-war-awarded-future-of-life-prize|archive-date=19 July 2021|access-date=7 November 2017|website=The Guardian}} Offered by the Future of Life Institute, this award recognizes exceptional measures, often performed despite personal risk and without obvious reward, to safeguard the collective future of humanity.{{cite web|last1=Davey|first1=Tucker|title=55 Years After Preventing Nuclear Attack, Arkhipov Honored With Inaugural Future of Life Award|url=https://futureoflife.org/2017/10/27/55-years-preventing-nuclear-attack-arkhipov-honored-inaugural-future-life-award/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210516005650/https://futureoflife.org/2017/10/27/55-years-preventing-nuclear-attack-arkhipov-honored-inaugural-future-life-award/|archive-date=16 May 2021|access-date=7 November 2017|website=Future of Life Institute|date=27 October 2017}}

In 2002, Thomas S. Blanton, then director of the U.S. National Security Archive, said that Arkhipov "saved the world".{{Cite news|last=Lloyd|first=Marion|date=13 October 2002|title=Soviets Close to Using A-Bomb in 1962 Crisis, Forum is Told|pages=A20|journal=The Boston Globe|url=http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cold-war/sovietsbomb.htm|access-date=7 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210710213948/https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cold-war/sovietsbomb.htm|archive-date=10 July 2021}}