the Soviets
Scorpion Down: Sunk by the Soviets, Buried by the Pentagon: The Untold Story of the USS Scorpion Kindle Edition. One Navy admiral called it “one of the greatest unsolved sea mysteries of our era.” The U.S. Navy officially describes it an inexplicable accident.

The movie is “inspired” by an actual event, a 1961 reactor accident, aboard one of the Soviet Union’s first nuclear missile subs, that almost became an underwater Chernobyl, if not Hiroshima. As technical adviser, National Geographic hired one of the nation’s leading experts on Cold War submarines, U.S. Navy Capt.

Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov (Russian: Василий Александрович Архипов, IPA: [vɐˈsʲilʲɪj ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ arˈxipɔːf], 30 January 1926 – 19 August 1998) was a Soviet Navy officer credited with casting the single vote that prevented a Soviet nuclear strike (and, presumably, all-out nuclear war) during the Cuban Missile …

After nearly two months of silence during her patrol in the Pacific Ocean, the Soviet Navy became concerned of her status and reportedly deployed its large assets of aviation and ships to search for the vessel, but no sign or wreckage was found….Soviet submarine K-129 (1960)

He retired in 1986, and after 1990, he was actively involved in Soviet Navy veterans’ affairs. He died in 1998 from a disease of the lungs, and is buried in Moscow next to some of his comrades from the K-19.

The movie K-19: The Widowmaker (2002), starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson, is based on the story of the K-19’s first disaster. The nickname “The Widowmaker” referred to by the movie was fictional. The submarine did not gain a nickname until the nuclear accident on 4 July 1961, when it was called “Hiroshima”.

19 August 1998
Vasili Arkhipov/Date of death

Type of Hero Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov (30 January 1926 – 19 August 1998) was a Soviet Navy officer credited with preventing a Soviet nuclear strike (and, presumably, all-out nuclear war) during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Such an attack likely would have caused a major global thermonuclear response.

K-129’s commander was Captain First Rank V.I. Kobzar. K-129 carried hull number 722 on her final deployment during which she sank on 8 March 1968. The Soviet Navy deployed a huge flotilla of ships to search for her but never found her wreck.

According to Sewell, Soviet sub K-129 was hijacked by a band of rogue KGB commandos to provoke a war between America and China by making it appear like China attacked Hawaii á la Pearl Harbor. “They did that to weaken the United States, to strengthen the Soviet Union.

Radiation damages your stomach and intestines, blood vessels, and bone marrow, which makes blood cells. Damage to bone marrow lowers the number of disease-fighting white blood cells in your body. As a result, most people who die from radiation sickness are killed by infections or internal bleeding.

The Navy officially said improperly welded piping ruptured onboard the ship, causing a seawater leak that eventually shorted out the ship’s electrical system. Crews were unable to reach equipment to stop the flooding in time, and the ballast tanks failed to work properly.

“K-19: The Widowmaker” is Hollywood’s take on a historical moment in 1961, when Soviet submariners risked all to keep a nuclear reactor malfunction from impeding on the brilliant logic the superpowers had established for themselves.

On its initial voyage on 4 July 1961, it suffered a complete loss of coolant to its reactor. A backup system included in the design was not installed, so the captain ordered members of the engineering crew to find a solution to avoid a nuclear meltdown.

Incident. On July 4, 1961, the K-19 developed a radioactive leak while in the North Atlantic Ocean. [2] It is believed that the probable reason for the leak was an incident during the start-up tests of one of the reactors, where the first pressure test went all the way to 400 atm because of a pressure gauge malfunction.

Vasily Arkhipov was the executive officer of the new Hotel-class ballistic missile submarine K-19. In January 1960, confusion among the crew during a watch change led to improper operation of the reactor and a reactor-control rod was bent. The damage required the reactor to be dismantled for repairs.