Soviet submarine officer who averted nuclear war honoured with prize

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Soviet submarine officer who averted nuclear war honoured with prize
Vasili Arkhipov, who prevented escalation of the cold war by refusing to launch a nuclear torpedo against US forces, is to be awarded new ‘Future of Life’ prize
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/27/vasili-arkhipov-soviet-submarine-captain-who-averted-nuclear-war-awarded-future-of-life-prize


Vasili Arkhipov, who family will receive the posthumous award on his behalf. Photograph: Handout

A senior officer of a Soviet submarine who averted the outbreak of nuclear conflict during the cold war is to be honoured with a new prize, 55 years to the day after his heroic actions averted global catastrophe.

On 27 October 1962, Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov was on board the Soviet submarine B-59 near Cuba when the US forces began dropping non-lethal depth charges. While the action was designed to encourage the Soviet submarines to surface, the crew of B-59 had been incommunicado and so were unaware of the intention. They thought they were witnessing the beginning of a third world war.

Trapped in the sweltering submarine – the air-conditioning was no longer working – the crew feared death. But, unknown to the US forces, they had a special weapon in their arsenal: a ten kilotonne nuclear torpedo. What’s more, the officers had permission to launch it without waiting for approval from Moscow.

Two of the vessel’s senior officers – including the captain, Valentin Savitsky – wanted to launch the missile. According to a report from the US National Security Archive, Savitsky exclaimed: “We’re gonna blast them now! We will die, but we will sink them all – we will not become the shame of the fleet.”

But there was an important caveat: all three senior officers on board had to agree to deploy the weapon. As a result, the situation in the control room played out very differently. Arkhipov refused to sanction the launch of the weapon and calmed the captain down. The torpedo was never fired.

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Excerpt.  Read more at link.

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Note that he had previously been the XO of a sub that suffered a nuclear incident, where the entire engineering crew and others sacrificed themselves to lethal radiation doses to prevent a nuclear meltdown.  (The entire crew was radiated, including Arkhipov.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-19#Nuclear_accident

It is said that his conduct during that incident that gave him influence in this incident.  Also, on most subs, it required only the captain and political officer to launch.  Arkhipov was the detachment commander, so in this case, he also had to agree.  On most subs, the torpedo would have been launched.