On October 27, 1962, the US and the USSR were on the brink of a nuclear conflict. Not having time to take a break from World War II, the world could start a third and, probably, last war. We tell why the USSR needed to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba, could Castro be on the side of the Americans, and how Nikita Khrushchev bluffed.

What did fourteen-year-old Castro ask Roosevelt to do?

On his first international visit, Fidel Castro traveled to the United States. His trip was part of Operation Pravda - bringing the truth about the Cuban revolution to the broad masses of the world community. Castro's popularity in the US was enormous.

Fidel Castro. Photo: wikimedia.org

For example, at a school in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, Castro so impressed the students by talking to them in church that they fought over possession of an unextinguished cigar, which Castro carelessly left on the lectern. At Princeton University, a group of Fidel undergrads are in their arms around the stadium.

Castro spent his last day in the US at Harvard, where he was hosted by the McGeorge Bundy Faculty of Arts and Sciences. At the meeting, Castro was so frank that he spoke about his unsuccessful attempt to enter this prestigious university.

Later, speaking to members of the Harvard community, Bundy declared that the university was ready to correct the mistake of 1948 and accept Castro. I wonder what the world would be like if Castro accepted this offer?

Pupils of the school in Queens where Fidel's son studied. Photo: nknews.org

By the way, Castro himself was loyal to the United States. Back in 1940, when he was 14, he wrote a letter to US President Roosevelt asking him to send him a $10 bill because he had never seen it.

But American politicians reacted coolly to Fidel. US President Eisenhower did not find time to accept Castro, preferring a game of golf to the revolutionary.

Surpass Stalin

And if Fidel did not find support in the USA, then the USSR readily extended a hand to the revolutionary, hoping that he would move from socialism to communism. Moreover, Fidel's brother Raul had been looking for contacts with the Soviets for a long time.

Fidel Castro and Nikita Khrushchev. Photo: tvc.ru

Nikita Khrushchev was especially supportive of the Cubans. Dmitry Polyansky, a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee, later spoke about the reasons for such attention:

“Comrade Khrushchev was glad that he succeeded in what Stalin could not do - penetrate into Latin America. Firstly, penetration into the Latin American region was not the goal of our policy, and secondly, this meant that our country had to undertake obligations to carry out military deliveries across the ocean at a distance of 15,000 km ”(R resolution from the minutes of the 214th meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee on April 23, 1959, fund 3, inventory 65, file 871, Archive of the President of Russia).

With this decision, Nikita Sergeevich brought both powers to the brink of thermonuclear war.

KGB: US is preparing a nuclear attack on the USSR

On June 16, 1960, the KGB received a secret document sent from the CIA representative to NATO to the US presidential administration, and on June 29, the KGB chairman presented a very disturbing report to the Soviet leader.

It said that the Pentagon, based on the data received, believes that the USSR currently does not have enough missiles to destroy NATO strategic bases.

Khrushchev speaks to reporters about the incident with the American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. Photo: pravmir.ru

But this advantage is temporary, and after a while the Soviets will accumulate a sufficient number of missiles. In the meantime, the States can effectively use their bomber aircraft to destroy Soviet missile bases and other military installations:

“The current alignment of forces between the US and the USSR in the military field allows the United States to count on success in the event of war. After some time, the situation will change in favor of the Soviet Union. Proceeding precisely from these premises, the leading circles of the Pentagon would like to unleash a preventive war against the Soviet Union. This document was marked: “Comrade personally reported. Khrushchev N. S. June 29, 1960 A. Shelepin. Shelepin in the Central Committee, June 29, 1960, file 84 124, volume 12, pp. 237-238, Archive of the Foreign Intelligence Service).

"Stamping missiles like sausages"

Mutual intimidation became the main policy of the time. Khrushchev openly bluffed: “Let the Pentagon not forget that, as recent tests have shown, we have missiles capable of hitting exactly a given square at a distance of 13 thousand kilometers.”

Dummies of missiles at the parade on Red Square. Photo: wikimedia.org

Nikita Sergeevich is colorful that "... Soviet factories can produce missiles like sausages." In fact, things were much worse.

Production of the first batch of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) was halted after design flaws were discovered in the first batch of less than 35 units. A more advanced R-16 missile was in development, but it took years to produce enough missiles to achieve parity with the United States.

At the same time, the Americans did not lag behind the USSR. Assistant Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatrick: "Our country possesses a nuclear retaliatory force of such deadly power that any move by an adversary to force it into action would be suicidal for him."

In this speech, Khrushchev saw a personal challenge and ordered to test the most powerful ever created hydrogen bombs. On October 30, 1961, a "Tsar bomb" with a capacity of more than 50 megatons, dropped from a height of 10.5 km over the Soviet part of the Arctic, caused a mushroom cloud 67 km high.

Hedgehog for Uncle Sam

The tests, according to the KGB report, deterred the United States from further advancing its plans for a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the Soviet Union. A source believed to be reliable reported that between June 6 and 12, 1961, the United States had decided to launch a nuclear attack on Soviet territory in September 1961.

Rodion Malinovsky. Photo: wikimedia.org

When Defense Minister Rodion Malinovsky read out a report on the state of testing of R-16 missiles capable of carrying a one-ton warhead, he noted that the United States had four times as many such missiles. After listening to the report, Khrushchev: "Why not put a hedgehog in Uncle Sam's pants?".

According to the Secretary General, the USSR will need at least 10 years to produce enough R-16 missiles that would be comparable in nuclear power to US missiles. Therefore, Khrushchev suggested that Cuba could become a valuable base for Soviet medium-range missiles, which Moscow had in sufficient numbers.

Nuclear safeguards for Castro

From the moment when Castro took a course towards rapprochement with the USSR, the Americans have repeatedly tried to destroy his regime. Diversions failed one after another, and the only guaranteed way was a direct invasion, which Fidel feared most of all. And he saw the Soviet troops on the island as the only guarantor of the regime's safety.

Rocket R-14. Photo: wikimedia.org

Late in the evening, at one of his Moscow dachas, Khrushchev gathered the members of the Presidium and, over tea and dryers, announced: “The attack on Cuba is prepared,” he said. “The balance of power is unfavorable for us, and the only way to save Cuba is to place missiles there.”

Nikita Sergeevich said that his decision was made on the basis of an analysis of the reaction of the American president. “Kennedy is smart and will not start a thermonuclear war if our combat missiles are there, similar topics that the Americans placed in Turkey. American missiles in Turkey are aimed at us and scare us. Our missiles will also be aimed at the US, even if we have fewer of them. But if the missiles are placed close to the United States, they will be even more scared.”

The rockets weren't supposed to take off

In his introduction, Khrushchev stressed that the missiles "under no circumstances" would be used: "Any idiot can start a war, but it is impossible to win this war. Therefore, the missiles have only one purpose - to scare them, to deter them, so that they correctly assess the situation.

Nikita Khrushchev inspects the wreckage of a downed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. Photo: wikimedia.org

The USSR military planned to send two types of ballistic missiles to Cuba - R-12 with a range of 1700 kilometers and R-14 with a range of 4500 km. The missiles were to be equipped with warheads with a capacity of 1 megaton of trinitrotoluene.

According to Malinovsky, the armed forces can supply 24 R-12 medium-range missiles and 16 R-14 intermediate-range missiles. Some of the missiles were removed from units stationed in Ukraine and in the European part of Russia, aimed at targets in Europe.

Maximum secrecy

In addition to missiles, a significant grouping of troops was to be transferred to the island: four motorized units, two tank battalions, a squadron of MiG-21 fighters, forty-two Il-28 light bombers, two cruise missile units, several batteries of anti-aircraft guns and 12 units of S-75 missiles (with 144 launchers). Each motorized unit consisted of 2,500 men, and two tank battalions were equipped with the latest Soviet T-55 tanks.

American patrol aircraft Lockheed P-2 "Neptune" over the Soviet ship. Photo: wikimedia.org

All this plus missiles had to be transferred over 11 thousand kilometers and continue to keep this secret on an island located at a distance of 150 kilometers from the coast of the United States.

For Operation Anadyr, 85 vessels were prepared and loaded in 6 different ports. Their captains did not know where to sail - all directions were kept in secret packages hidden in a safe. It was possible to open it only after leaving the Atlantic and in the presence of a KGB officer. In the event of a threat of capture by foreign military, the captain was to destroy all documents and flood the ship.

Even the commander of the Soviet military contingent in Cuba was disguised with a different surname. Looking at the passport prepared for him, General Issa Pliev was at a loss: “What is this? It must be some kind of mistake!” The photo was his, but the name was wrong. “I am not Pavlov,” he said.

telephone pole road

The Americans suspected Soviet preparations - their U-2 reconnaissance aircraft flew over Cuba and in its environs, and soon knew about some of the positions of Soviet missiles. But which of them are false and which are not, they could not say with full certainty. The first pictures were taken on October 14, 1962.

The first picture of Soviet missiles from 14 October. Photo: wikimedia.org

Therefore, Kennedy decided to abandon the strike on the Soviet troops, explaining: "It looks like we will have all the problems of Pearl Harbor, but we will not solve the issue."

By the way, the positions where the missiles were delivered could be traced due to the fact that trailers, not adapted for driving through the winding narrow streets of Cuban cities, delivered from the Soviet Union to transport missiles, left behind fallen telegraph poles and broken mailboxes.

In addition to intercontinental ballistic missiles, tactical ones, the Luna, were delivered to Cuba. The first warheads for missiles and nuclear bombs were brought by the Indigirka ship on October 4, 1962. In total, the ship carried a cargo equivalent to 45,500 kilotons of TNT, 20 times the impact power of the bombs dropped by Allied aircraft on Germany during World War II.

One step away from disaster

October 27 almost became the last day in the history of mankind. In order to prevent Soviet missiles from entering Cuba, the United States established a blockade of the island, in which more than 180 ships participated.

The military received a special order from the Minister of Defense of the country: upon detection of any unidentified submarine, American sailors were to force it to surface and identify itself.

Diesel-electric submarine of project 641. Photo: flot.com

At that time, Soviet submarines with nuclear torpedoes on board were at sea. One of them - B-59 (project 641) was discovered by American destroyers. The submarine, which did not want to float, began to be bombarded with depth charges.

Captain Savitsky thought that the war had begun, and suggested launching a nuclear torpedo at the ships: "We will blow them up, we will all die, but we will sink all their ships." The use of this weapon required the consent of three senior officers: the commander and the political officer were in favor, and the captain of the 2nd rank Vasily Arkhipov was against. Instead of launching an atomic torpedo, the submarine signaled "Stop provocations." The situation was discharged, and the B-59 began to rise to the surface.

At this time, a tropical storm broke out on the island, Soviet and Cuban officers tried to maintain high combat readiness - water could jam communication devices. And then they received a message that a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was approaching the positions of the missiles. According to one version, the division commander, without waiting for an order from the headquarters, orders to open fire on the aircraft.

The rocket explodes next to the U-2, the plane is thrown to the ground, the pilot dies. Fidel Castro believes that the moment of invasion is at hand and telegraphs to Moscow that the Cuban people are ready to sacrifice themselves for the cause of victory over US imperialism and proposes a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the US.

Permission

John F. Kennedy had considerable courage to reject the military's plan for an immediate attack on Cuba and trust in Khrushchev's sanity. His brother Robert, on the night of October 28, 1962, met with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin and said that John F. Kennedy was ready to give guarantees of non-aggression and the speedy lifting of the blockade from Cuba if the Russians removed the missiles.

As for Turkey, Robert assured: "If this is the only obstacle to reaching the settlement mentioned above, then the president does not see insurmountable difficulties in resolving the issue." (Dobrynin A.F. Purely confidential. Ambassador to Washington under six US presidents (1962−1986). M.: Author, 1996. S. 72−73).

Nikita Khrushchev and John Kennedy. Photo: wikimedia.org

Fearing any "surprises" and disruption of negotiations, Khrushchev forbade the use of anti-aircraft weapons against American aircraft, and also ordered the return to airfields of all Soviet aircraft patrolling the Caribbean Sea. The General Secretary also wrote two letters to Kennedy. In the first, which was even broadcast on the radio, he confirmed that the message had reached Moscow. In the second - that he regards this message as an agreement to the condition of the USSR on the withdrawal of Soviet missiles from Cuba - to remove missiles from Turkey.

This agreement was nearly thwarted by the Cubans themselves. To make sure that the Khrushchev-Kennedy deal would not affect Cuba's security, Cuban Foreign Minister Raul Rao informed the new Cuban envoy to the UN, Carlos Lechuga, on November 20 that "we have tactical atomic weapons that need to be preserved."

When this became known in the Kremlin, a panic arose there - the demarche of the Cubans threatened to disrupt all agreements. But the situation was resolved. True, Khrushchev never forgave Castro for this trick: the Secretary General shouted that under no circumstances would the Soviet Union sign a military agreement with such an irresponsible person.

Effects

He also survived Khrushchev and Kennedy. Nikita Khrushchev was removed on October 14, 1964, the coup was bloodless. He was summoned from Pitsunda to a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee, and after that to the Plenum of the Central Committee, depriving him of all his posts. Among all the accusations brought against the Secretary General, there was support for Castro.

Nikita Khrushchev at the dacha. Photo: wikimedia.org

Dmitry Polyansky, a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, stated: “Ask any of our marshals, generals, and they will say that plans for military penetration into South America is nonsense, fraught with the enormous danger of war. If, for the sake of helping one of the Latin American countries, they were the first to launch a nuclear strike on the United States, then not only would they endanger themselves; then everyone would have recoiled from us.”

And on November 22, 1963, a bullet hit Kennedy. Who was behind the assassination attempt is still unknown. But then the world held its breath, because the assassin of President Lee Harvey Oswald was an adherent of Marxism, married to a Russian girl Marina, whom he met in Minsk during a three-year stay in the Soviet Union.

November 22, 1963, the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Photo: dayonline.ru

Few understood that Khrushchev needed John F. Kennedy, about which he himself said: “Will there be an invasion of Cuba? I am not a prophet and cannot make predictions or assurances. We cannot vouch for the imperialist camp; it does not consult with us. I only know that during his tenure in the White House it will not be easy for Kennedy to renounce his commitments to not invade Cuba.

These obligations will bind Kennedy, they will bind the US government. There are still two years left before the presidential elections. Everything points to the fact that Kennedy will be elected to a second term. This means that for another 6 years the US President will be bound by public commitments not to invade Cuba.”

Cuban Missile Crisis- a well-known historical term that defines the acute relations between superstates in October 1962.

Answering the question, what is the Cuban Missile Crisis, it is impossible not to mention that it affected several spheres of confrontation between the two geopolitical blocs at once. Thus, he touched upon the military, political and diplomatic spheres of confrontation within the framework of the Cold War.

cold war– global economic, political, ideological, military, scientific and technical confrontation between the USA and the USSR in the second half of the twentieth century.

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Causes of the crisis

Causes of the Caribbean Crisis consist in the deployment by US military personnel of nuclear ballistic missiles in Turkey in 1961. The new Jupiter launch vehicles were capable of delivering a nuclear charge to Moscow and other major cities of the Union in a matter of minutes, because of which the USSR would not have a chance to respond to the threat.

Khrushchev had to react to such a gesture and, having agreed with the government of Cuba, stationed Soviet missiles in Cuba. Thus, located in close proximity to the US East Coast, missiles in Cuba were able to destroy key US cities faster than nuclear warheads launched from Turkey.

Interesting! The deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba caused panic among the US population, and the government regarded such actions as a direct act of aggression.

Considering Causes of the Caribbean Crisis, one cannot but mention the attempts of the USA and the USSR to establish control over Cuba. The parties tried to expand their influence in the third world countries, this process was called the cold war.

Caribbean Crisis - Deployment of Nuclear Ballistic Missiles

In response to the threatening deployment of weapons in Turkey Khrushchev convenes a conference in May 1962. He talks possible options problem solving. Fidel Castro, after the revolution in Cuba, repeatedly asked the USSR for help, so that he strengthened his military presence. Khrushchev decided to take advantage of the offer and decided to send not only people, but also nuclear warheads. Having received consent from Castro, the Soviet side began to plan a secret transfer of nuclear weapons.

Operation Anadyr

Attention! The term "Anadyr" means a secret operation of the Soviet troops, which consisted in the covert delivery of nuclear weapons to the island of Cuba.

In September 1962, the first nuclear missiles were delivered to Cuba on civilian ships. Courts were covered diesel submarines. On September 25, the operation was completed. In addition to nuclear weapons, the USSR transferred about 50,000 soldiers and military equipment to Cuba. US intelligence could not fail to notice such a move, but it did not yet suspect the transfer of secret weapons.

Washington's reaction

In September, American reconnaissance aircraft spotted Soviet fighters in Cuba. This could not go unnoticed, and during another flight on October 14, the U-2 aircraft takes pictures of the location of Soviet ballistic missiles. With the assistance of a defector, US intelligence was able to determine that the image contained launch vehicles for nuclear warheads.

October 16 about photos, which confirm the deployment of Soviet missiles on the island of Cuba, report personally to President Kennedy. Having convened an emergency council, the president considered three ways to solve the problem:

• naval blockade of the island;
• pinpoint missile attack on Cuba;
• full-scale military operation.

The President's military advisers, having learned about the deployment of Soviet missiles in Cuba, said that it was necessary to start full-scale military operations. The president himself did not want to start a war, and therefore on October 20 he decided on a naval blockade.

Attention! A naval blockade is regarded in international relations as an act of war. Thus, the United States acts as an aggressor, and the USSR is only an injured party.

Because the United States presented its act not as military naval blockade but like quarantine. On October 22, Kennedy addressed the people of the United States. In the appeal, he said that the USSR secretly deployed nuclear missiles. Also he said, that the peaceful settlement of conflicts in Cuba is his main goal. And yet he mentioned that launching missiles from the island towards the US would be perceived as the start of a war.

The Cold War on the island of Cuba could very soon turn into a nuclear war, as the situation between the parties was extremely tense. The military blockade began on 24 October.

The Peak of the Caribbean Crisis

On October 24, the parties exchanged messages. Kennedy urged that Khrushchev not exacerbate the Cuban Missile Crisis or try to bypass the blockade. The USSR, however, stated that they perceive such demands as aggression on the part of the States.

On October 25, at the UN Security Council, the ambassadors of the conflicting parties presented their demands to each other. The American representative demanded recognition from the USSR about the deployment of missiles in Cuba. Interesting, but the representative of the Union did not know about the missiles, since Khrushchev initiated very few people into the Anadyr operation. And so the representative of the Union evaded the answer.

Interesting! The results of the day - the United States announced increased military readiness - the only time in the history of the country's existence.

After Khrushchev writes another letter - now he does not consult with the ruling elite of the USSR. In it, the general secretary compromises. He gives his word to withdraw the missiles from Cuba, returning them to the Union, but in return, Khrushchev demands that the United States not undertake acts of military aggression against Cuba.

balance of power

Speaking of the Caribbean Crisis, one cannot deny the fact that October 1962 is the time when a nuclear war could really start, and therefore it is reasonable to briefly consider the balance of forces of the parties before its hypothetical start.

The United States had much more impressive weapons and air defense systems. The Americans also had more advanced aircraft, as well as launch vehicles for nuclear warheads. Soviet nuclear missiles were less reliable and would have taken longer to prepare for launch.

The US had about 310 nuclear ballistic missiles around the world, while the USSR could only launch 75 long-range ballistic missiles. Another 700 had an average range and could not reach strategic important US cities.

Aviation of the USSR was seriously inferior to the American- their fighters and bombers, although they were more numerous, lost in quality. Most of them could not reach the shores of the United States.

The main trump card of the USSR was the advantageous strategic location of missiles in Cuba, from where they would reach the shores of America and hit important cities in a matter of minutes.

"Black Saturday" and conflict resolution

On October 27, Castro writes a letter to Khrushchev, in which he claims that the Americans will begin hostilities in Cuba within 1-3 days. At the same time, Soviet intelligence reports on the activation of the US Air Force in the area caribbean, which confirms the words of the commandant of Cuba.

In the evening of the same day, another US reconnaissance aircraft flew over the territory of Cuba, which was shot down by Soviet air defense systems installed in Cuba, as a result of which an American pilot died.

On this day, two more US Air Force aircraft were damaged. Kennedy no longer denied the vast possibility of a declaration of war. Castro demanded a nuclear strike on the United States and was ready to sacrifice for this all of Cuba and your life.

denouement

The settlement of the situation during the Caribbean crisis began on the night of October 27th. Kennedy was willing to lift the blockade and guarantee Cuban independence in exchange for the removal of missiles from Cuba.

On October 28, Khrushchev receives Kennedy's letter. After some thought, he writes a response message in which he goes to reconcile and resolve the situation.

Effects

The outcome of the situation, called the Cuban Missile Crisis, was of worldwide significance - nuclear war was cancelled.

Many were not satisfied with the outcome of the talks between Kennedy and Khrushchev. The ruling circles of the USA and the USSR accused their leaders of in softness towards the enemy They shouldn't have to make concessions.

After the conflict was settled, the leaders of the states found a common language, which caused a warming of relations between the parties. The Cuban Missile Crisis also showed the world that it is wise to stop using nuclear weapons.

The Caribbean Crisis is one of the key events of the 20th century, about which the following interesting facts can be cited:

• Khrushchev learned about American nuclear missiles in Turkey quite by accident during a peaceful visit to Bulgaria;
• the Americans were so afraid of a nuclear war that they launched the construction of fortified bunkers, and after the Caribbean crisis, the scale of construction increased significantly;
• the opposing sides had so many nuclear weapons in their arsenal that their launch would cause a nuclear apocalypse;
• On October 27, on Black Saturday, a wave of suicides swept across the United States;
• at the time of the Caribbean crisis, the United States in the history of its country declared the highest degree of combat readiness;
• The Cuban nuclear crisis was a turning point in cold war, after which detente began between the parties.

Conclusion

Answering the question: when did the Caribbean crisis occur, we can say - October 16-28, 1962. These days have become for the whole world one of the darkest in the twentieth century. The planet watched the confrontation unfold around the island of Cuba.

A few weeks after October 28, the missiles were returned to the USSR. The United States still keeps the promise given to Kennedy not to interfere in the affairs of Cuba and does not send its military contingent into Turkish territory.

Never before has our planet stood on the brink of nuclear war as close as these days, exactly 55 years ago. We talk in detail about the unknown and little-known facts of that period.

A US Navy Lockheed P-3A-20-LO Orion aircraft flies over the Soviet ship Metallurg Anosov during the Cuban Missile Crisis. November 9, 1962
On October 14, 1962, the Caribbean crisis began, which almost brought the world to the brink of a third world war between the USSR and the USA.

Shocking aerial reconnaissance shots

In the early morning of October 14, 1962, an American Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, piloted by US Air Force Major Richard Heizer, took off from a military air base in California and, passing from south to north across Cuba, landed at an airfield in South Florida.

The pilot handed the captured film to the employees of the Central Intelligence Agency. On October 15, having printed it, they checked with the secret directory of the main Soviet missiles, which had been handed over to them earlier by GRU Colonel Oleg Penkovsky, and found that in the photographs R-12 medium-range ballistic missiles, whose range exceeds 2000 kilometers, are missiles capable of flying to the capital of the United States of America.

On the evening of the same day, the shocking news was reported to the Pentagon leadership, and on the morning of October 16, the pictures were shown to US President John F. Kennedy. The head of the White House ordered a sharp increase in flights over Cuba in order to collect as much information as possible. The Americans began flying over Liberty Island instead of twice a month, six times a day.

© Photo: National Archives, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
Photo taken during a low altitude flight on October 27, 1962

Turkish "surprise" of the USSR from Uncle Sam

In parallel, Kennedy gathered a group of advisers and the military to develop a program of further action. No one in the White House was going to tolerate strategic missiles aimed at the US capital. But how did the Russians manage to quietly transfer such a formidable weapon to Cuba? Here Penkovsky did not help either, who fell under the suspicion of Soviet counterintelligence at the end of 1961 and therefore did not find out about the Anadyr operation, and in the fall of 1962 he was arrested.

The operation began after the United States deployed 15 PGM-19 Jupiter medium-range missiles in Turkey, with a range of 2,400 kilometers, directly threatening the European part of the USSR and capable of reaching Moscow. With only 15 minutes to prepare for launch and 10 minutes of flight time, the PGM-19 Jupiter was a very unpleasant surprise to the Soviet Union from Uncle Sam.

Outraged by this move by Washington, the then leader of the country, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Nikita Khrushchev, ordered to prepare a response "gift" for the Americans in the Western Hemisphere. Since intercontinental missiles were just getting into service at that time, it was decided to rely on medium-range weapons.

Operation with a winter name

After consulting with the Cuban leadership and obtaining from him approval for the deployment of nuclear weapons on the island, the Soviet General Staff developed in the early summer of 1962 an operation to transfer R-12 and R-14 missiles. The maximum range of the latter was 4,500 kilometers, which made it possible to "cover" the territory not only of the United States, but also of Canada.

The implementation of a large-scale operation was entrusted to the well-known military leader, Marshal Ivan Bagramyan, who at that moment was the head of the Logistics of the Armed Forces of the USSR. In order to mislead the potential enemy, the operation was given the opposite, northern vector. Starting from the name of the city in the extreme north-east of the country and ending with the issuance of skis, boots and sheepskin coats to the personnel participating in the Anadyr, as reported in the relevant orders.

By the end of June 1962, a group of Soviet troops in Cuba was formed, which included a consolidated division of strategic missile forces, four motorized rifle regiments of cover, two tank battalions, an anti-aircraft missile division, an artillery and anti-aircraft division, an air defense fighter aviation regiment, an air force squadron of the Air Force , a helicopter regiment and two regiments of cruise tactical missiles.

© Photo: Courtesy of CIA. Shooting missiles from an American spy plane

Open the third package

The composition of the naval cover included both surface warships, and submarines, a separate coastal missile regiment armed with Kometa anti-ship cruise missiles, a mine-torpedo aviation regiment and support vessels.

The total number of the grouping was more than 50 thousand soldiers and officers, not counting three thousand civilian personnel. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, General Issa Pliev, who at that time was commander of the troops of the North Caucasian Military District, was entrusted with directing the actions of the units on the Island of Freedom.

The preparation of the operation, the loading and delivery of troops were carried out in an atmosphere of heightened secrecy. On the ninth of July, the first transport set off for the shores of Cuba. Parts were loaded onto ships in Kronstadt, Liepaja, Baltiysk, Sevastopol, Feodosia, Nikolaev, Poti and Murmansk. The final destination was not known even to the senior formation officers and transport captains. The latter learned that they were to go to the Western Hemisphere only after opening the third package with secret instructions.

Attack cannot be retreated

The transfer by sea took place during July, August and September 1962. The United States could not fail to notice such a large-scale movement of troops and equipment of a potential enemy. At the end of August, American air reconnaissance recorded the appearance of Soviet S-75 anti-aircraft missiles and coastal defense cruise missiles in Cuba. In September, the CIA and the Pentagon learned about the redeployment of MiG-21 supersonic front-line fighters and Il-28 jet bombers to the island. In October, it became known about the Luna tactical missile systems.

The US Congress insisted on the invasion of Cuba, giving official permission to John F. Kennedy for such a move. The generals in the Pentagon were of the same opinion. However, the 35th American president has already been burned once with the intervention on the island. On April 14-19, 1961, the Cuban army repulsed an intervention attempt in the Bay of Pigs by the forces of Cuban emigrants under the leadership of the CIA, destroying more than a hundred invaders and shooting down 12 aircraft, including several crewed by American pilots.

In addition, Kennedy understood that an attack on Cuba would spark a full-scale war with the Soviet Union, which would first bring its tanks into West Berlin. In addition, he did not rule out the escalation of the conflict into an exchange of nuclear strikes. Despite the fact that the US atomic potential was at that time much greater than the Soviet one, there were no guarantees that the American anti-missile system would be able to repel all the attacks of the future enemy.

© AP Photo / Raoul Fornezza. Detachment of the Cuban militia in the landing area of ​​the US military in the Bay of Pigs, Cuba. April 1961

Gun at the temple of the USA

Kennedy well remembered "Kuzkin's mother", in the figurative expression of Khrushchev, which the USSR "showed" to the USA on October 30, 1961. Then, the most powerful 58-megaton hydrogen "Tsar Bomba" in the history of mankind was blown up over the nuclear test site on Novaya Zemlya, the blast wave from which circled the globe three times, and the two-tiered "hat" of the explosion rose to a height of 95 kilometers.

The American president, who was behind World War II (he participated in it as a commander of a torpedo boat in the Pacific Ocean), decided to impose a naval blockade of Cuba in order to prevent an increase in the Soviet grouping on the island.

It was a mild version of the war, but the leader of the United States had no choice - the Pentagon and the "hawks" of the American establishment bloodthirstyly insisted on direct aggression against a sovereign island state that did not violate a single article of world law. On the other hand, the Soviet R-12 missiles, which each carried more than a ton and a half of a combat nuclear charge, were like a pistol to Washington's head for Washington.

In the highest readiness for war

Cuba's quarantine began on the morning of October 24, when 180 US warships surrounded the island. At the same time, they were ordered to open fire on Soviet ships only with the personal permission of President Kennedy. In response, Khrushchev called the actions of the White House an act of aggression that pushes humanity to a nuclear war, and ordered that the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries be put on high alert.

This primarily concerned the formations of the nuclear triad - strategic missile forces, long-range bomber aircraft and submarines with atomic weapons on board. In response, Kennedy chided Khrushchev for misleading him about Cuba and, in turn, ordered the U.S. military to be put on DEFCON 2. That is, a state of maximum combat readiness - which has not been done either before or since.
While the politicians sorted things out, the military served. On October 27, 1962, the crisis peaked, which later historians will call "Black Saturday". On this day, a 260-kiloton hydrogen bomb was detonated on Novaya Zemlya.

Two missiles to destroy Major Anderson

The U-2 aircraft of Captain Charles Maltsby, which flew to collect air samples, invaded Soviet airspace in the area of ​​the Long Strait, which separates Wrangel Island from the mainland of the USSR, and was driven off by Soviet fighter-interceptors.

Much less fortunate was his colleague, U-2 pilot Major Rudolf Anderson, who flew to Freedom Island and at an altitude of 22,000 meters was shot down by the crew of the Soviet S-75 anti-aircraft missile division under the command of Major Ivan Gerchenov. The day before, anti-aircraft gunners received a secret cipher message that an American invasion was expected, they had to be ready to repel.

The first missile hit Lockheed, the second one blew it apart. The nose of the aircraft, along with the body of the pilot, collapsed near the city of Banes in the east of the country, the tail fell off the coast, into the bay. The order to destroy the American air reconnaissance was given by the commander of the 27th Air Defense Division, Colonel Georgy Voronkov.

© AP Photo / Lee Jin-man. Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft

The man who saved the world from nuclear conflict

On the same day, the Soviet submarine "B-59" with nuclear weapons was surrounded off the coast of Cuba by a group of American ships of 11 destroyers led by the aircraft carrier Randolph. Destroyers tried to destroy the submarine with depth charges, in addition, it was fired upon by an aircraft from an aircraft carrier.

In response, the submarine commander, second-rank captain Valentin Savitsky, ordered to attack enemy ships with nuclear torpedoes. But two other officers, including Captain Second Rank Vasily Arkhipov, Chief of Staff of the 69th Submarine Brigade of the Northern Fleet, senior on board, showed restraint and persuaded him to give a signal: "Stop the provocation!" Later, Arkhipov's cold-blooded actions were recognized as saving the world.

After these incidents, Washington and Moscow realized that the next step would be a third world war that would incinerate the planet. The leadership of the US and the USSR went back on their word. The Americans promised to withdraw their missiles from Turkey and never invade Cuba, the USSR - to withdraw their troops from the Island of Freedom and withdraw their nuclear weapons.

Both of them kept their promises. Cuba is still a sovereign state, and the USSR, thanks to technological progress, in a few years already had a significant number of intercontinental missiles capable of hitting any military or civilian target in the United States of America from its territory.

Caribbean (Cuban) crisis of 1962. Reference.

Soviet ship off the coast of Cuba. October 23, 1962
The Caribbean (Cuban) crisis of 1962 is a sharp aggravation of the international situation caused by the threat of war between the USSR and the USA due to the deployment of Soviet missile weapons in Cuba.

In connection with the ongoing military, diplomatic and economic pressure of the United States on Cuba, the Soviet political leadership, at its request, in June 1962 decided to deploy Soviet troops on the island, including missile troops (codenamed "Anadyr"). This was explained by the need to prevent US armed aggression against Cuba and to oppose Soviet missiles to American ones deployed in Italy and Turkey.

To accomplish this task, it was planned to deploy in Cuba three regiments of R-12 medium-range missiles (24 launchers) and two regiments of R-14 missiles (16 launchers) - a total of 40 missile launchers with a range of missiles from 2.5 to 4, 5 thousand kilometers. For this purpose, the consolidated 51st missile division was formed, consisting of five missile regiments from different divisions.

The total nuclear potential of the division in the first launch could reach 70 megatons. The division in its entirety ensured the possibility of defeating military-strategic facilities almost throughout the entire territory of the United States. The approximate number of the Group of Soviet Forces in Cuba (GSVK) was planned within 44-60 thousand people.

The delivery of troops to Cuba was carried out by civilian ships of the Ministry of the Navy of the USSR. In July-October 1962, 85 cargo and passenger ships took part in the Anadyr operation, which made 183 voyages to Cuba and back.
By October, 47 thousand people, 24 R-12 launchers, 42 R-12 (SS-4) missiles, including six training ones, about 45 nuclear warheads, 42 disassembled Il-28 aircraft, as well as military equipment were deployed to Cuba normal destination.

October 14 American reconnaissance aircraft U-2 in the area of ​​San Cristobal (province of Pinar del Rio) discovered and photographed the starting positions of the Soviet missile forces.

On October 16, the CIA reported this to US President John F. Kennedy. On October 16-17, Kennedy convened a meeting of his apparatus, including the top military and diplomatic leadership, at which the deployment of Soviet missiles in Cuba was discussed. Several options were proposed, including the landing of American troops on the island, an air strike on launch sites, and a maritime quarantine.

In a televised speech on October 22, Kennedy announced the appearance of Soviet missiles in Cuba and his decision to declare a naval blockade of the island from October 24, put the US military on alert, and enter into negotiations with the Soviet leadership. More than 180 US warships with 85 thousand people on board were sent to the Caribbean, American troops in Europe, the 6th and 7th fleets were put on alert, up to 20% of strategic aviation was on alert.

On October 23, the Soviet government made a statement that the US government "takes upon itself a heavy responsibility for the fate of the world and is playing a reckless game with fire." The statement did not acknowledge the fact of the deployment of Soviet missiles in Cuba, nor any concrete proposals for a way out of the crisis. On the same day, the head of the Soviet government, Nikita Khrushchev, sent a letter to the US President, in which he assured him that any weapons supplied to Cuba were intended only for defense purposes.

On October 23, intensive meetings of the UN Security Council began. UN Secretary-General U Thant appealed to both sides to show restraint: the Soviet Union - to stop the advance of their ships in the direction of Cuba, the United States - to prevent a collision at sea.

October 25 US Representative Adlai Stevenson tried to get Soviet Representative Zorin to answer the question of whether he denied the fact that Moscow had and continues to deploy missiles in Cuba.
"Don't wait for the translation! Yes or no?" Stevenson asked him.
"I'm not in an American court and therefore I don't want to answer the question that is being asked in a prosecutor's tone. You will get an answer in due time," Zorin said.

After that, photographs of Soviet missile launchers in Cuba were brought into the hall.
The Soviet and American sides were already negotiating at that time. In a letter on October 26, Khrushchev gave Kennedy the terms for dismantling the missiles.

October 27 was the "Black Saturday" of the Cuban Crisis. On this day, an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down in Cuba, flying around the field position areas of the missile forces. The pilot of the aircraft, Major Rudolf Anderson, was killed. It is believed that on this day the world was closest to a nuclear war.

The President of the United States decided in two days to begin the bombing of Soviet missile bases and a military attack on the island. Many Americans left major cities, fearing an imminent Soviet strike. The world is on the brink of nuclear war.

On October 28, Soviet-American negotiations began in New York with the participation of representatives of Cuba and the UN Secretary General, which ended the crisis with the corresponding obligations of the parties. The USSR government agreed to the US demand for the withdrawal of Soviet missiles from the territory of Cuba in exchange for assurances from the US government that the island's territorial integrity and non-interference in the internal affairs of that country would be observed. The withdrawal of US missiles from Turkey and Italy was also announced confidentially.

On November 2, US President Kennedy announced that the USSR had dismantled its missiles in Cuba. From 5 to 9 November, the missiles were removed from Cuba. On November 21, the United States lifted the naval blockade. On December 12, 1962, the Soviet side completed the withdrawal of personnel, missile weapons and equipment. In January 1963, the UN received assurances from the USSR and the USA that the Cuban crisis had been eliminated.
___________
On the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the delivery of the first Soviet missiles to Cuba as part of Operation Anadyr, the RF Ministry of Defense published data: "From August 1, 1962 to August 16, 1964, 64 Soviet citizens died in Cuba."

(Additional

In February 1962, the KGB informed the leadership of the Soviet Union that the United States planned to put an end to the government of F. Castro: "The main blow to Cuba is planned to be delivered from the American military base of Guantanamo Bay with the support of the Navy ships located in the Caribbean Sea. The actions of the ground forces will be supported by the Air Force based in Florida and Texas...". On March 13, 1962, Operation Northwoods was approved.

In May 1962, N. S. Khrushchev, in a conversation with the Minister of Foreign Affairs A. A. Gromyko, noted the seriousness of the situation around Cuba: "It is necessary to place a certain number of our nuclear missiles there. Only this can save the country ...". All participants in the meeting at the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU supported Khrushchev. The General Staff developed the Anadyr operation to transfer to Cuba the Soviet group (up to 44 thousand people) and the 51st separate missile division, which had 40 R12 and R14 launchers.

In the chronicle published by Rodina, there is a denouement of dramatic events on the threshold of the Third World War.

Mid September 1962

Special TASS statement: "The Soviet Union does not need to transfer to any country, for example, Cuba, the means it has to repel aggression ...

Our nuclear weapons are so powerful ... that there is no need to look for a place to deploy them somewhere outside the USSR."

October 9

Message from the USSR military attache in the USA: US special troops will be increased from 4,000 to 6,639 people, and Cuban mercenaries will be enrolled in the "anti-Castro expeditionary force."

Kennedy creates a special "crisis group" ... Some of them propose to strike at the positions of Soviet missiles in Cuba

October 14

A US reconnaissance aircraft photographed two Soviet missiles in the San Cristobal area.

October 16

Kennedy creates a special "crisis group" of senior officials. Some of them propose to strike at the positions of Soviet missiles in Cuba.

October 18

14.00-18.00

A. Gromyko's meeting with President D. Kennedy. The Soviet minister noted that the USSR "would not play the role of an outside observer." Kennedy offers a deal: "The United States will not attempt an armed invasion of Cuba. Soviet offensive weapons must be removed from Cuba."

The 20th of October

President Kennedy decides to declare a naval blockade of Cuba.

22 of October

Secretary of State Rusk conveys a personal message from the American President to NS Khrushchev and the text of his next address to the American people: "The United States is determined to eliminate this threat to the security of our hemisphere."

President Kennedy announces on TV and radio the introduction of October 24, from 1400 GMT, "quarantine" on all types of offensive
weapons imported into Cuba.

Collection management team the Soviet embassy in the United States and a meeting of Ambassador Dobrynin with the leaders of the Soviet intelligence services. Taking the necessary precautions and destroying certain documents.

Message from the GRU resident in Washington: "1) Establish a strict quarantine against the delivery of offensive weapons to Cuba. All ships carrying such weapons on board will not be
be admitted to Cuba; 2) increased surveillance of military construction in Cuba...; 3) an attack by nuclear weapons from the territory of Cuba on any other country in the Western Hemisphere will be regarded as an attack by the USSR on the USA; 4) the Guantanamo base is being strengthened, a number of military units are put on alert... 6) The US demanded an immediate meeting of the Security Council. In the Caribbean, under the pretext of maneuvers, there are 45 ships with 20 thousand people, including 8 thousand sea
foot soldiers."

October 23

Statement of the Soviet government: the naval blockade of Cuba is "unprecedented aggressive actions." In the USSR, the dismissal of older ages from the army has been delayed, vacations have been canceled, and the troops have been put on high alert.

October 24

Khrushchev's second personal message to President Kennedy: "We will ... be compelled ... to take measures that we deem necessary and
precise in order to protect their rights."

Morning

GRU radio intercept data on the order of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the US Air Force Strategic Air Command (SAC): "prepare for a nuclear attack."
A message from the GRU resident in Washington: "During the day of October 23, 85 strategic aircraft were flying over the United States.
Of these, 22 are B-52 bombers. 57 B-47s flew from the US to Europe."

Meeting of an employee of the embassy G.N. Bolshakov with the American journalist C. Bartlett, where the Americans are trying to find an additional channel of communication with the Soviet leadership.

Around 14.00

American TV channels show how a Soviet tanker crossed an imaginary line, but the American warships did not fire and let it go further. Another Soviet ship "Alexandrovsk", carrying 24 nuclear warheads for medium-range missiles and 44 atomic charges for land-based cruise missiles, managed to moor in the Cuban port of La Isabella instead of the port of Mariel.

Around 18.00

The second meeting between Bartlett and Bolshakov, at which the American for the first time voiced the variant of the deal - "the elimination of Soviet missiles on the territory of Cuba in exchange for the closure of the American missile base in Turkey."

the 25th of October

Message from the GRU resident in New York: "The first echelon of the invasion of Cuba has been prepared, which will go to sea in the next few hours." A note by GRU chief I.A. Serov: "According to KGB intelligence, the invasion of Cuba is supposedly scheduled for October 26."

The first half of the day

Cuba's civil defense systems, nuclear shelters are brought to full readiness, the population in a panic buys food and other essential goods.

After 21.00

Kennedy's personal message to NS Khrushchev, in which the President proposes to return "to the previous situation."

Khrushchev's message to Kennedy: We will... be compelled... to take action as we see fit

October 26

Two meetings of the embassy adviser A.S. Island. President Kennedy receives a letter from N.S. Khrushchev with a proposal from the Soviet side: it announces the rejection of military supplies in general, and the American side - the rejection of intervention in Cuba.

27th October

6.45. Moscow

Telegram from BAT (military attache), VMAT (naval attaché) and BAT air attaché) of the USSR in the USA: an American invasion of Cuba is possible in the next 5-7 days.

Message from the GRU resident in Washington: "The United States really decided to seek ... the destruction of missile bases in Cuba, up to the invasion ... Everything is ready for the invasion of Cuba; it's a pretext, and the best pretext is the bases, their ongoing construction ... Invasion to Cuba could take place later this week."

Top secret

"Simulate the downing of a US military aircraft..."

In 2001, the details of the provocation planned by the American side were declassified in the United States.

1. Sabotage in and around the American military base in Guantanamo Bay (arson of an aircraft and sinking of a ship; it is necessary to publish a list of non-existent "dead" in the media).

2. The sinking of the ship with Cuban refugees.

3. Organize terrorist attacks in Miami, other cities in Florida and Washington, directed at Cuban refugees. Arrest "Cuban agents" and publish false documents.

4. Carry out an air raid on the territory of states adjacent to Cuba.

5. Simulate attacks on passenger planes and shoot down an unmanned American plane or blow up a radio-controlled ship. To simulate attacks, use an F-86 Saber fighter repainted as a "Cuban MiG" ... Publish in the newspapers a list of those killed in a downed plane or blown up ship.

6. Simulate the downing of a US military aircraft by a Cuban MiG"

28 of October

16.00. Washington

29th of October

October 30

R. Kennedy confirmed the President's consent to the elimination of American military bases in Turkey, but without mentioning the connection with the Cuban events.

27th October

Morning. Washington

"Black Saturday"

Kennedy receives another letter from Khrushchev. The Soviet leader declares that the USSR agrees to withdraw "those assets from Cuba that you consider offensive" and proposes "to withdraw similar American assets from Turkey."

The first half of the day

The next meeting of the "crisis group": it was decided that the United States will not mention Turkey in the official dialogue.

Afternoon

Kennedy responds to Khrushchev: The USSR must stop all work on missile sites and, under international control, render all offensive weapons in Cuba inactive.

27th October

Evening

A.F. Dobrynin meeting with R. Kennedy in connection with the downed American reconnaissance aircraft over Cuba. At the end of the conversation, R. Kennedy, in response to a question about Turkey, said: “If this is now the only obstacle to achieving the above-mentioned settlement, then the president does not see insurmountable difficulties in resolving this issue either. The main difficulty for the president is a public discussion of the issue of Turkey. missile bases in Turkey was formalized by NATO's official decision... However, the president... is ready to negotiate behind the scenes on this issue as well."

27th October

Around 24.00

Message from the GRU resident in Washington: "1) The situation at 24.00 27.10 remains tense. The next 24 hours are considered decisive. 2) US Secretary of Defense McNamara ordered the Secretary of the Air Force to transfer 24 airborne squadrons with support units from the reserve. The squadrons are intended to transfer the first assault echelon during the landing. 3) increased movement of troops on the roads of Florida completed. 4) On Saturday, up to 50% of the personnel continued to work at the Pentagon. "

Head of the GRU I.A. Serov: “I ask you to urgently find out and report by all available means: 1) the number of troops, equipment and their belonging in Florida and Guantanamo; 2) the concentration of counter-revolutionary forces that were previously in Latin America and transferred to Florida and Guantanamo 3) quantity Vehicle in the Florida area, adapted to the landing of troops.

28 of October

Message from the GRU resident in Washington: “The United States is building up its grouping of forces in the Caribbean Sea. 1) The 19th air group arrived on October 17 at MacDill Air Force Base (Florida) ... includes from 50 to 75 aircraft, including RF-100 supersonic fighters and RF‑101 and KB‑66 aircraft. ships, 3 submarines, anti-submarine defense ships.The exercises are scheduled to continue until October 30. 3) Marine units (25 thousand people) and an infantry battalion (1200) were deployed from California to the east coast ... ".

28 of October

16.00. Washington

Telegram from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: "The issue of dismantling missile bases in Cuba under international control does not meet with objections and will be covered in detail in Khrushchev's message." The Soviet leader agreed not to publicly discuss the elimination of American missile bases in Turkey.

Khrushchev's message was delivered to the President of the United States.

R. Kennedy confirmed the president's consent to the liquidation of American military bases in Turkey, but without mentioning the connection with the Cuban events.

Above one of the tables of the fashionable Washington restaurant "Occidental" there is a sign with several lines on the metal: "During the tense period of the Caribbean crisis (October 1962), the mysterious Russian Mr. X handed over a proposal to withdraw missiles from Cuba to a correspondent of the ABC television company "To John Scali. This meeting served to eliminate a possible nuclear war."

Political Intelligence Resident

Next to the tablet is a portrait of the correspondent. But there is neither a name nor a portrait of his interlocutor. With whom did John Scali, the star of American television journalism, a man close to the Kennedy family, communicate at this historic table? Russian Mr. "X" - a resident of the Soviet political intelligence in Washington, Alexander Fomin.

Real name - Alexander Semenovich Feklisov.

Let's go back to that day, October 26, 1962. A 40,000th contingent of our military has already been deployed to Cuba, and the installation of 42 missiles with nuclear warheads aimed at the United States has almost been completed. The world is on the brink of a third world war. Colonel of foreign intelligence Alexander Feklisov is one of those very few people who managed to prevent the catastrophe.

His daughter Natalia Alexandrovna Feklisova-Asatur learned about her father's secret work as an adult.

Only at forty-nine, she tells me, did I first hear that my father was engaged in intelligence, worked with people like Julius Rosenberg and Klaus Fuchs ... I was stunned. At school, we were told about the cruelty and bias of the American court that sent young people to the electric chair. I could not even imagine that my father met with them and even considered Julius Rosenberg his friend! There was never a word or a hint about this at home. My sister and I clearly knew one thing: my father was an employee of the Foreign Ministry. He was very fond of the film "Seventeen Moments of Spring", when it was shown, he always called my sister and me, wanted us to watch together. We thought: this is how dad likes the picture. Only many years later I began to understand that his life, work in New York, London and Washington - the material for several of these films!

Single trainee

As Feklisov himself said in the documentary "The Caribbean Crisis Through the Eyes of a Resident", he became a scout by accident. "My father is a switchman on railway, and as a child I dreamed of becoming an assistant driver, well, maybe even a driver. "But when Feklisov graduated from the Institute of Communications Engineers, he was offered to continue his studies at the SEON - School for Special Purposes. And a year later, in 1941, they began to train for a business trip to the USA.

Natalia Alexandrovna is still surprised: how could her father be sent to America? Too young. Language is weak. Didn't have a family. Finally, deaf. In his youth, when the house where the Feklisov family lived caught fire, he saved people all night and collapsed to sleep on cold boards in the barn in the morning. When I woke up, I did not immediately realize that one ear was not hearing.

But the leadership of SHON saw something more important in him: Feklisov is able to work around the clock and always achieves his goal. The first task for a novice intelligence officer is to establish two-way radio communication with Moscow. How? He must decide this himself, on the spot. According to legend, an intern at the USSR Consulate General in New York, Alexander Fomin, is given a room in a low-rise building surrounded by high-rise buildings. A guy from Rogozhskaya Zastava finds and buys several bamboo poles (those athletes use), fastens them with couplings, puts the resulting antenna on stretch marks - and from now on, New York and Moscow are connected by an invisible strong thread.

Quite quickly, Alexander corrects the column "not married" in the questionnaire. Natalia Alexandrovna shows a photograph of a pretty young woman:

This is the mother of the year they met. Ten girls who graduated from foreign language in Moscow were sent to New York to work in Amtorg. Father said that Zina Osipova immediately fascinated him with her cornflower blue eyes. Zinulya, as her father called her mother, became not only a wife, but also a good helper. Fluent in English, she could speak and take any American wife aside so that the men could discuss their problems in private.

The father knew how to win over almost any person. During his work, we later found out, he had 17 foreign agents, - continues Natalia Aleksandrovna. Some he called friends. Much later, my father arranged in his Moscow apartment on Bolshaya Gruzinskaya "a cache of expensive things" (as he called it), apparently, in case thieves got into the house. Somehow, with my sister and I, he took out an old shabby wallet: "A gift from an American friend." But he didn't say what.

Working with "friends" brought the scout more than once to the center of important, truly historical events.

Great Negotiator

On October 22, 1962, Fomina invites John Scali, a well-known political television observer, for breakfast at the Occidental restaurant. The scout had been meeting with him for a year and a half.

Scali looks flustered. Without preamble, he begins to accuse Khrushchev of an aggressive policy: "Is your general secretary crazy?" Feklisov objects: "The arms race was initiated by the United States!"

The two part, dissatisfied with each other. The situation is becoming more and more explosive with each passing hour. Secret information is leaking into the residency: the American army will be ready to land on Cuba on October 29th. And at the same time, no important instructions are coming from Moscow...

Father, - says Natalia Alexandrovna, - was silent about the events around the Caribbean crisis for many years. Once there was only something like a hint, but then, because of my youth, I did not understand anything. He gave me two tickets to the Theater of Satire for a performance based on Burlatsky's play The Burden of Decisions. He said: "It might be interesting. It's about American affairs, President Kennedy is played by Andrei Mironov. I can't go." My friend and I ran only because of Mironov. The play was about the Caribbean Crisis, there was a Soviet employee named Fomin, and because I was born in New York, I had the same surname as a child! She could, it seems, think about something ... But, frankly, we were not interested in watching the performance.

On the morning of October 26, Fomin decides to invite Skali to lunch at the same restaurant in the hope of getting fresh information from him. In the book Danger and Survival, McGeorge Bundy (US National Security Adviser) later wrote that Scali's upcoming meeting with a Soviet intelligence officer was reported to the president. Kennedy ordered Fomin to be told: "Time is short. The Kremlin must urgently make a declaration of its consent, without any conditions, to withdraw its missiles from Cuba."

The intelligence officer's memory preserved this meeting in all its details. Alexander Semenovich spoke about her in the book "Confession of a Scout" (published in 1999; the second edition, prepared by her daughter, was published in 2016):

Rubbing his hands and looking at me with a smile, Scali said:

Khrushchev, apparently, considers Kennedy young, inexperienced statesman. He is deeply mistaken, of which he will soon be convinced. The Pentagon assures the President that in forty-eight hours it will be able to do away with the Fidel Castro regime and Soviet missiles.

Invading Cuba is tantamount to giving Khrushchev free rein. The Soviet Union could strike back at a vulnerable spot for Washington.

Scali did not seem to expect such an answer. He looked into my eyes for a long time, then asked:

Do you think, Alexander, it will be West Berlin?

As a retaliatory measure, it is quite possible ... You know, John, when a thousandth avalanche of Soviet tanks goes into battle, and ground attack aircraft attack from the air at a strafing flight ... They will sweep away everything in their path ...

This is where our polemic with Scali ended... Here I must say that no one authorized me to tell Scali about the possible capture of West Berlin. It was the impulse of my soul ... I acted at my own peril and risk. "

Khrushchev's informant

The scout could not guess what happened next. His words were immediately communicated to the owner of the White House, and after three hours Kennedy handed over to the journalist a compromise proposal to resolve the crisis.

Scali called Fomin to a new meeting.

Wasting no time, he announced that, on behalf of the "highest authority", he conveys the following conditions for resolving the Caribbean crisis: the USSR dismantles and removes rocket launchers from Cuba under UN control; the United States lifts the blockade of the island; the United States publicly undertakes not to invade Cuba " .

The intelligence officer asked to clarify what the term "highest power" means. "Minting every word, the interlocutor said: "John Fitzgerald Kennedy is the President of the United States of America."

Fomin assured Scali that he would immediately report the proposal from the American side to his ambassador. "But it's one thing to promise, and another thing to do." Ambassador Dobrynin studied the stunning text for exactly three hours, then invited Feklisov. He said in an apologetic voice: "I cannot send such a telegram, because the Foreign Ministry did not authorize the embassy for such negotiations."

"Surprised at the ambassador's indecisiveness," Feklisov recalled, "I signed the telegram myself and handed it over to the cryptographer to send to my boss."

Khrushchev's positive answer came on Sunday, October 28, at ten o'clock in the morning. The USSR withdrew its missiles from Cuba, the US lifted the blockade from the island, and six months later removed its missiles from Turkey. The earthlings breathed a sigh of relief.

Doctor of Philosophy Hakob Nazaretyan, head of the Euro-Asian Center for Megahistory and System Forecasting of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, claims that these two men - Feklisov and Skali - saved not just millions of lives, but the civilization of the planet Earth. "These were days and hours of world history, very modestly imprinted in Russia by ungrateful descendants."

Mysterious Mr. "X"

American scientist James Blythe, author of the book On the Brink ("On the brink"), in 1989 in Moscow handed over to the scout his book with the inscription "Alexander Feklisov - the person with whom I always wanted to meet; the person who played a key role in greatest event our time".

According to the book "13 Days" by Robert Kennedy, then the Minister of Justice, a film of the same name was shot, where one of the main characters was introduced under the name Alexander Fomin. When it became clear that the possibilities of official diplomacy have been exhausted, the political adviser to the American president (played by Kevin Koestner) comes up with a happy idea to involve a TV journalist who is friends with a certain Alexander Fomin in the negotiations. "His real name is Alexander Feklisov," the adviser says. "He's a super spy! The chief intelligence officer of the KGB!"

The film was released in 2000, Feklisov managed to watch it. Natalia Alexandrovna recalls:

My father liked the movie. The only thing that annoyed me was the way they dressed "Alexander Fomin" - the collar of his sweater peeked out from under his jacket. He said: "Only farmers wore sweaters, but I always wore a shirt and a tie!" But in general, he said, the film accurately reflects the events.

Private Alexander Fedotov, a telephone operator-dispatcher, was selected for a mysterious "task" from a separate company at the headquarters of the 21st Air Defense Division in Odessa. Place of deployment - the village of Limonar in the province of Matanzas, the territory of the former American driving school. The combat mission is to control all aircraft in the Cuban sky.

Some details from the story of Alexander Grigoryevich about the Cuban business trip were recorded by our correspondent in St. Petersburg, Anna Romanova.

Duty

The entire map of Cuba was divided into a coordinate grid with secret codes that changed once a week. I accepted encrypted applications and entered them into the "Flight Plan" - this was necessary in order to exclude civil aircraft from the category of air targets.

Since the beginning of September, the Americans have been especially active in "ironing" the Cuban sky in F-104 fighters. "Couple of Americans at low level, wait" - a typical call from the radar post. Radars catch the target, they receive coordinates at the headquarters, the planners put the target on the tablet ...

Life

Changing of the guard at night. Machine guns under the cloaks, you are constantly waiting for the "contra" bullets from around the corner. A dozen meters from the guard post, behind the fence in a wretched hut, lives an old Cuban who sneaks along the fence at night with a candle in his hand. He scares the hell out of us - what is he doing there at night? Who is looking for? Later we found out that it was a harmless madman.

Our people went to the Cubans with concerts - they sang, played funny scenes from army life. During such "tours" I saw a sight not for the faint of heart on the coast of the Gulf of Florida! There are hundreds of American ships on the road, desperate young Cubans are brandishing Colts on the shore. "Patria o muerte!" - the slogan of the revolution. It was evident how their support for such a power as the USSR inflames them.

During the harvest season, ours helped local farmers pick tomatoes - but only green ones for export, so that they could ripen on the way. Eaten to the stomach...

denouement

The night of October 26-27 passed in monstrous tension. In the evening, all the women from our territory - civilian radio operators, telephone operators were taken to karst caves, which served as shelters. The personnel were ordered to carry weapons. Our radars have spotted targets - dozens of US aircraft rush to the Cuban borders. Fidel Castro ordered: "Cuban borders are sacred and inviolable, destroy any violator!" Immediately an order comes from Moscow: "Categorically do not take any action against American aircraft in violation of Cuban borders!"

The planes flew to the border and began loitering along it. The whole night and the whole next day became a test of strength and endurance - what will happen next? Who will give in? Who can't stand it? Only later did we learn that ours had shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft with a missile.

At home, Alexander Fedotov was waiting for the bride - a Leningrad student. In Cuba, he collected for her a herbarium of exotic flowers and plants from Cuba. He made "applications", of course, by telephone to his colleagues - they sent him with an opportunity rarities with different corners islands. That girl became his wife, they have been living together in St. Petersburg for more than forty years.

Junior Sergeant Felix Sukhanovsky: The Cubans tried to persuade us: "Kamrad, launch a rocket!"

My father, Felix Alexandrovich Sukhanovsky, junior sergeant of the engineer company of the 181st missile regiment of the 50th Red Banner Missile Division of the 43rd Red Banner Missile Army, spoke for the first time about his Cuban epic only at the end of the 80s. I only spoke recently. I wrote down his story, excerpts from which I offer Rodina.

Alexey Sukhanovsky, Arkhangelsk

The silence of word of mouth

I was drafted into the army from the first year of the Arkhangelsk Forest Engineering Institute, already at the age of 22. He graduated from "Education" as a junior sergeant, head of a radio station, and ended up serving in an engineering company. The head of our division was Lieutenant Colonel Gerasimov, a Suvorovite, a polite, tough, figured drill soldier.

The omniscient "word of mouth" turned out to be either deaf or dumb: no rumors about where we were being sent circulated. Just one of the nights at the end of September 1962, we were alerted and sent to the port of Nikolaev on covered trucks. From there, in ignorance, sailed for seventeen days, having no idea about the destination. We unloaded into the pitch night, passing to the pier to the trucks through the corridor of submachine gunners. Some, completely killed by the rolling of the sea, were dragged in their arms. Where we are is unknown. Darkness is total. Constellations - do not understand what ...

At six in the morning the sun rose and we saw palm trees. Only later did we learn that we were camping in the countryside at Los Palacios near San Cristobal, southwest of Havana.

"Comrade-comrade, press!"

Settled in a fairly large perimeter, surrounded by barbed wire. Guards were carried by Cuban soldiers, who, as our company commander, Captain Kologreev, said, were told by Fidel himself: "If something happens to at least one of the Russians, I will shoot." But for all the time there were no sabotage or provocations in our places. Only every day American reconnaissance planes flew over the location.

The mood of the guys was different. Who hung his nose, saying, they say, here is our grave, we will not get out of here forever. Who, not at all discouraged, silently did their job, and the noisy Leningraders completely set off in search of adventure: they made contacts with the guards and then boasted of their acquaintance with local girls, admired Cuban rum and even got hold of a guitar. I think everything except the guitar was a lie and a boast.

On the fourth day after the landing, they assembled the launch pads, docked the warheads of nuclear warheads to the missiles, refueled them, put them in a combat position, pointed them at targets - and from October 25 they were waiting for the order to launch in full readiness.

This is our combat position near San Cristobal captured for history by American reconnaissance aircraft: two launch pads, long tents, a command post, cable lines, a fleet of tractors and tankers with TM185 fuel and AK27I oxidizer, columns of cars, rain-soaked roads among thinned palm forest. ..

We did not feel the full tension of the situation, although we understood that the launch of just one R-12 would begin a worldwide hell. Each rocket with a capacity of one megaton is 50 Hiroshima. The Cubans, seeing our power, happily persuaded: "Comrade-comrade, press-press, launch a rocket! Let's show these Americans!" They were very offended that we would not hit the States with our club. There was no order. And we waited.

Company International

Back in the Union, we were told that we must be wary of the components of rocket fueling, otherwise "there will be no children." I remember standing at the guard post of the fuel depot, and the sun was baking the tanks and through safety valves periodically puffing out yellow clouds of gas ...

Meanwhile, information reached us that after the installation of our missiles in Florida, a wild panic began. The entire population of the peninsula rushed deep into America with fear. Of course, it will hurt anyone here when nuclear missiles are ready under your nose...

All this did not last so long, but I remember it as if through a fog. Even on the approach to Cuba, I began to have arrhythmia of the heart. True, I didn’t understand what was happening to me - everything was shaking, pounding, my pulse was crazy ... My entire Cuban epic passed in such a state of health. My comrades were not in the best condition either. Perhaps the conditions of the sea passage affected, perhaps the tropical climate with a sharp difference in night and day temperatures. Constant contacts with fantastic insects did not add to the mood - they are hefty, poisonous and disgusting there. So I didn’t really frolic in Cuba, I spent more time in a tent. Memories remain vague and heavy.

Life proceeded in the location of the company, in which there was a complete Soviet international: Ossetians, Armenians, foremen-Chechens, Azerbaijanis, Georgians, Tajiks, and of the Slav brothers in great numbers. They lived together. They had no losses. Nobody got sick. Even without lice. Leisure time was spent as best they could, and in fact it was replaced by political information, which was carried out by the political officer or battalion commander: the situation is difficult, but stable, and therefore soon - home! We did not see the famous Cuban cigars, and there were only a couple of smokers in our company. We were not given any money, but the soldiers' salaries were already received in full in the Union.

"Give them a rustle!"

There was no work for our company - they stood ready for the entire Cuban special operation.

On October 28, we received the order to roll up and load onto ships. On October 29, our regiment was removed from combat duty.

We arrived at the port of Nikolaev in early December. They felt like winners, rejoiced that they returned alive and healthy. "Give them a rustle!".

Three days later, the radio operators said that on the Voice of America radio, they conveyed congratulations to Lieutenant Colonel Gerasimov on his return and new intercession on combat duty. I don’t think that our command was pleased with such awareness of the enemy ...

At home I didn't say anything about Cuba. I am very sorry that I soon lost my flashlight, issued before the operation "Anadyr" - the only thing that remained my memory of the Island of Freedom.

Next year, Permian Alexander Georgievich Gorensky will turn 80. And during the Caribbean crisis, the 24-year-old technician-lieutenant ended up in Cuba as part of the 584th separate aviation engineering regiment. Dislocation - base "Granma". The main firing sector is in the northeast and north directions, the additional one is in the direction of the island of Pinos.

The memoirs of Alexander Georgievich about the October days of 1962 were recorded by our correspondent in Perm, Konstantin Bakharev.

FEES. Operation Checkered Shirt

In the spring of 1962, my colleagues and I in 642 OAPIB (separate air battalion of fighter-bombers), stationed at the Martynovka airfield of the Odessa military district, were offered a business trip to "a country with a maritime subtropical climate." I agreed. Five people were sent from our regiment: Major Anatoly Andreevich Orlov, Lieutenant Vladimir Borisov, Senior Lieutenants Sergei Cherepushkin, Valery Zaichikov, and myself.

They were given uniforms - a sand-colored technical suit, boots with thick soles with high lacing - berets, a khaki panama with wide brim and sand-colored T-shirts. They also gave out civilian clothes: shirts, a hat, a light raincoat, shoes and suits. The shirts were all the same style - short-sleeved and plaid. Someone joked that we were members of Operation Checkered Shirt. It took root, and we no longer called the business trip in a different way.

During the training camp, I saw that girls from the library were burning books in the courtyard of the headquarters. They were ordered to write off the most dilapidated copies. I selected for myself "Quiet Flows the Don", "Twelve Chairs", "Walking Through the Torments", a collection of O Henry and Nekrasov. I took the books with me. Then, in Cuba, they were borrowed from me to read, and in the end the books sold out. Only "Quiet Don" remained. And when there was nothing to read, we dismantled his volumes into notebooks, numbered them, and so we all read - one after another.

SEA TRIP. Aviaexport containers

The regiment arrived in Baltiysk, where it began to load on the ship "Berdyansk". We settled in the hold, and on the deck, in addition to truck cranes and other apparently civilian equipment, we installed two huge containers with the inscriptions "Aviaexport". Four camp kitchens were hidden in one. Food was prepared for us in them and then lowered into the hold in thermoses. The second container was a toilet. During the day it was possible to walk only 2-3 people. If the number of visitors is increased, then someone might notice that water is constantly flowing from the air container. At night, the toilet was allowed to visit without restrictions.

September 16, 1962 set sail. Went 18 days. As we approached Cuba, American warplanes began flying around us. First, large twin-engine, then fighters appeared. They made each flight according to a certain program: they descended very low (up to 15-20 meters above the sea), entered from different courses - from the stern and bow across the course of the ship, then along the course - also from the bow and stern. They flew only during the day, but very often: up to six times a day. We took a lot of pictures, you could see how the photo hatches were opening, sometimes you could even see the brilliance of the optics. After the flight, some pilots waved affably and showed that they were flying home, to the west.

For a possible rebuff, if the Americans decide to search the ship, four platoons were created, armed with knives, pistols and grenades. Two platoons are on duty in the bow and stern cabins, two are in reserve. In addition, machine guns and machine guns are in reserve, if it comes to them. The platoons were mostly made up of officers, but there were also soldiers, who were the most physically strong and athletic.

DISLOCATION. "Black Widow"

Our regiment was stationed at the former American military base, now it was called "Granma". In addition to us, there was an anti-aircraft missile division, a regiment of Mi-4 transport helicopters, and in early October an artillery division appeared with four 80-mm guns. The regiment commander was Colonel Alexei Ivanovich Frolov, the chief of staff was Lieutenant Colonel Damir Maksudovich Ilyasov. The structure is simple: two combat squadrons, which were engaged in guiding and launching missiles, and one technical squadron, which was supposed to prepare missiles for firing.

We were armed with FKR-1, front-line cruise missiles capable of carrying high-explosive and nuclear charges. The missiles were transported in plywood-lined containers with the inscription "Aviaexport" in Russian and English. Our regiment had 48 of these missiles. And at the PRTB - a mobile missile and technical base - nuclear warheads for missiles were stored. We had to build a storage facility for them with a special temperature regime.

Unloaded in the port of the city of Mariel. After unloading, the chief of staff ordered me to lead the guard guarding five containers with missiles. They were immediately taken from the pier into the jungle so that no one could see. I was scared because I was afraid that it was full of snakes. On the spot we were instructed by a Cuban. I tried to understand it with the help of a pocket phrase book, but I did not understand anything. The containers stood on a clearing area of ​​approximately 200x200 meters. I posted three. The night passed quietly.

In the morning, one of the Cuban trailer drivers (they were used to transport containers) came up to our car - a gas truck, and suddenly jumped up and shouted: "Negro! Negro!" I look, on the floor of the "gazik" there is a black tarantula-type spider, large, five to six centimeters in diameter. I was not afraid of tarantulas, there are many of them near Odessa, and they are harmless. I took a rag from the driver, grabbed this spider through it and threw it out of the car. The negro spider furiously trampled underfoot. And then we were told that this spider, the "black widow", can kill a person with one bite.

THE BEGINNING OF THE CRISIS. Waiting for the bombing

On October 25, 1962, the regimental chief of staff announced that the Americans would bomb us. After that, of course, we had a slight jitters. The Americans flew very low over us, five or six times a day. In the evenings they came from the west, from the setting sun. They are not visible, so they sneaked up. The MiGs began chasing them, driving them aside. And when their reconnaissance plane was shot down, the Americans began to appear less often.

We lived in anticipation of war. They were inclined to believe that hostilities would still begin. But we were ready for it. We were told by the commanders that, according to all estimates, after the start of the war, we will live for half an hour, no more. Then we will be covered. But during this time, our regiment could fire 3-4 missiles with nuclear warheads. So from Florida, namely where we were aimed, there would also be little left. Our regiment would have dealt with it in 20 minutes. And the second regiment with the FKR would have smashed all the American troops on Guantanamo Bay.

NIGHT GUEST. Salvo on a submarine

At night, we were awakened by a salvo from the artillery battalion, commanded by senior lieutenant Sergei Yakovlev, we called him Yashka the artilleryman. A very determined and meticulous officer. Before that, at his request, we made a raft and dragged it across the sea. The gunners aimed at it, spent the whole day and then smashed the raft with one shot. And that night, the starley looked through binoculars, looked (he told us this later), saw a silhouette. Quietly woke up the staff. He personally aimed all four of his guns and gasped in one gulp! There, he says, sparks, fire. Well, it was not in vain that he set up sights on our raft. Hit without a miss.

In the afternoon divers arrived from Havana. And we also put on masks, fins and began to dive. And there, about two hundred meters from the shore, there are pieces of metal at the bottom. The submarine approached at night. And our starley artilleryman slammed her. She apparently sank nearby. The divers then lifted the corpses onto their boat. I counted seven dead people, they were stacked at the stern.

MORE NIGHT GUESTS. Post attack

We had about fifteen positions in the regiment that had to be guarded. And almost every night sentries fired. Apparently, someone really wanted to determine what our regiment was armed with. The attacks began. Cubans were standing nearby, their sentry was shot dead at night. They also attacked the post where I was the head of the guard.

At about 11 pm I went to take a nap. And suddenly a long burst from a machine gun! You can hear the bullets clicking on the leaves of the trees. I shouted: "Sentry, with a gun!" They rushed into the trenches and returned fire. They were beaten with machine guns and light machine guns. There was the sound of a running engine, like a truck, and soon it died away. My assistant, Sergeant Alexei Fedorchuk, wanted to pursue them. I forbade. It is hard to see at night, maybe there is an ambush.

In the morning we examined the place from where they shot at us. It turned out with dirt road, meters in a hundred. The fire was fired through a small forest. It can be said at random, but in our direction. We found a bunch of shell casings with a caliber of about 12.7. They gave it to the special officers who arrived in the morning.

LIFE. Sharks for lunch

The rear units of the regiment were still in the USSR. We ate dry rations, so we learned to fish. We went spearfishing with friends. A net was also found here, they put it at the mouth of the Santa Laura River. Once, four tons of mackerel were taken out at one time. And then the network disappeared. They found her, all torn apart, near the shore. Two sharks are entangled in it. We also ate these sharks, and threw the net away.

At that time in the USSR I received 107 rubles a month. In Cuba, we were given a salary of 195 percent of our home wage. That is actually twice as much. In addition, the Cuban authorities paid us three hundred pesos a month extra as military advisers. But they gave this money for only two months. Who wanted to, and received - in rubles or pesos, to choose from. Pesos in hand, and rubles went to the passbook. You could also take checks from Vneshtorgbank. Many, including me, gave part of their allowance to their families even before they were sent according to the report. In Cuba, I received sixty percent of the salary, the rest went to my wife and daughter. And I, like others, made money transfers to the family.

Soldiers and sergeants lived worse. They received ten rubles. Although they also doubled the payments. But the soldiers found a way out. Our regiment brought ten tons of caustic soda with them. For what - is unknown. And in Cuba at that time there was a terrible shortage of soap and detergents. And our soldiers began to trade this caustic soda. The case took on such a scale that from the early morning at our checkpoint there were already queues of cubans. They exchanged soda for money and food.

CONTACTS. From love to hate

When we arrived in Cuba, the Cubans were ready to carry us in their arms. In places where an entrance fee was required, we were let through without payment. In bars, the first drink for Russians was free. The Cubans did not hesitate to say that now "they will show" the Americans. And when it became clear that we would not fight, their mood changed dramatically. At our Granma base, leaflets appeared in Russian calling not to obey the orders of the commanders, but to declare war on the United States and land on the American mainland. In Havana, women threw rotten tomatoes at Anatoly Repin and me. Tolya wanted to "figure it out", I kept him. We then cleaned ourselves up, but still the clothes had to be thrown away.

DEPARTURE. A Farewell to Arms

When Khrushchev and Kennedy nevertheless agreed and the removal of ballistic missiles from Cuba began, transport was allocated from our regiment. For several days I was the head of the KrAZ, which carried cargo from former combat positions to the port. After I visited these positions, I had a difficult impression. I was struck by the scope and quality of the work performed: these were halls of not very deep (almost on the surface) occurrence with powerful arched vaults and gates with a meter thickness. But all this was so barbarously destroyed, plundered, smashed, that all that remained was to lament.

Mikhail Valeryevich Gavrilov, co-author of the recently published book "White Spots of the Caribbean Crisis" (together with V.A. Bubnov), told Motherland little-known details of the key episode of the Caribbean crisis. The American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down in the sky over the Cuban city of Banes on October 27, 1962 by the crew of the Soviet S-75 anti-aircraft missile system. The guidance officer was Lieutenant Alexei Artemovich Ryapenko. Here is how he describes it in the book:

"...Major Gerchenov ordered me: "Destroy the target with three bursts!" I switched all three firing channels to the BR mode and pressed the "Start" button of the first channel. The missile left the launcher. After that, I reported: "There is a capture!" The first rocket had already been flying for 9-10 seconds when the commander ordered: “Second, launch!” I pressed the “Start” button of the second channel. When the first rocket exploded, a cloud appeared on the screens. I reported: “First, detonation. Goal meeting. The target has been hit!" After the second missile was detonated, the target began to lose altitude sharply, and I reported: "Second, detonation. Target destroyed!"

Major I.M. Gerchenov reported to the regimental command post that target N33 had been destroyed. He told me that I worked calmly and confidently. Then we got out of the cab. All the officers and operators gathered on the site. They picked me up and started throwing me up - it was easy, since I weighed only 56 kilograms. Looking back, I can say: we fulfilled our duty, unconditionally and to the end. Then I could not know that the American plane we shot down would be the only one, that this event would be a turning point in resolving the Caribbean crisis. It’s just that in those years, our entire generation was brought up in such a way that we were ready to die for our Motherland.”

The U-2 aircraft was designed and manufactured according to last word technology. In particular, it was equipped with a device for detecting Soviet radars. Mikhail Gavrilov wonders: why did the experienced pilot Rudolf Anderson, knowing that he was "under the gun", not begin to maneuver, but continued to move on the intended course? The authors of the book "White Spots of the Caribbean Crisis" believe that the American command deliberately sent Anderson to certain death by disabling the security system of his aircraft in advance. The attack on U-2 was supposed to be the signal for the start of a massive air strike on Cuba:

President John F. Kennedy realized only after the latest American plane was destroyed that the United States in Cuba was confronted not by scattered groups of Soviet soldiers and officers, but by a combat-ready group of troops. And if the United States strikes at Cuba, there will be an irreversible reaction around the world.

The authors of the book are convinced that Georgy Voronkov, commander of the 27th Air Defense Division, Ivan Gerchenov, commander of the division, and Alexei Ryapenko, guidance officer, played one of the key roles in resolving the Caribbean crisis. Rodina correspondents turned to Alexei Artemovich Ryapenko, who lives in Sochi, for additional details:

- The book says that you worked on the goal "calmly and confidently." Can you decipher?

Confidence comes when you know your business perfectly. But I graduated from the Tambov Aviation School in 1960. But after graduation, I was sent to the anti-aircraft missile forces, so I had to learn a new specialty. On shooting, everything worked out in the best way, the calmness that you ask about came. Although I was the youngest officer in the division. On October 27, everything was even simpler than at the exercises.

- What did you think about when you clicked on the "Start" button?

There is nothing to think about, all actions are scheduled in seconds. The detection and shooting process is quite simple. We immediately grabbed the plane on the radar screen, the reconnaissance station led it. And as soon as he approached the detection zone, she handed it over to us. At the command of the commander, I pressed "Start". Regular situation even despite the fact that it was raining. The plane was moving at a low speed - somewhere around 800 kilometers per hour. So there were no problems.

- Was there a gala dinner for a successful shooting?

What are you speaking about! We didn't feel like it would end there. On the contrary, we feared retribution. So there was no time for treats.

No. Yes, I would refuse. Or he simply told them: "Guys, what you did was your initiative. And we did our job, our duty - we helped the Cubans defend their revolutionary gains. There's someone who wins ...".

On November 20, 1962, John F. Kennedy ordered an end to the blockade of Cuba. This was the final end of the Caribbean crisis, which brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

In the early 1960s, a story happened that almost led the world to the Third World War. It began in Washington, continued in Turkish Izmir, reached the highest point of tension in Cuba, and then involved a good half of the planet, frozen in anxious expectation. The Cubans call those events the Crisis de Octubre, but we are more familiar with the Caribbean Crisis.

The end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s was a period of considerable growth in the tension of the international situation. Only fifteen years have passed since the happy year of 1945, but history seemed to teach nothing to the main interests of big politics. The generals clanged their armor with a deafening roar: the arms race was gaining momentum. The fact that these weapons were, among other things, nuclear, gave the situation "special languor."

It seemed that realpolitikists were so busy sparking all over the world that any of these sparks could ignite a monstrous global fire. Judge for yourself:
1950 The United States unleashes a war in Korea, and only the help of the USSR and China saves the young republic in the north of the peninsula.

1953 The CIA and Mi-6 are conducting Operation Ajax to overthrow the legitimate government of Mohammed Masaddegh in Iran.

1954 The President of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz, had the imprudence to carry out a number of important land reforms in his own country, infringing on the interests of the international giant United Fruit Company. The US staged a coup supported by direct military intervention. Operation PBSUCCESS brought the fascist regime of Castillo Armas to power, dooming a sovereign country to forty years of ongoing civil war.

1956 President Dwight Eisenhower authorizes the US invasion of Lebanon and sends US warships to Taiwan, threatening the PRC with military force.

1961 The United States is trying to stifle the revolution in Cuba with the help of mercenaries. The operation in the Bay of Pigs ends in complete failure, and Cuba is literally pushed into the arms of the only country that at that moment was in a position to provide effective support - the USSR.

This is how both previous World Wars began - with a series of local conflicts and "light, non-committal" interventions.
The main goal, of course, was not Cuba or Guatemala or even China, but the USSR. For maximum credibility, under the liberal Kennedy, the United States deployed Jupiter medium-range nuclear missiles in Turkey - in Izmir. Flight time to targets in the Union was about 10 minutes.

The Soviet government could not but react. After all, it was ridiculous even to compare the nuclear potentials of both countries. The US had 6,000 warheads, and the USSR only 300. The US could launch an armada of 1,300 strategic bombers into the sky, and nine nuclear cruisers with Polaris missiles on board into the sea. The USSR needed an urgent asymmetric response when the US literally gave it away, forcing Fidel Castro to move closer to Moscow.

On June 20, 1962, Operation Anadyr began to relocate to Cuba a group of missile forces with technical support and cover units. General Issa Aleksandrovich Pliev directly supervised the operation. By the way, he belonged to the cohort that various half-educated people used to call "stupid Budenov cavalrymen." The stupid cavalryman carried out the most complex set of events brilliantly.

24 R-14 missiles and 36 R-12 missiles with launchers and personnel, two regiments of cruise missiles with Luna tactical missiles, four motorized rifle regiments, two air defense divisions, a fighter aviation regiment and a separate fighter squadron (more than 50 aircraft in total), a helicopter regiment, a coastal defense regiment with 8 Sopka missile launchers, 11 submarines, 2 cruisers, destroyers and mine-torpedo ships - all this was delivered to Cuba quickly, accurately and on time. And most importantly - in secret. Until mid-October, Washington did not suspect that 70 Soviet megatons of TNT were located in a quarter of an hour's flight. Here is such a "stupid cavalryman" was Issa Pliev.

Nevertheless, it was unrealistic to hide the sharp intensification of Soviet cargo transportation. Regular overflights of U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, which were considered invulnerable to air defense systems, were able to reveal the deployment of strategic missiles. On October 15, another portion of the photographic films was deciphered, and Kennedy, who had already declared in Congress on September 4 that there were no Soviet missiles in Cuba, was forced to admit that he got a little excited with such conclusions. The US Army and Navy have been placed on DEFCON-3 combat readiness. On October 20, a naval blockade of Cuba began.

Blockade, as you know, is an act of war. Thus, the United States unilaterally acted with aggression against a sovereign state. After all, the deployment of missiles could not violate any international rules and agreements, but the blockade could and did. In fact, since the opening of the “quarantine” of Cuba, the world has been on the verge of a nuclear catastrophe. From now on, any accident could start an uncontrollable chain reaction - it was worth it for someone to pass the nerves.

So, the B-59 submarine of the USSR Navy, which broke through to the coast of Cuba, was blocked by US destroyers and fired from an aircraft. Since the destroyers were jamming communications, the ship's commander decided that a war had begun and was ready to fire a volley in nuclear equipment. And only the composure of the first mate, captain of the 2nd rank, Vasily Arkhipov, saved the situation. The code phrase "Stop provocations" was a response to the shelling. But everything could easily turn out differently, the situation was so tense when everything depended on the performers on the ground. The reputable gentlemen in Washington sowed such a wind that the world almost reaped a whirlwind. In the corridors of big diplomacy, naturally and expectedly, there were cries of “what are we for ?!”

On October 23, Kennedy demanded that Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin guarantee that Soviet ships would comply with the conditions of maritime quarantine. To which Dobrynin pointed out the illegality of the blockade and the obvious absurdity of the demands of the American side.
The US military received the DEFCON-2 combat readiness level. For understanding: DEFCON-1 is actually the beginning of full-scale military operations.
At that time, the Soviet representative Valerian Aleksandrovich Zorin was fighting like a lion in the UN Security Council, and Curtis LeMay, the US Air Force Chief of Staff, demanded the opening of hostilities, up to a nuclear strike on the USSR. The "Tokyo Inquisitor", who burned more than 80,000 people alive in the capital of Japan on March 10, 1945, was generally a prominent specialist in "blowing into the Stone Age."

On October 27, a missile from the S-75 Dvina air defense system shot down an "invulnerable" U-2 over Cuba. The pilot is dead. Kennedy's military advisers demanded an order for an immediate forceful response, but the president, fortunately for everyone, turned out to be either weak or prudent enough to completely block such initiatives. "Black Saturday" - the day when the world was teetering on a razor's edge.

In the early morning of October 28, Kennedy "handed back."
He summoned Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin, declaring that the United States was ready for a diplomatic settlement. A telegram went to Moscow:
“1) You (USSR) agree to withdraw your weapons systems from Cuba under the appropriate supervision of UN representatives, and also to take steps, subject to appropriate security measures, to stop the supply of such weapons systems to Cuba.
2) We, for our part, will agree - provided that a system of adequate measures is created with the help of the UN to ensure the fulfillment of these obligations - a) to quickly lift the blockade measures that have been introduced at the moment and b) to give guarantees of non-aggression against Cuba.

Negotiations began. The result was a discharge. America removed the Jupiter and Thor missiles from Turkey and Europe and guaranteed Cuba against military aggression. The USSR, in response, had to withdraw strategic forces from the Island of Freedom. Native advertising

So historical practice once again confirmed the old truth: si vis pacem - para bellum, if you want peace, prepare for war. This is a serious lesson to contemporaries. Imperialist circles understand only one language, and that is the language of force. Fortunately, there are still missiles on duty, originally from the USSR, equipped with a thermonuclear filling, originally from the same place. As long as this is the case, and as long as there is a strong will to use them in case of aggression, another world massacre is unlikely. And the heroes of the Anadyr operation played an important role in this, proving that there is no action that does not give rise to opposition.