Soviet submarine to 19. Underwater hell

The history of the K-19 submarine is dramatic: for Soviet Union it became a symbol of nuclear power, a trump card in the Cold War, and for many of the sailors who served on it, a ruthless killer.

The legendary boat K-19 survived several terrible accidents, but its crew never renounced their ship...
The first Soviet submarine nuclear missile carrier K-19 became known to the whole world thanks to the sensational Hollywood blockbuster K-19. The Widowmaker directed by Kathryn Bigelow and starring Harrison Ford.


Shot from the film "K-19"
It should be noted that American filmmakers treated the veterans of the boat with respect. So, the first version of the script, which caused criticism from the Soviet sailors, was seriously changed. By the way, the final scene of the picture was filmed at the Moscow Kuzminsky cemetery, where the dead sailors from K-19 are actually buried.
The submarine became part of the Northern Fleet in 1960. It was an innovative ship, a thunderstorm of the Soviet fleet, a giant that should have passed unnoticed to NATO bases during the Arctic Circle exercises.


It should be noted that the exercises were held from a turbulent time: an open confrontation broke out between the USSR and the West over the fate of Berlin. The submarine managed to get into the North Atlantic, bypassing the US radar.
It seemed that the operation was successful, but suddenly a tragedy struck. On June 4, 1961, at 4:15 a.m., Captain II rank Nikolai Zateev received alarming data: the sensors recorded overheating of the fuel rods.
The situation was frightening: a malfunction threatened to explode a submarine equipped with nuclear warhead missiles. In this case, not only 149 crew members would have suffered, a massive explosion threatened an ecological disaster.


The decision to eliminate the accident was made without delay: there was no need to wait for outside help (the situation was aggravated by the secrecy of the operation), so a team of volunteers undertook to build a backup cooling system on their own.
The crew members coped with the task, but at the same time received a shock dose of radiation. By the time K-19 surfaced, the 14 sailors who had taken the brunt had already begun to show symptoms of radiation sickness. Eight of them subsequently died suddenly.


After the accident, it took three years to repair the K-19. In the winter of 1963, the K-19 returned to service and took up combat duty. It seemed that hard times were over, the sailors successfully served on the formidable cruiser.
However, six years later, the fate of the entire crew was again in the balance of death: during the next exercise, the Soviet cruiser collided with the American submarine USS Gato.
The Americans took the K-19 maneuver for a ram, and were about to open aimed fire, but the tragedy was prevented by the captain of the torpedo compartment, who understood the situation.


Fate prepared the K-19 crew for another terrible test. On February 24, 1972, a severe fire broke out on the submarine, engulfing 8 and compartments. 26 crew members and two rescuers who arrived to help died - one from carbon monoxide poisoning, others burned to death.
After the fire was extinguished, the boat was towed to the base, but the story did not end there. Another dozen sailors spent 23 days in those compartments that were located behind the burnt ones, their evacuation was impossible due to the high concentration carbon monoxide. Fortunately, these sailors managed to survive.

The first commander of the K-19 cap. 2nd rank Nikolay Zateev
The history of the K-19 ended in 1990, when it was finally decommissioned. In the 2000s, the sailors who served on the cruiser turned to the country's leadership with a proposal not to dispose of the ship, but to open a memorial museum on it in memory of the K-19 combat past, of the exploits that were performed on board this submarine, in memory of those who, at the cost of their own lives, saved their comrades.
However, the requests were not heard: the K-19 was cut up for scrap, only a part of the felling, installed as a monument at the entrance of the Nerpa shipyard, remained as a keepsake.


At the pier in Snezhnogorsk. Late 1990s

Probably, we would not have known for a long time that in July 1961 the crew of the Soviet nuclear missile submarine K-19 prevented nuclear disaster, which could wipe half of Europe off the face of the earth, if not for the Americans. They made a feature film about this submarine with the eloquent title "The Widowmaker". Willy-nilly, we also had to remember what happened and how. And at the same time to reward after 37 years those who are still alive.

It all started like this... Sailors say that there are lucky and unlucky ships. The first missile nuclear submarine of the USSR under the number "K-19", it seems, was destined to become a kind of record, to survive all imaginable and unimaginable misfortunes. Their harbinger, by the way, was a symbolic episode that occurred already during the descent of the nuclear submarine from the stocks: a bottle of champagne did not break on the stem of the boat.

And then it went on and on. During the descent, the submarine immediately ... sank. Those present on the shore began to clutch at their hearts, reaching into their pockets for validol. Under water urgently sent divers. They found that the bottom of the submarine was glued to the launch carts, the bed of which they forgot to lubricate accordingly.

The boat finally surfaced. But that was only the beginning of her misadventures. Already at the first start-up of the reactor, an accident occurred. As a result of frank bungling, they forgot to connect instruments showing the pressure in the primary circuit of the reactor, and they gave the pipeline a pressure that was twice the norm. The accident was hidden, the pipes were patched up ...

We went on sea trials, during which the boat almost stuck into the ground at a speed of 20 knots due to incorrect installation of the depth rudders. The submarine was saved by sailor Stanislav Kuritsyn, who reversed in time.

But the adventure didn't end there. In November 1960, two sailors died on the boat at intervals of a week. One had his head crushed by the lid of the rocket silo, the other was tightened when the main shaft was turned.

Nevertheless, the boat was nevertheless included in the USSR Navy and sent for training in the North Atlantic.

And on July 4, 1961, a leak opened again in the primary circuit. Due to a sharp drop in water pressure, the reactor went haywire. The alarm system did not work due to a factory defect either. As a result, in order to cool the reactor, which threatened to explode, the sailors had to urgently mount a system for supplying cold water.

This work required a long stay of submariners in the zone of radiation exposure. They coped with the task, but were heavily irradiated. Already from the compartment they came out with yellow foam on their lips. Eight people died within a week...

Commander Nikolai Zateev decided to surface and give a distress signal.

The diesel-electric submarine S-270 under the command of Zh. Sverbilov was the first to come to the aid of the nuclear submarine. His boat was supposed to be part of the "veil" - a group of other diesel boats - to search for and track American aircraft carriers. When the S-270 approached the emergency nuclear submarine at a distance of 1 cable, its dosimetrist recorded radiation of 0.4-0.5 r / h. When mooring boats, the level of radiation already exceeded all permissible limits.

However, the S-270 crew took on board 11 exposed sailors. By the way, at that moment, the commander of the S-270 was asked from the flagship command post: “What are you doing on board the K-19? Why did they leave the "veil" without permission? Answer for arbitrariness!

Zateev had to send a coded message to the commander-in-chief about the state of his boat and crew. And only then were two more diesel submarines ordered to go to the aid of the nuclear-powered ship.

Sailors from K-19, transferring to other boats, stripped naked - all the clothes were “fonil”. Money, party and Komsomol tickets were placed in a sealed container. In total, 68 people and bags of secrets were transported.

The S-270 itself began to be deactivated on the way to Polyarny. When they began to unload bags with secret documents from the boat, they “blew” so much that they decided to burn them. And when the commander and the political officer brought the party and Komsomol tickets of the K-19 crew to the political department, the head of the political department stared at them in horror, and then called a young civilian secretary and ordered them to be locked in a safe. He himself was simply afraid to touch the documents.

Meanwhile, a government commission was sent to the accident site. She had to decide what to do with the boat: tow or sink? There were 12 people on the boat. According to their stories, it was clear that the gathering of the crew took place hastily, but without panic. The radiation level was very high and grew as we approached the reactor compartment. It was impossible to enter the 7th compartment, the dosimetrist warned that in this case, radioactive burns could not be avoided. It became clear that people could not be on the boat, but since the reactor was no longer threatened with an explosion, they decided not to flood the boat, but tow it to the dock for repairs.

The K-19 was refurbished, but the naval wits had already nicknamed it "Hiroshima". And yet, a new crew was sent to the submarine. He and the boat continued to serve. The chain of misadventures continued.

In 1969, it was the Hiroshima that collided in the Barents Sea with the American submarine Getow, which was on a CIA mission. The commander of the nuclear submarine, L. Burkhard, was ordered to approach our shore by 4 miles, make radio intercepts and follow the Soviet submarines. In case of pursuit, the commander of the offending boat was allowed to use military weapons.

Our "Hiroshima" ran into this submarine, on November 15, 1969, performing its task at the training ground. How both submarines managed not to notice each other remains a mystery to this day. But at 07:13 Hiroshima hit the Getou in the area of ​​the reactor compartment. The commander decided to surface in order to understand what was the matter. And it turned out to be an ideal target for the American submarine, especially since its own torpedo tubes were damaged in the collision.

They say that the commander of the Getou mine-torpedo warhead even gave the order to prepare three missiles and a Sabrok rocket-torpedo with a nuclear charge for firing. But, fortunately, the commander of the American boat turned out to be more prudent than his subordinate, canceled the order and hurried to leave the collision area.

According to the calculations of specialists from the 1st Institute of the Navy, the Getow was very lucky: if the K-19 had a speed of 1-2 knots more, it would cut the American boat in half.

But why did the collision happen? There is an assumption that hydroacoustics did not hear the Getow because the American submarine did not move.

But this was not the end of the misadventures of Hiroshima. The submarine was repaired, and she again began to go to sea.

And on the morning of February 24, 1972, a coded message arrived at the command post of the Northern Fleet: “A nuclear submarine is in distress in the North Atlantic. There is a fire on board. There are human casualties."

It was again K-19.

She was returning from combat patrols, and eight days remained before her arrival at the base. The boat was at a depth of 120 m. The alarm sounded at 10.32: "Fire in the ninth compartment!"

The signal did not cause much panic: during the voyage it was the third alarm, in the previous two cases everything went well.

However, this time everything turned out to be much more serious. A carbon monoxide exterminator caught fire. The sailor who discovered the fire, instead of grabbing a fire extinguisher, ran to wake the person responsible for the device. Time has been lost. The compartment quickly filled with combustion products, and many of those who put out the fire were poisoned by carbon monoxide.

In addition, the high-pressure air line burst, and oxygen poured into the fiery ashes. Then, through the ventilation system of the left side, the fire spread to the adjacent bow compartment, to the control panel of the main power plant. The reactor had to be shut down, and the boat was left without electricity. In addition, the sailors were unable to manually close the valves for the air supply to the diesel engines, and outboard water entered the compartment through them ...

The struggle for the unlucky boat was long and painful, many crew members died. But the submarine still surfaced. NATO was the first to appear at the accident site - their Orion reconnaissance aircraft circled over the Soviet nuclear submarine. Our first ship, dry cargo ship "Angarles", appeared on the second day. By that time, a serious storm broke out, it turned out to be impossible to evacuate the submariners.

Only when a rescuer arrived with a helicopter did the evacuation go at full speed. Only the emergency batch remained on the submarine. During the three weeks of the transition from the tugboat, the power ends were brought to the electrical panel of the submarine eight times. Seven times they were interrupted by a storm.

But on March 18, the submarine still got home. It has been 24 days since the accident. 28 sailors died on the boat, two more died during the rescue operation.

Only after that the end was put in the history of Hiroshima. The submarine was written off and sent to the scrap.

The survivors immediately took a non-disclosure agreement for a period of 30 years. The dead were buried at night, burying zinc coffins to a depth of 2 meters. And for the sake of secrecy, those who were in the hospital on treatment for radiation sickness were diagnosed with asthenovegetative syndrome (depression). As the commander of the K-19, captain of the 1st rank, Nikolai Zateev: "We were just psychos!" “My father started making records in the 80s,” says AiF. Irina, daughter of Nikolai Zateev but didn't let me read them. He handed over the folder with the manuscript to my mother and me in 1998, a few days before his death.”

Today, several dozen crew members survived the accident. One of them, Yuri Filin, at that time a lieutenant engineer, told AiF: “The design of the K-19 reactor did not provide for an emergency water spillage system in case of an emergency (it is necessary to cool the reactor). This system had to be made from improvised means using a welding machine. Already after the tragedy on our nuclear submarine, they began to install a cooling system on all Soviet nuclear ships.

The appearance of the K-19, converted according to project 658C. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

“The sailors entered the reactor compartment to eliminate the accident full of energy, and left half-dead. They began to vomit, ichor oozed from under the roots of their hair. Faces puffed up. We could hardly stand on our feet, ”a crew member told AiF. Viktor Sterlets, at the time of the accident foreman of the 2nd article.

Towards my

Nikolai Zateev understood that all those who passed through the reactor compartment were doomed. The task of the commander was to save the remaining 100-odd submariners - the radiation on the boat increased every second, and there were 1,500 miles to the base in Severo-morsk.

Captain 1st rank Nikolai Zateev. Photo: From the personal archive

This meant that with a course of 10 knots, the ship would reach home in 6-7 days ... with a dead crew on board. At the same time, Zateev could not contact the shore and request help - the antenna of the main transmitter was out of order. Two officers lost their nerve, they began to demand from the commander to lead the boat to the nearest land, which turned out to be the Norwegian island of Jan Mayen (in reality, escaping on this rocky island in the Arctic Ocean was unrealistic). Fearing that the sailors might be incited to riot, Zateev ordered to throw overboard the submachine guns and pistols available on the boat. He left five makarovs for himself and his assistants.

Being in the ocean without communication, thousands of kilometers from the native coast, on board the ship, where everything is poisoned by radiation, up to food and fresh water supplies, the situation could be considered hopeless. And then, like a flashlight, a map flashed in Zateev's memory, which he saw in the office of the commander-in-chief of the fleet. On it, south of the place where the K-19 was drifting, there should have been positions of Soviet diesel submarines. “One chance in a million, but there is no other,” Zateev decides. "K-19" begins to move south, and the radio operator on a spare low-power receiver with a range of about 50 miles to transmit a distress signal. This went on for 10 hours.

Ten hours of hope and furious expectation, as in the famous song "Save Our Souls" by Vysotsky:

Hurry to us!
Hear us on land
Our SOS is getting quieter, quieter,
And horror cuts the soul
Half…”

As it turned out, several Soviet submarines nearby heard the K-19, but only two commanders responded - Jean Sverbilo in and Grigory Vasser. By sending their diesel boats to the rescue of the K-19, they committed a selfless act, because violating the rules of the exercises could cost them a military career.

Veterans, members of the K-19 crew, with cadets from Yaroslavl, students of school No. 50, named after one of the dead sailors of the submarine - Valery Kharitonov. Photo: AiF / Maria Pozdnyakova

From Sverbilov's ship, Zateev transmits a coded message to the command post of the Navy with an explanation of the situation and a request to allow the evacuation of the crew. In response, deathly silence, which lasted 5 (!) Hours. Only once it was interrupted by the advice to feed the irradiated sailors ... with fresh fruit, which, of course, was not on the submarine.

Taking responsibility, Zateev evacuated the crew. Severely affected by radiation were transported to another submarine on a stretcher. The clothes of the submariners from the K-19 were so bright that they had to completely undress, throwing everything overboard. Zateev, who also had to leave his clothes, greatly regretted that he had not saved the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, presented by his mother. He was the last to leave the boat. "K-19" was taken in tow.

Six of the 8 sailors who died immediately after the accident were buried in Moscow at the Kuzminsky cemetery. One of them, sailor Valery Kharitonov, is from Yaroslavl. In this city, school No. 50 is named after him, in which there is a naval cadet class. Photo: AiF/ Maria Pozdnyakova

At the base in Severomorsk, people from a special department were engaged simultaneously with the doctors Zateev and his subordinates. Interrogated right in the hospital. The commander was saved from the tribunal by Academician Alexandrov, the project manager for the construction of nuclear submarines. He reported Khrushchev that the crew accomplished a feat - saving a nuclear submarine.

In addition, do not forget that the K-19 carried R-13 ballistic missiles equipped with 1.4-megaton warheads, each of which could destroy part of a large city. It is terrible to imagine what could have happened if the boat accident had not been brought under control. Yes, and the day of the incident was symbolic - July 4, US Independence Day. In reality cold war Americans could imagine anything. What if they decide to answer?

Captain 1st rank Vladimir Pogorelov, who survived the accident, despite his advanced age, came from Kiev to Moscow to honor the memory of his comrades. Photo: AiF / Maria Pozdnyakova

But no one was going to give the title of Hero even to those who soon died from exposure. Just as they were not going to admit that a design flaw led to the accident. “With all the obvious shortcomings, the K-19 could not help but go to sea in the summer of 1961,” the historian and crew chief of the K-19 tells AiF. Alexander Nikishin.- This was our answer to the United States and their first missile submarine George Washington. The presence of this American boat in the World Ocean kept the leadership of the USSR awake. The deadlines for the delivery of "K-19" were adjusted, regardless of the realities.

Maritime Brotherhood of Veterans "K-19" Photo: AiF / Maria Pozdnyakova

tenacious

Nikolai Zateev gave his first interview about the tragedy in the 90s. Before the Hollywood film about "K-19", where the role of the commander was Harrison Ford, he did not live. “I watched the film with tears,” says Irina. - Although a lot of it is invented. The Americans didn’t fly to our submarine by helicopter, they didn’t even suspect that the K-19 was there.”

After the accident, they wanted to write off the boat, but the updated crew did not allow it to be done - at the risk of health, the sailors washed the submarine from radioactive dust by a centimeter. And the K-19 again went to sea, although it could not have done without an emergency: in 1969, she collided with an American submarine, and in 1972, a fire on board claimed the lives of 28 submariners. However, when the K-19 is spoken of as unlucky, the submariners object: "She got out of situations in which other submarines sank." In total, K-19 traveled 332 thousand miles - more than the distance from the Earth to the Moon.

The boat was disposed of in 2003. Enthusiasts managed to save the cabin in the hope that the K-19 museum would be created, because such stories are not scattered around.

The daughter of the K-19 commander, Irina Zateeva, next to her father's grave. Photo: AiF In the first two weeks after the accident, 8 submariners died from the effects of a strong dose of radiation: lieutenant commander Yuri Povstyev, lieutenant Boris Korchilov, chief foreman Boris Ryzhikov, foreman of the 1st article Yuri Ordochkin, foreman of the 2nd article Evgeny Koshenkov, sailor Semyon Penkov, sailor Nikolai Savkin, sailor Valery Kharitonov. And on August 1, 1970, Captain 3rd Rank Anatoly Kozyrev passed away. The rest of the crew, who also received radiation doses many times higher than the permissible ones, underwent treatment for radiation sickness for many months.

Seven old submariners try to justify Harrison Ford and save his film from failure.

The silence of the dark corridor of the St. Petersburg apartment of Yuri Fedorovich Mukhin is blown up by the rumble of a refrigerator that suddenly turns on. The owner's ginger cat carefully sniffs the strangers who have come. Whitened whiskey, large build, blue eyes and an anchor tattoo on the hand right hand make Mukhin look like a comic book character. Walking with a light gait, the giant host accompanies visitors to his "cabin" - a room with an area of ​​about 10 square meters, where 7 of his comrades are already waiting for us.

These sailors survived the accident on the K-19 submarine, and Hollywood wanted to perpetuate their story. At four o'clock in the morning on July 4, 1961, they and 132 other submariners became hostages of the ocean waters. An accident in the submarine's reactor turned the K-19 into a time bomb, and this bomb was planted not just anywhere but off the coast of the United States. At that time, Mukhin, who commanded the second torpedo compartment, was already 30 years old. Everyone else was under 25.

The real nightmare began when the cooling system of the nuclear reactor failed. Submarine captain Nikolai Zateev (Harrison Ford himself plays his role in K-19: The Widowmaker) was forced to sacrifice the lives of 8 crew members. They were tasked with eliminating malfunctions in the system, and all of them, working directly in the reactor, died from a leak of radioactive fuel. At this price, they managed to save the lives of the rest of the submariners who were on K-19. Thanks to the courage of the eight heroes, the explosion of the submarine, which Washington could have mistaken for the start of nuclear aggression by the Soviet Union, was prevented. But this explosion could lead to the formation of a small underwater Chernobyl off the coast of the United States. Mukhin recalls how at that moment the captain said to the sailors from the sixth compartment: "You know what you are getting into." These people knew what they were getting into and made the decision to start a troubleshooting operation. Welding was carried out in turn by four teams, which were replaced every 10 minutes.

From the wall of the room, three fishing schooners look at those present with wide-open luminous eyes-portholes, oriental figures mixed with miniature models and models of ships and helms are placed on the shelves. The walls are covered with woolen carpets woven by Mukhin himself. On top of the carpets is a 19th-century gun. It was in this room that Captain Zateev usually met with his former subordinates. Three years ago, the K-19 commander died in Moscow.

Captain's photo

At the head of the table is a black-and-white photograph of Zateev himself. 72-year-old Mukhin is the oldest of those present in this room: in it, former sailors are usually found, whose fates were woven into a single whole by tragedy. "We are the only crew in the world that has been dating for 40 years now," says Alexander Perstenev, 64, who commanded the missile preparation and launch unit on the K-19, in a hoarse voice.

After that accident, they had to say goodbye to the fleet. Mukhin worked as a teacher at the military department in one of the technical universities, someone was sent to supervise the construction of submarines. None of the surviving sailors feel any malice towards the Soviet regime, those Kremlin rulers that for 25 years forced them to be silent. The story of their life came to light only in 1989, and since 1993 they began to pay a disability pension. Each of them, to one degree or another, experiences the consequences of the dose received during the accident. radiation exposure. Perstenev says that "at that time, no one knew what dose of radiation could be considered lethal. Thanks to our sad experience, doctors were able to determine these levels and develop the necessary methods of treatment." Then he adds: "Service is service."

Their military pension, together with sickness subsidies, is approximately 109 euros per month; in addition, sailors are given the opportunity once a year to go free of charge to rest and treatment in a sanatorium. Mukhin, on the other hand, can be considered lucky. He has been receiving a pension since 1980. Then Mukhin managed to win a lawsuit against the Armed Forces, and now he receives a disability pension - 225 euros per month. Harrison Ford received 25 million euros for 20 days of filming a film dedicated to their life story. The distributors of the Ford film in Russia promised the submariners to pay 1% of the box office; but old sailors are not very pleased.

Thanks to the film, memories of the past came to life, the submariners were overwhelmed with feelings. Recently, a pre-premiere screening of the film was held in the hall of the Mariinsky Theater. Squeezing into their chairs, the 90 surviving members of the crew of the submarine relived the last voyage of the K-19, after which, with sighs and tears in their eyes, they distributed among themselves photographs with episodes of the film, shot by director Katherine Bigelow (she is one of the few Hollywood women directors, In 1991, she made the film "Point Break" with Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves in the lead roles, and in 2001 - a thriller based on the novel by Anita Shreve "The Weight of Water" with Sean Penn and Elizabeth Hurley). Despite the script's many shortcomings, veteran submariners say Harrison Ford as Captain Zateev touched them to the core. "During the show, I even had to take medicine for the heart," Mukhin admits, leaning on the table. "After the cerebral infarction, I began to cry more often," he says excitedly.

They remember one of the most terrible chilling blood in the veins of episodes: 8 volunteers get out of the reactor, they turn inside out, vomit bile, and the whole face of the sailors is covered with terrible ulcers and burns. “We pulled our comrades out of that compartment by the hands. They constantly fainted, their bodies were red. But at that moment we didn’t even know that their skin turned red from radioactive radiation and high temperatures. It was always hot there, inside the compartment, and we worked in it only in vests, "says Perstenev. His lively, almond-shaped eyes fill with tears only when he remembers how they tried to fight the panic that gripped the entire crew. "Alone anyone can be scared, but when your comrades look at you with hope, your fear can only harm them even more.

The video and audio sequence of the film is captivating, but the real prototypes of its characters could not find themselves on the screen. And not just because they were given fictitious names. The title of the movie seems to be the funniest. “How could they call K-19 a widow factory when most of us had just turned 20 and we weren’t even married,” Mukhin laughs.

“I don’t like scenes in which sailors constantly run from compartment to compartment, sowing panic and disorganization. This does not happen on a submarine. After the alarm, everyone was in their places, and there was no confusion,” says Leonid Sologub indignantly , who was responsible for the operation of the power supply system for the first five compartments of the K-19. “In the film, torpedoes are passed from hand to hand like some kind of toys, and the captain’s assistant is arguing with his commander. In fact, everyone obeys the captain implicitly,” Sologub adds.

"There can be no situation in the Russian and Soviet fleet when the ship commander sends his assistant to the compartment where the accident occurred in order to find out the real state of affairs, and he refuses to carry out his order," his comrade Vadim Sergeev, who was in charge of electronic system navigation K-19. “In the film, after the alarm signal and finding out the location of the accident, the compartment commander takes out instructions from the safe and starts reading them. This is fantastic. Even before the start of the voyage, all instructions should be written down in his head,” Kuzmin says, expressing his bewilderment.

secrets

Sergeyev knows firsthand the oppressive atmosphere of a military tribunal, which is reflected in the film. And Sergeev knows very well what he is talking about: after the accident, he lost one of the secret documents that were in his possession: this episode attracted the attention of the KGB officers. “If I hadn’t found those papers in time, I wouldn’t have been sitting here talking to you,” he calmly admits.

Chains and padlocks around the reactor, turning on the turbines at the moment when the submarine is in dry dock - these are just some of the technical oversights of the new film that the old sailors drew attention to. "The captain of the submarine orders one of the radio operators to contact the Americans and ask them for help. This has never happened. There was not a single American helicopter or ship around. We crashed right in front of their noses, and they could not even detect us. And now they are trying to justify themselves, "says Mukhin, with difficulty restraining his indignation.

Complementing whole line inconsistencies noticed by his comrades, Perstenev recalls that episode of the film in which Soviet submariners mock the pilots of an American helicopter. "I would never drop my pants inside a submarine the way the movie shows. My inner culture wouldn't let me do that."

All 7 old submariners are trying to justify Harrison Ford and save his movie from failure. "His gestures, movements, manner of speaking remind us of Zateev very much. They are similar even in appearance," says Mukhin. The surviving sailors give the film "go-ahead" with a big stretch, although they do not want to complain: the first version of the picture (which they themselves corrected) left an even more unpleasant aftertaste in their souls. “In that film, the officers beat their subordinate sailors, stole oranges, and one of them sat right on the reactor and drank vodka. The whole team cursed,” says Kuzmin. This old submariner is sure it will be a very long time before the legacy of the Cold War disappears from Hollywood films.

All seven old submariners try to justify Harrison Ford and save his movie from failure.

In 1961, an accident occurred on the Soviet submarine K-19, which was located off the coast of the United States. Today, seven of the surviving submariners are talking about the lies that Harrison Ford exposed in his film K-19. "We never asked the Americans for help"

The silence of the dark corridor of the St. Petersburg apartment of Yuri Fedorovich Mukhin is blown up by the rumble of a refrigerator that suddenly turns on. The owner's ginger cat carefully sniffs the strangers who have come. Whitened gray temples, a large build, blue eyes and an anchor tattoo on the right hand make Mukhin look like a comic book character. Walking with a light gait, the giant owner accompanies visitors to his "cabin" - a room of about ten square meters, where seven of his comrades are already waiting for us.

These sailors survived the accident on the K-19 submarine, and Hollywood wanted to perpetuate their story. At four o'clock in the morning on July 4, 1961, they and 132 other submariners became hostages of the ocean waters. An accident in the submarine's reactor turned the K-19 into a time bomb, and this bomb was planted not just anywhere but off the coast of the United States. At that time, Mukhin, who commanded the second torpedo compartment, was already thirty years old. Everyone else was under 25.

The real nightmare began when the cooling system of the nuclear reactor failed. Submarine captain Nikolai Zateev (Harrison Ford himself plays his role in the film) was forced to sacrifice the lives of eight crew members. They were tasked with eliminating malfunctions in the system, and all of them, working directly in the reactor, died from a leak of radioactive fuel. At this price, they managed to save the lives of the rest of the submariners who were on K-19. Thanks to the courage of the eight heroes, the explosion of the submarine, which Washington could have mistaken for the start of nuclear aggression by the Soviet Union, was prevented. But this explosion could lead to the formation of a small underwater Chernobyl off the coast of the United States. Mukhin recalls how at that moment the captain said to the sailors from the sixth compartment: "You know what you are getting into." These people knew what they were getting into and made the decision to start a troubleshooting operation. Welding was carried out in turn by four teams, which were replaced every 10 minutes.

From the wall of the room, three fishing schooners look at those present with wide-open luminous eyes-portholes, oriental figures mixed with miniature models and models of ships and helms are placed on the shelves. The walls are covered with woolen carpets woven by Mukhin himself. On top of the carpets is a 19th-century gun. It was in this room that Captain Zateev usually met with his former subordinates. Three years ago, the K-19 commander died in Moscow.

Captain's photo

At the head of the table is a black-and-white photograph of Zateev himself. 72-year-old Mukhin is the oldest of those present in this room: in it, former sailors are usually found, whose fates were woven into a single whole by tragedy. “We are the only crew in the world that has been meeting for forty years now,” says Alexander Perstenev, 64, who commanded the missile preparation and launch unit on the K-19, in a hoarse voice.

After that accident, they had to say goodbye to the fleet. Mukhin worked as a teacher at the military department in one of the technical universities, someone was sent to supervise the construction of submarines. None of the surviving sailors feel any malice towards the Soviet regime, those Kremlin rulers that for 25 years forced them to be silent. The story of their life came to light only in 1989, and since 1993 they began to pay a disability pension. Each of them, to one degree or another, experiences the consequences of the dose of radioactive exposure received during the accident. Perstenev says that “at that time no one knew what dose of radiation could be considered lethal. Thanks to our sad experience, doctors were able to determine these levels and develop the necessary treatments.” Then he adds: "Service is service."

Their military pension, together with sickness subsidies, is approximately 109 euros per month; in addition, sailors are given the opportunity once a year to go free of charge to rest and treatment in a sanatorium. Mukhin, on the other hand, can be considered lucky. He has been receiving a pension since 1980. Then Mukhin managed to win a lawsuit against the Armed Forces, and now he receives a disability pension - 225 euros per month. Harrison Ford received 25 million euros for 20 days of filming a film dedicated to their life story. The distributors of the Ford film in Russia promised the submariners to pay 1% of the box office; but old sailors are not very pleased.

Thanks to the film, memories of the past came to life, the submariners were overwhelmed with feelings. Seven days ago, a pre-premiere screening of the film took place in the hall of the Mariinsky Theater. Squeezing into their chairs, the 90 surviving members of the crew of the submarine relived the last voyage of the K-19, after which, with sighs and tears in their eyes, they distributed among themselves photographs with episodes of the picture taken by director Kathryn Bigelow (Kathryn Bigelow - one of the few Hollywood female directors who makes thrillers. In 1991, she made the film "Point Break" with Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves in the lead roles, and in 2001 - a thriller based on the novel by Anita Shreve "The Weight of Water" with Sean Penn and Elizabeth Hurley- approx. lane.). Despite the script's many shortcomings, veteran submariners say Harrison Ford as Captain Zateev touched them to the core. “During the show, I even had to take heart medicine,” Mukhin admits, leaning on the table. “After the cerebral infarction, I began to cry more often,” he says nervously.

They recall one of the most terrible, chilling episodes: eight volunteers get out of the reactor, they turn inside out, vomit bile, and the whole face of the sailors is covered with terrible ulcers and burns. “We pulled our comrades out of that compartment by the hands. They constantly fainted, their bodies were red. But at that moment, we did not even know that their skin turned red from radioactive radiation and high temperatures. It was always hot there, inside the compartment, and we worked in it only in vests, ”says Perstenev. His lively, almond-shaped eyes fill with tears only when he remembers how they tried to fight the panic that gripped the entire crew. “Alone, anyone can be scared, but when your comrades look at you with hope, your fear can only harm them even more.”

The video and audio sequence of the film is captivating, but the real prototypes of its heroes could not find themselves on the screen. And not just because they were given fictitious names. The title of the movie seems to be the funniest. “How could they call K-19 a widow factory when most of us had just turned 20 and we weren’t even married,” Mukhin laughs.

“I don’t like scenes in which sailors constantly run from compartment to compartment, sowing panic and disorganization. This does not happen on a submarine. After the alarm, everyone was in their places, and there was no confusion, ”Leonid Sologub, who was responsible for the operation of the power supply system for the first five K-19 compartments, says indignantly. “In the film, torpedoes are passed from hand to hand like some kind of toys, and the assistant captain is arguing with his commander. In fact, everyone obeys the captain implicitly,” adds Sologub.

“There can be no situation in the Russian and Soviet fleet when the ship commander sends his assistant to the compartment where the accident occurred in order to find out the real state of affairs, and he refuses to carry out his order,” his comrade Vadim Sergeev, who was in charge of the electronic navigation system K-19. “In the film, after the alarm signal and finding out the location of the accident, the compartment commander takes out instructions from the safe and begins to read them. It's fantastic. Even before the start of the voyage, all instructions must be written down in his head, ”Kuzmin says, expressing his bewilderment.

secrets

Sergeyev knows firsthand the oppressive atmosphere of a military tribunal, which is reflected in the film. And Sergeev knows very well what he is talking about: after the accident, he lost one of the secret documents that were in his possession: this episode attracted the attention of the KGB officers. “If I didn’t find those papers in time, I wouldn’t sit here and talk with you here,” he calmly admits.

Chains and padlocks around the reactor, turning on the turbines at the moment when the submarine is in dry dock - these are just some of the technical oversights of the new film that the old sailors drew attention to. “The captain of the submarine gives the order to one of the radio operators to contact the Americans and ask them for help. This has never happened. There was not a single American helicopter or ship around. We crashed right in front of them and they couldn't even spot us. And now they are trying to justify themselves, ”says Mukhin, with difficulty restraining his indignation.

Complementing a number of inconsistencies noticed by his comrades, Perstenev recalls that episode of the film in which Soviet submariners taunt the pilots of an American helicopter. “I would never pull down my pants inside a submarine the way it is shown in the movie. My internal culture wouldn't let me do that."

All seven old submariners are trying to justify Harrison Ford and save his movie from failure. “His gestures, movements, manner of speaking very much reminds us of Zateev. They even look alike,” says Mukhin. The surviving sailors give the film the go-ahead with a big stretch, although they do not want to complain: the first version of the picture (which they themselves corrected) left an even more unpleasant aftertaste in their souls. “In that film, officers beat their subordinate sailors, stole oranges, and one of them sat right on the reactor and drank vodka. The whole team cursed,” says Kuzmin. This old submariner is sure it will be a very long time before the legacy of the Cold War disappears from Hollywood films.

The materials of InoSMI contain only assessments of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the editors of InoSMI.