Arkhipov prevents nuclear Armageddon

By refusing to agree to the firing of a nuclear torpedo at a US warship, Soviet submarine commander Vasili Arkhipov, 34, averts nuclear war on October 27 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Arkhipov is one of the three commanders aboard B-59 ordered to stop in the Caribbean short of the blockade around Cuba announced by John F Kennedy on the 22nd. They dived deep after being spotted by the Americans, who dropped non-lethal depth charges to make them surface. What the US don’t realise (until 40 years later) is that the sub is armed with a nuclear torpedo, one they’d been instructed to use without waiting for approval if B-59 is under fire. Cut off from the outside world in horrible conditions (up to 50°C), the panicked Soviets fear they are under attack and that nuclear war had broken out. Valentin Savitsky has his men ready the missile, as strong as the Hiroshima bomb, but needs the approval of the sub’s other two captains. Ivan Maslennikov says yes. Arkhipov says no and convinces Savitsky that the Americans merely want to draw them to the surface. B-59 surfaces and, satisfied that all-out war had not actually been taking place above, goes on its way. On the 28th, an agreement for the removal of US missiles in Turkey and Soviet missiles in Cuba is announced. The B-59 men are criticised by Soviet leaders who think they should never have surfaced. Arkhipov’s heroic moment only becomes public knowledge in 2002 when Vadim Orlov, who was on B-59, reveals how one man most likely saved the world on that fateful day.