For his courage, Arkhipov was the first person to be given the Future of Life award by the Cambridge-based existential risk nonprofit the Future of Life Institute (FLI), in 2017. It was posthumous — Arkhipov died in 1998, before the news of his actions was widely known.
Later life and death
He settled in Kupavna (which was incorporated into Zheleznodorozhny, Moscow Oblast, in 2004), where he died on 19 August 1998. The radiation to which Arkhipov had been exposed in 1961 may have contributed to his kidney cancer, like many others who served with him in the K-19 accident.
Arkhipov is credited with preventing a Soviet nuclear strike during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Fifty-nine years ago, a senior Russian submarine officer, Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov, refused to fire a nuclear torpedo at an American aircraft carrier and likely prevented a third world war and nuclear destruction.
Savitsky put his key into the launch panel, while Arkhipov put his into his mouth, and swallowed it. Now, the only way to launch the missile would be to cut him open!
At a time when the probability of nuclear war is as nearly as high as it was during the Cuban Missile Crisis, it is crucial that we recall the story of Vasili Arkhipov, a Soviet submarine officer who prevented a Soviet nuclear strike against U.S. surface warships during that very crisis in 1962.
David Greenglass — an American machinist at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. Greenglass confessed that he gave crude schematics of lab experiments to the Russians during World War II.
The study published in the journal Risk Analysis describes Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu as the island countries most capable of producing enough food for their populations after an “abrupt sunlight‐reducing catastrophe” such as a nuclear war, super volcano or asteroid strike.
In 2000, one of the worst peacetime submarine accidents ever took place off the coast of Russia. A huge explosion sank the giant nuclear-powered submarine Kursk, killing most of its crew and stranding nearly two dozen survivors hundreds of feet underwater.
And the most dangerous day in human history may well have been one of our last. For his courage, Arkhipov was the first person to be given the Future of Life award by the Cambridge-based existential risk nonprofit the Future of Life Institute (FLI), in 2017.
Arkhipov received little recognition during his lifetime, but to his wife Olga, Vasili was always a hero. In a 2012 PBS documentary titled The Man Who Saved the World, Olga Arkhipov said, “The man who prevented a nuclear war was a Russian submariner. His name was Vasili Arkhipov.
Petrov said he did not know whether he should have regarded himself as a hero for what he did that day. In an interview for the film The Man Who Saved the World, Petrov says, "All that happened didn't matter to me—it was my job. I was simply doing my job, and I was the right person at the right time, that's all.
Stanislav Petrov, a little-known Russian whose decision averted a potential nuclear war, died in May at 77, a family friend disclosed in mid-September. As a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Air Defense Forces, Petrov was on duty Sept.
DEFCON stands for Defense Readiness Condition. Levels range from DEFCON 1 to DEFCON 5, with DEFCON 1 being the highest level of readiness. To the public's knowledge, the U.S. has never reached DEFCON 1. The U.S. Joint Military Command and the Joint Chiefs of Staff set the current DEFCON level.
Nine nuclear submarines have sunk, either by accident or scuttling. The Soviet Navy lost five (one of which sank twice), the Russian Navy two, and the United States Navy (USN) two.
World War II
From the beginning of Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, Arkhipov fought in the Battle of Brody and the First Battle of Kiev. From August he commanded the 10th Tank Regiment of the 10th Tank Brigade, and in December became brigade deputy commander.
Unofficially nicknamed Stalinets (Russian: Сталинец, "follower of Stalin"; not to be confused with the submarine L-class L-2 Stalinets of 1931), boats of this class were the most successful and achieved the most significant victories among all Soviet submarines.
In all, the Red Navy claimed credit for destroying the following enemy vessels during the first three years of the war: 1 auxiliary cruiser, 2 ironclad coastal defense vessels, 37 destroyers, 50 submarines, and a number of smaller craft.
A quote by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. is often used in talking about the Cuban Missile Crisis. And it's easy to see why–it's a pithy, evocative quote. He described the crisis as “the most dangerous moment in human history.”
1. How long did Kursk crew survive? According to experts, 23 crew members took shelter in the 9th compartment and survived for six to eight hours.
NR-1 was the smallest nuclear submarine ever put into operation. The vessel was casually known as "Nerwin" and was never officially named or commissioned.
Atomnaya Podvodnaya Lodka "Kursk" (APL "Kursk"), meaning "Atomic-powered submarine Kursk") was an Oscar II-class nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine of the Russian Navy. On 12 August 2000, K-141 Kursk was lost when it sank in the Barents Sea, killing all 118 personnel on board.
Scientists have recently revealed that Australia and New Zealand are best placed to survive a nuclear apocalypse and help reboot collapsed human civilisation. The study, published in the journal Risk Analysis. These countries include not just Australia and New Zealand, but also Iceland, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
Since all of the world's nuclear powers are in the northern hemisphere, stay south of the equator. Countries like Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina are temperate with plenty of space to grow food, and since they're well out of the way you're unlikely to be targeted.
As of 2019, there are 15,000 nuclear weapons on planet Earth. It would take just three nuclear warheads to destroy one of the 4,500 cities on Earth, meaning 13,500 bombs in total, which would leave 1,500 left.