Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov is a senior Russian submarine officer who
managed to prevent a nuclear war from happening. On October 27, 1962,
Arkhipov was aboard the submarine B-59 floating near Cuba.
At the same time, United States (US) troops dropped marine bombs with
non-lethal explosive power.
This was done by the US to urge the B-59 submarine to surface. At that time,
the crew of the B-59 submarine did not realize the US goals and thought a
third world war was about to start.
However, US troops did not realize that the B-59 submarine had a nuclear
torpedo with the same power as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Knowing this, the captain of the B-59 submarine, Valentin Savitsky, decided
to release the nuclear torpedo.
He also asked the crew to prepare nuclear torpedoes. Russia allowed the
torpedo to be released if there was agreement from the three officers,
namely Valentin Savitsky, Ivan Maslennikov, and Vasili Alexandrovich
Arkhipov.
At that time Ivan Maslennikov agreed, while Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov
refused. The torpedo was not released by the B-59 submarine to the USS
Randolf which is a giant aircraft carrier that leads the US combat fleet.
The B-59 then turned away from Cuba and headed north towards Russia. After
the incident, Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov continued to serve in the
Russian Navy.
In 1975, he was promoted to admiral and retired in mid-1980.
In 1999, Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov died from complications of radiation
poisoning. Many predicted a nuclear war would begin and world conditions
would change if the torpedo was released by the B-59 submarine.
