Nikolai Vladimirovich Zateyev

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Nikolai Vladimirovich Zateyev
Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
DiedAugust 28, 1998(1998-08-28) (aged 72)
Moscow, Russian Federation
AllegianceSoviet Union Soviet Union
Service/branch Soviet Army
 Soviet Navy
Years of service1943–1986
RankCaptain First Rank
Commands heldK-19
Awards
  • Order of the Red Banner
  • Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR
  • Order for Personal Courage
Other workAuthor

Nikolai Vladimirovich Zateyev (

collapse. Zateyev later released his memoirs on the event, which were used as the basis for a number of literary works on the disaster, as well as a 2002 documentary[2] and film.[3] In these memoirs, Zateyev criticised the rushed production of Russia's first nuclear ballistic missile submarine.[4] His and his crew's actions on July 4, 1961, earned the surviving crewmembers a joint nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in March 2006.[5]

Early life and career

Zateyev was born in

Marshal Zhukov
. In 1958 he was transferred to the Northern Fleet and was given command of the new submarine K-19 when it was commissioned.

K-19

Main article: Soviet submarine K-19
K-19. Photo taken by a circling U.S. Navy helicopter.

On July 4, 1961, while K-19 was operating near southern Greenland, water pressure in the starboard nuclear reactor plummeted due to a coolant leak in an area of the reactor very difficult to access. The loss of coolant caused the reactor to begin to overheat, endangering the integrity of the control rods. Zateyev mistakenly believed this could lead to a nuclear explosion.[5] The captain believed that such an explosion would damage a nearby NATO base and could cause a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States. Mikhail Gorbachev later wrote that "An explosion on board the K-19 could have been taken for a military provocation or even an attempt to launch a nuclear strike on the North American coast. An immediate response by the United States and NATO could have triggered off a Third World War."[5] Eight crewmen died in the days that followed July 4, after working in the reactor core.[1] However, a jerry-rigged coolant system successfully averted any catastrophe. The K-19 was later towed back to harbor and its reactors were replaced over a period of two years.

Following the incident, Zateyev and the crew were instructed to keep silent about the accident, and neither the replacement crew for the K-19 nor the families of those who had died were notified. The victims of radiation poisoning were buried in lead coffins at sea, according to the letter written by Mikhail Gorbachev to the Norwegian Nobel Committee in 2006. Only in 1990 were the survivors (of which there were 56 by February 1, 2006) permitted to speak.[5]

Zateyev was subsequently employed on shore. From 1962 to 1965, he studied at the

Naval Academy in Leningrad, and was subsequently employed as a department head at the Leningrad Naval Base
and at naval headquarters in Moscow. In 1972, he was head of the navy trials department responsible for the acceptance of new ships from the shipyards. He retired in 1986, and after 1990, he was actively involved in Soviet Navy veterans' affairs. He died in 1998 from a disease of the lungs, and is buried in Moscow next to some of his comrades from the K-19.

In popular culture

The character Captain Alexei Vostrikov played by Harrison Ford in the 2002 film K-19: The Widowmaker is heavily based on Zateyev.

Notes

  1. ^ a b Studios Fight To Tell Story of Submarine Archived 2014-12-24 at the Wayback Machine The St. Petersburg Times, retrieved August 9, 2007
  2. ^ K-19: Doomsday Submarine IMDb retrieved August 11, 2007
  3. ^ Interview With Peter Huchthausen CNN retrieved August 11, 2007
  4. ^ National Geographic K-19 The History: 1958-60: The Construction of K-19 Archived 2009-03-25 at the Wayback Machine retrieved August 11, 2007
  5. ^ a b c d Gorbachev Proposes Soviet Sub Crew For Nobel Peace Prize Federation of American Scientists retrieved August 11, 2007
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