Not so long ago, a film entitled "The Tragedy of the K-129 Submarine" was released on Russian screens. The picture was positioned as a documentary and talked about the mournful events that occurred in March 1968. "Project" Azorian "" is the name for a secret operation, which was later considered one of the most unpleasant events of the Cold War. Just then, the United States Navy took out the sinking Soviet submarine K-129 from the bottom of the ocean.
In the twentieth century, the death of submarines was perhaps not uncommon. In the northern part of the Pacific water area lie the remains of the most famous submarine in history. For a long time, information about these events was kept secret, even the exact place where she sank was silent. Just think: a huge nuclear submarine ceased to exist, killing the lives of ninety-eight Soviet officers.
The American special services, having the most innovative equipment, were able to find and explore the boat in the first two weeks after what happened. And in August 1974, K-129 was taken from the bottom.
Background
The year 1968 has just begun; it was frosty February in the yard. Nothing foreshadowed the trouble, in addition, the upcoming mission was to go completely calmly and without adventure. Then, from the military base on the shores of Kamchatka, the K-129 submarine set off on its last voyage with the function of patrolling the borders. Three ballistic missiles, a pair of torpedoes on a nuclear charge - the submarine was very powerful, and the crew - experienced and active. The commander of the submarine Kobzar V.I. - captain of the first rank. This person was distinguished by endurance, vast experience and serious attitude to business.
It should be said that by the time of departure the submarine had almost no time to rest after a long journey through the expanses of the oceans. The submarine arrived in the town under the unusual name Deer Lip recently. A thorough repair, which should have been done, was not carried out, and the crew was in a depressed state, not having time to rest as expected from a long and exhausting voyage. But there was no choice, all the other submarines were not ready for the mission even more, because the K-129 command did not ask unnecessary questions, but simply went to patrol the borders. In addition, the D-4 missile system was located on the submarine, which meant that it was superior to other vessels. By the way, many officers from the crew were already on vacation, some even left for Russia, on their way home. The commander failed to assemble the entire team. But, as we understand it, the very people who did not appear at the training camp literally saved their lives.
Everything went wrong
There was nothing to do, it was necessary to staff the team using people serving on other ships, and also to recruit newcomers for responsible sailing. Everything went wrong from the very first days of training camp. It is noteworthy that the command of the military base didn’t even have a ready-made crew list certified by the captain with a ship's seal, but V. I. Kobzar was known for his pedantry. They started frantically searching for the document in the papers when the tragedy happened, but found nothing. This is unheard of negligence, which the Navy simply could not be! Reindeer Guba was famous for serving the best professionals in the field. And yet…
On March 8, a short signal was supposed to come from the submarine to the base, since this was the turning point of the route, a completely standard procedure. But he did not follow, on the same day an alarm was announced by the duty officers. The captain of the first rank could not allow such a mistake.
Start of quest
The submarine K-129 did not get in touch, because all the forces were cast in its search, the entire Kamchatka flotilla, as well as aviation, were actively involved in the search work. The submarine showed no signs of life. After two weeks of unsuccessful work, the Pacific Fleet of the USSR realized that there was no more ship. At that time, attracted by the noise on the radio, the American troops became interested in what was happening. It was they who discovered an oily stain on the surface of the ocean waves. An analysis of this substance showed that it is indeed a solar fluid that leaked from a Soviet submarine.
At that time, the news shocked the entire world community. Ninety-eight brave Soviet officers, experienced sailors, young people for whom this voyage was the first serious test in life, a good, well-equipped submarine K-129 - all this died in one moment. It was not possible to establish the reasons for the tragedy; the equipment to raise the boat from the bottom did not yet exist. Over time, all exploratory work was curtailed, and they forgot about the boat for a while, deciding that, as in many cases when the ships were sinking, the sea will become a common grave for the crew. Dead submarines in the Pacific were not uncommon.
Versions of what happened
Of course, the most relevant version of what was happening at that time was the treachery of the American Navy. The appearance of these thoughts in society was also facilitated by the fact that the press disseminated information about the American ship with the sonorous name “Swordfish” - it was a submarine with ballistic missiles, which was also on duty at that time in the Pacific waters. It would seem that nothing special: on duty - and let it be, it is the right of the Americans - to take care of their borders, but it was precisely on the eighth of March that this ship also did not contact its base, and a couple of days later it appeared off the coast of Japan. There the crew landed for a while, and the submarine went to the repair docks, apparently there were some problems with it. This, you see, is also completely normal - anything could happen in the sea, therefore, perhaps, it didn’t get in touch. But the oddity is not this, but that, according to some sources, the crew was forced to sign non-disclosure documents. In addition, this submarine subsequently did not go on a mission for several years. A radical version of what happened says that the American submarine was spying on the actions of the Soviet and for some reason rammed its object of surveillance. Perhaps this was originally conceived.
Of course, all this raised questions already then, but the American government explained the situation as follows: due to negligence, their submarine collided with an iceberg. And all would be fine, but it was only in the central part of the Pacific Ocean, and icebergs are usually not found there, because the option of colliding with an ice block disappeared immediately, and with respect to K-129.
Today it is not possible to prove the involvement of Americans in the tragic events, it may well be that all this is just speculation and a series of coincidences, but it is very strange that the most experienced crew that has visited such trips more than once died so ingloriously.
Another version follows from the previous one. Based on it, it can be assumed that the teams of both submarines did not have a bad intent, an accident occurred: they collided under water, patrolling the same territory. Now it’s hard to imagine such a thing, but in the twentieth century, technology could well fail.
In any case, the outcome of the events we are discussing is known: a Soviet diesel submarine found itself at the bottom in the northern Pacific Ocean, one thousand two hundred miles from the base in Kamchatka. The depth at which the submarine turned out to be equal to five thousand meters. The boat sank with an even keel. It is terrible to imagine how scary it was for the crew in a confined space filled with cold water, to realize the imminent death.
Rise from the bottom
But do not think that the authorities completely forgot about the sad event. After some time, precisely in order to raise the K-129 from the bottom of the ocean, two specialized ships were built. One of them was the very famous “Explorer”, and the second was the NSS-1 docking chamber, its bottom was expanding according to the design, and a huge mechanical “arm” was attached to the case, which looked more like mites, the scale of which was precisely the diameter K -129. If the reader had the impression that these were Soviet devices, then they were mistaken. This is not true. These projects were developed and manufactured in the United States. The best specialists on the West and East coast were connected to the design.
A curious fact is that even in the last stages of the assembly of the apparatus, the engineers working on the design had no idea what they were working on. But their work was well paid, because no one protested.
Start of operation
It is hard to imagine the scale of the operation. Just for statistics: the special vessel apparatus, the Explorer, looked like a huge floating platform, the displacement of which exceeded thirty-six tons. This platform was equipped with a thruster rotary engine with remote control. Thanks to this, this unit accurately found any given coordinate on the ocean floor, and then could be held strictly above it, the error was only a dozen centimeters. At the same time, there were no difficulties with the management of this colossus.
And this is not all: the platform was equipped with a “well” in the center, surrounded by structures that vaguely resemble oil floating towers; tubes of a particularly durable alloy, each of which had a length of twenty-five meters; a set of all kinds of indicators that with the help of special equipment sank to the bottom. This type of ship did not exist before.
The operation was carried out in stealth mode and consisted of three simple steps. To date, information has been declassified, so you can easily find information about those events in the public domain.
Stage 1 took place at the very beginning of the seventy-third year. At first, the equipment was prepared and tested for a long time, the operation was extremely risky, therefore there could be no errors. At the same time, a large international vessel specializing in oil production was used to move a special platform to the place. This ship did not cause any questions from the ships passing by. But it was only preparation.
Stage 2 - this is the second half of the year, now all the necessary technical equipment and specialists have been transported to the scene of the accident. But this was not enough. Until that moment, such operations had never been carried out; getting a sunken submarine from the bottom of the ocean was considered something on the verge of fantasy. During this period, training was carried out.
Stage 3 - seventy-fourth year. At the very beginning of the year there is a long-awaited rise. All work was carried out as soon as possible and did not cause any difficulties.
Soviet side
The Soviet government closely watched this square, since much was suspicious, especially the fact that the international ship stood just above the sunken K-129. In addition, the question arose: why is oil produced in the middle of the ocean at a depth of six kilometers? Not very logical, because usually drilling took place at a depth of two hundred meters, and several kilometers is unheard of. This vessel, in turn, did nothing suspicious, the work was quite typical, the conversations on the radio waves also did not stand out, and after a month and a half, which is absolutely normal, it moved from the point and continued the planned course.
But in those days it wasn’t accepted to trust America, because the reconnaissance group on the high-speed ship went to the scene, this fact should not have been mentioned on the radio. The tracking was established, but it was not possible to understand why the Americans were so fussing about what was happening here. The Americans noticed the tracking, but behaved as if nothing had happened, continuing to work. Especially no one hid anything, and the actions of both sides were very predictable. For a long time, it seemed that American sailors were busy searching for oil, which, in fact, had every right: these waters are neutral, it is not forbidden to conduct underwater research. After a week and a half, the ship moved off point and headed for the island of Oahu in Honolulu. Christmas festivities were approaching there, so it became obvious that surveillance in the future would not produce any result. In addition, the fuel of the Soviet ship was already running out, and refueling was possible only in Vladivostok, and this is a couple of weeks of travel.
It was decided to stop this initiative, relations with America were strained, the surveillance did not bring any results, and the deployment just above the place of the death of the Soviet crew could well be an accident. At least, officially, the USA did nothing wrong. Having caught the mood of the government, the local command stopped surveillance (as you know, only at the second stage of the operation, and, as you know, maybe it was calculated).
And, of course, no one in the USSR could have imagined that the US ships were trying to raise the sunken boat, it really seemed impossible. Therefore, the skepticism of the authorities was understandable: what can the Americans do?
That's just all the same American ship of unusual shape and huge dimensions after Christmas again went to the unfortunate point. In addition, no one has ever seen this type of ship before. And it already really seemed suspicious.
We must pay tribute to the American authorities: as soon as the K-129 submarine was delivered to the shores of the United States, all the bodies that were inside (only six people) were buried at sea according to the ritual that was supposed to be for sailors, the Americans even included the USSR anthem at that time. The burial was shot on a color film, which was sent to the American intelligence services. At the same time, the behavior and attitude of Americans towards the dead was extremely respectful. It is still unknown where the other members of the Soviet crew are, but, according to American data, they were not on the submarine. By the way, V.I. Kobzar was not among the reburied.
Cold war
By that time, the Soviet Union already knew what was happening, a new round of diplomatic struggle between the two giant states began. The USSR was dissatisfied with the secret actions on the part of America and the fact that the diesel submarine was exactly Soviet, which means that the Americans did not have the right to remove it from the bottom. The United States asserted that the death of the submarine was not recorded anywhere (this is true), which means that this is nobody's property, and the finder can act with him at his discretion. In addition, so that no further debate would arise, the American side provided a video of the reburial of Russian sailors. They really buried them with all due respect and all the rules. Therefore, unnecessary questions from the Soviet side disappeared.
Only now it remains a mystery what really happened to the submarine, why the Americans put so much effort to get it from the bottom of the ocean, why they did all this in secret and why, after this operation, the Explorer was hidden from sight out of the depths of the repair docks of America , because this is a very useful equipment. The equipment was placed with a Soviet submarine somewhere near San Francisco.
Perhaps the American side simply wanted to learn the secrets that the Soviet submarine fleet hides. It may seem to some that the Soviet government was fooled in the end, because it is obvious that the Americans were researching Soviet equipment, perhaps even that they found something interesting, and they took something into service. Perhaps the torpedoes that were created very elegantly, and maybe other secrets. But, according to modern sources, the main antagonists could not get it. And the blame for all the fortunate coincidence: the crew commander V. Kobzar, which was mentioned earlier, was very tall and had a strong physique, therefore, for obvious reasons, he was close to him. When the boat was once again repaired, the captain very much asked the engineers to place his cipher room in the rocket compartment, there was more space there, although this was a risky neighborhood. So, all the most important information was stored there. But the Americans, removing the submarine from the bottom, did not begin to lift the missile compartment. It seemed to them not so important.
The year 1968 demonstrated that it was such a Russian reality: everything is not like human beings, but sometimes it even suits us. The Americans themselves, of course, did not return the submarine to the Soviet side, its future fate also remains a mystery. Most likely, it was disassembled, carefully studied and disposed of. But no one hoped for a return. Perhaps this is honest, because so much money and effort was spent by the Americans.
By the way, these not very pleasant events only spurred the arms race and technological innovation. For practice has shown that in some respects one state is stronger, and in something else. Maybe this is not so bad, because progress in science leads humanity to development.
Last questions
So a lot of things remained incomprehensible. Why did the submarine with experienced sailors and a talented captain sank for no apparent reason? Why did the Americans spend so much money and effort on building vehicles to lift it from the bottom of the ocean? What happened to most of the team, after all, could not somewhere more than a hundred people escape from an enclosed space ? What happened to K-129 after it was recovered from the ocean? The death of submarines in the twentieth century, of course, was not uncommon, but in this case there are too many unsolved issues.
Conclusion
In the very film with which our narrative begins, there are far from all the answers. His production is US-Russian, which, of course, should be noted, since the creators wanted the most objective consideration of what happened. But perhaps now it’s not so important, because this is all the work of bygone days, and nothing can be changed. The Cold War is considered bloodless and not as dangerous as other wars in the history of mankind, but there were enough unpleasant moments. It is unfortunate that the people who made up the crew of the K-129 submarine, and especially the young sailors who went on their first serious voyage. In any case, this unfortunate event will forever remain in the annals of history and in the memory of the Russian people.