It is expected that work on cutting up the boat will take place at the Nerpa enterprise in the Murmansk region until the end of 2013.
The reason for this decision was the need to free up the site where the boat is currently located. At this site, at the beginning of 2014, work will begin on the disposal of the floating technical base "Lepse", which stores about 700 spent uranium rods from Soviet nuclear icebreakers. Any accident at Lepse threatens a large-scale environmental disaster, and therefore it is no longer possible to delay this work.
At the same time, at the Nerpa plant itself they still hope to save the submarine, which is currently divided in half. In order to preserve the ship, it is necessary to connect the K-3 hull so that it can await the final decision of its fate for several more years while afloat. To carry out the work, 50 million rubles are needed, which they are now trying to find at Nerpa.
Nuclear submarine "Leninsky Komsomol". Photo: RIA Novosti / Mesyatsev
The K-3 submarine became the first domestic nuclear-powered ship and the third nuclear-powered submarine in the world, after the American Nautilus and Seawulf.
Development of the K-3 began in the context of the growing Cold War with the West. The creation of a nuclear submarine was supposed to allow the USSR to maintain military parity in this confrontation.
The creation of the nuclear-powered ship began on September 12, 1952, when Joseph Stalin signed the government decree “On the design and construction of facility 627.”
Needless to say, work on the first nuclear submarine was carried out in the strictest secrecy.
Conquest of "underwater space"
At the same time, even at the design stage, heated debates arose between the designers and the military. Initially, it was planned to arm the K-3 with a single giant torpedo that could attack enemy military bases from a distance of 50 kilometers. Famous Soviet military leader Admiral Kuznetsov noticed that the Americans were providing defense for their bases at a distance of up to 100 kilometers, and stated that the USSR Navy needed a boat with nuclear and conventional torpedoes capable of destroying the enemy fleet in the seas and oceans.
As a result, taking into account the opinion of the fleet command, the technical specifications were changed, and the boat began to be rebuilt, as they say, on the fly.
Despite this, the construction of the K-3 proceeded at an incredible pace that neither the then American competitors nor modern Russian shipbuilders could dream of. Five years passed from the idea of the nuclear-powered vessel to its launch. For comparison, the American Nautilus took almost a decade to build.
As fleet historians note, Project 627 boats were the first to appear in cetacean shapes, for which they received the nickname “whales.”
Vladimir Nikolaevich Peregudov became the general designer of K-3, subsequently awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor for his brainchild.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the first nuclear-powered icebreaker was built by the entire country - 350 enterprises took part in the work on its creation. At the same time, the secrecy regime was such that many factories simply did not know for what purposes they were manufacturing certain components and assemblies.
The first commander of K-3 was Captain 1st Rank Leonid Osipenko. Secrecy prevented his name from spreading throughout the country. But for its time, the achievements of the K-3 were unique: it reached speeds of up to 30 knots (which exceeded the capabilities of its American rivals), dived to depths of up to 300 meters and could be on a three-month combat campaign without a single ascent. Leonid Osipenko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He became the first to be awarded this title after the war.
K-3 was launched on October 9, 1957. This historical, epoch-making event occurred just five days after another revolutionary breakthrough of the USSR - the launch of the first satellite.
Drawing by N. Naumenkov “Soviet submarine Photo: RIA Novosti
Flag over the pole
The flag of the USSR Navy was raised over the boat on June 1, 1958, after which work began on fine-tuning the new equipment and eliminating identified deficiencies. In addition, a new coastal infrastructure was urgently built, because the nuclear-powered ship required fundamentally new maintenance.
Since 1959, the boat was based in Severodvinsk, becoming part of the separate 206th submarine brigade. In 1961, K-3 went on its first combat duty in the Atlantic.
The next year, 1962, became historic for K-3. Despite the fact that the submarine by that time was no longer the only Soviet nuclear-powered ship, it was she who was entrusted with the mission to reach the North Pole under the ice.
Commanded the boat during this period Captain 2nd Rank Lev Zhiltsov. The task ahead was incredibly difficult - there was no map of the depths and underwater peaks in the North Pole area, so we walked blindly and almost deafly. The multi-meter ice reflected the sounds of the boat itself, causing acousticians to experience auditory illusions.
The slightest mistake could lead to disaster and the death of the crew. It became especially difficult when suddenly a sharp decrease in depths began. The submariners moved carefully, by touch. It turned out that the “shoal” is a giant underwater ridge, which until that moment was unknown to science. The ridge that received the name hydrographer Yaroslav Gakkel, became the largest geographical discovery of the 20th century.
On July 17, 1962, at 6:50 a.m., the K-3 submarine passed the North Pole. The jokers on board even suggested changing course so as not to “bend the earth’s axis.”
Then the submariners managed to find a hole in the water, where they surfaced. The state flag was raised on the highest hummock, after which Captain Zhiltsov announced “shore leave.” The sailors had fun, played snowballs, fought, and took pictures in front of the boat in the ice. The last thing is the most surprising, because before the trip, counterintelligence seized all the cameras from the crew. However, they still ended up on board.
K-3 personally met who returned from this trip Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. The entire crew was awarded, and leader of the campaign, Rear Admiral Alexander Petelin, K-3 commander, captain 2nd rank Lev Zhiltsov and Engineer-Captain 2nd Rank Rurik Timofeev became Heroes of the Soviet Union.
The boat itself was also noted. In October 1962, it received the name “Leninsky Komsomol”. The name was inherited from the M-106 diesel submarine, which was lost in 1943 during one of its military campaigns.
The commander of the nuclear submarine L.M. Zhiltsov and the political officer A. Shturmanov. Photo: RIA Novosti
Black September '67
Service on the K-3 was a heroic and dangerous undertaking for the sailors. The first Soviet nuclear-powered ship was not ideal from the point of view of radiation safety, so all crew members received their dose of radiation. At the same time, on the boat the crew themselves approved the rule - “fouling”, radioactive air should circulate throughout the entire boat, and not only reach the sailors from the energy compartments. This is how the old principle of submariners worked: on a boat everyone is equal - we win and die together.
There was a “black” page in the almost 30-year history of the Lenin Komsomol service. On September 8, 1967, a massive fire occurred on K-3 in the Norwegian Sea. Since June 1967, since the outbreak of the war in the Middle East, the boat has been on combat duty in the Mediterranean Sea.
Before this, the boat was too often involved in ceremonial events, disrupting the crew’s combat training. They were preparing for an emergency trip to the Mediterranean in an emergency manner, patrolling for 80 days in extreme conditions - in the local climate, in some compartments the temperature went beyond 60 degrees.
On the way back, due to a fatal coincidence, a monstrous fire started on the boat, which in a matter of minutes claimed the lives of 39 sailors. However, the surviving crew members managed to prevent the destruction of the boat. The Leninsky Komsomol arrived at the base under its own power, on the surface, with the flag at half-mast - this is the naval tradition in memory of the sailors who died on the voyage.
History for remelting?
After repairs, the Leninsky Komsomol returned, from which the nuclear-powered ship was withdrawn in 1991.
From that moment on, K-3, as they say, went through the motions. At first it was on the balance sheet of Rosimushchestvo, then Rosatom and USC. Civilian and military officials have stated many times that history cannot be disposed of, and that the Lenin Komsomol will become a floating museum.
While waiting for the project to be implemented, the boat was cut in two and the reactor was removed, which was sunk in the Kara Sea. Since 2003, the idea of transporting K-3 to St. Petersburg has been discussed for installation in an eternal museum parking lot. In 2008, at the Maritime Collegium under the Russian government, the Malachite Design Bureau was instructed to develop a project for a museum based on the Lenin Komsomol.
The project exists, but they cannot find money for its implementation. Experts from the United Shipbuilding Company estimated the cost of turning K-3 into a museum at 400 million rubles, now this amount has increased to 650 million.
If a solution is not found in the very near future, Leninsky Komsomol, part of the history of the fleet and the country, a history of which we have the right to be proud, will turn into just a pile of cut iron.
1954 May
Beginning of the formation of two crews of the experimental nuclear submarine of the project 627
;
1954
The beginning of crew training in Obninsk (on the basis of the first operating nuclear power plant and, created in the shortest possible time, a ground-based stand for the ship's nuclear power plant), as well as at NII-3, NII-303 and SKB-143. In 1955, crew commanders arrived - Cap.2r. Osipenko L.G. (first crew) and captain 3rd Salov V.S. (second crew);
1955 September
A decision was made to transfer the second crew to the lead nuclear submarine of the project 627A;
1955 September
The crew was included in the 150th division of experimental submarines of the Navy in Leningrad;
1955 September 24
Laid down on the slipway of workshop No. 42 of Shipyard No. 402 in Molotovsk as the first nuclear-powered cruising submarine in the USSR;
1956 August
The crew of the 150th single-submarine submarine of the Navy was relocated to Molotovsk (from 09/12/1957 - Severodvinsk);
1957 January
The crew was reorganized into the 150th DnOPL 339th BrSRPL BelVFl with the same location;
1957 September
The physical start-up of both reactors was carried out, testing of the power plant from the SKR “Leopard” power plant began;
1958 June 26
Task No. 1 KPL-57 was accepted by the Navy Submarine Directorate under the leadership of the Deputy. Navy Civil Code Vice Adm. Ivanova V.N. rated “good”;
1958 July 1
The USSR Naval flag was raised. The ceremonial raising of the flag was attended by the Civil Code of the USSR Navy, Admiral S.G. Gorshkov, and the Minister of Shipbuilding Industry of the USSR, B.E. Butoma. and President of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Academician A.P. Aleksandrov By coincidence, the rise occurred a few minutes before the evening lowering of the flag. With the permission of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, the flag was left overnight;
1958 July 4th
At 10.03, for the first time in the history of the Russian fleet, the submarine began to move under a nuclear power plant;
1958 August
Task No. 2 KPL-57 was accepted by the Navy Submarine Directorate under the leadership of the Deputy. Navy Civil Code Vice Adm. Ivanova V.N. rated “good”;
1958 November 26 - December 2
In the Kandalaksha Bay of the White Sea, a deep-sea dive was carried out to a depth of 310 meters and swimming without surfacing for three days at a speed of 20 knots. At periscope depth, a collision occurred with a submerged log, as a result of which the periscope was bent;
1958 December 17
The acceptance certificate was signed, KrPL was accepted into trial operation under the industry guarantee that the identified deficiencies will be eliminated. Responsible deliverer Dovgan N.N., Chairman of the State Commission, Vice Adm. Ivanov V.N., commander - cap. 2nd rank Osipenko L.G. During the tests, the submarine made 29 dives, carried out 5 trips to sea for a total duration of 25 days, covered 3801 miles in 450 running hours, of which 2002 miles were submerged in 193 hours. The time spent under water was 58 hours 18 minutes, during which time the submarine covered 860 miles at an average speed of 14.8 knots. For the first time, an underwater speed of 23.3 knots was achieved; the State Commission noted the good controllability of the submarine at this speed in course and depth. Achieving an underwater speed of 23.3 knots at 60% of the power of the power plant indicated that the specification speed of 25 knots could be achieved at 80% of the thermal power of the nuclear power plant. Underwater tests were interrupted at the 59th hour due to a leak in the circulation pumps of the 1st circuit. In addition, some other mechanisms and equipment of the nuclear power plant turned out to be insufficiently reliable and failed before the established deadline - steam generators, heat exchangers of III-IV circuits, etc. Due to the failure of individual mechanisms and equipment of the main power plant, it was not possible to fully implement the approved test program;
1959 January
By resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the KrPL was transferred into trial operation. At KrPL, an audit of mechanisms and modernization work has begun;
1959 March 12
Included in the 206th Separate Division of the Northern Fleet, based in Severodvinsk;
1959 June
Commissioned after modernization, sea trials continued under the leadership of a trial operation group appointed by a joint decision of the State Navy, the Chairman of the State Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers for Shipbuilding and the Minister of Medium Engineering. The submarine made three trips to sea (9, 22 and 14 days);
1959 July 23
For the successful development of new equipment to the submarine commander cap. 1st Rank Osipenko L.G. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded, participants in the creation of the submarine received orders and medals;
1959 from August 20 to September 11
KrPL took part in the exercise of the anti-submarine defense forces of the Northern Fleet on the topic “Search and pursuit of a nuclear submarine”, and in testing hydroacoustic stations on the cruiser. After the campaign, the submarine returned to the White Sea with a call at Western Face;
1959 October
Carried out a transition from the White Sea to the Barents Sea to develop a base in Zapadnaya Litsa Bay. From 23.10 the submarine formation is directly subordinate to the commander of the submarine forces of the Northern Fleet;
1959 November 1 - 15
The first long-distance campaign (commander - cap. 1st R. Osipenko L.G.). By decision of the Navy Civil Code, the submarine, having a faulty main power plant on the starboard side, sailed under the ice edge in the Kara Sea and then in the Greenland Sea to a latitude of 79˚ to test its autonomy at high latitudes. While under ice (a total of 260 miles traveled) in the Greenland Sea, the main generator on the left side and the main turbo-gear unit on the starboard side simultaneously failed. Thanks to the high special training, initiative and courage of the personnel of the electromechanical warhead, complex modes of movement and switching of technical means were used, which made it possible to carry out the tests safely. The voyage was also complicated by the fact that when surfacing in the Greenland Sea, due to the lack of sufficient experience in operating the EL-1 echo ice gauges, the KrPL hit the ice and received damage to the wheelhouse fencing and retractable devices (the periscope was bent almost 90 degrees). The campaign was stopped and the submarine returned to base;
1959 December - 1960 May
Delivered for repair and modernization at Shipyard No. 402 (PO "Sevmashpredpriyatie") in Severodvinsk for the installation of the navigation complex "Sila N-627", a deaeration and water treatment plant and a number of modernization works with the replacement of failed equipment (essentially up to the level project 627A). Some of the instruments of the navigation complex were located in the first compartment, the second chart room was also equipped there, but as a result of alterations, the four lower torpedo tubes were inactive, and the supply of torpedoes was reduced by almost half;
1960 January
During the repair, it became part of the 339th BrSRPL BelVFl of the Northern Fleet;
1960 December - 1961 February
Mooring tests and comprehensive tests of the deaeration installation were carried out, as a result of which a decision was made by the Civil Code of the Navy and the State Committee for Shipbuilding under the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the deaeration installation as unsuitable for operation;
1961 May 26 - August 7
Completed the sea trials program and practically practiced important exams for swimming under ice: controlling a submarine in reverse and vertical ascent without moving;
1961 August 7
Transferred to the formed 3rd DiPL of the 1st FPL of the Northern Fleet with a base at Malaya Lopatka Bay (Zapadnaya Litsa);
1961 August 17 - 31
Carried out a trip to the Kara Sea (commander - Capt. 2nd R. Zhiltsov L.M.). 22.8-30.8 sailed under the pack ice along the Franz Victoria Trench to 81˚47’N. for the purpose of testing navigation systems at high latitudes. Before diving below the ice edge, the personnel showed dedication and high specialized knowledge in working to eliminate large hydraulic leaks;
1961 December
She went to the training grounds to practice a combat training course, but due to malfunctions in the power plant, tasks No. 3 and No. 4 were not completed;
1962
The unit was relocated to Bolshaya Lopatkina Bay (Zapadnaya Litsa);
1962 spring
At the permanent base point, navigation repairs were carried out by shipyard No. 10 and PA "Sevmashpredpriyatie" with the installation of steam collectors and drydocking;
1962 July 4 - 10
Made a control exit before going to the North Pole;
1962 July 11 - 21
Completed a trip (commander - Cap. 2nd R. Zhiltsov L.M.) to the North Pole. 11.7 left Zapadnaya Litsa Bay on a trip to the North Pole under the leadership of KFLPL Rear Adm. Petelina A.I. Before leaving, the boat was visited by the Navy Civil Command adm. Fleet Gorshkov S.G., Head of the Main Political Directorate of the Navy, Vice Adm. Grishanov V.G., Deputy Navy Civil Code Vice Adm. Ivanov V.N., deputy chief of shipbuilding and armament of the Navy, engineer-vice-adm. Kotov P.G., Commander of the Northern Fleet Admiral V.A. Kasatonov, Chief of Staff of the Northern Fleet Vice Adm. Rassokho A.I., 1st Deputy Commander of the Northern Fleet, Vice Adm. Lobov S.M. and other high officials. 12.7 by the end of the day, a malfunction of the circulation pump for cooling the main condenser was discovered. Three bearings were replaced underwater; the repair lasted about 14 hours. 13.7 at 11.30 surfaced in the Greenland Sea to meet with a minesweeper to clarify data on ice conditions. Due to bad weather, the meeting took place only at 18.00. 14.7 at about 10.45 at latitude 79º in a submerged position entered under the ice edge. 15.7 made the first ascent in the Arctic ice of the trip at a point with coordinates 84˚08’N, 0˚48.5’E. 17.7 at 06.59.11 Moscow time for the first time in the history of the Russian fleet passed at the North Pole point in a submerged position. 18.7 made the second ascent of the trip in the Arctic ice at a point with coordinates 84˚54’N, 0˚01.5’W. 19.7 made the third ascent of the trip in the Arctic ice at a point with coordinates 79˚40’N, 0˚41’W. The navigation discrepancy was 34 miles. 20.7 at 13.40 passed the edge of the ice. 1294 miles covered in 178 hours while under the ice. At 14.00 the KrPL surfaced. 21.7 returned from a trip to the North Pole to Gremikha. The leader of the campaign is Rear Adm. Petelin A.I., commander of the KrPL cap.2r. Zhiltsov L.M. and commander of the warhead-5 engineer-cap. 2r. Timofeev R.A. were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The awards were presented personally by the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee N.S. Khrushchev. All personnel of the boat were awarded orders and medals;
1962 September
Depressurization of the fuel elements was discovered. The submarine arrived at ship repair plant No. 893 in Severodvinsk for repairs and modernization and was temporarily subordinated to the 339th BrSRPL BelVMB SF;
1963 February 26 - 1965 October 29
Transferred for further repairs with replacement of the reactor compartment. The spent fuel was unloaded, and the compartment was filled with a special compound and sank in Abrosimov Bay in the Kara Sea at a depth of 20 meters. A number of modernization works were carried out at the KrPL with the installation of a new navigation complex "Sigma", equipment for automatic, manual and program control of the submarine and control of emergency equipment;
1963
The crew of the boat was awarded the Challenge Red Banner of the Komsomol Central Committee;
1964 July 29
The Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper published an open letter from the boat crew "Leninsky Komsomol" with the initiative to start socialist competition in the Armed Forces in honor of the 20th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. This movement was called the “Combat Glory Relay”;
1965 November 24
A state act on the completion of repairs and transfer of the submarine to the Navy was signed;
1965 November 29
Arrived at its permanent base in Bolshaya Lopatkina Bay (Zapadnaya Litsa);
1965 December 17
The submarine was visited by the first cosmonaut of the planet, Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel Yu.A. Gagarin, accompanied by the 3rd Secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee, B.N. Pastukhov, and made an entry in the ship’s historical journal;
1966 March 23
When surfacing for a communication session north of the Russky lighthouse, she encountered an ice field carried out from the White Sea, as a result of which a dent formed on the conning tower fence and the periscope was bent;
1966 March - June
Completed the test program on the following topics: “Egorlyk” (testing of anti-aircraft weapons), “Spar”, “Tourmaline”, “Ton” (testing of emergency systems), “Augustin” (testing of a light hull coating);
1966 June
Filming of the KrPL was carried out on the surface while moving, the moments of immersion and ascent;
1966 July 10 - August 29
Fulfilled the tasks of an autonomous BS (commander - Pervushin G.S., senior on board - ZKD cap. 1st R. Ginchik E.N.) in the Atlantic Ocean, Sargasso Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, having on board 4 torpedoes with special ammunition. The voyage lasted for 49 days without surfacing;
1967 March 12 - April 30
Scheduled docking and cleaning of hard-to-reach areas of the pressure hull were carried out at Shipyard-10 in Polyarny;
1967 May
She completed the tasks of the BP course and in the second half of the month took part in joint exercises of the Navy and the fleets of the Warsaw Pact member states in the Norwegian Sea. Upon my return, I joined the database;
1967 June 18 - 21
Tests were carried out on floating in ice and breaking ice from 10 to 80 cm. The tests were carried out successfully, but minor damage was received to the cabin hull and the antenna of the Svet station;
1967 July 10 - September 11
Completed the tasks of an autonomous BS (commander - Capt. 2nd R. Stepanov Yu.F.) in the Mediterranean Sea, having on board 4 torpedoes with special ammunition. During his service, the sailor underwent surgery. 8.9 when returning from combat service on the 56th day of the campaign northeast of the Faroe Islands at a point with coordinates 64˚ N, 04˚ W. at a depth of 49 meters at 01.52 a fire broke out in the 1st compartment. When the personnel moved to the 2nd compartment, the fire spread there too. From the first minutes, the fight for survivability was led by the ship’s commander and the commander of the warhead-5, V.V. Zaitsev, while the intensity of the latter’s actions forced him to replace the IP-46 regenerative cartridge twice (many sources use information from the memoirs of political officer V.V. Zhilyaev and watch officer Leskov A.Ya. about the transfer of command, etc., the majority of participants in those events consider this information to be far-fetched and inconsistent with reality). While trying to reconnaissance of the situation in the 2nd compartment, a wave of carbon monoxide burst into the central post. Almost everyone who was in the 3rd compartment at that moment lost consciousness. Boatswain Lunya helped those who had lost consciousness to put on breathing apparatus. Together with the commander of the warhead-5, they managed to ensure that the nuclear submarine surfaced. The commander cleaned the upper conning tower hatch, and after assessing the situation, he gave the order to prepare a radio transmitter to transmit radio messages about the accident to the fleet command post. The further transition to the base was carried out in a surface position. The sea was quite calm, no more than 3 points. By order of the ship's commander, some of the poisoned submariners were evacuated from the Central Post by an emergency batch of aft compartments into compartment 8, and some into the wheelhouse enclosure. It was very damp in the felling enclosure, and to prevent people from catching a cold, they laid everything possible: blankets, clothes, etc. The ship's doctor provided medical assistance, and an infirmary was set up in the 8th compartment. At the Central Post, despite the fact that the submarine was on the surface, the concentration of combustion products still remained high, significantly exceeding the maximum permissible, and it was impossible to be in the insulating apparatus without inclusion. Therefore, it was decided to control the ship not through the Central Post, but through the control panel of the main power plant in the 7th compartment. The tugboat MB-52, the rescuer Beshtau, the large anti-submarine ship Stroyny and the cruiser Zheleznyakov were sent to help the nuclear submarine. The reconnaissance ship "Vertical" was the first to approach the emergency submarine, aimed at the lost submarine by Tu-16 aircraft and accompanied it to the USSR terrorist waters. As a result of the accident, 38 people from the crew and the flagship chemist of the division, Cap. Lieutenant Smirnov V.N. The KrPL maintained its course and three days later returned to its home base on its own;
1967 September 14
The dead crew members were buried in a mass grave near the village of Zaozerny, Kola district, Murmansk region. For their demonstrated steadfastness and loyalty to their military duty, all the dead sailors, petty officers and officers are included in the Book of Honor of the Red Banner Northern Fleet. Combat friends provided financial assistance to the families of the victims with the funds collected. By the decision of the USSR Ministry of Defense, Marshal of the Soviet Union A.A. Grechko, the families of fallen officers and long-term servicemen were provided with separate apartments in the cities of Moscow and Leningrad. According to the conclusion of the state commission chaired by the 1st Deputy Civil Code of the USSR Navy, Adm. Fleet Kasatonov V.A., the fire occurred as a result of hydraulic oil breaking through the paronite gasket in the ventilation valve machine of the main ballast tank No. 2 on the starboard side. Under operating pressure, highly atomized hydraulic oil hit the compartment; the outbreak occurred due to the technically permissible sparking standards of any electrical appliance or electric lamp under conditions of an increased, but permissible percentage of oxygen in the compartment. The actions of the personnel were assessed as correct;
1967 September 14 - November 5
Emergency repairs were carried out at the Sevmashpredpriyatie PA in Severodvinsk;
1968 April 20 - May 5
The planned docking of the submarine was carried out at the Gremikha Bay dock;
1968 July 21 - 29
Took part in the tactical exercise (commander - cap.2r. Zhukova A.Ya.) KSF and DKBF together with the fleets of the Warsaw Pact countries “North” under the leadership of the Civil Code of the USSR Navy adm. Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkova S.G.
1968 August 26 - December 21
Navigation repairs were carried out at Shipyard-10 in Polyarny;
1968 October 17
In connection with the 50th anniversary of the Komsomol, she was awarded the Commemorative Banner of the USSR Ministry of Defense;
1969 December 8
Arrived at Pala Bay at SRZ-10 in the city of Polyarny to carry out medium repairs with modernization;
1971 February 25
Transferred to the 17th Divisional Submarine of the Yokanga Naval Base (based on the directive of the NSh Northern Fleet);
1971 December 28
After completing the repairs at SRZ-10, it moved from Pala Bay to Bolshaya Lopatkina Bay for final calculations and loading of spare parts;
1972 January 8 - 9
Made an inter-base transition and arrived at its permanent base in Gremikha Bay;
1972 October 29 - November 5
Took part in exercises for the prize of the Navy Civil Code to detect SSBNs;
1973 May 12 - June 1
Completed the tasks of an autonomous BS in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea;
1974
As part of the division, it was reorganized into the 11th FPL KSF with the same location;
1974 March 15 - May 5
Completed the tasks of an autonomous BS in the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic with an “excellent” rating;
1975 February
While in the combat training area at a depth of 60 meters, a short circuit occurred in the automatic switch of the backup feed pump in the 7th compartment. The fire was extinguished by supplying a fire extinguisher from the volumetric chemical fire extinguishing system from the 8th compartment, 2 people received serious burns;
1975 April 24 - June 13
Completed the tasks of an autonomous BS (commander - A.N. Bazko) in the Barents, Norwegian and Greenland Seas with an “excellent” rating. Provided tracking of the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65). According to the recollections of the crew members, upon returning to base, the submarine commander announced that the crew was a participant in the military conflict;
1975
Nuclear submarine "Leninsky Komsomol" entered into the chronicle of the Komsomol’s labor affairs, and its crew was awarded the Certificate of Honor of the Komsomol Central Committee and awarded the Memorial Banner of the USSR Ministry of Defense and the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy;
1976 June 1 - June 27
Emergency docking was carried out at Shipyard-10 in Polyarny;
1977 from December 29
At SRZ-10 in Polyarny it was put into medium repair with replacement of cable routes;
1981 January 8
During repair work, a fire occurred, as a result of which the recently replaced cable routes burned out;
1981 December 30
Medium repairs were completed and the UAV was transferred to the 184th crew to move to its permanent home base;
1982 May 25 - June 25
Completed the tasks of an autonomous BS with the 184th crew on board (commander - Zatylkin A.I.) in the Barents, Norwegian and Greenland Seas with an “excellent” rating. The combat service was dedicated to the 19th Congress of the Komsomol;
1984 September 28
After completion of repairs, it was introduced into the permanent readiness forces;
1985
Took part in the exercises: "Ocean-85", "Atlantika-85", "North-85";
1985 July 2 - 27
Completed combat duty and combat service tasks in the Norwegian Sea;
1987 September 20
With UAV crew K-21, without completing mid-term repairs, arrived at its permanent base in Gremikha Bay;
1988 September 9
Reformed into a training vessel and laid up in Gremikha Bay;
1993 September 30
Transferred to the 285th ODnPL Northern Fleet, withdrawn from combat;
1995 October 1 (September)
Reformed into the 14th BrPL (from 1998 - 319th DnPL), withdrawn from combat service, Yokanga basing area of the Northern Fleet;
November 2002
Towed to FSUE "10 Shipyard" in Polyarny for disposal. It was planned to make a decision to convert the nuclear submarine into a museum;
2003 May 30 - July 3
Nuclear fuel was unloaded onto the PTB PM-78. When unloading spent fuel, two spent fuel assemblies were left in the cells of the L/B apparatus due to their jamming;
2005 October 28
Towed to Kut Bay, Olenya Bay, in the water area of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Shipyard "Nerpa" (Snezhnogorsk). Included in the 74th ODnRPL ColFlRS SF;
2006 April 20
An additional radiation survey was carried out before the start of work on converting the nuclear submarine into a museum;
2006 July 1
It was docked at the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Shipyard "Nerpa" for preparation for conversion into a museum or disposal (depending on further decisions);
2007
The reactor compartment was cut out, which was then transferred for long-term storage to the Saida storage facility in Saida Bay. Under an agreement with Rosatom, the plant created a dummy of the compartment;
2008
Transferred to the civilian crew of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Shipyard "Nerpa" (Snezhnogorsk). According to the decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, the first domestic nuclear submarine should become another floating museum of the northern capital. The project of refurbishment for an unusual exhibition of the legendary ship, which wrote many wonderful pages in the history of the Soviet Navy, carried out by specialists from the St. Petersburg Marine Engineering Bureau “Malachite”;
2011 March
At the ceremonial events in Murmansk dedicated to the Day of the Submariner, the governor of the Murmansk region Dmitry Dmitrienko announced that it is planned to install the first Soviet nuclear submarine in the port of Murmansk K-3 "Leninsky Komsomol", which will be open to the public as a museum. He said that the Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Igor Levitin agreed on such a decision. It has already been decided that the first nuclear submarine will be installed next to the first nuclear icebreaker "Lenin";
2013 March
The United Shipbuilding Corporation, due to the lack of money to restore the boat, and also due to the fact that the slipway where the remains of the boat are stored is urgently needed for another project (disposal of the Rosatomflot floating technical base "Lepse"), decided to dismantle the nuclear submarine before the end of 2013 at the Nerpa shipyard in Snezhnogorsk (Murmansk region). At the same time, the Nerpa plant itself still hopes to complete the boat. As plant press secretary Irina Anzulatova explained to Izvestia, this requires 50 million rubles, which the plant plans to find. “We will do everything to find this money. The boat can still be saved. We have already made a fragment of the hull that can be put in place of the cut-out reactor compartment. All that remains is to connect it all, convert it and launch it into the water. And there it can stand for as long as you like and wait until our officials wise up and understand that such historical value cannot be destroyed,” explained I. Anzulatova;
2014 June
It was planned for disposal at the Nerpa Shipyard, a branch of JSC Zvezdochka CS;
2014 December
It was decided that the nuclear submarine K3 ("Leninsky Komsomol") after all, it will become a museum, it is being prepared for launching, after which work on museumification will begin. According to Oleg Erin (leader of the Lepse project at the Nerpa shipyard), until January 2014, the Nerpa shipyard did not have an approved package of documents that had passed the State Expertise, with an approved recycling scheme for the Lepse PTB. Therefore, the plant could not guarantee that the nuclear submarine K-3 will not interfere with the floating technical base on the slipway slab. “Now, after receiving the approved scheme, we see that the nuclear submarine and the PTB will not interfere with each other during the work,” said Oleg Erin;
2014 December 16
In accordance with Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 597 of September 1, 2014, 39 submariners who died heroically on September 8, 1967 as a result of a fire were posthumously awarded the Order of Courage. At the Military Training and Research Center of the Navy "Naval Academy named after Kuznetsov" in St. Petersburg, a solemn ceremony was held to present three Orders of Courage to the relatives of the deceased nuclear submarine crew members K-3 "Leninsky Komsomol"(Lieutenant-Captain Gennady Ganin, Captain 3rd Rank Lev Komorkin and Lieutenant Viktor Gurin). 11/14/14 Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu presented the first award to Lyubov Malyar, the widow of Lieutenant Commander Anatoly Malyar;
April 2015
Interfax, citing a member of the maritime board under the government of the Russian Federation, commander of the Northern Fleet in 1999-2001, Admiral Vyacheslav Popov, reported that after re-equipment of the nuclear submarine it is planned to install it in permanent berth in Murmansk. Within a year, the nuclear submarine must be prepared for a long stay on the water. “It’s too early to determine the timing, for now we are only talking about the timing of conversion, that is, the timing of preparation for launching. Funds for conversion were allocated last fall,” said V. Popov. As V. Popov noted, the process of conversion (conversion) of nuclear submarines will take about During this time, at the Nerpa shipyard, a branch of JSC CS Zvezdochka (Snezhnogorsk, Murmansk region), the nuclear submarine will be prepared for launching from a solid base and towed to Murmansk. Afterwards, the search will begin for a designer who will take care of the museumification of the nuclear submarine. “The K-3 Museum will look harmonious in Murmansk, next to the Lenin Icebreaker Museum, the first nuclear icebreaker. Of course, St. Petersburg also wants to host the museum, but from a historical point of view, the nuclear naval theme should be developed in Murmansk,” noted V. Popov. The admiral added that the museum could become a branch of the Northern Fleet Museum or the Central Naval Museum ;
2015
A presentation was held on “Problems of ensuring the environmental safety of Arctic waters, islands and coastal areas.” The plan for further actions for the period 2016-2022 has been adjusted, including for the dismantlement of the nuclear submarine reactor unit K-3, which was sunk in 1965;
2016 December
“The work on sealing the boat and forming a single hull is being completed on the slipway plate - the joints between the donor compartment and the bow block of the nuclear submarine are being welded,” the Nerpa Shipyard said in a statement. The nuclear submarine is planned to be launched into the water in February 2017. Vyacheslav Popov, a member of the Maritime Collegium under the Government of the Russian Federation, former commander of the Northern Fleet, told Interfax that he would initiate a discussion of the fate of K-3 "Leninsky Komsomol" at a meeting of this body at the end of December. “Now the question is about choosing a designer to create the museum. In my personal opinion, it should be the St. Petersburg naval engineering bureau “Malachite”, which the Lenin Komsomol created,” said Vyacheslav Popov. In addition, the agency’s interlocutor added, the Maritime Board will decide on the location of the museum submarine;
2017 September 8
The plant completed complex work on converting the submarine. The submarine was launched and transferred to the factory water area and moored at the floating pier;
2019 (plan)
Lifting reactor compartments of nuclear submarines with serial number 254 (nuclear submarine K-3) and No. 285 (nuclear submarine K-11).
Total since construction "K-3" completed 6 combat tours, covered 128,443 miles in 14,115 walking hours.
The crew of the Lenin Komsomol at the North Pole. Photo from the archive of Lev Zhiltsov
THE SAILORS STAYED AWAY
Actually, Americans previously dived under the Arctic ice. They were ahead of us with the creation of the first nuclear submarine, called Nautilus (1954). Despite the secondary nature of the achievement, we, as always, went our own way and achieved many priorities along the way.The K-3 had nothing in common with the Nautilus, no copying or borrowing. Furthermore. The idea of a transport reactor came to Academician Igor Kurchatov back in 1950. And when on September 12, 1952, Stalin signed a government decree with a title that was absolutely incomprehensible to the uninitiated, “On the design and construction of object 627,” Soviet scientists already had a certain scientific basis for creating a future nuclear submarine with a nuclear power plant.
The first-born of domestic nuclear shipbuilding was born under the cover of the strictest secrecy. The coordinator of the work (already during the time of Nikita Khrushchev) was the Ministry of Medium Engineering, and the Navy Minister of the Navy, Admiral Nikolai Kuznetsov, was initiated into the secret of the creation of the K-3, and then only partially. Later he was joined by the head of the Navy's shipbuilding department, Admiral Pavel Kotov. But they had no opportunity to influence decision making. As a result, the K-3 was supposed to be armed with one giant torpedo with a nuclear warhead 24 m long and about 2 m in diameter. This torpedo was intended to strike enemy naval bases at a distance of 50 km.
From a military point of view, this was stupidity, since the Americans and the British had by that time created anti-submarine lines 100 km from the coast. At a mock-up commission with the participation of Chairman of the Council Nikolai Bulganin, Admiral Kuznetsov said: “I don’t understand this submarine. We need a boat that could destroy ships in the seas and oceans, along communications. But this requires more than one torpedo, for this there must be a large reserve, we need torpedoes with conventional ammunition, and we also need nuclear torpedoes.”
Thus, the task for the construction of K-3 was adjusted, not immediately, with a terrible creak, although the submarine’s hull was already ready by that time, and it had to be redone. And yet, let us take into account: despite all these vicissitudes, only 5 years passed from the idea of creation to the launching of a hitherto unprecedented ship. One can only envy such a pace now (let us remember: in our time, the Borei-class nuclear submarine Yuri Dolgoruky has not been built since 1996). It took the Americans 9 years to build the Nautilus.
For the first time, cetacean shapes appeared in the guise of a submarine, for which submarines of projects 627 and 627A received their generic name “whale”. Thanks to their rational contours, the “Whales” significantly exceeded the underwater speed of the American “Nautilus”. The father of Soviet nuclear energy, Academician Anatoly Alexandrov, wrote to the chief designer of the first Soviet nuclear-powered ship, Vladimir Peregudov: “Your name will go down in the history of technology in our Motherland as the name of the person who made the largest technical revolution in shipbuilding, the same in significance as the transition from sailing ships to steam-powered ones.”
The first nuclear-powered submarine was built by the entire country, although most of the participants in this unprecedented undertaking were unaware of their involvement in a unique project. In Moscow, they developed a new steel that allowed the boat to dive to a depth unimaginable for that time - 300 m; the reactors were manufactured in Gorky, the steam turbine units were supplied by the Leningrad Kirov Plant; The K-3 architecture was developed at TsAGI. In Obninsk, the crew trained at a special stand. A total of 350 enterprises and organizations built the miracle ship brick by brick. Its first commander was Captain 1st Rank Leonid Osipenko. If not for the secrecy regime, his name would have thundered throughout the entire Soviet Union. After all, Osipenko tested the truly first “hydrospace ship”, which could go into the ocean for three whole months with only one ascent - at the end of the trip.
The creation of a nuclear submarine fleet went in parallel with the development of the space complex, and therefore all “space” comparisons here are completely legitimate. “Being among the first officers of the nuclear-powered submarine was almost as prestigious as being enlisted in the cosmonaut corps a few years later,” said the second commander of K-3, Lev Zhiltsov. It was he who received the task of proving that we are capable of reaching the North Pole under the ice.
DAY OF GLORY
By the summer of 1962, when the expedition to the “top” of the Earth was made, the K-3 was no longer the only nuclear submarine in the Soviet Navy. Other, newer ships could have gone under the ice, while the “troika” turned out to be quite battered - after all, on it, as on the lead model, the maximum operating modes of all devices and, above all, the reactor, steam generators, and turbines were tested. “There was literally no living space on the steam generator system,” Zhiltsov later marveled, “hundreds of cut-off, digested and plugged tubes... The specific radioactivity of the primary circuit was thousands of times higher than on production boats. Why, knowing about the almost emergency condition of our boat, when deciding on an issue of national importance about a trip to the pole, designed to declare to the whole world that our country exercises control over the polar possessions, did they stop at K-3? The answer, perhaps strange to foreigners, is completely obvious to Russians. When choosing between technology and people, we relied most on the latter.”Zhiltsov did not doubt his people, and therefore agreed to go out to conquer the Pole on “his word of honor and one wing.” And the crew had a lot of courage. When it became clear that sailors in the power compartments were irradiated a hundred times more than those in the end compartments, the team of the torpedo compartment remote from the reactor proposed dividing the radiation danger equally among the entire crew, that is, mixing the “fouling” air between the compartments. The proposal was accepted. Thus, all crew members - helmsmen, torpedomen, command and even the ship's cook - received an equal dose with managers and turbine operators. And only when everyone received a hundred doses, the boat surfaced and ventilated the compartments into the atmosphere. Thus, in the new conditions, the old principle was observed: nowhere is there such equality as on a submarine - either everyone wins or everyone dies. Or everyone is irradiated...
With such a crew, Zhiltsov took his “troika” under the ice. They literally went to hell. Instead of a detailed map with depth contours and marks of underwater peaks, there was a blank grid map on the navigator’s table. We walked blindly and deafly. For the first time, acousticians worked in such conditions, when the ice shell overhead reflected the noise of its own propellers, giving rise to auditory illusions. One day the depths under the keel began to decrease sharply.
Zhiltsov: “Having received the alarming report, I order you to immediately surface and reduce the speed to low. Everyone's attention is focused on the echogram: what will happen next? Where did this seamount come from and where is its top?” This is how a giant underwater ridge was discovered at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. It was named after the famous hydrographer Yakov Gakkel. After Severnaya Zemlya, mapped in 1913 by Russian sailors, it was the largest geographical discovery of the 20th century.
On July 17, 1962, at 6 hours 50 minutes 10 seconds, the K-3 submarine passed the Earth's North Pole. The jokers advised the midshipman-helmsman to turn a little off course so that the boat would not “bend the earth’s axis” in a big way.
Then there was an ascent to the pole. Let us turn again to the memoirs of Lev Zhiltsov, with whom we had the opportunity to communicate during his lifetime: “The thickness of the ice is 20–25 m. In order not to miss the wormwood, we float up just in case. As soon as clear water appears, we give a short push with one engine forward, and, having extinguished the inertia, the bow of the boat freezes at the very edge of the ice. As they say, we hit the bull's eye! I open the conning tower hatch and stick my head out into the light. K-3, like a stone in a ring, is surrounded by ice on all sides. From any side you can jump onto the ice directly from the bridge - there is no water anywhere between the side and the ice floe. The silence around is such that it rings in your ears. Not the slightest breeze, and the clouds lay very low: I don’t envy the hydrographers and navigators who will have to catch the sun.”
The national flag was solemnly hoisted on the highest hummock. Zhiltsov announced “shore leave.” This is where the real fun began. The commander was forced to note: “At the pole, submariners behave like little children: they fight, push, run in launches, climb high hummocks, throw snowballs... Lively photographers captured both the boat in the ice and many funny situations. But before going to sea, special officers cleaned the entire ship: not a single camera should be on board! But who knows the boat and all the secret places better - counterintelligence officers or submariners?
We were returning at full speed. The head of state, Nikita Khrushchev, was waiting for the submariners on the shore to personally present heroic stars to the leader of the historical campaign, Rear Admiral Alexander Petelin, the K-3 commander, captain 2nd rank Lev Zhiltsov, and engineer-captain 2nd rank Rurik Timofeev. Even earlier, Leonid Osipenko became the Hero of the Soviet Union - the first to be awarded this title after the war.
HOME WITH THE FLAG AT MAST
When it comes to the Lenin Komsomol, people first of all remember its trip to the North Pole. But the submarine was in service with the Navy for almost 30 years. And during this time, a lot of things happened to her... There were also dark days, such as September 8, 1967, when the headquarters of the nuclear submarine division in Gremikha received an alarm signal from the Norwegian Sea: there was a massive fire on the K-3.The cruiser "Zheleznyakov" urgently took off from the barrels and moved at full speed towards the damaged boat. It was unknown how torpedoes with nuclear equipment would behave in such a fire, whether their fuses would trip if an explosive mixture—hydrogen mixed with air—exploded in the battery pits. Nevertheless, K-3 returned to base under its own power in a surface position. But with the flag at half-mast. And this meant that there were dead on board.
The assistant commander of K-3, then still captain-lieutenant Alexander Leskov, tells:
– As a result of the endless solemn, useless events that accompanied the submarine for several years after the trip to the Pole, they made a fetish out of it. Very soon the crew had no time for combat training. Exhausted by the lack of real work, the commanders quietly drank themselves to death, then they were just as quietly relieved of their positions.
But the “troika” had the opportunity in June 1967, when war broke out in the Middle East, to go to the Mediterranean Sea. The crew was urgently assembled, a new commander was appointed, and they were “pushed” into combat service. K-3 honestly fulfilled its mission. All 80 days of combat patrol were carried out in extreme conditions: there is nothing more grueling than spending a hot Mediterranean summer at sea. The temperature in the turbine compartment stood at 60 degrees throughout the entire trip.
On the way back in the Norwegian Sea, in this sea of fires (for some reason, most often our boats burned here), a monstrous tragedy unfolded on K-3. At about two o'clock in the morning on September 8, flammable hydraulic vapors ignited in the bow torpedo compartment. In fact, it was an explosion. The disastrous situation in the bow compartments developed so quickly that the sailors died almost in the first minute. In the central one they only managed to hear a short ringing signal from the inter-compartment broadcast.
The commander's watch at the central post was carried by Alexander Leskov:
-I turned on the switch and asked: “Who’s calling?” Then he released the toggle switch and... How many years later did I wake up in the middle of the night, again, in a dream, hearing those terrible screams of people burning alive!
MOMENTS BEFORE A NUCLEAR EXPLOSION
In a matter of minutes, 39 sailors died in the first and second compartments. It seemed that the nuclear-powered submarine was doomed: after all, in the first compartment there were about a dozen torpedoes on racks, and the tubes contained torpedoes with nuclear warheads. The situation was the same as later, in 2000, at Kursk. Another minute and a half, and the entire torpedo ammunition would explode.K-3 commander Yuri Stepanov made the only right decision, commanding: “Equalize the pressure with the emergency compartments!” The fact is that TNT explodes with a simultaneous increase in temperature and pressure. The pressure in the burning compartments jumped sharply. And when Lieutenant Commander Leskov opened the exhaust ventilation clinker, the air, compressed almost to the fatal limit, went into the central post with a furious roar. It wasn’t even air—black smoke with flakes of burning, oversaturated with poisonous gases. The central post was immediately contaminated with gas, and a sailor died in the hold because he had not put on the gas mask correctly. But there was no other way out. The boat was saved from imminent death, it was ventilated, and after some time K-3 returned to base on its own.
None of the authorities wanted to take into account the extreme technical wear and tear of the Troika as the lead ship. The crew and commander were given the terrible label of “emergency workers”: the fire supposedly occurred due to the fault of the personnel, although this was not the case. And the former flagship mechanic of the Gremikha nuclear submarine division, Captain 1st Rank Ivan Morozov, knows this best of all. He had to be the first to determine the causes of the fire, and to do this, conduct reconnaissance of the emergency compartments. To get into this kingdom of the dead, it was necessary to unscrew fifty bolts and lift a removable sheet over the hatch to load the batteries into the second compartment.
“After a long period of forced ventilation, the removable sheet was removed,” says Morozov. – Two volunteer bilge operators volunteered to inspect the bow compartments. And then the unexpected happened: the first bilge operator who came down jumped up like a bullet. There was horror in the eyes of the sailor: “I can’t... It’s like this there...” I released both volunteers to the barracks and put my hand on the shoulder of my colleague - assistant head of the electromechanical service for survivability, captain 3rd rank Pavel Dorozhinsky:
- Pasha, you will have to... Find Seryoga there, look where he lies.
Seryoga - Sergei Fedorovich Gorshkov, senior mate of K-3, was our mutual friend. We had to pay him our last debt. Dorozhinsky silently took the emergency flashlight and climbed into the second compartment. He still had enough mental strength to go to the stern and then climb up. There was no face on it.
“Ivan Fedorovich,” he almost whispered, “I was in hell!” Most of the dead lie in the aft part of the second compartment. They are sintered into one mass, it is impossible to recognize them.
In one of the components of the hydraulic system, a breakthrough occurred in the working fluid - oil. A strong jet hit the burning light bulb of an electric lamp. There was no protective cover on it; it crashed in a storm. The vapors from the sprayed oil ignited in the blink of an eye. The torpedo ventilation system was working. The strength of the flame was such that it cut the valve body of the oxygen cylinder in half, like a gas torch. What is called a fatal coincidence happened. A chain reaction of trouble, which, as we know, does not come alone. The root cause is a hydraulic breakthrough. But why? After all, everything was done extremely reliably for the nuclear fleet.
And again Captain 1st Rank Morozov testifies:
– I was present during the dismantling in the first compartment. They removed the ill-fated hydraulic machine (it opened and closed the ventilation valve of ballast tank No. 2 on the starboard side). And then it was discovered that in the fitting of the hydraulic machine, instead of the standard sealing gasket made of red copper, there was a washer roughly cut from paranit (an asbestos-based gasket material used in automobile engines). Over time, the sealing field became limp and burst during the next pressure surge. And the pressure in the system is serious, with differences from 5 to 100 kg/cm. Someone's hand changed the gaskets during the dock repairs of the ship.
Dock repairs are carried out by factory workers. One of the veteran ship repairers, Alexander Ispolatov, who worked in the North in the 1960s, said that red copper, although not a precious metal, was highly valued among craftsmen. All kinds of crafts were made from it. From the same gasket removed from a hydraulic machine, perhaps someone made a ring for his girlfriend. Perhaps it is still lying around in someone’s family box among old buttons, badges and other rubbish. A tarnished copper ring worth thirty-nine lives...
Moscow, as you know, burned down from a penny candle. “Leninsky Komsomol”, as it turned out, is from a penny trifle, a paranite gasket.
THE COMMANDER'S FATE
Six months later, Stepanov was written off ashore and transferred to the Black Sea Higher Naval School named after P.S. Nakhimov. There he was awarded the Order of the Red Star for saving the first-born of the Soviet nuclear fleet. What then happened to the fate of this officer, who saved not only his ship, but the entire Norwegian Sea from radioactive contamination? Last summer one of us tried to find traces of him in Sevastopol.The school where Stepanov taught no longer exists. No one knows where his archives are. The last hope is the regional military registration and enlistment office, where he was registered. But then there was a different country, and now the military registration and enlistment office serves the new state. A girl in a Ukrainian uniform kindly explains that all the personal files of Soviet officers have long been destroyed. At best, a duplicate has been preserved somewhere in Kyiv. But the chances are slim.
To clear her conscience, a girl ensign climbs onto the archival shelves, and suddenly the personal file of Captain 1st Rank Stepanov falls from above! It seems that he himself, from the other world, pushed this skinny daddy.
“Wow,” the girl is amazed, “they didn’t burn it.”
What can “Personal File of a Reserve Officer” tell you? A lot of what makes up the external outline of the service, and almost nothing from his personal life. Nevertheless, we are trying to understand this man from his last paper trail on earth.
So, Yuri Fedorovich Stepanov was born on May 15, 1932 in Kalinin. He graduated from the Riga Nakhimov School, in 1952 – the Higher Naval Diving School, in 1966 – the Higher Special Officer Classes. Navigator by profession. Appointed commander of the cruising submarine K-3 on July 5, 1967.
From cadet and officer certifications: “...was a company sergeant major. Champion of schools and universities in classical wrestling. He navigates the situation at sea well and quickly makes informed decisions. An officer with high strong-willed qualities.” Another entry: “In September 1967, in a difficult work situation, he received carbon monoxide poisoning with a short-term loss of consciousness and subsequent mental trauma. Over the course of 3-4 months I fainted five times.”
Thus his commanding career was interrupted. Instead of a bridge there is the office of the head of the correspondence department of the Black Sea VVMU. He did not give up and still hoped to return to the active fleet. In 1976, he completed an internship as a commander of a nuclear submarine in the Northern Fleet. But the doctors were inexorable: he was unfit for service in the submarine. Another would have broken. But Yuri Stepanov did not retreat: commander of a training battalion, teacher, and then deputy head of the Department of Navy Tactics. For success in training cadets he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. Retired in 1989. Worked as a librarian. Son Vyacheslav, daughter Tatyana. The date of death is not noted in the personal file. Somewhere in the 1990s. He was buried near Sevastopol.
HEADING TOWARDS ETERNAL STANDING
That tragedy of the Lenin Komsomol did not become part of our common memory either in 1967 or in the “era of glasnost”; they don’t really know about it today. The sailors who burned down on K-3 were erected a modest, nameless monument far from crowded places: “To the submariners who died in the ocean on 09/08/67.” And a small anchor at the foot of the slab. The boat itself lives out its life at the pier of the ship repair plant in Polyarny.The execution of the order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy to turn K-3 into a museum, signed in the early 1990s, dragged on indefinitely. Recently, once again through the mouth of the current Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Fleet Admiral Vladimir Masorin, it was confirmed that in the near future a museum will be created in St. Petersburg on the basis of the first nuclear submarine K-3, “because this history cannot be disposed of.” As far as we know, they are already looking for a permanent mooring site on the Neva. Perhaps it will be next to Aurora.
In the history of the fleets of all maritime powers there are many tragic pages associated with serious accidents in peacetime.
The world's first nuclear submarine to suffer a disaster was the American submarine Thresher, which sank on April 10, 1963 in the Atlantic Ocean, killing 129 people...
48 years ago, on September 8, 1967, on the Northern Fleet submarine K-3, returning to base after a long voyage to the Mediterranean Sea, a fire broke out, as a result of which 39 people died, 22 were seriously poisoned, the 2nd and The 1st compartment was partially damaged. The heroic crew independently led the submarine to the base.
This was the first major accident on nuclear submarines of the Soviet Union with mass loss of life.
During this time, many publications appeared in the media, unfortunately, not always truthful, and often outright false. This always happens when there is no official point of view on current events open to the general public. These events are distorted, overgrown with artistic fiction, and unscrupulous persons appropriate the merits of many and the team as a whole and use them for their own personal interests.
That's how it was.
The year was 1967...
My submarine “K-42”, on which I served as commander of a navigator combat unit with the rank of lieutenant commander, was undergoing scheduled repairs in Polyarny, preparing for a long and responsible voyage.
Somewhere at the beginning of summer, I was summoned to the commander of the flotilla, Vice Admiral A.I. Sorokin. A call from a combat unit commander to a commander in itself is not a common occurrence, and now, as soon as I entered the office, it immediately became clear to me that I had been called to tell me something very important. And so it happened. The commander, inquiring about how things were going on my submarine with the repair of navigation equipment, said that a decision had been made to send me to the K-3 submarine to participate in a long cruise as a watch navigator...
The submarine "K-3" of Project 627 was the first-born of the nuclear submarine fleet of the Soviet Union, the crew was first-line, well trained, and had significant sailing experience. On July 17, 1962, for the first time in the country's history, she passed under the ice of the North Pole, surfacing twice in this area. For this and other achievements it was given the name “Leninist Komsomol”. The commander of the navigation combat unit was Captain 3rd Rank O.S. Pevtsov, an experienced submariner who had a lot to learn from, became the commander of the electronic navigation group - Lieutenant A.I., recently appointed to the position after graduating from college. Petrechenko, the foreman of the team of helmsmen-signals (boatswain) - midshipman M.I., a well-known master of his craft in the fleet. Lunya. Other officers and midshipmen of the ship matched them, many of them had the qualification “Master of Military Affairs”.
After introducing myself to the ship’s commander, Captain 2nd Rank Yuri Fedorovich Stepanov, and the senior assistant commander, Captain 2nd Rank Sergei Fedorovich Gorshkov, I got involved in the work of preparing for the voyage.
After carefully preparing the ship for the voyage and checking its readiness by the relevant headquarters, the long-awaited command was finally sounded: “Stay in place! Get off the mooring lines!
The first days of sailing are always psychologically difficult: the technique seems to get used to the sailing conditions, requires increased attention, the divers’ body gradually adapts to the loads - after all, all swimming is carried out only in a submerged position.
Having passed the Barents and Norwegian Seas, we entered the Atlantic Ocean. Our course is to the Mediterranean Sea. Above the submarine the water thickness is 100-200 meters, below us is an abyss.
Having passed the Bay of Biscay, we occupied the holding area west of the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. Through the periscope on the port side, the gloomy Rock of Gibraltar was visible, which contrasted sharply with the bright lights of the Moroccan city of Tangier on the starboard side. The strait itself was characterized by powerful anti-submarine defense; it was not for nothing that German submariners during the war gave it the name “hangman’s noose.”
The Strait of Gibraltar is a strait between the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula (Europe) and northwestern Africa, connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Length - 35 miles (65 km), width - 7.5-23.7 miles (14-44 km). Along the banks of the strait there are towering massifs: the Rock of Gibraltar in the north and Musa in the south, which in ancient times were called the Pillars of Hercules.
Depths on the fairway are up to 338 m, the greatest depth is 1181 m.
The surface current is directed to the east, into the Mediterranean Sea, and the deep current, to the west, into the Atlantic Ocean. This feature of the strait was widely used by submariners during the war to covertly cross it, without the use of means of propulsion.
Having passed over the Te Ridge Bank (55 m) and having specified our place, we began secretly crossing the strait - this narrow gap between two continents. Having successfully crossed it, and then the Strait of Tunis, we began patrolling in the given area. The everyday life of military service dragged on, requiring great exertion of physical and moral strength.
During this period of the year, the temperature of sea water in the Mediterranean Sea at depths of 100-200 meters was 25-21ºС, and although the refrigeration machines were operating at full capacity, the temperature in the compartments was under 30ºС and above, and in the turbine compartment - under 60ºС, which, of course, affected both the operation of technical means and the well-being of people.
One day, one of the submariners had an attack of appendicitis, and the officers' mess in the 2nd compartment was urgently converted into an operating room. The ship's doctor, captain of the medical service A. Fomin, performed the operation, but after a few days some complications arose, the sailor's well-being worsened, and the ship's commander was forced to report to the fleet command post about the need to provide medical care to the patient in coastal conditions.
It was decided to disembark the sailor on Soviet transport with subsequent treatment in the Egyptian port of Alexandria. Looking ahead, I note: the sailor successfully completed treatment and by the time we arrived at the base he was already there and met us. Having surfaced at the designated point, we organized the transfer of the patient on a stretcher to the boat that arrived from the transport. And although the weather was calm and the sea was quite calm, we encountered great difficulties, which, to our joy, ended well.
During this period we were discovered by US Navy anti-submarine warfare forces. The basic anti-submarine aircraft "Neptune" and "Orion" constantly simulated an attack; a large number of sonar buoys were dropped, creating the threat of a direct hit on the boat. With the end of the disembarkation of the patient, the submarine submerged, successfully performed a separation maneuver from numerous anti-submarine forces and continued to carry out its task...
Finally, orders were received to return to base. Having left the Mediterranean Sea, our ship headed for its native shores. The North Atlantic greeted us with cold waters: the temperature of the sea water was 10ºС, and it became cool in the compartments. With each revolution of the screws we got closer to home, anticipating the joy of meeting with family and friends, with our comrades...
At 00.00 hours, the 1st combat shift took over the watch (watch officer - assistant commander, lieutenant captain A.Ya. Leskov, mechanical engineer on watch - commander of the electrical division, captain 3rd rank A. Burov), the other two shifts were resting. The ship's commander is captain 2nd rank Yu.F. Stepanov was at the Central post. The navigator of the watch was the author of these lines.
At this time, the submarine was in the Norwegian Sea in the area of the Faroe-Iceland border, traveling underwater at a depth of 80 meters, and had a speed of 12 knots.
On this submarine project, the 1st compartment housed torpedo tubes and torpedo ammunition, and at the same time it was also a resting place for part of the crew. In the 2nd compartment there were officers' cabins, a provision chamber, a code post and a battery. The 3rd compartment housed the Central Post, from which the submarine was controlled.
At 01:52 a.m. at the Central post a short call was heard from the 1st compartment via loudspeaker communication - “Kashtan”. The first and second compartments did not respond to the watch officer’s request to report the situation; only some noise and inaudible screams of people were heard. By order of the submarine commander, an emergency alarm was announced.
At the alarm signal, the commander of the electromechanical combat unit, Captain 2nd Rank V.V., managed to slip from the second compartment to the Central post to their regular places. Zaitsev, deputy commander for political affairs, captain 2nd rank D.A. Zhilyaev and the commander of the warhead-4 - the head of the radio technical service, captain-lieutenant B. Andrianov, after which the bulkhead door between the third and second compartments was battened down and placed on the ratchet shutter. This is the harsh law of service on submarines: in the event of an accident, the compartments must be sealed to prevent spread to neighboring compartments; the personnel of the emergency compartment must independently fight for survivability, often at the cost of their lives saving the entire crew.
A report was also received from the commander of the 1st compartment - commander of the mine-torpedo warhead, Captain 3rd Rank L.F. Komorkin, who arrived from the 2nd compartment, where he was resting, to the burning 1st compartment: “The whole hold is on fire. I can’t report anything...” There were no further reports from the 1st compartment. The second compartment did not answer either, only the voice of midshipman V.I. sounded from the code post. Musatov with a request to save him.
From the first minutes, the battle for survivability was led by the ship's commander and the commander of the electromechanical warhead, while the intensity of the latter's actions forced him to replace the IP-46 regenerative cartridge twice.
Further events developed very quickly. It should be noted that a characteristic feature of almost all fires on submarines is their rapid development with the formation from the very first minutes of a large concentration of combustion products in the air of the compartment. A mortal threat loomed over the submarine and its crew: a fire was raging in compartments 1 and 2, the temperature of the bulkhead between compartments 2 and 3 reached 70 degrees, torpedoes could explode, including those with nuclear warheads, and the battery could explode.
The main command post of the submarine, having analyzed the possible causes of the fire and the current situation, decided to cut off the hydraulic supply to the bow of the ship. The necessary switches in the electrical network were also carried out. As it turned out later, this decision was the right one...
The fire occurred as a result of hydraulic fluid being released into the compartment under high pressure and hitting a hot light bulb. The cause of the ejection is a rupture of a defective sealing gasket in the hydraulic machine of the ventilation valve of the main ballast tank No. 2 on the starboard side (manufacturing defect). The spray of burning hydraulics instantly led to a massive fire in the compartment: the air was burning, bedding was burning, clothing was burning, people were burning, who a few seconds before had been fast asleep. The compartment quickly filled with combustion products, many died before they could wake up to the “Emergency Alarm” signal...
The thought about the fate of the submariners in the 1st and 2nd compartments did not leave me. At some time, the temperature of the bulkhead between the 2nd and 3rd compartments began to decrease. There was hope that the fire had been extinguished due to lack of oxygen. Under these conditions, the main command post of the ship decided to conduct reconnaissance of the second compartment.
However, an attempt to equalize the pressure with the second compartment through the exhaust ventilation system, the blade of which was located in the chart room, led to the fact that smoke and flakes poured into the chart room, and, therefore, into the Central post, under high pressure, and with them carbon monoxide. I note that O. Pevtsov opened the clinket on orders, and I already battened it down.
Having lowered the blade, I still managed to swallow some smoke. At that time, portable personal respiratory protection equipment for crews had not yet been developed; the available IDA-59 devices were cumbersome, and their standard placement did not provide quick access to them. In the chart room there was a decanter of water diluted with cherry extract and, moistening a handkerchief and putting it to his mouth, he began to breathe a little. However, I soon began to lose consciousness, but a few sips of the air mixture from a breathing apparatus, brought by midshipman Mikhail Lunya, literally brought me back from the other world.
The attempt to penetrate into the second compartment of the emergency batch was also unsuccessful: they could not open the bulkhead door to the second compartment. (As it turned out later, the opening of the bulkhead door was prevented by the bodies of dead submariners).
The temperature of the bulkhead between the 2nd and 3rd compartments increased again, which left no doubt: the fire was still ongoing in the second compartment. There was no doubt that 38 submariners, including 7 officers and 2 midshipmen, died in the 1st and 2nd compartments. Among the dead was my colleague by specialty, Lieutenant Alexander Petrechenko, an intelligent, diligent young navigator.
Meanwhile, the situation at the Central Post, which was literally saturated with carbon monoxide, deteriorated sharply. The presence of combustion products in the air, exceeding the maximum permissible concentrations by tens and hundreds of times, led to the poisoning of 22 people, some lost consciousness. Having received significant poisoning already at the beginning of the accident, watch officer Alexander Leskov fell unconscious at the periscope. When I came to my senses after help from midshipman Looney, I pulled him a little to the side, since the lying sailor in convulsions hit his head with my legs. The ship's navigator Oleg Pevtsov, who before the accident was resting in his “regular place” behind the autoplotter in the chart room, also lost consciousness. A sailor died in the hold.
Looking ahead, I will say that A. Leskov and O. Pevtsov, having received the most severe poisoning, were hospitalized after the ship arrived at the base and were treated for a long time...
In the meantime, the boat surfaced, the commander cleaned the upper conning tower hatch, and after assessing the situation, he gave the order to prepare a radio transmitter to transmit radio messages about the accident to the fleet command post.
The further transition to the base was carried out in a surface position. The sea was quite calm, no more than 3 points. Foggy, cold.
By order of the ship's commander, some of the poisoned submariners were evacuated from the Central Post by an emergency batch of aft compartments in compartment 8, and some were evacuated to the wheelhouse enclosure. I remember the sergeant major of the 1st article from the team of radiometricians, who, possessing great physical strength, literally carried victims along the ladder on his shoulders. And this is 5 meters along a vertical ladder!
It was very damp in the enclosure of the wheelhouse, and to prevent people from catching a cold, they laid everything possible: blankets, clothes... The ship's doctor provided medical assistance, and an infirmary was organized in the 8th compartment.
At the Central Post, despite the fact that the submarine was on the surface, the concentration of combustion products still remained high, significantly exceeding the maximum permissible, and it was impossible to be in the insulating apparatus without inclusion. Therefore, it was decided to control the ship not through the Central Post, but through the control panel of the main power plant in the 7th compartment. Subsequently, I spent almost all the time on the bridge performing the duties of a watch officer, going down to the chart room only for a short time to determine the ship’s position at sea, since I was the only navigator left. I didn't want to sleep. There was some kind of excited state. And so on for three days before the ship arrived at the base.
There were also problems with food: the aft provision chamber was almost empty by that time, and the bow one was in the emergency second compartment. Therefore, we used emergency supplies and drank surrogate coffee.
A day later, a cruiser and three rescue ships arrived. The division commander, Hero of the Soviet Union, Rear Admiral N.K. arrived on board. Ignatov, deputy division commander for electromechanical units, captain 1st rank V.L. Zarembovsky and the division’s flagship doctor, Lieutenant Colonel of the Medical Service I.A. Mazyuk.
After clarifying the situation, an attempt was made again to penetrate the emergency party into the second compartment, which, just like the first time, was unsuccessful. As the temperature of the 3rd compartment bulkhead increased, it became clear that the fire in the second compartment had resumed...
...After this accident, non-flammable fillers for the hydraulic system were created, a volumetric chemical fire extinguishing system for submarines was developed and implemented, portable breathing devices appeared...
Aware of the threat hanging over the ship, the remaining submariners continued to maintain the equipment, operate the nuclear reactor, and ensure the movement of the ship. It was a close-knit team of courageous and strong people, professionals in their field, who well understood their military duty and responsibility. And everyone was young.
We also clearly understood the consequences of a possible explosion of nuclear ammunition and nuclear reactors on board a submarine for Europe and ships at sea...
So we went to the base: an emergency submarine with a flag at half-mast in the long-range “guard” of the cruiser and rescue ships...
The submariners were buried in a mass grave in Zapadnaya Litsa: no one could be identified. They were escorted on their final journey with a rifle salvo. They erected a monument. There is an inscription on it: “To the submariners who died in the ocean on September 8, 1967.”
Farewell, comrades!
Eternal glory and eternal memory to you!
At that time, the Motherland did not commemorate the feat of the K-3 submariners in any way: on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, this tragic and at the same time heroic campaign of the submarine, apparently, did not fit into the preparation plans for the anniversary drawn up by the leadership of the country and the fleet.
Subsequently, through the efforts of Navy veteran organizations, a memorial was built in Zapadnaya Litsa, and in September 2014, by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin, 39 dead K-3 submariners were awarded the Order of Courage (posthumously) - justice triumphed after 47 years!
Historical reference:
The lead ship, K-3 Leninsky Komsomol, belonged to Project 627, and all subsequent ones were built according to the modified Project 627A. In total, from 1957 to 1963, 13 submarines entered service and served in the Northern and Pacific fleets. As a result of the creation of Project 627 nuclear submarines, the USSR became the second power in the world to have a nuclear submarine fleet. The ships of Project 627-627A had outstanding characteristics for their time, but also had significant shortcomings, which were corrected in subsequent projects. The main ones were related to the low reliability of the equipment of the nuclear power plant of the boat.
The nuclear submarine was designed by Leningrad SKB-143 (later known as PKB Malachite). The chief designer of the project was V.N. Peregudov. The boat was laid down on September 24, 1955 in Severodvinsk, at plant No. 402 (now Sevmash), factory No. 254. The reactors were launched in September 1957, launched on October 9, 1957. It entered service (the Navy flag was raised) on July 1, 1958, on July 4, 1958, for the first time in the USSR, it began running under a nuclear power plant, and on December 17, 1958, it was accepted from industry under a guarantee that defects would be eliminated.
Unlike the Nautilus (the first nuclear submarine in the American fleet), which had a traditional stem-shaped bow, Project 627 received a rounded ellipse-shaped bow tip that was more optimized for underwater travel. Over most of its length, the hull had a cylindrical shape with a small streamlined deckhouse, a thickening to accommodate the sonar in the bow, and a pronounced tail. Two screws were located in a horizontal plane.
Initially, the main caliber of Project 627 was supposed to be the thermonuclear Tsar Torpedo T-15, supplemented by two stern torpedo tubes of 533 mm caliber without spare torpedoes for self-defense. The Ministry of Defense rejected such a project. The main armament of Project 627 and 627A nuclear submarines were 8 bow torpedo tubes of 533 mm caliber. The ammunition load consisted of 20 torpedoes; the boats could carry all existing types of torpedoes, including special ammunition with nuclear warheads. In the usual ammunition load of 20 torpedoes, 6 were with nuclear charges. In this project, for the first time in the USSR, the possibility of firing from depths of up to 100 meters was realized.
In 1961 - first combat service in the Atlantic Ocean. In July 1962, for the first time in the history of the Soviet Navy, she made a long voyage under the ice of the Arctic Ocean, during which she passed the North Pole twice. In August 1967, while returning from combat service, a fire broke out on board the boat in the Norwegian Sea, caused by a hydraulic fire. The accident killed 39 submariners. In 1991, it was withdrawn from the Northern Fleet. According to the decree of the Russian government, the first Soviet nuclear submarine K-3 “Leninsky Komsomol” of Project 627 should be converted into a museum. The Malachite Design Bureau developed a project to convert it into a floating museum, but this never happened...
Assembly:
Assembly is not difficult, because There are not many parts in the set at all. But this does not eliminate the use of putty and subsequent sanding. All joints of parts, with the exception of the interface between the deckhouse fence and the hull, had to be puttied and sanded to one degree or another. To strengthen the bottom seam, I used 0.5 mm thick polystyrene strips - I glued them on the inside before installing the superstructure deck. The biggest problem was the mating of the horizontal stabilizers and the body. The joints ended up with large gaps and I had to put a fair amount of putty there and then sand them. And crawling up to the joint is not very convenient. It was also necessary to grind down the trailing edges of these stabilizers to scale thickness, as well as the trailing edge of the vertical rudder and the tip of the hull. Then I imitated guides for attaching the safety ends of the mooring crew by gluing a wire with a diameter of 0.4 mm along the deck. I modified the bollards, or rather replaced the standard “pins” with homemade ones, using technology that our colleague kindly shared with me Dard77
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On the deckhouse fence I imitated a chute on the starboard side for filling one of the retractable devices, in the rear part I made slots for the “frame” antenna, and I imitated the deckhouse navigation lights from the ANO “Elf” set for aviation. The handrails around the wheelhouse were made not from drawn sprue, as the instructions suggest, but from wire with a diameter of 0.26 mm. The only point I would like to note. The instructions suggest making handrail sections L=10 mm (2 pcs.) and = 42 mm. These 42 mm were not enough for me. I had to tear everything off and make it longer. I didn’t measure it exactly, but it’s approximately 45-47 mm.
I redid all the retractable ones. I assembled them from the upper parts of the set and tubes with a diameter of 0.8 and 0.6 mm from medical needles. The only antenna in the form of a “frame” had to be made entirely from needles and wire.
Fixed a defect on one of the propellers. There was either underfilling of plastic, or air got in, I don’t know for sure. This was expressed in two shells (at least small in size) on one of the blades. I glued it with thin paper soaked in super glue, and then sanded it until the blade had an acceptable thickness.
Color:
Primer – gray Tamiya primer, poured from a can. Local sanding with cotton swabs and sanding cloths.
Preshading - black paint along the line of scuppers in the underwater part of the hull to highlight them.
The underwater part of the nuclear submarine hull was painted in two stages. 1st - spray-etched Tamiya TS-33 (Dull Red), painted in thin layers so as not to paint over the preshading. After drying, the 2nd stage - thinly diluted Tamiya XF-9 (Hull Red) was passed over the scuppers and along the hull to create uneven color, simulating paint oxidation.
The surface of the submarine hull is painted Tamiya X-1 (Black) + X-2 (White) mixed in a ratio of 50÷50. Then the deck and upper parts of the deckhouse fence are covered with a thin layer of the previous mixture, but lightened by another 20-30 percent. Then dry brush XF-63 (German gray) along the sides and XF-53 (Neutral gray) on top in places. Scuffs on the handrails of the deckhouse fence, safety rails and bollards are silver (in my case it was Model Master (Chromsilber).
Next, coat the model with Mr. glossy acrylic varnish. Hobby H-30, applying decals and another coat of varnish.
Here, on the advice of colleagues, we had to return to improvements again. A hole was drilled at the site of the emergency buoy. It is made from sprue, painted and glued into place. The length of the sprue is chosen so that it rests on the bottom and does not fall through, thanks to my colleague for the idea Zetta. Then a hole is drilled in the center of the buoy and a piece of drawn transparent sprue is inserted there to simulate a light bulb.
Decals:
I already noted in the whale review that the decals have a slight drawback - the white color gives off a yellowish tint. By hanging it on the window, I eliminated this, maybe not completely, but to a greater extent accurately. The next ambush was in a thick substrate, SET and SOL managed to defeat it only partially, and then only after repeatedly treating the decals with these means.
And for the last moment for those who will assemble this nuclear submarine in the future. Decal 13
which depicts the nose cone of the sonar during translation, I cut it into two halves and translated them sideways. I was unable to stretch it entirely over the nasal tip without folds.
The wash (MIG) is done as follows:
Underwater part - Brown wash;
Above-water part - Neutral wash;
Light hull scupper holes - Light and Standard Rust effects.
I covered everything with matte Vallejo varnish and then got an ambush - a whitish coating remained. I had to take Tamiya “Orange rust” and “Rust” powder compacts and cover the underwater part of the hull with them. The surface part has acquired a rather shabby appearance.
Final stage:
Imitation of the glazing of navigation lights in the aft part of the hull and the Micro Kristal Klear deckhouse fencing and installation of previously manufactured retractable devices.
Comparative evaluation (prototype):
The main competitors of Project 627(A) were the first US atomic projects: “Nautilus”, “Skate”, “Skipjack”. Compared to the previously built Nautilus and Skate (1955-1958), Project 627 had a number of undeniable advantages in speed, armament, diving depth, and compared to the Skipjack class boats built simultaneously, Project 627 boats were larger , were not inferior in speed, were still better armed, superior in size, but had higher noise.
Enjoy watching!
I used website materials in writing the article.