"There was a direct instruction - not to report to anyone": the commander of the K-219 submarine that died in 1986 about the causes of the tragedy

- Igor Anatolyevich,

- We meet every five years in early October, on the days when everything happened.

This year was 35 years old and also had to get together.

But this pandemic is making it impossible to organize.

But our St. Petersburg people, those who live in St. Petersburg, they just gathered among themselves in the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Kronstadt, defended the service.

-

- Many guys have already died, but who was able to ... There were always 25-30 people, people came from afar.

I also flew every five years.

In 2001, we even went to our base in Hajiyevo.

Well, that is, at first there was an event in St. Petersburg, and then they boarded the train and got to Gadzhievo, there is a bust of the heroically deceased sailor Sergei Preminin on the house, two memorial plaques, on the Preminin embankment.

• © Photo from personal archive

-

- Yes, everything, I already spat, to be honest.

I was doing this intensively in the "zero" years, when there were still people in the service who knew something about it.

But even then there was red tape.

I got an idea from the commander of the fleet, it reached the navy, there, according to formal criteria, they said: why not everything, why not?

Returned.

Then, through the Federation Council, I reached the Presidential Awards Office.

They were transferred to the Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Defense to the Navy.

Those refused for formal reasons.

- What exactly

- According to the conclusions of the state commission, the accident occurred due to the fault of the crew.

But, in fact, it was created by people assigned to this crew.

And the rest of the crew fought heroically with her.

And all the same: since it is the fault of the crew, it means that rewarding is inappropriate.

I have answers from the President and many others, so I just spat.

- Why

- There was a very tough situation. Sorted out the reasons on the one hand, the Navy, and on the other hand - the industry. Both those and others are well aware of each other's shortcomings. And so, when the disassembly was going on, in Gorki near Moscow, for the first week they butted with each other: you, and you, but the fools themselves, and so on. And then, when they realized that both of them would turn out to be fools, everyone just proudly assigned the crew to be in charge. Although I have a ship charter here. There it is written in large letters, for which the ship's commander is responsible - for the manning of the crew, for the manning of the crew. But our ship commander had nothing to do with this in his life. The division commander issued some kind of decree - and people came, grabbed someone from here, someone from there.

- Recently, 35 years have passed since the death of K-219, many have already forgotten this story, and many, probably, do not know.

Let's remember how it all happened again.

You have

than

• K-219 in profile on the water surface.

  Orange clouds of nitrogen oxides are erupting from a destroyed missile silo

• © Wikimedia Commons

- Yes, they hid it from everyone.

But they were led to this.

This time there was an echo of that manning situation.

We went on vacation.

First they pulled out the sailors who were there, then they began to pull out the officers and warrant officers.

Then in BC-2 - there are two foremen of the team, the group commander and the commander of the combat unit.

Three of them were replaced, only the group leader remained.

The commander of the warhead came from another missile system, did not go to sea, did not see anything.

- Why

- Yes, because it is forbidden.

The last change should be 45 days in advance.

In order for the crew to float, converge, everyone knew everything and knew how to do everything.

The senior mate came to the ship two weeks before going into combat.

The commander of the warhead-2 Petrachkov came a month before entering combat service.

The chief of the team, also seconded, came in two months.

- It was the

- There is such a book "Ural Dragon" and in it there is an important fragment dedicated to the reasons for the death of K-219, namely, fragments from the conclusions of the commission, which examined the reasons.

I didn’t know that then, because no one announced the commission’s decision to me.

I first learned from conversations, and then I read it in this book.

So the fact that Petrachkov came from another complex, I had no idea, they just told me: "Master of military affairs, captain of the 3rd rank, what are you doing, we are giving you a better person."

And he is from another complex absolutely, this is an extremely important detail.

He did not even operate our complex.

-

correctly

- Yes, this mine was flooded with water at the checkpoint before going on alert.

Did they tell someone?

No.

The chief missile officer of the division, the flagship specialist, gave them a direct order to drain the water and not report it to anyone.

And these eagles did just that.

That is, they were instructed in advance: if suddenly there is something, you do not report anywhere, you swarm yourself.

So they got to the bottom of the explosion.

This whole accident was created on the shore.

There was a replacement of the crew by incompetent people, and this is a direct indication that you don't need to report to anyone if something happens, fight the leak yourself.

If it weren't for this, everything would be different.

-

• Top view, right.

  The scale of external damage is visible.

• © Wikimedia Commons

- Well, that's how they were told, that's how they acted.

Like, if there is water in the missile silo, you remove the plug there and slowly drain it into the latrine.

They did so, and they had no other thought.

If they reported to me about the situation at least 5-10 minutes in advance ... Nobody reported anything to me at all!

Simply on a whim, a mechanic came and said to me: "There are some rocket men rustling there ..."

I ask: "What's going on?"

- Nothing.

Silence.

That is, they themselves poked around on the sly.

Then I already started issuing commands myself.

- Is it true that it was with this missile silo that problems arose not in 1986, but much earlier?

- In 1973, there was a similar accident in this mine, water also entered there and also crushed the rocket.

But then everything was reported on time and everything was done according to the instructions.

In such a situation, you just need to drain the oxidizer overboard, there is a special circuit for this.

And that's it, no consequences - the rocket is safe.

And if these fighters had reported this emergency, everything would have gone one to one according to the same scheme.

We would simply drain this oxidizer, pump the mine, pump the rocket, continue patrolling and return safely to the base without one rocket.

According to the instructions, I could not even report this to Moscow, this should be done if suddenly four or more missiles are out of order.

- Malfunctions

- Due to the fact that the mine was filled with water at a depth of 80 meters, the rocket was simply crushed by this water pressure, there is also a thin shell in it.

After all, in order to not crush it during rocket firing from under the water, the rocket is inflated with nitrogen.

That is, internal backpressure is created.

And then the thin shell of the rocket can withstand it.

And here there is water pressure, but nothing holds from the inside, and it has cracked.

And there is an oxidizing tank and a fuel tank.

- And the

- Yes, they ignite spontaneously when connected.

And so, when they burst into flames, and when the combustion reaction started, in an enclosed space, it all went bang.

The explosion was so strong that it tore off the top cover of the shaft and the missile warhead was thrown out of the boat.

- After

- No.

If it was a war, that's another question.

And this is a peaceful time.

Well, they found us, so what?

They will not bomb me, they will not throw torpedoes.

But on the surface it is much easier to fight for survivability.

- One

on

• Top, front view.

  The scale of external damage is visible.

• © Wikimedia Commons

- Honestly, the American submarine was there, and in the immediate vicinity.

And our navigator, when he was already on the vessel "Vasiliev", saw her.

But if she chopped down or slashed with something on this cable, then we would have felt.

That is, there would be some kind of push, some kind of mechanical reaction from contact.

But none of this happened.

It's just that at night I see something like the light of the Krasnogvardeysk motor ship, which was towing us, it goes somewhere, leaves and it is not visible anymore.

That is, I leaned out the wheelhouse window to shine a flashlight, and I saw that the superstructure was not visible, it was under water.

That is, the boat was already sinking.

-

How

- I think so - she gradually sank, water resistance increased, and this ship still had an increased speed.

He was told to go at a speed of 3-4 knots, and his engines are such that he would simply ruin them at such a speed.

And he walked about twice as fast.

And I think it was this increasing resistance of the boat's hull to water that caused the breakage.

But it helped to escape.

At that moment, there was an emergency party on the boat, besides me, there were 10 more people.

After the cliff, they immediately began to pull out the rafts and then they were evacuated on them, and I was left alone.

- You

- Well, yes, because such a decision was made, but there was not only one issue there. The explosion took place around 5:30 in the morning. We arrived at the meeting point with our ships on the surface in 12 hours. And during this time, some technological processes have already started. Because at first everything was fine. Well, the 4th compartment is gassed, we ventilated it, something became visible. And then in one place some kind of sparking, then in another. Then the power gradually disappeared and the emergency protection of the reactor fell. And after a while they sent me reports: a fire in such and such a compartment, the smell of burning there, smoke there. And on submarines - they don't think for a long time, it is not necessary to see an open fire. I felt the smell of smoke, burning - an emergency alarm, fire was immediately announced. And then they figure out whether it is a fire or not.

And here there was a fire in the fifth compartment, a fire in the sixth compartment.

When the fire broke out in the fourth compartment, I went downstairs myself and touched this bulkhead.

- Why touch?

- Now, if you lean your hand against a hot surface, if your hand is holding, then it is less than 70 degrees, and not holding - more than 70. Well, if it is more than 70 degrees, it is a fire.

And we gradually removed all the people in the stern to the ninth, tenth compartment.

When we left there, we also conferred.

Here is a fire in the fourth compartment.

How will it proceed?

It is not clear.

And there are seven operational missiles.

How will they react to this fire?

I sent a radio message to Moscow that there was a fire here and there.

They had to give some advice.

But then everyone was scared by Chernobyl, and all recommendations were given only on nuclear safety.

And about the missile compartment, the recommendation came only a day later.

It is necessary that the temperature is 400 degrees for 10 hours, then something will explode.

- That is, the remaining torpedoes could really explode at any moment?

- Yes.

Crew on board.

Well, here, I think, now it will shandarahnet - and in general there will be no one left.

And next to it are four of our civilian ships.

And I made the decision to transfer the whole crew there, and wait myself to see how it would end: whether it was shady or not.

And the boat sank due to the fact that just this oxidizer had eaten away all the seals and water began to flow.

- Remember

• Igor Britanov on board K-219

• Twitter

• © jpartej

- There was no time to think.

There I constantly had to make decisions - to do something and what not to do to fight for survivability - my head was filled with this.

I jumped there for the whole day, and at night I just fainted in the wheelhouse, and woke up in the morning.

And again all the worries, worries, worries.

- What

- A criminal case was initiated into the death of the submarine. First, our Prosecutor's Office of the Northern Fleet at the base in Gadzhievo dealt with it, and then the Main Military Prosecutor's Office in Moscow. I answered questions in Gadzhievo, moreover, with the same foreman of the team. There, due to his dishonesty, he had to reach confrontations. And then I went to Moscow, there I still talked for two weeks. As a witness, “having presented” such a head-on that I was guilty of something, no one did me. But someone must be punished somehow in order to close the case. And they decided there: to terminate the criminal case, to release these from criminal liability due to the presence of young children, impeccable service, the fact that we do not pose any such threat to society. And that's it, the case was closed. It was somewhere in July or August 1987.I come back from vacation somewhere in September and the new division commander says to me: so, the commander, you weren't here and wrote a submission to transfer you to the reserve, due to an official inconsistency. I signed your signature myself, and wrote that I agree with the dismissal.

- Did you

- God bless him, do what you want.

And so, on October 30, 1987, that is, on my 37th birthday, I was transferred to the reserve with this not very pleasant wording. 

• View from the other side.

  A starboard bow view of the Soviet Yankee class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine that was damaged by an internal liquid missile propellant explosion.

  Three days later the ship sank in 18,000 feet of water.

• © Wikimedia Commons

Then about 10 years passed. My senior comrades started all this again, in particular, Admiral Sukhachev, he was the commander of the 3rd flotilla in 1997. And when the documents were raised, it turned out that the signature of the wrong person was on my dismissal. The Minister of Defense should have fired me, since I am his creature. And there someone else signed it. And they wrote from the 3rd Flotilla to the Minister of Defense that, in connection with this and that, we ask you to reissue the order and change the wording of the dismissal there: according to organizational staff measures. That is, as if to reduce the number of staff. And this is a completely different formulation, a completely different attitude, different benefits. And after that, I no longer remember who came here, in general, they brought a petition to the military commissar of our local regional for conferring on me the title of captain of the first rank in reserve.And in 1998, I was assigned a captain of the first rank of the reserve.

- Even

- In 1987, he and Sergei Vorobyov were given the Order of the Red Star.

And it was not I who presented them for the award, but in some other way they received these orders.

Sergei posthumously, and Vorobyov alive, God grant him health.

And then all this was quietly forgotten and forgotten, and only when the Americans shot the film Hostile Waters, in 1997 this issue was raised again.

And in some central newspaper there was a big article that such a situation was, such and such a boat, that Chernobyl could be, that a person died and no one thanked him, or hello, or said goodbye to him.

And literally 10 days after that, there was an article in Pravda: by a secret presidential decree he was awarded the title of Hero of Russia.

We all learned about it from the newspaper.

- And

- I do not know.

Usually published, but not published here means secret.

It was all in August-September, and in November-December 1997, the commander of the fleet Vyacheslav Popov and I went to Krasavino - this is a small town near Veliky Ustyug, where Sergei's parents lived.

And there they were solemnly handed this Star of the Hero.

I had a photograph, this is what the American plane was filming when, after surfacing, it circled around us, just on it you can see that there is smoke coming from the mine.

I gave it to my mother and said: "This is your son's coffin."

• Sailor Preminin Sergey Anatolyevich.

  Hero of Russia, submariner

• © Wikimedia Commons

- If

- I guess, yes.

I will not tell you all of nuclear physics, I will try to explain it simply.

A nuclear reactor has emergency protection - these are four rods, which, in an emergency, are simply thrown into the reactor itself and by their absorbing properties instantly extinguish the nuclear reaction.

But this is not forever.

Because the volume of the rods of this emergency protection is not enough.

Then it is necessary to lower the compensating grids, which completely fill the reactor and do not allow a nuclear reaction to develop under any conditions.

And then the emergency protection fell, but the boat's power was gone, and these compensating grids did not go down, they had to be manually lowered.

- Did

do

- Yes, there are also four groups of compensating grids, and the principle of lowering is simple - turn the handle like in a meat grinder, and they go down through a worm gear.

- How did it happen that Belikov survived and Preminin died

- Seryozha Preminin is a normal country guy, wiry, not a giant.

And Kolya Belikov is the commander of the group, a senior lieutenant, healthy like that, my height.

But, apparently, the forces of the organism are different.

And when they returned after the first call to the 8th compartment to rest, Belikov simply fainted, and that was all - he could not go further.

Preminin was asked: "What is left?"

He said that there was only one grate left to lower.

"Do you know where it is, put it down?"

- "I will omit".

And so he went.

And if two had gone, there would have been two.

Belikov survived and died four years ago.

- There was no chance to open the bulkhead door behind which Preminin was

- Did not have.

When the pressure rose there, the door pressed down - and it was impossible to open it.

We also tried with a sliding stop, which presses a pressure of 3 tons.

And from there they could not open.

Everything overlapped here.

The boat has a system for relieving pressure from the corridors, starboard and port side.

In the sea, it is completely closed, on a check, and there is still a lock on the check.

So that no one accidentally pushes and opens, because this is an outboard opening, water will flow from there.

I gave the command: let us bleed the air through this system.

And there he could not pull out this check.

That is, the lock itself, which was blocking access to her, was broken, but somehow bit her so that he could not pull her out.

Therefore, they could not relieve the pressure. 

- Let's

- This is all far-fetched.

It's just that when we with a part of the crew told this whole story to American scriptwriters, they, I don't know what motivated them, maybe by reliability, they included all of us in the film under our real names in this film.

Captain Britanov, Kapitulsky, Petrachkov, Wheat.

And they have it tough with it.

In order to launch and use this in this form somewhere, you need a written permission for the right to use.

They sent me a letter.

Here, citizen of Britons, come on - you told us here, we created and here you are, five thousand dollars for this, and you sign everything for us.

Naturally, I didn’t.

I wrote to them: "You either pay normal money, or there will be no conversation on this topic."

• © Poster for the film "Hostile Waters"

I was lucky here that through an emigrated classmate I found a lawyer in the United States.

I didn't have the money to pay him and we agreed that he would work for a percentage of what he could get from them.

I sent him a bunch of documents.

He made some gestures there, communicated with the judge and with this film company.

For a long time they discussed everything there, and in the end, when they realized that in court they had less chances than in ours, and the amounts will go after the court decision will be completely different, not tens of thousands of dollars, but, perhaps, millions, they offered to pay we already have a normal amount.

We thought about it and agreed.

Half for me and half for this lawyer.

- And

- Well, as they like ... We just do not have anyone doing this.

And in fact, they found and talked about heroic things in our case.

And although I do not agree with everything with this tape, but I am proud that this is the first film where Soviet sailors are not idiots, not bastards, not some bloodthirsty characters.

- Are

you

 such films are not made

- To be honest, I don’t.

I am offended that the crew was not awarded.

This is really insulting.

Because I have such a bundle of papers somewhere in the tables here.

My inquiries and their responses.

And everywhere they wrote that it was inappropriate, and so on.

When there were tragedies with "Komsomolets" and "Kursk", where there were many dead, then everyone was awarded there, according to the lists, without even figuring out who was right or wrong.

And I have 115 people alive and in the end they found the opportunity to shove everything onto the crew.

- How did

— Сам я вообще питерский, но можно сказать, что космополит. Потому что у меня папа военный моряк. 10 лет жизни в Полярном, на Севере. Еще пять лет в Поти, это Грузия, Чёрное море. А после этого я пошел в Нахимовское училище, и самостоятельно стал служить. Поэтому у меня как таковой малой родины нет. На момент увольнения у меня никакой жилплощади не было. Ехать к родителям в Грузию — глупость. К тёще в Фергану — такая же глупость, зачем на шею садиться? А по закону через три месяца офицер запаса должен быть обеспечен жильём. Я женился в Свердловске и говорю жене: всё, давай поедем в Свердловск. Квартиру не сразу, почти через год, но получил.

• © Фото из личного архива

— Чем сейчас занимаетесь?

- I am the chairman of the board of the Ural Naval Union.

This is a public organization that unites, among other things, seamen of the reserve.

I have been here for 20 years.

This room was provided by NPO Avtomatiki, in the order of a kind of patronage assistance to the Navy, veterans.

We have two cruisers sponsored in Gadzhievo - "Verkhoturye" and "Yekaterinburg".

So, at the beginning I was involved in organizing patronage assistance to Verkhoturye.

And then the governors began to change, and since 2010 I have not been doing this, only the Ural Naval Union remained with me.