The B-59 submarine incident
The Soviet submarine B-59, submerged near the quarantine line, out of radio contact and being forced to the surface by practice depth charges from American destroyers, carried a nuclear-armed torpedo. Accounts assembled decades later from participants hold that its use was proposed aboard and was not authorised, because the concurrence of the flotilla chief of staff, Vasili Arkhipov, who happened to be on that boat, was required and was refused. The episode was unknown in the West for around forty years. It rests substantially on participant testimony rather than documents, and how close the release actually came is disputed.
Uncertain — sources disagree, or the dating is contested. Stated here, not resolved.
Subjects
- Vasili Arkhipov · person · Soviet Union · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
The Cuban Missile Crisis — declassified documents and briefing books
Named as the principal declassified-document collection behind this pack's account of the crisis, the B-59 submarine incident and the later disclosures about tactical warheads on the island. V55 verification basis: NOT consulted — nsarchive.gwu.edu is blocked by the environment's egress proxy. Everything this pack says about the crisis is from standing knowledge of the published historiography, and the degree of documentary support for the B-59 account in particular is not established here.
National Security Archive, George Washington University · Partly verified
National Security Archive Cuban Missile Crisis collections and briefing books, including materials on the Soviet submarine incidents of 27 October 1962 and on tactical nuclear weapons deployed to Cuba