Death at the pier
In the base of the Polar 50 years ago there was a tragedy. Her circumstances have been classified until now.
In the Ekaterininskaya harbor of the polar base 11 in January, 1962 exploded and sank the diesel-electric submarine B-37. Submarine C-350, standing side by side with her, also received significant damage. As a result, the emergency killed 78 people. The materials of the investigation, as well as the military tribunal over the surviving Anatoly Begeba, captain of the second rank, commander of the B-37, were classified for many years (as it turned out recently, far from keeping military secrets).
At the beginning of the 70-s, then the captain of the first rank, Anatoly Begeba, taught tactics at the Caspian Higher Naval School, told about what had happened. Anatoly Stepanovich was a brave man and told the cadets about the circumstances of the death of the submarine B-37. The funds of the city museum of local lore also contain declassified documents that shed light on the circumstances of the tragedy that took place 50 years ago.
Begeba's memories
- I shortly before the tragedy returned from vacation. On the eve of the submarine took torpedo ammunition. I did not have time to take part in its loading. On the morning of January 11 1962, after raising the Naval Flag, I gave the order to start turning the boat mechanisms and machines, which is held every morning. For some time I was on the upper deck of the ship, when suddenly black smoke poured from the upper manhole hatch. The smoke was strong, like a chimney. The first thought was a closure, and cable lines were burning. Shortly before this was on another boat. At that time, in order to put out the flames, we had to drag carbon dioxide cylinders and open end hatches. I rushed to the phone at the pier. Reported about the fire to Rear Admiral Yudin, the then Chief of Staff, and immediately returned to the boat. On the deck were steering, watching for turning the rudder depth. Radio operators and metrists flashed through the fencing of the cabin. They previously checked retractable antennas. Smoke was such that climbing through the entrance shaft to the central post, there was nothing even to think about. I ordered the radio operators to jump onto the deck, otherwise they would have been poisoned by poisonous gases. At the same time, he himself ran into the stern to the emergency rescue hatch. Through it one could get into the seventh compartment. However, I did not reach it only ten steps away - an explosion of monstrous force threw me into the water. I did not even feel the icy cold. Contrained, I got out on the flank and with horror saw what had happened to the submarine. The unfolded nose went into steaming water.
I was immediately picked up and sent to the hospital. After some time, Sergei Gorshkov himself arrived at the hospital, admiral Fleet Soviet Union, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy of the USSR. He was appointed chairman of the state commission of inquiry. Gorshkov personally asked about what had happened. Later, a meeting of the CPSU Central Committee took place, at which Malinovsky, the Minister of Defense, reported to Khrushchev about the state of emergency. I don’t know what the reaction of the first secretary was, but Malinowski received an order to give me to the tribunal. Probably the reason for this decision was the State Commission of Inquiry Act. However, the act was drawn up five days before raising the boat and a detailed inspection. It did not take into account many important nuances.
Himself a lawyer
Begeba defended himself at the tribunal’s meetings himself, since he was assigned a young female lawyer who did not understand anything in the service. The trial took place from 18 to 22 June. Begeba himself recalled the following about him:
- The prosecutor asks: why were the torpedo air balloons expired with a check on the 24 of the month?
I answer: torpedoes were taken on board in my absence. I was on vacation at this time. I saw only duplicates of their forms. Dates of verification are not recorded in them. They are recorded in the originals stored in the arsenal.
Question: Why hasn’t the emergency alert been announced, have your people panicked into the stern?
I answer: the location of the bodies in the compartments shows that each dead person was located where the emergency alarm was required to be. The proof is the inspection of the vessel by divers.
Question: why you, being the commander of the ship, ran to the stern in the opposite direction from the fire? (The question was heard - "why did you chicken out?").
I answer: without help from the inside, the hatch in the nose compartment cannot be opened. The stern - emergency hatch - I would manage to open it myself. At that moment, it would be possible to get into the submarine only through him ... (On one of the submarines they checked this statement - everything is accurate).
The state commission put forward about twenty different versions of the death of the boat. Among them was the following: during loading, one torpedo was scratched or slightly crushed against the berthing racks. Then it was "refined" with the help of a soldering iron, which led to its explosion. I was also asked about this. My answer was something like this. After arriving from vacation to the boat, the miner reported to me: “Comrade commander, we have received not one ammunition, but one garbage!”. Began to understand what was the matter. It turned out that all the best was loaded onto boats that had gone to the Atlantic to Cuba, where the Caribbean crisis began. For us, the second echelon, overdue torpedo junk was dropped, all that we could scrape together in the arsenals. And this is despite the fact that we were on duty. Rack torpedoes on submarines are usually kept with half the pressure in the cylinders. We were ordered to bring the pressure to full - two hundred atmospheres. I refused to do this. However, the flagship miner insisted, citing a tense world situation. Like, at any moment war can begin. I agreed, however, I made a condition that the order would be executed only under the recording of the brigade commander in the logbook. Kombrig wrote: "Have a pressure 200 atmospheres." His note, to the credit of the brigade commander, was confirmed to them by the tribunal, although the logbook was never found.
So the whole thing, in my opinion, is in full pressure in the air tanks of the racking torpedoes. Most likely, the old balloon was knocked out. Before the fire, I heard a clap! Covering the torpedo cut air jet. Her body was lubricated. Banks with "oxygen canned food" - plates of regeneration - were stored under racks. The oil in oxygen self-ignites. Michman Semenov, the foreman of the torpedo team, only managed to report a fire and died of suffocation. Then an explosion. All twelve torpedoes detonated. By the way, after this incident, banks with “regeneration” were forbidden to be stored in torpedo compartments. All put forward versions, including that in a nose hot work were conducted, on a charging office a solder was a dent - complete nonsense.
Feat of the tribunal
What happened next in the courtroom, even by today's standards, except as a feat of the military tribunal can not be named. After hearing the prosecution and witnesses on both sides, the court retired to a meeting. All those present were confident of the conviction, because the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Minister of Defense, the state commission, the commander of the Northern Fleet, all identified the switchman, and the court could only name the punishment. However, the military tribunal composed of Titov, Colonel of Justice, people's assessors Shkodin, captain of the first rank, and Saveliev, captain of the second rank, unexpectedly convicted of all. This “rebellion” by the military judges is probably one of the main reasons for classifying the B-37 incident case. Here it is necessary to bring the memoirs of Fyodor Titov, who later became Major General of Justice: “I looked into the hall. Present in utter stupor. All stand silently. Nobody expected the defendant to fully justify! The military prosecutor first came to himself, Colonel of Justice Titkov just jumped out of the hall. Despite the late hour, he was able to organize a boat and immediately departed for Severomorsk. As it turned out, he went to report on Bebeba’s acquittal to Admiral Kasatonov. I was called to the fleet commander the next day. He pounded his fist on the table and reproached me: “You have decided to teach the Politburo of the Party Central Committee! You knocked the lever out of my hands, with the help of which I wanted to strengthen discipline and turn the work of commanders to eradicate significant shortcomings in service! You have decided that you are smarter than members of the state commission of the incident, or of the prosecutor’s office of the fleet, which spent four months investigating the case?!.
This commander’s tirade ended with the statement that such a verdict does not correspond to reality and will be canceled upon protest by the military prosecutor’s office of the fleet, while Begeba will be convicted. Then I lost my temper a little: “Why do you shout at me? I'm not subordinate to you in my work! I submit only to Soviet justice! ”
The next day they called me from Moscow. Lieutenant-General Borisoglebsky, chairman of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, reported that he had received a protest from the military prosecutor's office. Three or four days later they called from the Central Committee of the CPSU. The call was made on the instructions of Khrushchev, the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. I was not there, so my deputy, Colonel of Justice Maslov, read, at the request of the caller, the text of the sentence. At the other end of the line, this caused bewilderment: “The circumstances of justifying Begeba in the document, which came from the Attorney General to the Central Committee, are set out somewhat differently. Send a copy of the sentence to Moscow. ”
I almost did not doubt that the acquittal would be canceled under heavy pressure. However, one episode brightened up the grim situation. Three captains of the first rank entered the office, who suddenly seemed to be kneeling at the command in front of me, bowed low, and one said: “Comrade Colonel, thank you for your justice! For the rescued commander! For not allowing us to lose faith in justice! ”To be honest, I was taken aback. Such a scene after constant pressure from the authorities and the hassle made a strong impression. Tears came to my eyes ...
Soon I received a telegram from the military collegium of the Supreme Court: "A justifying sentence was left to the strength of the TCHK RADA FOR JUSTICE OF TCHK WE CONGRATULATE the TCHK."
You have no idea how my soul sang at that moment !?
Unexpectedly for all 23 in February of 1963, I was assigned another military rank - Major General of Justice. After half a year, they signed an order on my appointment to the post of head of the organizational and inspection department of the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court. While I came to bid farewell to Vladimir Afanasyevich Kasatonov, the commander of the Northern Fleet, he warmly thanked me for my service and also said that the Military Council decided to organize a farewell dinner in my honor. After the first toasts were pronounced and the meeting became more informal, my neighbor at the table, Semyon Lobov, the deputy commander of the fleet, leaned toward me in a half whisper: "Fedya, you are a good guy, but in vain only Begeb justified." Admiral Kasatonov caught this phrase in the middle of his ear, got up from the table (of course, we all got up too), filled the glass and said: “I have to tell everyone that the acquittal was discussed in the highest instances of the country. He recognized the correct and reasonable. It was not by chance that the Supreme Court approved and rejected the protest of the military prosecutor’s office. ”
As it turned out, a copy of the sentence, which was sent to the Central Committee of the CPSU, was studied there, and the position worked out on it influenced everything: the decision of the Military Collegium, the assignment of a new rank to me, the appointment to the post. Thus, the condemnations and disputes over the acquittal in the case of the submarine commander of the B-37 211 brigade of the 4 squadron of submarines of the captain of the 2 rank of Anatoly Stepanovich Begeba ended.
Finale
Officially, the reasons for the explosion on the submarine B-37 have not been named to date. The victims were solemnly buried at the garrison cemetery in Polyarny, and a gray concrete obelisk bearing the words “Submariners who fell during the military duty of 11 January 1962 of the year” was put in memory of them. Their names have recently been immortalized on a memorial plaque in the chapel of St. Nicholas Cathedral in Polar.
Through the efforts of Begeba, a retired captain of the first rank, and the St. Petersburg Submariners' Club, a memorial plaque was installed in the Naval Cathedral on the Kryukov Canal with a list of the sailors of the Fourth Squadron who died during the fatal explosion. Anatoly Stepanovich Begeba in December 2002 died in St. Petersburg. His ashes were buried at the Seraphim cemetery.
In the Ekaterininskaya harbor of the polar base 11 in January, 1962 exploded and sank the diesel-electric submarine B-37. Submarine C-350, standing side by side with her, also received significant damage. As a result, the emergency killed 78 people. The materials of the investigation, as well as the military tribunal over the surviving Anatoly Begeba, captain of the second rank, commander of the B-37, were classified for many years (as it turned out recently, far from keeping military secrets).
At the beginning of the 70-s, then the captain of the first rank, Anatoly Begeba, taught tactics at the Caspian Higher Naval School, told about what had happened. Anatoly Stepanovich was a brave man and told the cadets about the circumstances of the death of the submarine B-37. The funds of the city museum of local lore also contain declassified documents that shed light on the circumstances of the tragedy that took place 50 years ago.
Begeba's memories
- I shortly before the tragedy returned from vacation. On the eve of the submarine took torpedo ammunition. I did not have time to take part in its loading. On the morning of January 11 1962, after raising the Naval Flag, I gave the order to start turning the boat mechanisms and machines, which is held every morning. For some time I was on the upper deck of the ship, when suddenly black smoke poured from the upper manhole hatch. The smoke was strong, like a chimney. The first thought was a closure, and cable lines were burning. Shortly before this was on another boat. At that time, in order to put out the flames, we had to drag carbon dioxide cylinders and open end hatches. I rushed to the phone at the pier. Reported about the fire to Rear Admiral Yudin, the then Chief of Staff, and immediately returned to the boat. On the deck were steering, watching for turning the rudder depth. Radio operators and metrists flashed through the fencing of the cabin. They previously checked retractable antennas. Smoke was such that climbing through the entrance shaft to the central post, there was nothing even to think about. I ordered the radio operators to jump onto the deck, otherwise they would have been poisoned by poisonous gases. At the same time, he himself ran into the stern to the emergency rescue hatch. Through it one could get into the seventh compartment. However, I did not reach it only ten steps away - an explosion of monstrous force threw me into the water. I did not even feel the icy cold. Contrained, I got out on the flank and with horror saw what had happened to the submarine. The unfolded nose went into steaming water.
I was immediately picked up and sent to the hospital. After some time, Sergei Gorshkov himself arrived at the hospital, admiral Fleet Soviet Union, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy of the USSR. He was appointed chairman of the state commission of inquiry. Gorshkov personally asked about what had happened. Later, a meeting of the CPSU Central Committee took place, at which Malinovsky, the Minister of Defense, reported to Khrushchev about the state of emergency. I don’t know what the reaction of the first secretary was, but Malinowski received an order to give me to the tribunal. Probably the reason for this decision was the State Commission of Inquiry Act. However, the act was drawn up five days before raising the boat and a detailed inspection. It did not take into account many important nuances.
Himself a lawyer
Begeba defended himself at the tribunal’s meetings himself, since he was assigned a young female lawyer who did not understand anything in the service. The trial took place from 18 to 22 June. Begeba himself recalled the following about him:
- The prosecutor asks: why were the torpedo air balloons expired with a check on the 24 of the month?
I answer: torpedoes were taken on board in my absence. I was on vacation at this time. I saw only duplicates of their forms. Dates of verification are not recorded in them. They are recorded in the originals stored in the arsenal.
Question: Why hasn’t the emergency alert been announced, have your people panicked into the stern?
I answer: the location of the bodies in the compartments shows that each dead person was located where the emergency alarm was required to be. The proof is the inspection of the vessel by divers.
Question: why you, being the commander of the ship, ran to the stern in the opposite direction from the fire? (The question was heard - "why did you chicken out?").
I answer: without help from the inside, the hatch in the nose compartment cannot be opened. The stern - emergency hatch - I would manage to open it myself. At that moment, it would be possible to get into the submarine only through him ... (On one of the submarines they checked this statement - everything is accurate).
The state commission put forward about twenty different versions of the death of the boat. Among them was the following: during loading, one torpedo was scratched or slightly crushed against the berthing racks. Then it was "refined" with the help of a soldering iron, which led to its explosion. I was also asked about this. My answer was something like this. After arriving from vacation to the boat, the miner reported to me: “Comrade commander, we have received not one ammunition, but one garbage!”. Began to understand what was the matter. It turned out that all the best was loaded onto boats that had gone to the Atlantic to Cuba, where the Caribbean crisis began. For us, the second echelon, overdue torpedo junk was dropped, all that we could scrape together in the arsenals. And this is despite the fact that we were on duty. Rack torpedoes on submarines are usually kept with half the pressure in the cylinders. We were ordered to bring the pressure to full - two hundred atmospheres. I refused to do this. However, the flagship miner insisted, citing a tense world situation. Like, at any moment war can begin. I agreed, however, I made a condition that the order would be executed only under the recording of the brigade commander in the logbook. Kombrig wrote: "Have a pressure 200 atmospheres." His note, to the credit of the brigade commander, was confirmed to them by the tribunal, although the logbook was never found.
So the whole thing, in my opinion, is in full pressure in the air tanks of the racking torpedoes. Most likely, the old balloon was knocked out. Before the fire, I heard a clap! Covering the torpedo cut air jet. Her body was lubricated. Banks with "oxygen canned food" - plates of regeneration - were stored under racks. The oil in oxygen self-ignites. Michman Semenov, the foreman of the torpedo team, only managed to report a fire and died of suffocation. Then an explosion. All twelve torpedoes detonated. By the way, after this incident, banks with “regeneration” were forbidden to be stored in torpedo compartments. All put forward versions, including that in a nose hot work were conducted, on a charging office a solder was a dent - complete nonsense.
Feat of the tribunal
What happened next in the courtroom, even by today's standards, except as a feat of the military tribunal can not be named. After hearing the prosecution and witnesses on both sides, the court retired to a meeting. All those present were confident of the conviction, because the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Minister of Defense, the state commission, the commander of the Northern Fleet, all identified the switchman, and the court could only name the punishment. However, the military tribunal composed of Titov, Colonel of Justice, people's assessors Shkodin, captain of the first rank, and Saveliev, captain of the second rank, unexpectedly convicted of all. This “rebellion” by the military judges is probably one of the main reasons for classifying the B-37 incident case. Here it is necessary to bring the memoirs of Fyodor Titov, who later became Major General of Justice: “I looked into the hall. Present in utter stupor. All stand silently. Nobody expected the defendant to fully justify! The military prosecutor first came to himself, Colonel of Justice Titkov just jumped out of the hall. Despite the late hour, he was able to organize a boat and immediately departed for Severomorsk. As it turned out, he went to report on Bebeba’s acquittal to Admiral Kasatonov. I was called to the fleet commander the next day. He pounded his fist on the table and reproached me: “You have decided to teach the Politburo of the Party Central Committee! You knocked the lever out of my hands, with the help of which I wanted to strengthen discipline and turn the work of commanders to eradicate significant shortcomings in service! You have decided that you are smarter than members of the state commission of the incident, or of the prosecutor’s office of the fleet, which spent four months investigating the case?!.
This commander’s tirade ended with the statement that such a verdict does not correspond to reality and will be canceled upon protest by the military prosecutor’s office of the fleet, while Begeba will be convicted. Then I lost my temper a little: “Why do you shout at me? I'm not subordinate to you in my work! I submit only to Soviet justice! ”
The next day they called me from Moscow. Lieutenant-General Borisoglebsky, chairman of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, reported that he had received a protest from the military prosecutor's office. Three or four days later they called from the Central Committee of the CPSU. The call was made on the instructions of Khrushchev, the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. I was not there, so my deputy, Colonel of Justice Maslov, read, at the request of the caller, the text of the sentence. At the other end of the line, this caused bewilderment: “The circumstances of justifying Begeba in the document, which came from the Attorney General to the Central Committee, are set out somewhat differently. Send a copy of the sentence to Moscow. ”
I almost did not doubt that the acquittal would be canceled under heavy pressure. However, one episode brightened up the grim situation. Three captains of the first rank entered the office, who suddenly seemed to be kneeling at the command in front of me, bowed low, and one said: “Comrade Colonel, thank you for your justice! For the rescued commander! For not allowing us to lose faith in justice! ”To be honest, I was taken aback. Such a scene after constant pressure from the authorities and the hassle made a strong impression. Tears came to my eyes ...
Soon I received a telegram from the military collegium of the Supreme Court: "A justifying sentence was left to the strength of the TCHK RADA FOR JUSTICE OF TCHK WE CONGRATULATE the TCHK."
You have no idea how my soul sang at that moment !?
Unexpectedly for all 23 in February of 1963, I was assigned another military rank - Major General of Justice. After half a year, they signed an order on my appointment to the post of head of the organizational and inspection department of the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court. While I came to bid farewell to Vladimir Afanasyevich Kasatonov, the commander of the Northern Fleet, he warmly thanked me for my service and also said that the Military Council decided to organize a farewell dinner in my honor. After the first toasts were pronounced and the meeting became more informal, my neighbor at the table, Semyon Lobov, the deputy commander of the fleet, leaned toward me in a half whisper: "Fedya, you are a good guy, but in vain only Begeb justified." Admiral Kasatonov caught this phrase in the middle of his ear, got up from the table (of course, we all got up too), filled the glass and said: “I have to tell everyone that the acquittal was discussed in the highest instances of the country. He recognized the correct and reasonable. It was not by chance that the Supreme Court approved and rejected the protest of the military prosecutor’s office. ”
As it turned out, a copy of the sentence, which was sent to the Central Committee of the CPSU, was studied there, and the position worked out on it influenced everything: the decision of the Military Collegium, the assignment of a new rank to me, the appointment to the post. Thus, the condemnations and disputes over the acquittal in the case of the submarine commander of the B-37 211 brigade of the 4 squadron of submarines of the captain of the 2 rank of Anatoly Stepanovich Begeba ended.
Finale
Officially, the reasons for the explosion on the submarine B-37 have not been named to date. The victims were solemnly buried at the garrison cemetery in Polyarny, and a gray concrete obelisk bearing the words “Submariners who fell during the military duty of 11 January 1962 of the year” was put in memory of them. Their names have recently been immortalized on a memorial plaque in the chapel of St. Nicholas Cathedral in Polar.
Through the efforts of Begeba, a retired captain of the first rank, and the St. Petersburg Submariners' Club, a memorial plaque was installed in the Naval Cathedral on the Kryukov Canal with a list of the sailors of the Fourth Squadron who died during the fatal explosion. Anatoly Stepanovich Begeba in December 2002 died in St. Petersburg. His ashes were buried at the Seraphim cemetery.
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