For 30-year-old history As a member of the Navy, she was in various situations in which any warship could fall. Two are the most significant: good - July 17 1962; the boat passed the North Pole under the ice for the first time in the USSR; bad - September 8 1967-th fire on board in a submerged position, when 39 people died.
I follow the history of K-3, because to some extent involved in it. In January, 1962-I was appointed to this boat by the commander of the warhead-3 (torpedo-miner), but did not pass the medical examination. In September, my friend and fellow student, 1967 Commander Lev Kamorkin, died on 3, who at the cost of his life saved the ship - prevented an explosion of ammunition (20 torpedoes), flooding the first compartment with him ...
The Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on September 9 1952 of the Year “On the Design and Construction of the 627 Object” was approved by Stalin himself. In Moscow, in an atmosphere of extreme secrecy, two groups of designers and scientists were formed. The most difficult problem was the creation of a nuclear power plant. The construction was based on a large diesel-electric submarine of the 611 project. The full-scale development of the experimental nuclear submarine received the cipher “Kit” and was transferred to SKB-143 (“Malachite”).
The scale of the program to create the first national submarine is evidenced by the fact that 135 enterprises and organizations, including 20 KB, and about 80 factories supplying various equipment were involved in the project. Plant No. 402 in Severodvinsk (Sevmashpredpriyatie) was appointed the lead builder. The solemn ceremony of laying the boat took place on 24 on September 1955, 9 on August 1957 of the NPS was launched, and on 14 of September of the same year, two nuclear reactors were loaded.
In January 1959, the K-3 was handed over to the Navy for trial operation, which ended in 1962, after which the submarine became a warship of the North fleet. As part of the Navy "Leninsky Komsomol" remained until 1991.
After the cancellation, there were plans to re-equip the boat to the museum ship. KB "Malachite" has developed a corresponding project. However, the economic and political situation in the country, as well as the “radio phobia and telephobia” bordering on the paranoia, caused by the idiotic and in some cases the criminal activities of the “environmental organizations” that were bred during the years of restructuring, did not allow the implementation of these plans.
But the project did not disappear in vain. The gradual refurbishment of the K-3 submarine under the museum ship continued. In 2007, the power unit was dismantled from the boat, and instead of it, under a contract with Rosatom, a model of the reactor compartment was installed. All this time the hull of the boat was on a solid basis in the Nerpa shipyard in the Northern Fleet.
Today, the K-3 submarine (Leninsky Komsomol) is ready to serve as a museum, but its departmental affiliation has not yet been determined, and most importantly, the location is not consistent: either leave the boat in the Northern Fleet, or transfer to St. Petersburg, on the Neva, to the "Aurora".
Let's hope that all these issues will be solved. And there is no doubt that the museum is a useful thing not only for the Navy, but also for the country as a whole.