May 18, 1984. Explosion in Severomorsk

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May 18, 1984

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I myself learned about this story in 2010 from Timur P, who at that time (1984) was on long-term service in those parts. He is quite an authoritative and intelligent person (PhD, works in one of the management positions of a large foreign automobile company), but at the same time, his work and large amount of knowledge have not taken away his sense of humor. So at least one fact in his story may not correspond to reality. Which one - I’ll write later.

Since then, what he told has been slightly forgotten, and the reason for all the “or” and “or” in this story is the imperfection of my memory. The text is entirely mine, it is a free retelling of the story of Timur, unless otherwise written (alternative versions of some points found on the Internet are also given). For obvious reasons, the story was not described in the press at that time (perhaps almost not described). All that is there are the memories of eyewitnesses.

The photo was taken from aboard a ship, which data is not yet available.

The photo was taken from the missile cruiser Project 1134 "Vice Admiral Drozd" or "Admiral Zozulya". The sailor-photographer, standing on the forecastle, was blown away by the shock wave from one of the railings to the railings of the opposite side.

Explosion on Okolnaya (View from Severomorsk)

 

The author copied some of the text from eyewitness accounts, some was copied from an article in Ogonyok magazine, and overall there was a lot of copy-paste.

Taken from here http://www.proza.ru/2012/02/23/931

There is even more text here, mostly eyewitness accounts, which I did not copy: http://www.proza.ru/...4444/2011-11-01 Some of them are cited below from primary sources. In the document available at the link, they are not made entirely correctly. There, for example, it says “Oleg Koshelev” and the next line is “Rear Admiral”. In the original text this turned out to be a forum title.

Vasyl Nechay

Big explosion at Okolnaya. Study

Very little was reported about this event in the press.

On May 18, 1984, in the city of Severomorsk, at the main missile and technical base of the Northern Fleet, in military unit 63976, explosions occurred at missile weapons depots. The shape and power of the explosions were identical to three nuclear strikes. The Northern Fleet instantly lost 50 percent of its missile weapons. The force of the explosions was such that a combat alert was announced for the Northern Fleet: “Combat readiness No. 1. In fact!” This form of alarm is used only at the outbreak of war.....

It was a peaceful spring day. At 6 p.m., most officers and midshipmen returned home after a busy service.

At 18.15 smoke was noticed in the technical territory of the military unit. 63976. The senior officer of the neighboring unit called the operational duty officer of the military unit. 63976 to captain of the third rank Viktor Sadovlakhov, he replied that he knew about the fire and was taking measures, in 25 minutes, with the first big explosion, he, the guard sailor Ramiz Dzhabrailov, and several guards extinguishing the fire would die..

At 18.35, launch vehicles spontaneously take off from the burning area without warheads. They perform intricate pirouettes in the air and fall into the rocks at a distance of one and a half kilometers from the warehouse. In Severomorsk, people stand in front of the entrance to the park. They are watching the fireworks. A lot of kids came running. At 18.43 there is the first big explosion at the site of the fire. The shock wave causes spectators to fall to the ground and seek cover. The first explosion occurred in a warehouse where about 500 warheads for anti-aircraft missiles were stored.

A few minutes after the first big explosion, a combat alert was announced for the Northern Fleet: “Combat readiness No. 1. In fact!” This form of combat alert is declared only in the event of the outbreak of war. This was transmitted to all coastal observation posts, and from them to ships at sea. It was also announced: the danger of chemical destruction. The fleet command post was evacuated into the rock. “Skala” is a special fleet control center in case of nuclear war.

There were three large explosions, and many minor ones. The first explosion did not have a strong impact on the city. The second explosion was stronger than the first. The third explosion shook the city the most. After each of the explosions, a cloud of smoke appeared in the sky, very reminiscent of a mushroom during an atomic explosion, which is clearly visible in one of the photographs. A bright fire bubble was observed at the beginning of the first explosion. The mushroom most likely appeared as a result of the simultaneous detonation of a colossal amount of explosives in one of the warehouses. Enormous damage was caused to the fleet and the city. And in terms of possible consequences, this was one of the most serious incidents in the history of the Russian fleet.

From an eyewitness's account, verbatim: “When the fire started, the rocket engines fired, and they began to take off over the hill. In batches. The spectacle was awesome! Mini fireworks like... And people (no, to leave!! :) ) stood in the street in packs and gawked. Until the second explosion hit. By the way, the impression was terrible - when something very similar to a mushroom grows over the city... And this happened several times... Many people thought that WW3 had actually happened.”

After the second explosion, most of the houses in Severomorsk were left without glass. Fleet headquarters lost all the glass in the windows. A glass tablet measuring three by ten meters with operational information on the actual location of ships, submarines and aircraft collapsed. The large windows of the trading house simultaneously moved a meter away from the walls and fell down. The roof of the seventh school sank.

The first fire truck entering the fire zone was destroyed by the explosion. Witnesses observed pieces of red metal and car wheels in the air.

Part of the military personnel 63976 with alarm officers, with military weapons, move to the technical territory, to the site of explosions and fires and take part in extinguishing the fire.

The wind blowing from the city carries the poisonous cloud of the explosion towards the sea. This circumstance saved the city from the dire consequences of contact with toxic combustion products of rocket fuel.

After the first explosion and the announcement of the combat alert “Combat readiness No. 1. In fact!”, the ships urgently began to go to sea. All standards for exit time on combat alert have been doubled. The cruiser "Kirov" remained at the pier. All the ship's anti-aircraft systems were put on alert to destroy air targets, in case missiles from the warehouses flew towards the city. On some ships, sailors on resting watch in shorts and vests take seats on the iron chairs of anti-aircraft guns. Despite the cold weather, not one of them left the combat post before the all-clear.

At the 17th berth there was a nuclear submarine being loaded, and at the moment of the first explosion a nuclear missile was in the process of being loaded into the silo (with a nuclear warhead lying on the pier). Loading was carried out in the shortest possible time. Another nuclear-powered submarine, which was standing right next to the Okolnaya base when the explosion occurred, was taken out to sea by tugboats.

Very few people knew that in the place where the explosion mushrooms, identical to nuclear explosions, there were weapons depots. Therefore, the people immediately decided that war had begun. Women stood at the entrances, covering their faces with scarves - this is how they protected themselves from radiation. Everyone was crying and completely confused. The husbands left for combat units and ships, and no one knew what to do for women and children in such despair.

Ship's officers, sailors, midshipmen, and petty officers throughout the fleet occupy their combat posts. Many fled from the city to the piers, because... We were on our way home at that time. There were two streams of people on the streets. Black: officers, midshipmen, sailors fled to the piers and ships. Colored: civilians in the opposite direction. Many women and children were in dressing gowns and slippers. From the VAI cars, over the loudspeaker, they asked all civilians to move towards the streets: Kolyshkina, Komsomolskaya.

An eyewitness wrote: “I lived then on Safonov Street, 25. I did my homework (I was 17 years old at the time). At some interval there were 2 missile launches (as it seemed to me then). An acquaintance from the 12-story building across the street called and said that warships were leaving the piers and dispersing around the bay. Interested. I took binoculars and from the window began to look at the place where the missiles had left. This place was just visible in the gap between the 11th and 9th houses on the street. Sgibneva. I only managed to see thick black smoke, the roofs of fire trucks (it seemed even “hurricanes” from the airfield) and small explosions. Then it all “jumped” and a fiery bubble began to appear from “under the ground,” which in a second turned into a very bright flash (Hollywood is resting). I closed my eyes from the bright light. Afterwards I managed to see a growing mushroom, and that the explosion threw out several deformed rockets with damaged or burnt-out casings. Then the blast wave came and I was thrown from the window to the floor (the window was open). The same wave knocked out the front door to the apartment, both of them (in these houses they are double). A neighbor, the admiral’s wife, came in and said that her husband had called and told us and the neighbors to leave the windows and doors open and move away from the houses, and that the worst was over. Which is what I did. Half of the people from our entrance went along Sgibneva Street to the thermal power plant. There I was caught by a second explosion. I mechanically turned away and clearly saw the street. Sgibneva and st. A blast wave passed through Lomonosov - the glass in the windows flew out. In the evening, “Svoboda” spoke about possible tens of thousands of dead, they were completely suppressed. 1-1.5 hours after the second explosion, long-distance calls began: “Are we alive?”

The radiation background was normal, but the civilian population did not yet know about it. A large column of cars is moving towards Murmansk. Mothers gave their children to strangers with a request to take them out of the city. There were no immediate instructions at the checkpoint to close the exit. After some time, a commandant’s platoon and a platoon of marines were sent to the checkpoint between Severomorsk and Murmansk to check the documents of military personnel leaving the garrison.

At the Severomorsk checkpoint, about 20 “military personnel” were detained, mostly with large stars.

After 30 min. All official vehicles and regular buses were mobilized. They gathered people around the city and took them to the Kortika area. Children from schools were taken to a bunker at the air base in Safonovo. A small part of the people were in a shelter under the house on Safonova Street 2. Children from a kindergarten, which was in the courtyard of the second house on Kirova Street, were loaded onto the KRAZ. The driver took the children to the village of Roslyakovo. People crowded into the underground passage on the street. Northern Outpost. Behind the Rossiya cinema they were laying a pipe, digging a trench - people were laying down in the ditch.

From the account of an eyewitness, verbatim: “As a child, he was so reckless that, in the company of a couple of the same cretins, he went there the next day to have a look, where he was caught by the Marines. He was taken to the commandant’s office, where not a single gang of the same idiots was languishing... Besides the fact that he was mercilessly flogged (later), for some reason they took a blood test from everyone...”

Directly at the time of the events, without a special team, a photo group was involved and the events were recorded, but all these materials, along with the report, were later transferred to representatives of a special department of the fleet.

By morning, the fire was localized by the heroic efforts of firefighters. The fire in the warehouses was finally extinguished in 5 days. Entry into the city was closed. Fortunately, the nuclear charges that were kept there, on Okolnaya, remained unharmed. And although experts say that in principle they could not explode (these are the conditions for their storage), there was a risk of “dirty” contamination of the territory. However, the residents of Severomorsk were frankly lucky that the wind blowing from the city carried away the toxic cloud formed as a result of the combustion of rocket fuel. Under unfavorable circumstances, thousands of people could become victims of chemical contamination.

The next day, a helicopter carrying Commander-in-Chief Ustinov flew over the fire zone.

Immediately after this emergency, the Admiral of the Navy, Deputy, was removed from his post. The commander of the Northern Fleet, Admiral Kruglyakov, (at this moment he remained in charge of the Commander). And soon the commander of the Northern Fleet, Admiral Mikhailovsky, hero of the Soviet Union, Doctor of Military Sciences, was “removed”.

The official version of the investigation into the cause of the fire is smoking in the wrong place. The cigarette butt ignited dry moss, which led to the spread of the fire. The perpetrators were convicted. But experts expressed doubts about the reality of such a version. The number of deaths could not be found in official sources. Unofficial sources give figures ranging from 7 to 200 dead.

The story of the officer's son 63976 - Okolnaya base. Verbatim. “My dad served on Okolnaya. My sister was not at home at the time of the explosion! This is where the parents lost their nerve. As it turned out, a neighbor grabbed her from the street and dragged her with her towards Murmansk. I kept trying to ask Bati what and how it was, out of curiosity, but he told the standard version about careless handling of fire. He also told how some sailor or ensign (I don’t remember), on the orders of a senior man, ran into the hills to hide secret documents (or something just very important and paper), and hid it so much that no one could find these documents, not even himself . So, maybe the Okolnaya hills still store them? And not so long ago, he, it was just 20 years from the date of the explosion, hinted that there was a secret about this incident, but still no one would know the truth. And he also said that the deceased officer would have been worthy of receiving the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, he fulfilled his duty, did not leave his post when someone, holding his pants and wiping himself, was jumping around the territory with the eyes of Japanese cartoons... But what a time it was, They didn’t want to make a fuss, as if nothing had happened and there was nothing to give a Hero for...even posthumously...”

The uniqueness of the situation of the explosion at Okolnaya is that the fire and explosion of the missile depots simulated the situation of the beginning of a nuclear war. The explosions were very similar to nuclear ones in shape and power. “Combat Readiness No. 1. In fact!” was announced. throughout the Northern Fleet, which is announced only at the beginning of the war.

The disaster at missile weapons depots showed the weaknesses of storing missiles, organizing civil defense, evacuating the population, preparing bomb shelters, and informing the population about actions in case of war.

Happy memory to the fallen officers, sailors and firefighters who extinguished the fire at the Northern Fleet's missile warehouses.....

Review (author Alek Ivanov)

I personally knew an eyewitness to the disaster - senior midshipman V. This was already in our days, and the old seaman-submariner was a terrible *** in life and did not care about all the secret subscriptions. There was no point in lying to him either; people like him can exaggerate the scale, but not understate it. So, he said the following:

1. There was no talk of any 200 people dying. Three people died in the military unit itself; perhaps several more died in the hospital later. It is impossible to hide the simultaneous death of 200 people and hide it to this day. Even in the USSR. Even in ZATO "Severomorsk". Everyone would still have relatives, and in today's democratic times they would start talking.

2. After the first explosions sounded, someone from the garrison command who was on the spot, at his own peril and risk, announced a “de facto combat alert” (not a training one) and “Assembly.” As a result, the ships left the danger zone in record time. BEFORE, during exercises, with training and rehearsals, such a speed could not be achieved.

3. There was panic among civilians - people were scared by the “mushrooms”, rumors spread that the city had been “hit” with a nuclear bomb, etc. The midshipman said with gloating that several senior officers fled to Murmansk, abandoning their subordinates, where they were caught and demoted. Otherwise, the military performed well, for example, by quickly organizing the collection and evacuation of children away from the scene of the emergency.

4. Readiness No. 1 for the Armed Forces was actually announced, because if a combat alert was actually declared in garrison N, then this is serious. This is war. Or at least a local border conflict with the use of weapons.

The senior midshipman, as someone who doesn’t give a damn about life (and submariners are generally somewhat frostbitten), said that it wasn’t scary, it was interesting how it would all end in the end. Plus, the people knew or guessed what would happen if the entire base exploded; there was nowhere to run, so some people didn’t try to do it.

 

http://flot.com/foru...&FID=14&TID=224

Oleg Koshelev:

- the number of dead and injured people is about 200;

- natural “mushroom” from explosion;

- flying “launchers” of rockets (I personally observed rusty remains in the hills near Okolnaya while picking mushrooms);

- almost all the windows in Severomorsk are broken;

- the 7th squadron bounced off the walls to the dispersal points in a matter of minutes (they say even unready ships jumped out);

- a line of cars on the road to Murmansk (evil tongues say that among the “scuttlers” there were many political officers).

Sergei Voronin:

1. In the picture, the circle indicates the house in which I lived at the time of the emergency. Windows overlook the bay.

1.1. At the time of the explosion (the day was warm and sunny)

the wife opened the balcony door.... She was thrown back by the blast wave to the opposite wall. Not a single window remained intact.

PS The next day, in all the yards there were cars with glass and tables for cutting them. Cut to size for free!!!

2. Your humble servant was in the hospital at that moment. Was discharged after 15 minutes. and with a team of convalescents, I was puzzled to prepare the surgical department for the reception. The hospital was ready to receive the wounded within 30 minutes.

NO WOUNDED ARE REPORTED... NO KILLED TOO!!!!

3. 7 OPESK at this moment was commanded by V. Kolmagorov (after 2 DIPK). He leaned out of the porthole and, bypassing ONE VOICE, announced a BATTLE ALERT.

The squadron fulfilled the standard for dispersal. PM-75 was the last to be removed (after 1.5 hours)

4. After 30 min. All official vehicles and regular buses were mobilized. They gathered people around the city and took them to the Kortika area.

5. At the checkpoint in Murmansk, about 20 “military personnel” were detained, mostly with large stars, which they lost. (I know one personally...)

6. The day before the emergency, the civil defense exercise ended with a “good” rating. The emergency showed that in fact in Severomorsk there was NOT ONE suitable and possible shelter for opening!!!!

7. All personnel of the exploded unit underwent medical examination as ordered - that’s why they did not die.

I write about what I saw MYSELF, about what was discussed among friends.

By the way, my ship was standing at the third berth and the Station Square was visible from the undercarriage.

Friend's story:

EXPLOSION, Combat alert, I’m on Khodovoy, I gave the command for emergency preparations, and I’m looking through the scope. I turned towards Station Square. Two officers (cap.l - st.l) "at the door" at bus stop 105 (to Murmansk for gathering!!!). We saw “MUSHROOM”, thought for a minute, opened the case, took out the bottle, drank from the throat, and...

run towards the piers - TO THE SHIP!!!

olv956:

At the time of what happened, I, then a lieutenant, served on the burning armored ship together with Sergei Voronin, who already described these events here. At that moment, the "Zhguchiy" was moored on its starboard side to the "Tobol" station, which housed the headquarters of the 7th OPEC. Just before dinner, the mechanics finished a steam test of the machines and all the officers gathered in front of the wardroom, waiting for the allotted “5 minutes” (those who served in the navy know). Suddenly the first mate came running and excitedly said: “Rockets are taking off from the Kirov, it looks like there’s an accident.” We all rushed onto the deck and stared at the Kirov, standing on the 7th berth. Smoky trails were visible in the sky, just above the Kirov, which, we knew, had vertical launch missiles. At that moment, a porthole opened on the Tobol, Rear Admiral Kolmagorov, commander of the 7th OPSK, leaned out and shouted: “On the Zhguchiy! Alarm! Leave immediately!” We rushed to our places. The XO played combat alert and “radiation danger.” I “fell” down 3 decks to my post and until power was supplied, I could only guess what happened and what was happening. There was an eerie, ominous silence on the ship - only clear commands and reports walked in a line.

War? began? Accident? Nobody knew what happened.

Since the cars were still hot, “Burning” started running 15 minutes after the alarm (the norm was 120 minutes). After power was supplied to my air defense system, I turned its antenna to Okolnaya and through the television (video camera on the antenna) began to observe what was happening there. When a “mushroom” grew on the shore, I thought, “Well, that’s all...” It later turned out that it was a nuclear explosion simulator that exploded.

“Burning” went towards Murmansk. I was very glad that not long before I sent my family to Sevastopol.

"Okolnaya" was then commanded by Cap 1st Rana Bunchuk. In present day lives in Sevastopol. My father’s friend E.A. Zhovnarchuk also served there, for me - “Uncle Zhenya”. It was he who later told me what happened in detail.

There was no one in the unit that day - everyone except the guards were ordered to undergo medical examination. It was strict with this THEN.

The sailor sentry on the tower near the stack with starting engines from the missile defense system managed to report: “I see smoke from the stack!” That's all. They didn't even find him anymore. Starters began to “take off” from the burning stack and, scattering around the base in different directions, caused fires in new and new places. The most powerful explosion occurred when a stack of 600 (!) warheads exploded toward the cruise missiles. The blast wave from it knocked out the bulk of the glass in Severomorsk and, by the way, overturned and threw Bunchuk’s Zhiguli, who was rushing to his unit, off the road. E.A. Zhovnarchuk was with him in the car.

Arriving fire trucks (80 units) could not approach the unit, because The combat units of the missile defense missiles continued to explode, generously “sprinkling” the surrounding area with fragments.

NOT ONE ROCKET with poisonous liquid fuel (in the slang of rocket scientists - “bottle”) EXPLODED OR DAMAGED.

There were NO fumes of toxic fuel or oxidizer. The yellow smoke that we saw is from the gunpowder of rocket engines, from this muck the smoke is red or orange. (I'm a rocket scientist myself, I know!)

In Okolnaya itself, 3 people died - 2 sailor sentries and a captain of the 3rd rank - the unit on duty.

There were many wounded in the city, from glass fragments, that’s right. (Our navigator’s wife was hit in the back by an 8 mm piece of glass from a shop window) There were no fatalities.

The ammunition storage system after the incident was changed throughout the Navy.

“There were quite a few escapees in Zhiguli cars to Murmansk and beyond.” But two facts are known for sure:

1. There were also political officers among them, but not only political officers. There were no fewer “non-politicals”.

2. Among them there was not a SINGLE officer or midshipman from the ships. All are rear.

Like this.

I got home only after 7 or 10 days - I don’t remember. I thought the windows were screwed. But... The open windows were saved: the curtain rods and curtains were torn from the walls and lay on the floor, and ALL THE GLASSES were intact!

http://severm.net/e1...wtopic.php?3494

Igor Soloviev:

This happened in May (if I'm not mistaken on the 18th) 1984. I was not quite 18 years old then. At that time I lived on the street. Kolyshkina, 3. Around noon, I was sitting at home and writing a letter to my future wife, when a friend noticed that in the sky, towards Okolnaya, huge blanks, similar to rockets, began to fly. Then some called them rocket launchers. I note that this circumstance in no way influenced my subconscious at that moment. I just thought that naval exercises had begun. Moreover, some exercises were just being carried out in the fleet or were just ending. Some 10-12 minutes passed when a strong explosion shook the city. Goosebumps ran down my back, but these were only flowers, the berries appeared later. Anyone who imagines the city of Severomorsk knows that no. 3 on the street. Kolyshkina is quite far from the bay and everything that happened on Okolnaya, of course, was not completely visible, even though we lived on the 5th floor. But curiosity got the better of me and I instinctively climbed onto the windowsill and began to peer at the hills that I saw. I don’t remember how many minutes I stood there, but it wasn’t long before there was such a powerful explosion that glass flew in some apartments and I fell to the floor. Plumes of smoke appeared in the sky towards Okolnaya, very reminiscent of a mushroom during a nuclear explosion. Before I had time to really get scared, the third explosion thundered. It’s hard to say now which explosion was stronger than the second or third, but a feeling of fear somewhere in the veins awoke instantly. Perhaps the most important thing at that moment was that I didn’t know what to do: either look for my brother Stas on the street, or call my mother at work. At that moment, my father had just returned from the sea on a ship and his box, “Vice Admiral Drozd,” was in the roadstead and my father, naturally, was there. I have never seen such a huge number of fire trucks before or since. To be honest, many people in the city panicked, especially those who knew or found out what the consequences could be. My brother came home on his own, my mother called and told me to wait for her, and my father, on his box, raising yellow flags, left the bay. We didn’t run anywhere, but stayed at home. And then we went to see the city. I have never met a house that didn’t have broken glass near it. At that time, our neighbor on the site, senior midshipman Kamil Rakhimkulov, was serving on Okolnaya. After the second explosion, he was thrown tens of meters away. When he fell, he lost consciousness and suffered a slight concussion, but, thank God, he remained alive. These are my memories of this incident, which could easily go down in the black history of the Northern Fleet, and indeed the USSR. And now it would be possible to draw a parallel between Chernobyl and Severomorsk. But God was merciful and thank God.

Rostik Ultra:

I live in Severomorsk. I'm 21 . Name is Rostik.

I came here in January 1990. During the events described, my life safety teacher served in a military unit in the area of ​​military warehouses. He told me that he saw a rocket accelerator flying directly at their barracks, but at the very last moment it somehow turned around, although the running engine damaged all the adjacent buildings.

And the MOST IMPORTANT thing he said was that they then carried out investigative experiments to find out what the heck was... and who was to blame for it. Well, all the ammunition is in separate fortified rooms, EACH is packed in a fireproof shell made of some cool materials. Like, as an experiment, we burned these shells with an open flame from a gas burner AND NO CRAP, and you say a cigarette butt. Like there were rumors that the Americans tested some kind of combat satellite, but of course these are just rumors...

Gosha:

I lived then on Safonova, 25. I did my homework (I was 17 years old then). At some interval there were 2 missile launches (as it seemed to me then). An acquaintance from the 12-story building across the street called and said that warships were leaving the piers and scattering around the bay. Interested. I took binoculars and from the window began to look at the place where the missiles had left. This place was just visible in the gap between the 11th and 9th houses on Sgibneva. I only managed to see thick black smoke, the roofs of fire trucks (it seemed even “hurricanes” from the airfield) and small explosions. Then it all “jumped” and a fiery bubble began to appear from “under the ground” in a second, turning into a very bright flash (Hollywood is resting). I closed my eyes from the bright light. Afterwards I managed to see a growing mushroom, and that the explosion threw out several deformed rockets with damaged or burnt-out casings. Then the blast wave came and I was thrown from the window to the floor (the window was open). The same wave knocked out the front door to the apartment, both of them (in these houses they are double). A neighbor came in (either my sister, or the admiral’s wife, I don’t remember now), said that her husband/brother had called and told us (whichever neighbor she had time to warn) to leave the windows and doors open and move away from the houses, and what’s worst is that already behind. Which is what I did. Half of our entrance went along Sgibneva to the thermal power plant. There I was caught by a second explosion. I mechanically turned away and clearly saw how a blast wave passed through Sgibnev and Lomonosov - glass in the windows flew out. After another 20 minutes I returned home. In the evening, “Svoboda” spoke about possible tens of thousands of dead, they were completely suppressed. 1-1.5 hours after the second explosion, long-distance calls began: “Are we alive?” That's all.

demkin:

At that time I couldn’t even walk under the table. I know from the words of my parents and sister. We lived then in the North. Zastava, and my Dad served at Okolnaya. When this whole mess started, glass blew out throughout the entire apartment. My mother went into panic and, if it weren’t for Batek, she would have run away with me into the tundra, to the reindeer. My Dad is a military man, serious, and can calm me down. Soon after the explosions, they came for Batya in a UAZ and took him to the “roundabout” hell, and Mom and I were left alone. But Sister was not at home! This is where the parents lost their nerve. As it turned out, a neighbor grabbed her from the street and dragged her with her towards Murmansk. I kept trying to ask Bati what and how it was, out of curiosity, but he told the standard version about careless handling of fire. He also told how an officer (or midshipman) was hit by a flying door... to death. He told how some sailor or ensign (I don’t remember), on the orders of a senior man, ran into the hills to hide secret documents (or something simply very important and paper), and hid it in such a way that no one could find these documents, not even himself . So, maybe the Okolnaya hills still keep them? A secret? A treasure? And not so long ago he, it was just 20 years from the date of the explosion, hinted that there was a secret about this incident, but no one would know the truth anyway (as always in such cases), although Dad was very ** *, flooded memories:( And he also said that the deceased officer (or midshipman, I don’t remember, but Father is not around, sorry) would have been worthy of receiving the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, he fulfilled his duty, did not leave his post when someone , holding his pants and wiping himself, galloped around the territory with the eyes of Japanese cartoons, and got the door for it... But it was time, they didn’t want to make a fuss, like there was nothing and there was nothing to give the Hero for... even posthumously.. .

ka25:

I, Captain Kravchenko, served in military unit 87268 - a separate anti-submarine shipborne helicopter regiment. There were scheduled flights on Maly. Time between 17 and 19 -00. We were preparing to take off again. The alarm passed and at the same time the helicopter of our squadron (I think the crew of Zhenya Alenin) landed. They said that some missiles were flying near the helicopter. On alert they were supposed to disperse to alternate airfields, but there was something of a hitch. My wife was going on vacation, and I found some time to take her to the bus. I put her and my daughter (2 years old) on No. 107 and they left for Murmansk. Then my wife said that at the checkpoint (Ozerki) there were many people in dressing gowns and without shoes. In general, there was serious panic among the population. At the airfield I actually observed 2 mushrooms resembling atomic ones. Reliable information arrived later and everyone acted according to plan.

A month or two later, I took over as guard duty in Safonovo (Bolshoye). The person under investigation was sitting there, if I'm not mistaken - a sergeant. When communicating with him, I realized that they had made him a leader. From his words, I realized that he smoked Belomor and quit smoking. cigarette. The investigation concluded that he was guilty. I don’t remember what time they gave him. Two people died: a major, killed by a door (gate) and a sailor. I also remember such moments that some officers were stopped near Leningrad.

Ross:

The topic is quite interesting, it’s a pity it will never come out and we will never know what really happened there. And I was 15 years old then. I was studying first shift back then and came home from school around two, and besides, I had time to eat and go for a walk. My friend and I then went to Morskaya Street, house number 10 (we ourselves lived on Kirov 12), his mother asked him to pick up the table from her friends. When we left the entrance, we saw “missiles” flying over the roundabout. I remember that a little girl was sitting on a bench at the entrance. So we took this table and just went up to the houses on Korabelnaya. There were two-story houses there then, not the ones we have now. And then it went off for the first time. On Morskaya, glass flew out of the windows, the girl at the entrance got it - she was cut a little. We watched from the sidelines, quickly dragged the table home and rushed out into the street to see what was happening. At the corner of the house there was a crowd of neighbors and passers-by, all eyes, naturally, were directed towards Okolnaya, the fireworks there were too wonderful - clouds of white and black smoke, in which “launchers” flashed and scattered in different directions. And then VAI vehicles drove along the street, warning people through loudspeakers to go to the hills. This is where the panic began. And literally at the same time there was a really big boom and that same notorious mushroom “grew”. We were already at that age when you realize what kind of city we live in and that such an explosion is not toys at all, although it was clear that it was not nuclear - otherwise we would not have fantasized about this topic. People were rushing down the street then. We were about to start running too, but after a couple of steps we ran into a classmate. His eyes were just crazy!!!! This personally immediately brought me to my senses - I imagined how I might look from the outside and immediately stopped wanting to be scared :)) However, I still had to get away, the question was - where? We walked towards the post office. Aunties and children rushed past us, I remember one old woman with bags from which a loaf of bread and green onions were sticking out. From time to time there was a bang, and those glasses that for some reason had not yet managed to fall out earlier did so now - a piece of glass caught my friend on the sleeve of his school jacket, although fortunately he did not cut his hand. Then we stood in the underground passage for a while at the intersection of Kirorva - Dushenova streets. People tried to squeeze into the bomb shelter in house No. 2 on Kirov, but everything there was littered with some kind of rubbish and dirty. In the passage we could feel the air shocks from the explosions very strongly and we decided that we had to leave. We went up to Sovetskaya and went down along Kolyshkina, where we observed the GREAT EXODUS FROM THE CITY OF EVERYONE WHO HAS A CAR :))) There was just a continuous stream of cars on the road. Since all this time the two of us calmed down and brought our classmate to his senses, we ourselves weren’t scared, no, not like that, of course it was scary, but not to the point of panic - otherwise the person would have been hysterical, and we were a little crazy guys :)) ) In general, in this place our journey came to an end,because some military man standing at the exit from Kolyshkin Street directed us to the Dairy Factory - he said that there was a shelter there and we should go there. The impressions were very serious - armored doors, shelves with gas masks and at least some kind of organization, otherwise panic sometimes kills people more than the disaster itself. In addition, they gave us kefir to drink and we completely calmed down. Although the explosions were felt even there. They let us out at about six or seven in the evening and we paddled home over heaps of broken glass with a charge of adrenaline for the week ahead :) Well, cars past the school then carried stones and sand to Okolnaya for another three days, I don’t know whether to put out the fire or fall asleep what. These are my impressions of that day. Bye everyone.

STAFF OFFICER:

Hello to all forum participants. I'm glad to have the opportunity to visit the city of my youth. I had the honor of serving as a tablet operator at the GBIP (main combat information post) of the fleet. 82-85. This incident is perhaps the most memorable event of the service.

Now let's get to the point. It was a sunny day on May 16, 1984. There was joyful excitement at the fleet headquarters; rations were being given. The officer on duty went to the dining room, leaving the senior assistant midshipman in charge. It was about 18.30 when they called from the raid post: something was burning and exploding in Okolnaya. The assistant began to look in the magazine to see if there was permission to carry out blasting operations. The fact is that at that time berth 19 was being built, and there were explosions there. But there was nothing in the magazine. We asked the raid commander to clarify what exactly was visible. Because Okolnaya was not visible from our windows. And at this time (18.43) the first explosion was heard. The transoms on the windows, which were difficult to open, fell back with a roar and glass fell down. The operational tablet (3x10 m) swayed, but stood firm. The duty officer of the operational fleet came running and wanted to know what was happening. I was sent to the end of the corridor (the headquarters building is shaped like the letter p, and from the window of the left wing you can see Okolnaya) to see what was visible. A strong hissing was heard. When I ran to the window,

I saw a huge mushroom, similar to a nuclear one, rising high into the sky. That's what I reported. The operational fleet's hair began to stand up, he said that this could not be, and began to call somewhere on the phone. Finally, he realized the seriousness of what was happening. The command sounded: alert for the flotilla. But our assistant on duty barked into the phone in fright: alarm for the fleet. This was transmitted to all coastal observation posts, and from them to ships at sea. It was also announced: danger of chemical destruction, and evacuation of the fleet command post into the rock. Sailors from the security company came running to carry secret documentation and lined up in the operations room with their backs to the tablet. At that moment, the most powerful explosion sounded... The windows were blown away by the wind, and the tablet swayed back and forth and fell on the heads of the sailors. Miraculously, no one was seriously injured. There were many small cuts, even on the officers who stood at the opposite wall. Panic began: the sailors, without waiting for the command, leaving half the secrets, ran into the rock, mixed with them were the operational assistants.

We, dumbfounded with horror, looked at everything that was happening from our combat posts. The first to come to our senses was the GBIP officer on duty. Guys, he turned to us, now the ships will rush out of the bay. We need to keep the situation under control. I don't order anyone...

And here it was like in a movie: we sent all the young people to deploy the GBIP into the rock. We were filled with a sense of responsibility and patriotism. And in Okolnaya at that time a second mushroom rose, it can be seen in the photo. As I already said, the sailors with secrets fled into the rock in panic, leaving several pencil cases with secret cards in the destroyed fleet command post, and some of those they took with them were lost in the corridors of the headquarters and the rock. Also in the corridors lay sausage sticks and cans of coffee from rations.

Five of us stayed on the broken GBIP until 19.30. The ships really rushed into the sea. BUT this did not look like the ships leaving according to the combat schedule, but rather like an escape. SO the cruiser "Zozulya", which usually departed from the pier with at least four tugs, was one of the first to independently leave the Severomorsk roadstead. Therefore, by 19.30 only the cruiser "Kirov" remained at the pier, because... at that time he had the most advanced air defense system. As you have already heard from others, unguided missiles were flying out of the clouds of smoke in Okolnaya. Kirov should have shot them down if they flew towards the city. There was another danger: At the 17th berth there was a boat being loaded, and at the time of the explosion the rocket was in the process of being loaded into the shaft. Fortunately, everything worked out. And the boat also went to sea.

Now about the most important thing. There was panic in the city. Officers grabbed their “alarm” suitcases and... got into their cars and fled from the city. The panic was justified, most of the shelters could not be opened, and those that were opened were cluttered and there were no filters. (By the way, they contain some kind of valuable metal. Haven’t they all been stolen from you yet? But everything can happen again.) Pay attention to the picture; the wind blows away from the city. If it had turned towards the city, then, according to chemists, up to 75% of the population would have died. By the way, the rock could also only provide shelter from the blast wave; the filtration and regeneration system was also ineffective.

By morning, the fire was localized by the heroic efforts of firefighters, although it was completely extinguished only a few days later. The city gradually came to its senses, the ships returned to the roadstead.

Soldiers and sailors from coastal units were collected along the hills for several days.

The restoration of the headquarters is a separate story. I’ll write when I have time.

I don't know exactly the cause of the fire. It started with stacks of RBU missiles, they began to launch and hit stacks of air defense missiles, and they, in turn, pierced the hill of the ballistic launch vehicle warehouse. This is where it went crazy. Beautiful and terrible.

Guest065:

The respected Staff Officer described all this “action” closest to the texture and in detail. The only thing, of course, is not to take seriously the description he gave of the circumstances of the announcement of the alarm on the fleet. :-)

I’ll literally add a few strokes:

1. The event began to develop, of course, before 18:00. At 18.10 the first “starters” were already taking off. At 18.14 there was the first small explosion, after which several large windows were knocked out in a number of stores (for example, in Krugozor). Then the process began to develop very quickly “increasingly”.

2. After the alarm was announced, the ships began leaving the base. Everyone really left. Even a PM from berth 11. The boats were pulled away from Okolnaya by tugboats. As the Staff Officer writes, only the Kirov remained at the 7th berth. He stood in the control room and could not make a move right away. And when everything was prepared, then, indeed, the command was given to stay at the pier and submit a missile defense to the AK-630, in readiness to shoot down the launchers and missiles if they went towards the city. (They placed battalion commanders at the sighting columns. Thank God, we didn’t have to shoot).

3. There was no real threat of an accident with nuclear weapons after the boats left Okolnaya. (Whoever knows the actual location of the RTB and storage facilities will easily understand this). The greatest threat to the city and people was the large chemical cloud formed after the combustion of rocket fuel tanks. Fortunately, the wind blew away from the city.

However, the general panic was aggravated by the fact that on some ships the mooring crews were wearing chemical suits. And on one 1135 they even “guessed” to turn on the USVZ for a short time. There were enough spectators in the first 30-45 minutes: people stood both in front of the entrance to the park and on the hill near the rocket (there were especially many children there).

4. Indeed, after the alarm was announced, some with shoulder straps in their personal cars rushed towards Murmansk. There were no immediate instructions to close the exit, but a smart comrade with red lights at the checkpoint guessed to start writing down the license plates of the cars, which later allowed for a “debriefing”.

However, the vast majority of the ship's officers and midshipmen rushed to the ships, not yet knowing about the alarm, acting according to their own understanding. Anyone who was there remembers this picture of a black mass running along Safonov down to the piers. (Many ships had already sent similar shifts to the city, so there were a lot of people).

5. There was indeed confusion in the city. However, some actions were done in an organized manner. For example, cars actually drove around, announcing the alarm; appointed people went into stores, post offices, and d/s, announcing that the institutions were closing, because An air defense alert has been declared in the city. But, naturally, the majority of the population did not know what to do next. Almost all shelters turned out to be closed and therefore people began to simply be sent “over the mountain”: beyond Komsomolskaya, to the Hospital and beyond.

6. Those who served in units near the city experienced very unpleasant moments. They didn’t know the details, but the mushroom was visible from Pike and beyond. But the alarm was not declared at all as a training alarm. Units actually went out on alert to areas, as if in war. At the same time, all my friends noted that the fighters, i.e. the sailors acted without traditional prodding, exceeding all standards for the preparation of equipment and deployment to positions.

ps Directly at the time of the events, without a special team, we used a photo group and recorded the events, but all these materials, along with the report, were later transferred to representatives of the NGO.

Russian:

The explosion on Okolnaya occurred on May 18, 1984.

The actual "Combat Readiness No. 1" was declared in the fleet! Servicemen will understand right away, but civilians will never be able to explain it, excuse the pajamas for the truth.

The reason is the detonation of rocket launchers. The root cause was failure to comply with fire safety rules by one of the conscript sailors. Result: chaotic scattering of main engines throughout the entire territory adjacent to Severomorsk. Most of them burned out their fuel and fell in the hills northeast of Severomorsk. In addition, the city suffered damage worth many tens of thousands of Soviet rubles. Mainly in the form of broken window panes and shop windows. Moral damage was never calculated. The city was glazed in 3 days. Fah in the souls of the civilian population, as this topic clearly shows, has remained forever.

The most terrible thing, however, IMHO, turned out to be that many staff officers, most of whom were political workers, shamefully fled, scuttled, and ticked away from their combat posts. They abandoned everything. Children, wives, property. They were only saving their own skin. Definitely. Some grabbed other people's cars and scurried towards the checkpoint. No one was put in the cars. There were cases of collisions with pedestrians who tried to stop them and ask them to get into their cars. Thank God, there were no serious injuries.

At the same time, the fleet was declared "Combat Readiness No. 1. In fact!" The servicemen know that this is not a training alarm, but a real alarm that could turn into hostilities and develop into World War III.

Everyone, without exception, experienced fear. However, the ship's officers, sailors, midshipmen, and foremen ran to their combat posts. Many fled from the city to the piers, because... were at the gathering at that time. Unlike the staff rats who fled from the fleet headquarters to the city.

I myself saw sailors jumping out of the cockpits in their underpants, sitting on the metal seats of the ZIFs and intensely peering at the target designators. And it wasn't hot outside. A little more than +2+5 according to grandfather Celsius. And they didn’t leave their post until the lights out of BG No. 1. And this is about 4-5 hours. Oddly enough, no one even sneezed even once, much less got seriously ill! However, at such a level of adrenaline release... Maybe this is not strange?!

After the end of the day, only 1 quite serious patient appeared on my ship after the end of BG No. 1. He had a profane ***, which I was able to stop only after 18 hours. During this time he lost 30-32% of his body weight. This condition is popularly called “bear disease.” By the way, he was the political officer of one of the main ship warheads. It was he who turned out to be the “chief of panic,” as the officers later dubbed him. All his actions were chaotic, chaotic, completely thoughtless. All actions and words indicated an extreme degree of excitement and the presence of panic.

A commandant's platoon and marines were sent to the checkpoint, who forcibly tore out the staff officers of considerable rank from behind the steering wheels of Zhiguli and Volga cars. They admonished them in their own way and turned their shafts towards the headquarters. The checkpoint was turned into a real line of defense in a few minutes. But they were defending themselves not from enemies, but from women in pants and with shoulder straps on their shoulders, bringing them to their senses and returning them to the objects of responsibility. This fact has never been widely publicized anywhere. But the words from the song... You understand.

The shame is exorbitant and unbearable for the entire fleet!!! :-(((

There were few casualties. If memory serves correctly, then during the debriefing in the wardroom of my b.p.k. “Brisk,” the commander named the number 7 people.

Foreign countries have never provided objective information about us. And he never will. It's not in their best interest.

According to estimates from various sources of our and foreign press (not the yellow press, but serious military publications), if all the reserves at Okolnaya were “rushed”, including the “vigorous” ones, followed by ships, boats and those located in military units close to Okolnaya, then even small islands would not remain from the Kola Peninsula and Scandinavia, and St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region would turn into the Leningrad archipelago.

Thank God it passed by that time!

And where is the guarantee that today, when devastation reigns everywhere, including in the navy, stardom and empty talk will not explode for real?

Then there will be no one running around the streets in panic. And no one will go *** towards the checkpoint. And there will be no one to serve on the ships. And the ships themselves will not be there either!

Amen!

Ps: Author's note:

I told you a hodgepodge from what I saw myself, what my friends told me and from what I managed to collect from official, semi-official and completely unofficial sources! Where is the truth here, where is it fiction, where is the outright lie? Who will figure it out now! And I was 30 years old then. Served as chief of medicine at Boykoy. I was at the meeting. I got to the ship from the Rostin fork under my own power in 7 minutes! If you want to live, you won’t get so excited yet. :-)

 

http://admiral-umash...ru/okolnaya.htm

Severomorsk, May 17, 1984.

This event was never mentioned in print. We are talking about an explosion at Okolnaya, the main weapons base of the Northern Fleet. Then, in an hour and a half, almost half of the navy's stock of strategic missiles, torpedoes and mines was destroyed by a sailor's cigarette butt.

It was at the end of the working day. A rocket took off over the bay and went over the hills along a twisted trajectory. Behind her is another, and another... The air was filled with howling, crackling, and the roar of explosions. In the city, and even more so on the ships moored at the berths of Severomorsk, they immediately understood that Okolnaya, the granite wall of which rose a kilometer from residential areas and several hundred meters from the ships of the 7th squadron, was “saluting.” At the berths of the base itself, two nuclear submarines were loaded. The fireworks were growing. Several “mad” rockets were already spinning in the sky, scattering both towards the city and towards the ships. Soon a gigantic fiery black sheaf rushed into the sky. Slowly rising into the sky, it acquired a mushroom shape, which threw the entire population of the city into confusion.

Women were running through the streets with children in their arms, many half-dressed, in dressing gowns and slippers; mixed with them were men, some in uniform, which gave the picture a particularly eerie drama. We climbed ladders (in North Sea style, ladders) leading up to the hills. Someone fell, they picked him up, grabbed him by the arms, and dragged him. Cars were streaming out of the city in a continuous stream. Crowded to capacity, they still stopped and took away the children, whom the mothers literally pushed into the arms of others. Screaming, crying, swearing - and the roar and howl of the Okolnaya “volcano” drowning everything out. A black mushroom with an orange-purple cap, standing up to its full gigantic height, froze for a moment, swung towards the city, but then began to slowly settle towards the tundra and ocean.

There were victims. I can only say for sure about two courageous people who died - an officer who tried to put out the flames, and a sailor who remained at his post near the burning warehouse. If the wind had turned towards the city, hundreds, if not thousands of people would have suffered from poisonous fallout (the leadership of neighboring Murmansk had already begun to prepare for evacuation). The “bombing” of ships with nuclear reactors, full of powder magazines, and missile silos would have had catastrophic consequences.

This is what is called a picture from life. You wouldn’t wish any city or village to experience this. But, judging by the increasing frequency of explosions and fires in military units of the Ministry of Defense, and even at the most explosive objects, there is no reason to promise.

Author:

Vladimir Ermolin

9/6/2001

 

http://cruising....de=128240294379

In his book “The Russian Fleet. Valor and Poverty” (2003, p. 386), Admiral I. Khmelnov wrote about fires at ammunition depots in Okolnaya:

"In May 1984, an explosion occurred in ammunition depots in Severomorsk

Electromechanical installations were urgently installed on ships, and when ready, the ships departed from the berths.

The nuclear cruiser “KIROV” could not depart on its own, without auxiliary tugs.

And then the ship’s commander, Captain 1st Rank A.S. Kovalchuk, used naval artillery to

prevent the cruiser from being hit by flying missiles."

Alexander Sergeevich, of course, did not use any naval artillery against any missiles. But he transferred it (the artillery) to full combat readiness - this is true - and honor and praise to him for this. At that time, I had long been decommissioned from the Kirov and served as commander of the warhead-1 on the destroyer Moskovsky Komsomolets - built in 1955 - a couple of years older than me. I offer a story about how these events seemed to me. At that time, our ship, it seems, had already been transferred to the division of the naval landing forces and was based on the farthest berth (as viewed from the Seaport) - number 24, it seems), but it was already behind the headquarters of the Northern Fleet - i.e. closest to GB. Okolnaya (not counting the berths of Okolnaya itself). In the picture below - he is the very, very left (in front of Okolnaya).

I have a “sedentary” shift, but I’m going to the DOF (no, no, not for what you thought, but to study at the University of Marxism-Leninism at the Faculty of Law - by the way, I still believe that I received a lot of useful information there knowledge).

I’m walking through the Fulikovo field (Northern Sea residents know). And I hear explosions. In Severomorsk you won’t surprise anyone with explosions, and I continue on my way.

I’m already approaching the city park. And then I see and hear - not just explosions, but missile flights from the base in Okolnaya. Unprecedented fireworks.

They say that some (including high-ranking) officers at that moment rushed to flee from Severomorsk, saving themselves and their families. Here is a quote from the memoirs of an eyewitness who did not want to reveal his name:

Indeed, after the alarm was announced, some with shoulder straps in their personal cars rushed towards Murmansk. There were no immediate instructions to close the exit, but a smart comrade with red lights at the checkpoint guessed to start writing down the license plate numbers of the cars, which then allowed us to conduct a “debriefing”. However, the vast majority of the ship's officers and midshipmen rushed to the ships, not yet knowing about the alarm, acting according to their own understanding. Anyone who was there remembers this picture of a black mass running along Safonov down to the piers. (Many ships had already sent similar shifts to the city, so there were a lot of people)...

I also started to run, but not from the city, but to the ship.

I'm running. The combat alert sounded. Personnel are at combat posts. The commander (according to rumors, he was detained in his “five” at the Severomorsk checkpoint), SPK and Zama are not on board. Senior – KKB-2 Serega Zorin. With him is KBCh-3 Lech Borisenko. Both stand on the (open) bridge and, with their heads raised, watch these flights of missiles - either anti-aircraft, or cruise, or others... The flights take place almost at the “zenith”. Most of the rockets fall in the tundra (fortunately, the wind blew from the city - and quite strong), but some of them fall into the water almost over our heads. At the same time, they perform all sorts of somersaults in the air - unimaginable spirals, pretzels and other aerobatics, the names of which I don’t know.

At this time, the entire squadron and both divisions (anti-submarine and landing) are urgently preparing to go to sea. There is simply the howl of dozens of main power plants - I have never seen or heard anything like this either before or since. And all the ships begin to leave the base one after another.

And we have both main steam pipelines dismantled and the ship has no way to move except under tugs. But normal ships need tugs, and of course there aren’t enough of them for our scrap metal. In short, there is no chance of leaving. Auxiliary diesel engines are also under repair. I climbed onto this very open bridge - there were three of us standing: commanders of warheads 1, 2, 3. Then the most terrible explosion occurred.

Seryoga Zorin, of course, long ago gave the command “Machine guns for battle.” And the fighters with machine guns are sitting in helmets and seem to be ready to repel this attack... But with coastal power supply there is no target designation (except visual), the rotation of machine guns is only done manually with flywheels... and for obvious reasons we don’t have our own power supply. And in general, I can’t imagine how you can shoot down a missile that’s not flying straight at you, but along an unpredictable, uncontrollable trajectory...

After the “Big Bang,” Lekha Borisenko says: “Listen, guys, maybe give the ship a command: “Chemical alarm!” Everyone should put on chemical kits?

I ask: “Are you sure that if a missile hits us, the chemical gondon will help save someone’s life?”

He says: “I’m not sure, but suddenly some harmful gases are formed there during combustion...”

The three of us consulted and came to a compromise - they still declared a chemical alarm, but limited themselves to putting on gas masks. Well, it would be a little safer - at least we won’t die from powder gas poisoning...;-))

And everything flies around and explodes, the ships leave. Here is a photo of how the missile cruiser "Admiral Zozulya" leaves, covered in smoke.

We see that out of the entire main base of the Northern Fleet, only we remained, plus one floating workshop and the Kirov. (As usual, he is at berth 7). Maybe there was someone else hiding behind his body, but we couldn’t see it. Even the floating base "Tobol" left. Of course, it was scary. But it turns out that it was worse for those who didn’t see any of this and didn’t understand well what was happening. This is how Sergei Maksimov, who was on the Kirov at that time, describes his impressions:

"A combat alert was sounded on the ship, which was an extremely extraordinary event. I was in the cabin. I rushed to my combat post, located below the waterline. All the hatches were battened down, silence. And uncertainty. The commander's message came on the broadcast. I don't remember verbatim, he spoke about preparing anti-aircraft systems for battle. I remember well only the end of his speech: “...missiles can go to the ship and the city.” But what is happening in general, what is going on, what kind of missiles - now imagine my state. There was no panic. I just couldn’t believe that the worst could happen - the war had begun. In the room where my combat post was, I didn’t hear any explosions. Only once did the ship rock. maybe more. Then the alarm was cleared. And then information appeared about what actually happened. What a relief it was that the version about the beginning of the war was not confirmed from what was happening at the time of the explosions outside the cruiser. Some ammunition was being loaded at the pier. During the explosions in Okolnaya, loading was not stopped, but on the contrary, it was accelerated. When the most powerful explosion occurred, people were thrown down on the pier by the blast wave. Fortunately, no one was hurt. I think that the likelihood of a missile or some kind of ammunition accidentally hitting the cruiser was small. But the fact that the city was not damaged was a miracle."

As you can see, it was easier for us to experience what was happening. So we stood until late in the evening - 3 idiots on the open bridge, but in gas masks...

In fact, as it turned out later, we were not the stupidest. There were worse ones.

Here is a quote from the memoirs of the above-mentioned “anonymous” eyewitness:

The general panic was aggravated by the fact that on some ships the mooring crews were dressed in chemical suits. And on one patrol ship of Project 1135 they even “guessed” to turn on the USVZ (a universal water protection system that sprays water around the ship for protection against radiation, chemical and bacteriological weapons) for a short time. There were enough spectators in the first 30-45 minutes: people stood both in front of the entrance to the park and on the hill near the rocket (there were especially many children there).

We also observed how people were running (and leaving) from the city... Some of us were worried about our families, but we endured.

When it was all over, we gave an end to all worries and went to bed. In order to be, as expected, at 7.30 in the morning for the morning tidying up and at 8.00 for the raising of the flag. Nothing special - just such a service, Leonid Sobolev wrote about this in “Capital Repairs”:

“Do you think it’s very fun for me... at eight in the morning, like an idiot, to report to the commander that there were no cases in the fourth tower? But it is necessary, not for us, but for Mityukha. So that Mityukha believes with all his heart that if at eight hours and the flag will not be raised and the gentlemen officers will not report, it means that at eight o’clock one minute the end of the world will happen...”

Of course, we did not serve in the Tsar’s Navy. And we didn’t call the sailors Mityukhs, but respectfully said “Sailors”. But this doesn’t change the essence of the matter... :))

Epilogue

Immediately after this emergency, the most floating admiral of the Navy, Deputy. The Commander of the Northern Fleet, Admiral Kruglyakov, whose sailing time during his service on ships of the Pacific and Northern Fleets amounted to 1,500,000 miles (at this time he remained with the Commander). And soon the only (in the opinion of many officers) admiral-intellectual was “removed”: the commander of the Northern Fleet, Admiral Mikhailovsky, hero of the Soviet Union, Doctor of Military Sciences. Thus, an accidental incident gave rise to the removal of two worthy admirals, putting an end to their future careers (they ended their service in coastal positions - Head of the Main Directorate of Navigation and Oceanography of the USSR Ministry of Defense and Chairman of the Standing Commission of State Acceptance of the Navy).

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