A Time to Die The Untold Story of the Kursk Tragedy

Dawn does no favors for Vidyaevo. Gray concrete apartment blocks squat in the valley, crumbling with neglect, and the roads leading to the central square are blistered and cracked. People live in this lonely corner of the Kola Peninsula only because someone has ordered them to do so. The only civilians allowed are the families of the sailors and naval officers, along with a few hundred local workers needed to support and supply the base. They are provided with documents and special passes to get through the security barricades and the perimeter fence. All other outsiders are strictly forbidden. There are no bars or cafes, no cinemas or sports clubs in Vidyaevo. There is not even a church or a school. This secret, desolate outpost lies within the Arctic Circle, eighty miles northwest of Murmansk. Moscow sits a thousand miles to the south, and the nearest communities are all other submarine bases. The teenagers of Vidyaevo are sent off to the cities to live with relatives; the elderly have sought sanctuary where the geography and the climate are kinder. Only submariners, their wives, and those children too young to be sent elsewhere remain. Those who live in the town say it is a community without a soul. Vidyaevo has 18,000 residents, but no one calls it home. During the long, brutal winter, the Arctic wind scythes through the town. There are naval ports along this coast where ropes are strung out along the roadsides to allow pedestrians to stay upright in the icy gales. In the humorous slang of the Northern Fleet, the sub base of Gremikha is also called "Flying Dogs," since the town's pets have been known to be blown through the air in the fierce wind. The locals wisely stay indoors or cling to the roadside ropes. Founded in 1968, Vidyaevo is one of a string of such military towns that the Russian Navy built on the Kola Peninsula during the height of the Cold War. For decades, maps of the region showed no markings at all for the submarine bases. Careful scrutiny of Soviet-era charts reveals just a mass of inlets and fjords and an enigmatic coastline. Only some of the larger towns are marked with mysterious names that hint at military settlements: Base-35, Severomorsk-7, Shipyard-35, Murmansk-60. The official thinking was that if someone had to look at a map or ask directions, he had no business going there in the first place. For much of its short history, Vidyaevo did not officially exist. The town was named after Fyodor Vidyaev, an impoverished trawlerman from the Volga region who became a legend during the Second World War as a fearless submarine captain. On April 8, 1942, his boat was severely damaged by a German destroyer, and Vidyaev attempted to limp home on the surface. With no power, he ordered the crew to stitch together a sail, tying it between the deck and the raised periscope. Unable to reach land, just as the crew was preparing to scuttle the submarine, they were rescued by another Soviet ship. After further combat patrols, each of them notching up successes against German shipping, in the summer of 1943 Vidyaev's Shch-422 submarine was lost with all hands. In the skilled words of Stalin's propagandists, Vidyaev made for a potent legend: the young fisherman from the south whose cunning and courage swung the battle in the Arctic against the Nazis. A solitary road leads to the Vidyaevo base, winding through the low contours of the Kola Peninsula. The only signs of life along the route are the dwarf birch trees, frozen for much of the year, their growth stunted by the weight of snow and ice upon them. That they grow at all in this climate is an extraordinary achievement. The stark beauty of the land seemA At 11:28 a.m. on Saturday, August 12, 2000, high in the Arctic Circle under the roiling surface of the unforgiving Barents Sea, Captain Gennady Lyachin was taking the Kursk, the pride of Russia’s elite Northern Fleet, through the last steps of firing a practice torpedo, part of an elaborate naval exercise. Suddenly, the torpedo exploded in a massive ?reball, instantly incinerating all seven men in the submarine’s forward compartment. The horror, however, was just beginning. The full, gripping story of the remarkable drama inside the Kursk and of the desperate rescue efforts has never been told—until now. In A Time to Die, a critically acclaimed best-seller in the United Kingdom, international reporter Robert Moore—who covered the Kursk tragedy from Russia as it happened—draws on exclusive access he obtained to top Russian military figures in telling the inside story of the disaster with the factual depth of the best journalism and the compelling moment-by-moment tension of a thriller. He takes us right down inside the Kursk as two massive explosions—the second measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale—rip through compartment after compartment. Bringing the horror of the explosions vividly to life, he details the agonizing drama of the twenty-three men who survived as they fight against time to be rescued. In a journalistic coup, Moore obtained secret access to the Kursk’s highly restricted Arctic submarine base, and he makes the desolation of that forbidden world palpable on the page. As word of the tragedy breaks, he portrays the fear and growing rage of the families of the crew as they clamor for news of their loved ones and confront Vladimir Putin, Russia’s newly elected president. Moore also vividly re-creates the nail-biting tension of the heroic but deeply flawed Russian rescue efforts as men are sent down again and again, aboard antiquated mini-subs, in perilous attempts to get to the survivors. As Western rescuers are at last called in, Moore richly describes the fascinating world of the offshore divers who drop everything to make one last, desperate attempt to reach the trapped submariners. A Time to Die is a riveting, brilliantly researched account of the deadliest submarine disaster in history and its devastating human cost.A At 11:28 a.m. on Saturday, August 12, 2000, high in the Arctic Circle under the roiling surface of the unforgiving Barents Sea, Captain Gennady Lyachin was taking the Kursk, the pride of Russia's elite Northern Fleet, through the last steps of firing a practice torpedo, part of an elaborate naval exercise. Suddenly, the torpedo exploded in a massive ?reball, instantly incinerating all seven men in the submarine's forward compartment. The horror, however, was just beginning. The full, gripping story of the remarkable drama inside the Kursk and of the desperate rescue efforts has never been tolduntil now. In A Time to Die, a critically acclaimed best-seller in the United Kingdom, international reporter Robert Moorewho covered the Kursk tragedy from Russia as it happeneddraws on exclusive access he obtained to top Russian military figures in telling the inside story of the disaster with the factual depth of the best journalism and the compelling moment-by-moment tension of a thriller. He takes us right down inside the Kursk as two massive explosionsthe second measuring 3.5 on the Richter scalerip through compartment after compartment. Bringing the horror of the explosions vividly to life, he details the agonizing drama of the twenty-three men who survived as they fight against time to be rescued. In a journalistic coup, Moore obtained secret access to the Kursk's highly restricted Arctic submarine base, and he makes the desolation of that forbidden world palpable on the page. As word of the tragedy breaks, he portrays the fear and growing rage of the families of the crew as they clamor for news of their loved ones and confront Vladimir Putin, Russia's newly elected president. Moore also vividly re-creates the nail-biting tension of the heroic but deeply flawed Russian rescue efforts as men are sent down again and again, aboard antiquated mini-subs, in perilous attempts to get to the survivors. As Western rescuers are at last called in, Moore richly describes the fascinating world of the offshore divers who drop everything to make one last, desperate attempt to reach the trapped submariners. A Time to Die is a riveting, brilliantly researched account of the deadliest submarine disaster in history and its devastating human cost.In a gripping and fast-paced narrative, Moore takes readers inside the "Kursk, " describing the explosion and its effects in horrifying detail. He then vividly portrays the agonizing drama of the next ten days as the Russians began their unsuccessful race against time.“Robert Moore’s account of the Kursk disaster. . .is a gripping tale. It is a moving tragedy redeemed by acts of extraordinary courage, which Moore narrates with great dramatic skill. The book has the plot, the tension, and the excitement of a film.” —Orlando Figes, author of A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution"Robert Moore's account of the Kursk disaster. . .is a gripping tale. It is a moving tragedy redeemed by acts of extraordinary courage, which Moore narrates with great dramatic skill. The book has the plot, the tension, and the excitement of a film." Orlando Figes, author of A People's Tragedy: The Russian RevolutionIn A Time To Die--already a critically acclaimed bestseller in England--renowned international reporter Robert Moore draws on the access he obtained inside Russia to tell the story of the Kursk disaster. With the factual depth of the best journalism and the riveting tension of a Clancy-style thriller, he takes us inside the Kursk as a fire ignites all the sub's torpedos in a massive explosion, blowing apart the front section of the boat. Eighty-eight men are killed almost instantly, but twenty-three surviving crewmen take refuge in the sub's small rear compartment. Moore describes the explosion and its effects with horrifying immediacy and portrays the agonizing drama of the next 10 days as, racing against time, the Russians make pathetically inept efforts to rescue the men and thwart a better-equipped Western rescue effort. Also, in a true journalistic coup, Moore reports from inside a highly classified Russian sub base, where the wives of the doomed crewmen desperately wait for word about their husbands.