Vasily Arkhipov

Vasily Arkhipov

Vasily Aleksandrovich Arkhipov (Russian: Василий Александрович Архипов, IPA: [vɐˈsʲilʲɪj ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ arˈxʲipəf], 30 January 1926 – 19 August 1998) was a Soviet Naval officer who prevented a Soviet nuclear torpedo launch during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Such an attack likely would have caused a major global thermonuclear response, destroying large parts of the Northern Hemisphere.As flotilla Commodore as well as executive officer of the diesel powered submarine B-59, Arkhipov refused to authorize the captain and the political officer's use of nuclear torpedoes against the United States Navy, a decision which required the agreement of all three officers. In 2002, Thomas S. Blanton, then director of the U.S. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Vasily Arkhipov has received more than 803,187 page views. His biography is available in 35 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 30 in 2019). Vasily Arkhipov is the 359th most popular military personnel (up from 414th in 2019), the 307th most popular biography from Russia (up from 351st in 2019) and the 28th most popular Russian Military Personnel.

Vasily Arkhipov was a Soviet naval officer who is most famous for refusing to authorize the use of nuclear weapons against the United States during the Cuban Missile Crisis.