The Soviet Submarine That Nearly Started Nuclear War

At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Soviet submarine B-59 was trapped beneath the Caribbean, cut off from reliable communication and surrounded by American naval forces. Inside the overheated submarine, the crew heard explosions around the hull and did not know whether they were warning signals, attacks, or the beginning of nuclear war. This story follows Captain Valentin Savitsky, political officer Ivan Maslennikov, and Vasili Arkhipov as a Cold War confrontation narrowed into one terrifying decision beneath the sea.

B-59 remains one of the most unsettling near misses of the nuclear age. American forces were trying to force the submarine to surface, but they did not know it reportedly carried a nuclear-tipped torpedo. The incident reveals how miscommunication, exhaustion, military procedure, and human restraint shaped one of the most dangerous moments of the Cuban Missile Crisis.