During the Cuban Missile Crisis, or really the Cuban portion of the Turkey Missile Crisis (I'll explain later), Vasili was in charge of the submarine fleet. His sub was outfitted with a nuclear torpedo. It came under fire from the Americans; yes we opened fire on the Russians during the crisis. He was too deep to use the radio, and everyone aboard thought WWIII had already begun. To launch a nuclar strike, a unanimous decision needed to be made by him, the captain, and the political officer. He was the only one who voted no. Luckily, it turned out the depth charges were dummies, but inside the sub, there's no way to tell.
As for why the Turkey Missile Crisis, the whole thing started when Kennedy decided to place a battery of nuclear missiles in Turkey. This pissed off the Russians for good reason, and when diplomacy failed they did the same to the US. The result of the crisis was that the missiles were removed from Turkey, so technically, the Russians won the crisis. But the Americans got what they wanted too, so they won. But the crisis humiliated Russia in the eyes of the Chinese, so Russia actually lost. Whereas the crisis made De Gaulle convinced that the Americans would never help France when push came to shove, because they wouldn't help Cuba, so America lost the crisis too. Everyone got what they wanted, and still lost.
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Bigger hero was Vasili Arkhipov.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, or really the Cuban portion of the Turkey Missile Crisis (I'll explain later), Vasili was in charge of the submarine fleet. His sub was outfitted with a nuclear torpedo. It came under fire from the Americans; yes we opened fire on the Russians during the crisis. He was too deep to use the radio, and everyone aboard thought WWIII had already begun. To launch a nuclar strike, a unanimous decision needed to be made by him, the captain, and the political officer. He was the only one who voted no. Luckily, it turned out the depth charges were dummies, but inside the sub, there's no way to tell.
As for why the Turkey Missile Crisis, the whole thing started when Kennedy decided to place a battery of nuclear missiles in Turkey. This pissed off the Russians for good reason, and when diplomacy failed they did the same to the US. The result of the crisis was that the missiles were removed from Turkey, so technically, the Russians won the crisis. But the Americans got what they wanted too, so they won. But the crisis humiliated Russia in the eyes of the Chinese, so Russia actually lost. Whereas the crisis made De Gaulle convinced that the Americans would never help France when push came to shove, because they wouldn't help Cuba, so America lost the crisis too. Everyone got what they wanted, and still lost.