Product Description

In the worst peacetime disaster experienced by the Russian Navy, on 12 August 2000 the state-of-the-art nuclear-powered Kursk submarine sank with the loss of 118 officers and crew. The sinking was a humanitarian, environmental, and military catastrophe for Russia, and a powerful political reversal for President Putin But what really happened? Peter Truscott, former Foreign Affairs and Defence spokesperson in the European Parliament and Vice-President of the Security Committee, aims to provide the answers. An expert on Russia, with a modern history doctorate from Oxford University, Truscott has met President Mikhail Gorbachev, three Russian Prime Ministers, two parliamentary Speakers and the leaders of all Russia's political parties over the past decade. For this book, the author has also interviewed relatives of the crew; Russian, British and American nuclear submarine commanders; international torpedo experts; politicans; diplomats; British and Norwegian rescue teams and their leaders; submariners; seismologists and members of the defence and intelligence communities This work vividly re-creates the terrible final hours of the crew as they waited in vain for rescue at the bottom

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #473944 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Review
The Base: In Search of the Terror Network that shook the World

About the Author
Dr Peter Truscott was MEP for Hertfordshire between 1994 and 1999 and is now an Associate Fellow at the Institute of Public Policy Research. An independent policy analyst and broadcaster specialising in Russian, defence and security matters, he is also the author of RUSSIA FIRST (1997).

Customer Reviews

A brilliant book
Peter Truscott's 'Kursk: Russia's Lost Pride' is a brilliant read, gripping and at the same time historically accurate. Its is a very well written account of the events before and after a faulty hydrogen-peroxide fuelled torpedo exploded aboard the Kursk on 12 August 2000. Looking at the preface, Dr Truscott has certainly done his research thoroughly, and is an Oxford-educated historian with over a decade of working as a specialist on Russia. He describes not only the appalling events around the sinking of the Kursk submarine, but actually explains why the disaster happened in the first place, and what motivated President Putin and the Russian military in their reaction to tragedy. To my mind, this book is unique for three reasons. It points out that the Russians had a real fear that the West would use the Kursk's sinking to steal its military secrets. This explains why they were so reluctant to accept the proffered rescue help from the West. They were paranoid about Western spying agencies, but as Truscott points out, perhaps they were right to be paranoid. The level of mutual spying since the Cold War seems greater than ever, including in and under the Barents Sea. However, Russian paranoia can't forgive the appalling indifference and callousness shown to survivors aboard the Russian nuclear sub. The Russian President and the Navy High Command made it pretty clear the crew were expendable in the drive to protect the Kursk's military secrets. The Russians rescue assets may have been greatly inferior to the West's, but they obvioulsy preferred to try and fail with their own obsolete rescue equipment, than bring in the West with its state-of-the-art gear. Britain's LR5 mini-sub wasn't even allowed to go into the water during the rescue operation.
Secondly, the book shows how President Putin effectively 're-nationalised' the main media after the criticism he received from the media after the Kursk fiasco. He had disastrously stayed on holiday in Sochi on the Black Sea, refusing to meet the crew's relatives for 10 days. Since he took control of NTV and ORT, and closed down TV6, the Kremlin effectively controls all three main TV channels. Although the 'independent' Russian media was widely praised at the time of the accident for critcising Putin, its not so independent now two years on. Putin will easily get re-elected, for as this book shows, he has successfully purged the media, the military (sacking 14 senior Navy officers) and cowed the political opposition.
Thirdly, Peter Truscott shows that the 23 initial survivors of the two explosions of the Kursk had no way of getting out of the aft escape chamber. The design of the escape chamber meant it couldn't be 'flooded up' from the inside to let the men escape, so instead they had to await rescue from a submersible which never managed to 'mate' with the aft escape hatch. If they had been British submariners in a British sub they could have got out in the first few hours, as the ninth compartment started to flood, pressuer rose and the oxygen started to run out. Depth was not a problem, they were down at around 350 feet; British Navy divers have 'escaped' in training sessions from 500-600 feet. The key is to avoid hypothermia and the bends, and a handy decompression chamber could be vital.
All these details are unique and orginal, and together with a description of what the submariners and their families went through, I think this book is great and is the definitve account of what happended with the Kursk, and why it happened.

Worth your time.
As a submariner myself, its refreshing to see a submarine book that does not over dramatise the event that surrounded the Kursk incident. The book is very detailed, informative and well researched. The first half deals with, in very great detail, how the incident came about, faults, blames and times.

The second part of the book however deals with the way the Russians tried to hide the incident, and their inabilities to deal with it, leading to the deaths of all onboard. A great deal of high quality pictures are included, featuring some hard to find looks at the Oscar class submarine.

It really does bring home what I do, and hopefully it will be as gripping to non seagoers on the same level. Worth a read from anyone.