A unexampled opera house is to tell the account of a soviet naval officer who , in 1962 , narrowly prevented the world from enter a atomic warfare . Vasili Arkhipov was bear into a peasant family near Moscow in 1926 . Afterserving as a minesweeperin World War II , he commence work aboard Sovietsubmarinesin 1947 , rising through the rank before helping to prevent a mutiny on a atomic U-boat when there was a problem with its nuclear reactor .
Due to the incident , eight crew members we killed and Arkhipov himself became grisly with radiation intoxication , invite a dose that would finally take to hisdeath in 1998 . To most people , that would be enough incident for one lifetime , but for Arkhipov that was just a footer in his life ’s story ; as he would go on to single - handedly foreclose World War III .
Arkhipov was serving as second in dictation on the Soviet B-59 atomic hero sandwich at the fourth dimension of the projectile crisis . After the US govern a naval blockade around Cuba , the navy begin to drop profundity charges on Soviet grinder for force them to surface . The Soviets had been warned ahead of the non - deadly bang being drop , but this had n’t been conveyed to the commanders of its submarines in the arena . This lack of communication led to the maitre d’hotel of the B-59 , upon seeing charges being dropped at his vas , reason that World War III had broken out , as they were clearly being attacked .
Captain Vitali Savitsky prescribe that the pigboat ’s 10 - kiloton atomic hero be prepare , ready to launch at a US aircraft letter carrier , sending side effect towards ground . If the nuclear grinder had been launched , or any of the rest of the submarine ’s atomic arsenal , it would likely have led to revenge and – give the tensity of that moment in history – atomic warbetween the US and the Soviet Union , specially if the US trust the statement to flack had come from the Kremlin itself .
so as to fire the missile , however , the process required the captain , theship ’s political police officer , and Arkhipovto agree to the launch . Arkhipov was the only one of the three men who argued against launching nuclear artillery . After a foresightful contestation , he was able to convince the others not to launch , and instead come out the watercraft and request further ordination from the Kremlin .
The opera – cite ARKHIPOV – go through the story of the incident " from the initial excitement and camaraderie of the submariners through their increasing want , to a torment state in which a decision to destruct the man seems almost logical " .
The opera is typeset to runOctober 21 and 22at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Los Angeles .
