Greenpeace Ship VS. Russian Nuclear Submarine

An electric razor was considered to be new Russian secret weapon

The Andromeda submarine, a unique Russian nuclear submarine, celebrated its 20th anniversary. The submarine was launched in October of 1982, but it was added to the naval arsenal only eight years later. Even when this happened, the construction of the submarine was not yet complete.

Of course, there was no festive celebration with orchestras and fireworks. Several officers, who used to serve onboard the Andromeda submarine, had a drink and remembered their past. PRAVDA.Ru managed to discover a rare mystery, the secret of which was unraveled both for Greenpeace ecologists and for US naval intelligence. This scandal was about to become an international controversy. However, its clue was quite funny. Vladimir Chernolikhov, the senior mechanic of the Andromeda submarine told us the following story.

“This story happened more than ten years ago. I have probably forgotten some details of it, but I still remember the point of what happened back in those days. It is time to unravel military secrets. It happened in the summer of 1990. It was the era of perestroika, Boris Yeltsin, and the last days of the USSR. A Greenpeace ship traveled to the island of Novaya Zemlya, to our nuclear testing ground. The Soviet television broadcast a lot of reports about the CIA’s provocative activities. The Andromeda submarine was watching the Greenpeace ship in the Barents Sea, under a depth of 150 meters. The submariners were sick and tired of that convoy: the ecologists would either make sudden stops or change their course. They were definitely having fun with the Soviet sub. A submarine is not a bike, and it is not easy for a sub to follow a small vessel. The captain of the Andromeda sub was dog tired of reporting about the Greenpeace navigation. There were other ships to watch such ecological vessels, so the submariners were becoming more and more furious. They even called Greenpeace 'Green Piss,' made bad jokes about it, and tried to cheer themselves up.

“The captain’s senior mate Boris Durtsev started his watch, as angry as hell. Captain Guzanov retired to his cabin, because he trusted his experienced mate. Gazing at the devices in a very gloomy way, Boris thoughtfully said: 'Does anybody have an electric razor?' One of the warrant officers gave one to him.

“The submarine started a torpedo attack maneuver, and the people onboard the Greenpeace ship recognized it. The ship started rushing about. The captain’s mate entered the hydroacoustics cabin, holding the razor like a grenade. The Greenpeace sailors 'heard' the noise of a very weird torpedo that was coming from the Soviet submarine.

“Our sound technician 'broadcasted' the noise of Boris Durtsev’s electric razor. He did really well: the Greenpeace ship turned to the west and set off at full speed. They probably thought that it would not be good to joke with Russians. They got cold feet and escaped to Norway. Greenpeace never showed up again that year.”

This was the reason for the Greenpeace fright: an electric razor. An American delegation used to visit the city of Severodvinsk. A well-known Greenpeace activist, Joshua Handler, was a member of that delegation. It turned out that he was a crew member of the above-mentioned Greenpeace vessel. He said that the crew was really frightened with the razor joke. He said that the records of that weird noise were allegedly handed over to the naval department of the United States. The American secret service thought that it was another new Russian weapon.

The Americans actually believed that the Andromeda submarine was something like a secret weapon as well. The sub was docked at Sevmash Enterprise in Severodvinsk for ten years. The Americans were watching the territory of the factory with their satellites, trying to guess what the Russians were doing there for such a long time. On the whole, the Andromeda submarine was something between big luck and a big flop of the Soviet navy.

Andrey Mikhailov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov