Twenty-five years ago, on August 12, 2000, the nuclear submarine Kursk sank in the Barents Sea, claiming the lives of 118 submariners. Twenty-three of them survived for some time after the accident, but rescuers failed to reach them in time. The official version attributes the disaster to the detonation of a torpedo on board. Yet many sailors remain convinced that the true cause was a collision with an American submarine that managed to slip away afterward.
Collision Theory Emerges
The theory that the Kursk collided with an American submarine surfaced immediately after the tragedy. Witnesses reported seeing the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine Memphis in the accident zone, which later docked in Norway for repairs.
One of the earliest proponents of the collision theory was former commander of the 3rd Submarine Flotilla and Hero of the Soviet Union Lev Matushkin, who claimed that white-and-green buoys—used by the U.S. Navy in emergencies—were spotted on the surface near the accident site.
According to Matushkin, the Kursk and the U.S. submarine were on converging courses when they collided. Positioned below, the Russian vessel suffered severe damage and struck the seabed. This impact allegedly dislodged a torpedo from its rack, leading to the detonation of its warhead.
Former Murmansk party official Vladimir Goryachkin also supported the collision theory. In the 2000s, he claimed the U.S. submarine sustained less damage and was able to leave the scene under its own power. He pointed to the unusual inward bend of the Kursk’s hull—officially explained as damage from the second explosion.
"Any submariner knows that an inward bend in the hull can only result from an external blow."
Admiral Vyacheslav Popov, former commander of the Northern Fleet, has remained a steadfast supporter of the NATO collision theory for the past quarter century.
Engineer-physicist Nikolai Karpan, former deputy chief engineer for science and nuclear safety at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, claimed that Norwegians found traces of an unidentified submarine on the seabed.
Collisions in Naval History
Submarine collisions are not rare in naval history—around 30 such incidents have been recorded worldwide. On October 9, 1968, Soviet K-131 accidentally struck the British submarine Warspite in the Barents Sea while it was spying. On February 11, 1992, the Russian B-276 (later renamed Kostroma) was rammed by the American submarine Baton Rouge in the same waters.
Arguments Against the Collision Theory
Military expert Mikhail Khodarenok told Lenta.ru there is no concrete evidence of a submarine collision in the Barents Sea.
"This theory has been voiced not only by Admiral Popov but also by many others in the naval expert community. I have seen photographs of the Kursk lying on the seabed—images almost no one else had seen at the time. The bow section was utterly devastated, torn to shreds all the way to the conning tower."
He noted that in the event of an underwater collision, the other submarine would have suffered comparable damage, yet no such data was presented. The seabed inspection yielded no debris or fragments suggesting a collision with an enemy vessel.
"Nothing supports this version. I believe it was the result of an initial torpedo explosion, followed by the detonation of the entire ammunition load."
Official Investigation Findings
According to the government commission, during exercises in the Barents Sea on August 12, 2000, an emergency occurred in the Kursk’s torpedo compartment. Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov stated that a fuel component leak caused a torpedo explosion, followed by a fire that triggered the detonation of the remaining torpedoes and missiles in the first compartment. The second blast destroyed several sections of the submarine.
Among submariners, another theory persists—that the Kursk was struck by a missile accidentally launched from the flagship cruiser Pyotr Veliky during the exercise.
In 2001, the Kursk was raised from the seabed. Engineer-physicist Andrey Ozharsky, a nuclear waste safety expert, explained that the reactor compartment, containing the reactor vessels and other radioactive waste, was removed and transported to a storage facility in Sayda Bay, Murmansk region.
In July 2002, the criminal case into the sinking of the Kursk was closed due to the absence of criminal elements.
