Living conditions of a sailor on a Russian submarine. The world from periscope

I studied at Naval Academy them. Dzerzhinsky, but this is the officer’s path. And as a sailor you can get on the submarine through the military registration and enlistment office: they send conscripts to The educational center, where preparations take place for six months. Each specialty has its own combat unit, like departments in a company. The first is navigation, the second is missile, the third is mine-torpedo, the fourth is radio equipment and communications, which I ended up in later, and the fifth is electromechanical, the largest. From the first to the fourth parts - this is the so-called warhead suite. They walk around clean and tidy. And BC5 are “oil pumps”, they are knee-deep in oil and water, they have all the holds, pumps and engines. After training, they are assigned to bases. Now the submarines are based either in the North, in Western Litsa, Gadzhievo, Vidyaevo, or in Kamchatka, the city of Vilyuchinsk. There is another base at Far East- people call it Big Stone or Texas. There are no nuclear submarines in the Baltic and Black Seas - only diesel ones, that is, not combat ones. I got to Northern Fleet, in Western Litsa.

First dive

When a submarine goes to sea for the first time, all sailors must undergo a rite of passage. I had a minimal one: sea water was poured into the ceiling from the cabin, which you had to drink. Its taste is terribly astringent and bitter. There have been numerous cases where people immediately vomited. Then they presented me with a hand-drawn certificate that I was now a submariner. Well, on some boats the “kiss of the sledgehammer” is added to this ritual: it is hung from the ceiling and, when the ship rocks, the sailor must contrive and kiss it. The meaning of the last rites eludes me, but there is no arguing here, and this is the first rule you learn when you board.

Service

Almost every submarine has two crews. When one goes on vacation (and they are due after each autonomy), the other takes over. First, tasks are practiced: for example, diving and communicating with another submarine, deep-sea diving maximum depth, training shooting, including surface ships, if all the exercises are accepted by the headquarters, then the boat goes to military service. Autonomy lasts differently: the shortest is 50 days, the longest is 90. In most cases, we swam under the ice North Pole- so the boat is not visible from the satellite, but if the boat floats in seas with clean water, it can be seen even at a depth of 100 meters. Our task was to patrol a section of the sea in full readiness and the use, in the event of an attack, of weapons. One submarine with 16 ballistic missiles on board could wipe out, for example, Great Britain from the face of the Earth. Each of the 16 missiles carries 10 autonomous warheads. One charge is equal to about five to six Hiroshimas. It can be calculated that we carried 800 Hiroshimas with us every day. Was I scared? I don’t know, we were taught that we are afraid of those whom we can shoot at. Otherwise, I didn’t think about death, you don’t walk around every day and think about the proverbial brick that might fall on your head? So I tried not to think.

Life

The submarine's crew maintains a 24-hour watch in three four-hour shifts. Each shift has breakfast, lunch and dinner separately, with virtually no communication with each other. Well, except for meetings and general events - holidays, for example, or competitions. Entertainment on the boat includes chess and domino tournaments. We tried to do something athletic like lifting weights or doing push-ups, but we were forbidden because of the air. It is artificial in the submarine, with a high content of carbon dioxide CO2, and physical exercise had a bad effect on the heart.

They also show us a movie. When there weren't all these tablets and DVD players, there was a film projector in the common room. They played mostly something patriotic or comedy. All erotica, of course, was prohibited, but the sailors got out of it: they cut up the most explicit moments of films where a girl undresses, for example, glued them together and passed them around.

To live in confined space not as difficult as it seems. Largely because you are busy all the time - you spend eight hours on shift. You need to monitor the indicators of the sensors, the remote control, take notes - in general, you won’t be distracted by sitting and thinking about life. Every day at approximately 15:00 everyone is raised to the “small tidy up”. Everyone goes to clean some area. For some it’s a control panel from which you need to brush off the dust, while for others it’s a latrine (a latrine for sailors in the bow of the ship. - Editor’s note). And the most offensive thing is that the areas assigned to you do not change throughout the service, so if you have already started scrubbing the toilet, you scrub it until the end.

What I liked about swimming was the lack of seasickness. The boat swayed only when on the surface. True, according to the rules, the boat is required to surface once a day to conduct a radio communication session. If under the ice, then they look for wormwood. Of course, you can’t go out to breathe, although there have been cases.

Food

During the day, the cook must not only cook for a crowd of 100 hungry sailors nine times, but also set the tables for each shift, then collect the dishes and wash them. But, it should be noted, submariners are fed very well. For breakfast there is usually cottage cheese, honey, jam (sometimes from rose petals or walnuts). For lunch or dinner, be sure to have red caviar and sturgeon balyk. Every day a submariner is given 100 grams of dry red wine, chocolate and roach. Just at the very beginning, back in Soviet times, when they talked about how to whet the appetite of submariners, the commission was divided: they voted for beer, others - for wine. The latter won, but for some reason the roach that came with beer was left in the ration.

Hierarchy

The crew consists of officers, midshipmen and sailors. The main one is still the commander, although an internal hierarchy also exists. Officers, for example, except for the commander, call each other only by first name and patronymic, and they demand that they be addressed accordingly. In general, the subordination is like in the army: the boss gives an order - the subordinate carries it out without comment. Instead of hazing, there is an anniversary celebration in the navy. Those sailors who have just joined the fleet are called crucians: they must sit quietly in the hold and remove water and dirt. The next caste is the podgodok - a sailor who has served for two years, and the toughest ones are the podgodki - they have a service life of more than 2.5 years. If eight people are sitting at the table, of which, for example, two are two years old, then the food is divided in half: one half is theirs, and the other is everyone else’s. Well, they can also take away the condensed milk or send you to run for an awl. Compared to what happens in the army, there is practically equality and brotherhood.

The Charter is the Bible, it’s our everything, consider it. True, sometimes it gets ridiculous. For example, according to Art. 33 of the drill regulations of the Russian military forces, movement at a run begins only with the command “run march”. And then one day the deputy division commander at sea went to the latrine, and there was a lock hanging there. He came to the central one and ordered the first mate: “First mate, open the latrine.” The chief mate sits with his back - does not react. The deputy division commander could not stand it: “First mate, run and bring the key.” And he continues to sit as he was sitting. “Run, I tell you! Can't you hear me? Run! Damn..!!! What are you waiting for?" The chief mate closed the charter, which he had read, it seems, everything free time, and says: “I’m waiting, comrade captain of the first rank, for the march command.”

Commanders

There are different commanders, but all should inspire awe. Sacred. To disobey or contradict him is to receive a personal reprimand at the very least. The most colorful boss I have come across is captain first rank Gaponenko (last name has been changed. - Ed.). This was in the first year of service. As soon as they reached Motovsky Bay, Gaponenko disappeared from sight with the flagship Kipovets (position on the boat, instrumentation and automation mechanic - Instrumentation and automation) in his cabin. For five days they drank without drying out, on the sixth day Gaponenko suddenly rises to the central one in a Canadian jacket and felt boots: “Come on,” he says, “come up, let’s smoke.” We smoked. He went downstairs and looked around: “What are you doing here, huh?” We say that we are practicing training maneuvers, but we need to cooperate with the neighboring boat, the 685th onboard. He suddenly climbed behind the remote control, took the microphone and went on air. “685th Airborne, I am 681st Airborne, I ask you to fulfill your “word” (and the word is on maritime language means to stop moving, to stop).” There was some humming at the other end of the line. And then: “I’m the 685th Airborne, I can’t fulfill my “word.” Welcome." Gaponenko began to get nervous: “I order you to fulfill your ‘word’ immediately!” And in response, even more insistently: “I repeat to you, I cannot fulfill my ‘word’. Welcome." Then he became completely furious: “I, b..., order you, su..., to fulfill your “word”...! Immediately, do you hear! I am captain first rank Gaponenko! You come to the base, su..., I’ll fucking hang you by your ass!..” There was an embarrassed silence. Here the radio operator, half-dead with fear, turns even more pale and whispers: “Comrade captain of the first rank, I apologize, I was mistaken, we need the 683rd airborne, and the 685th airborne is an airplane.” Gaponenko broke the remote control, exhaled: “Well, you’re all assholes here,” - he went back to the cabin and did not appear again until the ascent.

Illustrations: Masha Shishova

A submarine sailor anonymously spoke about what a sledgehammer's kiss is, why you eat wine with a roach, and why some submariners have to scrub their toilets for years.

Submarine

I studied at the Naval Academy named after. Dzerzhinsky, but this is the officer’s path. As a sailor, you can also get onto a submarine through the military registration and enlistment office: they send conscripts to a training center, where training takes place for six months. Each specialty has its own combat unit, like departments in a company. The first is navigation, the second is missile, the third is mine-torpedo, the fourth is radio equipment and communications, which I ended up in later, and the fifth is electromechanical, the largest.

From the first to the fourth parts - this is the so-called warhead suite. They walk around clean and tidy. And BC5 are “oil pumps”, they are knee-deep in oil and water, they have all the holds, pumps and engines. After training, they are assigned to bases. Now the submarines are based either in the North, in Western Litsa, Gadzhievo, Vidyaevo, or in Kamchatka, the city of Vilyuchinsk. There is another base in the Far East - it is popularly called Big Stone or Texas. There are no nuclear submarines in the Baltic and Black Seas - only diesel ones, that is, not combat ones. I ended up in the Northern Fleet, in Zapadnaya Litsa.

First dive

When a submarine goes to sea for the first time, all sailors must undergo a rite of passage. I had a minimal one: sea water was poured into the ceiling from the cabin, which you had to drink. Its taste is terribly astringent and bitter. There have been numerous cases where people immediately vomited. Then they presented me with a hand-drawn certificate that I was now a submariner. Well, on some boats the “kiss of the sledgehammer” is added to this ritual: it is hung from the ceiling and, when the ship rocks, the sailor must contrive and kiss it. The meaning of the last rites eludes me, but there is no arguing here, and this is the first rule you learn when you board.

Service

Almost every submarine has two crews. When one goes on vacation (and they are due after each autonomy), the other takes over. First, tasks are practiced: for example, diving and communicating with another submarine, deep-sea diving to maximum depth, training firing, including at surface ships, if all the exercises are accepted by the headquarters, then the boat goes into combat service. Autonomy lasts differently: the shortest is 50 days, the longest is 90.

In most cases, we sailed under the ice of the North Pole - so the boat is not visible from the satellite, and if the boat floats in seas with clear water, it can be seen even at a depth of 100 meters. Our task was to patrol the area of ​​the sea in full readiness and use weapons in case of attack. One submarine with 16 ballistic missiles on board can wipe out, for example, Great Britain from the face of the Earth. Each of the 16 missiles carries 10 autonomous warheads. One charge is equal to about five to six Hiroshimas.

It can be calculated that we carried 800 Hiroshimas with us every day. Was I scared? I don’t know, we were taught that we are afraid of those whom we can shoot at. Otherwise, I didn’t think about death, you don’t walk around every day and think about the proverbial brick that might fall on your head? So I tried not to think.

The submarine's crew maintains a 24-hour watch in three four-hour shifts. Each shift has breakfast, lunch and dinner separately, with virtually no communication with each other. Well, except for meetings and general events - holidays, for example, or competitions. Entertainment on the boat includes chess and domino tournaments. We tried to do something athletic like lifting weights or doing push-ups, but we were forbidden because of the air. It is artificial in the submarine, with a high content of carbon dioxide CO2, and physical activity had a bad effect on the heart.

They also show us a movie. When there weren't all these tablets and DVD players, there was a film projector in the common room. They played mostly something patriotic or comedy. All erotica, of course, was prohibited, but the sailors got out of it: they cut up the most explicit moments of films where a girl undresses, for example, glued them together and passed them around.

Living in a confined space is not as difficult as it seems. Largely because you are busy all the time - you spend eight hours on shift. You need to monitor the indicators of the sensors, the remote control, take notes - in general, you won’t be distracted by sitting and thinking about life. Every day at approximately 15:00 everyone is raised to the “small tidy up”. Everyone goes to clean some area. For some it’s a control panel from which you need to brush off the dust, while for others it’s a latrine (a latrine for sailors in the bow of the ship. - Editor’s note). And the most offensive thing is that the areas assigned to you do not change throughout the service, so if you have already started scrubbing the toilet, you scrub it until the end.

What I liked about sailing was the lack of seasickness. The boat swayed only when on the surface. True, according to the rules, the boat is required to surface once a day to conduct a radio communication session. If under the ice, then they look for wormwood. Of course, you can’t go out to breathe, although there have been cases.

During the day, the cook must not only cook for a crowd of 100 hungry sailors nine times, but also set the tables for each shift, then collect the dishes and wash them. But, it should be noted, submariners are fed very well. For breakfast there is usually cottage cheese, honey, jam (sometimes from rose petals or walnuts). For lunch or dinner, be sure to have red caviar and sturgeon balyk. Every day a submariner is given 100 grams of dry red wine, chocolate and roach. It’s just that at the very beginning, back in Soviet times, when they were talking about how to increase the appetite of submariners, the commission was divided: they voted for beer, others for wine. The latter won, but for some reason the roach that came with beer was left in the ration.

Hierarchy

The crew consists of officers, midshipmen and sailors. The main one is still the commander, although an internal hierarchy also exists. Officers, for example, except for the commander, call each other only by first name and patronymic, and they demand that they be addressed accordingly. In general, subordination is like in the army: the boss gives an order - the subordinate carries it out without comment.

Instead of hazing, there is an anniversary celebration in the navy. Those sailors who have just joined the fleet are called crucians: they must sit quietly in the hold and remove water and dirt. The next caste is the podgodok - a sailor who has served for two years, and the toughest ones are the godki - they have a service life of more than 2.5 years. If there are eight people sitting at the table, of which, for example, two are two years old, then the food is divided in half: one half is theirs, and the other is everyone else’s. Well, they can also take away the condensed milk or send you to run for an awl. Compared to what happens in the army, there is practically equality and brotherhood.

The Charter is the Bible, it’s our everything, consider it. True, sometimes it gets ridiculous. For example, according to Art. 33 of the drill regulations of the Russian military forces, movement at a run begins only with the command “run march”. And then one day the deputy division commander at sea went to the latrine, and there was a lock hanging there. He came to the central one and ordered the first mate: “First mate, open the latrine.” The first mate sits with his back and does not react. The deputy division commander could not stand it: “First mate, run and bring the key.” And he continues to sit as he was sitting. “Run, I tell you! Can't you hear me? Run! Damn..!!! What are you waiting for?" The chief mate closed the charter, which he had been reading, it seems, all his free time, and said: “I am waiting, Comrade Captain of the First Rank, for the march command.”

Commanders

There are different commanders, but all should inspire awe. Sacred. To disobey or contradict him is to receive a personal reprimand at the very least. The most colorful boss I have ever come across is captain first rank Gaponenko. This was in the first year of service. As soon as they reached Motovsky Bay, Gaponenko disappeared from sight with the flagship Kipovets (position on the boat, instrumentation and automation mechanic - Control and measuring equipment and automation) in his cabin.

For five days they drank without drying out, on the sixth day Gaponenko suddenly rises to the central one in a Canadian jacket and felt boots: “Come on,” he says, “come up, let’s smoke.” We smoked. He went downstairs and looked around: “What are you doing here, huh?” We say that we are practicing training maneuvers, but we need to cooperate with the neighboring boat, the 685th onboard. He suddenly climbed behind the remote control, took the microphone and went on air. “The 685th Airborne, I am the 681st Airborne, I ask you to carry out the “word” (and the word in naval language means to stop the progress, to stop).”

There was some humming at the other end of the line. And then: “I’m the 685th Airborne, I can’t fulfill my “word.” Welcome." Gaponenko began to get nervous: “I order you to fulfill your ‘word’ immediately!” And in response, even more insistently: “I repeat to you, I cannot fulfill my ‘word’. Welcome." Then he became completely furious: “I, b..., order you, su..., to fulfill your “word”...! Immediately, do you hear! I am captain first rank Gaponenko! You come to the base, su..., I’ll fucking hang you by your ass!..”

There was an embarrassed silence. Here the radio operator, half-dead with fear, turns even more pale and whispers: “Comrade captain of the first rank, I apologize, I was mistaken, we need the 683rd airborne, and the 685th airborne is an airplane.” Gaponenko broke the remote control, exhaled: “Well, you’re all assholes here,” - he went back to the cabin and did not appear again until the ascent.

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Service on a submarine is a constant danger: uncharted reefs, collisions with other submarines, mistakes by personnel or design engineers... Any of these situations can be fatal for a ship under water. Submariner, retired captain of the 2nd rank Alexander Nikolaevich Korzun told the portal about one of the most dangerous professions.

In the photo - Alexander Korzun after graduating from college.

After three months of training I wanted to run away

– It was easy to enroll, but to study was not easy. We got up at seven in the morning, exercised all year round in the fresh air, swam in the sea from May to October, and the water in the fall, well, you know what it’s like. Plus four times a week physical training with grueling cross-country runs.

At school we studied about 70 subjects, and training program was more difficult than at MSTU. N. E. Bauman. In the third month, I couldn’t stand it and with a couple of the same comrades I came to see the admiral and ask to be expelled.

The admiral did not heed the boys’ requests, but, on the contrary, convinced them to continue their studies.

– I remember most of all the graduation, on the last day we disrupted classes in every possible way, fooled around, dressed up a monument to Admiral Nakhimov in shorts, a vest and a cap. The dirks were given to us personally by the Hero Soviet Union Admiral Gorshkov. I remember that at the time of the ceremony, the seagulls very successfully encroached on his cap, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy noted in his hearts: “It’s good that cows don’t fly yet!”

Wardrobe-sized cabin with two hours of sleep

Alexander Korzun was appointed commander of the BC-5. To better understand what is hidden behind this abbreviation, let’s talk a little about the nuances of service on a submarine.

There are five combat units in the boat: the first is navigation, the second is missile, the third is mine-torpedo, the fourth is radio, the fifth is electromechanical, and the largest. The inhabitants of BC-5 were responsible for the ascent and submersion of the boat, for its movement, and the operation of all systems, so they always walked almost knee-deep in oil and water.

Of course, there was also a ceremony of initiation into submariners, which everyone, without exception, went through: both sailors and officers.

– During the first dive, sea water is collected, it is cold, -2 degrees, and salty. During the initiation, Neptune personally gives you a mug of such water to drink, and you also need to kiss the ceremonial sledgehammer - an instrument that is highly respected on the submarine.

The most harmful person on the boat is the political officer

– Socialist competitions were pure sabotage for him. For example, it was completely clear to me, as a motor specialist, that it was impossible to violate the standards prescribed in the technical documentation. It was difficult to explain this to the political officer. For example, there was such a standard that the boat should start moving in 19 minutes - this time was enough to warm up the diesel engine and bring it into operation. normal condition. If you do not meet the deadlines, a breakdown may occur.

Taking advantage of my absence, the political officer decided to win the socialist competition and make the move in 15 minutes, put pressure on the young lieutenant, who made the move earlier than expected. As a result, the boat's engines jammed.

It should be noted that in ten days the submarine had to go to sea on a combat mission. Therefore, imagine the condition of Alexander Korzun, who, together with his subordinates, had to stay awake for two days to bring the engine back to normal.

“After waiting until the political officer took up his sleepy watch again, we blocked the cabin door, and then, using the loudspeaker, which was turned on only for my room, we announced an emergency alarm. They threw several explosive packages, then the sailor began pouring water into the cabin with a syringe through the crack. The political officer howled and rushed about like a hunted animal. And when we gave the command to leave the compartment, he completely begged: “Brothers, don’t leave me!” In general, he did not sleep in my cabin anymore.

The US 6th Fleet watched through the periscope

Photo: aquatek-filips.livejournal.com

The ocean itself helps the stealth of boats, but sometimes chance gives submariners away.

–The ocean is a layer cake, the water in it is heterogeneous, there are layers in the sea that are called “liquid soil”. This is a substance similar to a gel. The sonar signal is reflected from it, and it cannot detect the submarine. I remember a case when we were given the task of taking telemetry from the latest acoustic equipment used by the British. We were already close to the coast of England, when suddenly a metallic grinding sound was heard and the boat began to lose speed. The commander ordered to increase the speed, but we did not move any faster. Then they decided to surface to periscope depth to find out what was going on.

We emerge and see that, smoking black pipes, with all our might the opposite side An English seiner is trying to sail, people are rushing about on its deck and do not understand what kind of leviathan is dragging them along. To stop or reverse - we’ll wind the net around the propeller, so we let it go as far forward as possible and go into the depths. The seine broke, but soon Avro Shackleton sea reconnaissance aircraft appeared above us, and then most of local fleet.

They chased us for a long time, and we just couldn’t break away, no matter what we did: evasive maneuvers, swam under several layers, and lay on the bottom - nothing helped. The commander was still perplexed why. Soon the battery ran out and we had to surface. And then it turned out that the seine had torn off our emergency buoy, which was trailing behind us everywhere...

Considering that we had to spend several hours charging, we also had the opportunity to communicate with the Americans. They invited us to have tea, and they invited the submarine commander by his first and last name and in Russian. In order to communicate with them, we asked for a weather forecast, which they kindly provided us with.

And after we charged the batteries, the commander of our submarine sent a message: “Shall we play?” The Americans answered in the affirmative, they were confident that they would easily detect us - specifications the submarines were well known, so it was not difficult to calculate where we would end up after a certain period of time.

But our commander turned out to be more cunning; he ordered to lie down and release a simulator, which the Americans chased after. And we, having waited until the threat floated away, went into complete opposite direction, collected telemetry from the latest NATO sonar equipment, thus successfully completing the assigned task.

The aircraft carrier required 22 conventional torpedoes or one nuclear one

– Americans project their military power with the help of aircraft carriers. To sink such a ship, it is necessary to hit it with at least 22 torpedoes. The aircraft carrier would not have sunk even from so many hits, but there would have been a serious list and it would have been impossible to use the main weapons - airplanes.

Naturally, one submarine won’t fire that many torpedoes in one salvo, and no one will let you fire a second time—they’ll sink you. Therefore, it is more logical to use a nuclear torpedo. But here, too, not everything is so simple: for this you need special code, parts of which are kept by three people on the submarine, one of them is the captain. Only by assembling the parts of the cipher in the correct order can the warhead be activated.

Torpedo compartment. Photo: aquatek-filips.livejournal.com

Less than half of my classmates are still alive

– There are a lot of flammable materials on the boat(hereinafter we're talking about about a diesel submarine. – Approx. ed) . Underwater at depth high pressure, and if any drive leaked, the oil simply sprayed around the compartment and flashed on contact with the same light bulb. The flame is so strong that in a minute the amount of oxygen decreases 30 times and the fire quickly spreads through the submarine.

If you do not batten down the compartment, the entire submarine and its crew will die. If someone did not have time to evacuate from the compartment, their fate was sealed. The death of the submariners was terrible.

Today Alexander Korzun is a completely land sailor. His hobbies are summer cottages and fishing. All free time is given to family. And he often dreams of the sea at night, and there, in his dreams, his submariner friends are alive.

P.S. If you have something to tell about military equipment, where you served, be sure to write to us at [email protected].

One of the Pikabu users under the nickname myironcomp, who turned out to be a submarine officer, spoke in detail about the pros and cons of serving on a nuclear submarine, about which little is known and which is often romanticized. Below are the words of the author.

So, I am a submarine officer, serving in the Northern Fleet. Since the topic is of such interest (although for me, as you understand, this is already commonplace, and all the romanticism disappeared when I received my first stars), I’ll tell you about my service on the nuclear submarine.

Let me start with the positives to make it interesting for you. The first plus, and it’s a very big one, is the salary. I think that submariners in the RF Armed Forces now receive the most, with the exception of pilots (those who fly) and various special forces (MTR, etc.). I don’t take the FSB, FSO and other services into account. So, the salary of a submariner officer is approximately 130-250 thousand rubles, depending on position, length of service, etc. if you have the full selected northern coefficient (serve 5 years in the North).

The second plus is a year in two. In my case (I graduated in 2011), I will choose the minimum pension at the beginning of 2019. Seven and a half years in the Premier League - and you are a pensioner. During this time, you choose 15 years and plus 5 years of college. The minimum pension in my case is 15 thousand rubles (tariff category: 12). If you continue to serve, then with the rank of captain-lieutenant and having served 15 years (calendar) in the North, you will receive ± 30 thousand rubles.

The third plus is vacations. Those serving in the North have various leave allowances. For example, I have 35 main + 15 northern + 15 (365th order) + 5 road + 20 OUS = about 80 days. Another question is how they will give it to you. You rarely get to take a full vacation, and sometimes you are “forgiven” for part of these days.

The fourth plus is rations. Every month, if you are not on allowance but eat at home, we are entitled to a ration. They provide a good range of products - butter, eggs, meat in briquettes, chicken, sausage, flour, vegetables, etc. If your wife knows how to cook (because you will have little time for this, but more on that below), you can live normally on this ration, buying only some niceties.

The fifth plus is housing. We submariners usually live in remote corners of our vastness. Upon arrival at my first duty station (the village of Vidyaevo), I was given 11 keys with tags on which addresses were written, and I went to choose my official housing. You can also get an apartment in Gadzhievo, Polyarny, Zaozersk, etc. I can’t say anything about the Pacific Fleet; I’ve never been there.

The sixth plus is the team. A submarine has its own atmosphere, but not here extra people(almost) every person is a specialist. There have been no conscripts on boats for a long time, after the tragedy on the Kursk. Of course, cohesion depends on the command, but, having been on four crews, I can say for sure: our relations are better than in the surface fleet (I was on the Petra, I was on the Ustinov). Example: if the boat is tidy, then everyone cleans up; contract sailors wash the deck shoulder to shoulder with old midshipmen and officers.

Now we need to dispel the pink clouds and move on to the disadvantages, or rather, the hardships of serving on a submarine. The first disadvantage is that you will only sleep at home. Your work will become your home for you, even though getting off on a submarine is easier than on NK (ships), you will be late to leave. Don't expect any days off, don't expect any time off. Constant training and exercises, and general stupidity is corrected by the number of repetitions.

If you are lucky enough to get a sea crew, you will spend a lot of time at sea, and it is hard there. Imagine being locked in a punishment cell, without windows, with artificial lighting, low ceilings and air recycled from your carbon dioxide and farting, with people you see every day. Your service at sea turns into Groundhog Day. Watch - breakfast - watch - lunch - exercises - dinner - sleep - watch, and so on every day. This is not NK, where you can go out to the tank, smoke and, inhaling fresh air, calm down.

Being a submariner means risking your life every day. It’s impossible to count how many emergencies there have been at sea. It would seem that the wiring has shortened, so what’s wrong with that? In a confined space there is no room for error. That is why we constantly train, bringing our actions to automaticity. Once every three months (if on the shore) we go to the UTK (training complex), where we burn, drown and fight for survivability.

And once a year we have a “wet torpedo”, which, considering my height, is a very scary event. You climb into the torpedo tube and crawl, then they supply water, and you, having reached the hatch and given a signal, float up in the pool.

At sea you have no connection with family and friends, the boat has left, and you don’t know what’s up there. Posts in the category of “would you be able to give up TV, the Internet and a smartphone for a certain amount of time for a certain amount of time” are amusing. I know exactly how much and for what amount I could - I have to. You are not paid extra money for going out to sea - this, in my opinion, is the third disadvantage. People take risks, deprive themselves of everything, and for this they are charged 500 rubles a day, to me it’s funny. Therefore, almost every submariner who has served and gone to sea would like to serve on a “sludge” - a boat that for some reason does not go to sea.

The fourth disadvantage is living conditions. You will wash once a week (searched more often), the ceilings are low, there is limited space everywhere, the GGSka (public address system), mechanisms, shields, etc. are constantly buzzing over your ear.

Well, for good measure, the climate in the north is quite harsh. In summer and early autumn it is beautiful, moss blooms, dwarf birch trees are covered with dwarf leaves, and the sun shines, but does not warm, for almost 24 hours.

29/07/2010

Few people think that diving in a submarine itself is real heroism. After all, only a few can survive 3 months under water - which is how long a standard combat campaign lasts. Captain first rank Evgeny Golovanov was the senior assistant to the commander of the Project 667 nuclear-powered missile cruiser from 1977 to 1984. He has 16 combat tours to his name. He talked about how the most ordinary actions in the depths turn into exploits.