K-19 The Widowmaker: The Secret Story of The Soviet Nuclear Submarine

by Peter A. Huchthausen

From the memoirs of K-19 Capt. N. Zateyev
July 4, 1961: The North Atlantic

"At 0415 I got a message, 'Reactor power has dropped to zero!'...We were facing the most dangerous calamity that could happen to a nuclear reactor. I ordered a radiation alert: 'Emergency in Compartment Six!'"

Captain Nikolai Zateyev, skipper of the Soviet submarine K-19, was 1,500 miles from home and 150 feet below the surface when he and his crew found themselves facing a nuclear nightmare. This dramatic book, companion volume to the film K-19: The Widowmaker, starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson, is a tale of Cold War crisis, courage, and cover-up that strips away 30 years of secrecy to reveal a Russian Navy whose worst enemy was itself. Drawing on Zateyevs own outspoken diary, author Peter Huchthausen, a former U.S. Navy antisubmarine expert, tells the story of the K-19 - and as he does, he also presents a capsule history of the U.S.S.R.'s desperate race to keep up with American submarine technology, as well as a shocking glimpse of nuclear wreckage and lost weapons littering the ocean floor. WIth rare archival photos, movie stills, and an afterword by director Katheryn Bigelow, K-19: The Widowmaker is a stunning account of an ill-starred submarine...and the courageous yet all-but-crippled fleet it symbolized.

Genres: History, Military Fiction, Nonfiction, Military History, War, Naval History, Russia

244 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2002

About the author

Captain Peter A. Huchthausen (USN, Ret.) was an American naval officer, naval attaché, author and businessman.

He received his commission upon graduation from the United States Naval Academy in 1962, and served in many different positions during his career, including two combat tours of duty during the Vietnam War, first with the United States Navy's Riverine Force in the Mekong Delta and later as Chief Engineer in the destroyer USS Orleck, which provided naval gunfire support to Army and Marine forces along the coast of Viet Nam. After service as a naval attaché in Yugoslavia and Romania, he served as chief of attaché and human intelligence collection operations in Western Europe for the Defense Intelligence Agency. During the late 1980s he was the senior U.S. Naval Attaché to the U.S.S.R.; he retired from the U.S. Navy in 1990.

Reviews

[Sheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book!!!! Don't let the cover fool you - it's not about the movie. Written from the diary of the actual K19 skipper, it details the USSR's quest for naval surpremacy at all costs.

Details the start up of their navy; the shoody workmanship, the lack of training and safety protocols and the cover ups.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captain Nikolai Zateyev provides a clear insight into the state of early Soviet nuclear submarines and the lack of safety involved. It’s a fascinating book to read and to have his own words explain the difficulties of the time period and with the K-19.

[Kelly Pochyba · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just wanted the story of the disaster I don’t care how a submarine is built

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at the total lack of safety in the Soviet Navy. Of course, the story as told in the book was quite a bit different from the story told in the corresponding movie. I actually liked the movie better than the book in this case. The bottom line is these boats were downright unsafe as the book makes especially clear at the end when describing all the disasters aboard Soviet submarines.
While it is always an honor and privilege to be able to serve one's country, for these sailors to do so aboard a Soviet submarine was truly a risk. The greater danger to these sailors was not the submarines of the West pursuing them, but the very submarine within which they were serving. Sadly, I don't believe that things have changed with the downfall of the Soviet Union. It would appear that from the end of the book, things are just as bad in the Russian submarine service as they were in the Soviet submarine service. As I'm sure late members of the Kursk could attest to. Perhaps one of the more horrifying aspects of this book is what the Soviets would do with faulty reactors aboard submarines. In most cases these submarines were scuttled in shallow water with the reactors still contained within the submarine. With that being the case the reactor, reactor fuel and other contaminated areas of the submarine were left to pollute the waters where they were sunk. With them being sunk in such shallow waters, the local human population is at significant risk as is any sea life. Even if there is no local human population one has to figure because of the shallow depth humans are still at risk from consuming any of the sea life that might be harvested out of the ocean.

[Matteo Di giovanni · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is undoubtely well written and catchy but, frankly, I expected something more than the mere transcription of the captain’s memoir about the accident. Actually, the transcription is presented without any comment by the author and with only a few original add-ons. Moreover, the memoir surely needs some clarifications because it is sometimes very sinthetic as Huchthausen himself. In fact, I could understand everything because I mostly already knew what he was talking about, but it may be puzzling to somebody not knowing about the topic.
Neverheless, this book can be seen as an overview of the situation of the Soviet nuclear submarine fleet during the cold war era.

At the very beginning of the book, the author also makes some confusions with the actual date of the Potemkin mutiny. And the account of the of K-129-related events are outdated today.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating history and, of course, exciting central tale that almost make up for the college term paper writing quality.* But if you want to read a good book about cold war submarine espionage, go read Blind Man's Bluff first. Then read this book as a companion focused on the Russian side.

*This is a book written by a US naval captain prominently featuring the memoirs of a Russian naval captain. They were good at being naval captains (presumably). Authorship is a different skill set.

[Le Bendalier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apasionante. Buena traducción

[Yvonne Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sad touching true story

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horrifying and great

[Bryce Nicely · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short read. Good, but tragic, story. Much of the book is taken from the Soviet Captain's memoir.

[Jordan Tignor · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for a novelization of the movie by the same title, this book might not be what you're looking for. However, if you're looking for a brief overview of the Soviet nuclear submarine program and the disasters that have taken place during its building, this may be your book.

Though it does focus primarily on the K-19 incident in 1961, the book also discusses other disasters that involved Soviet nuclear-powered maritime vessels that occurred during the Cold War. For me, reading the book frequently reminded me of an often-said phrase - "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." The book makes it very clear from the start that there were serious flaws when it came to the Soviet nuclear-powered submarine endeavours. In fact, there were serious problems before the Soviet Union began attempting to build a nuclear-powered fleet. What I found particularly interesting was the lengths the Soviet government would go to in order to cover disasters such as the K-19 incident up, and how they continued to proceed with an obviously flawed program despite all the facts and results of their previous attempts clearly showing that there were serious problems.

As stated before, the book does focus on the K-19 incident, using the submarine commander's diary entries as a primary resource. However, the book uses the K-19 incident as a launching point for a discussion about the Soviet submarine fleet and the numerous problems it encountered, deaths it caused, and continuing secrecy it's shrouded in. It even briefly discusses some of the environmental impacts the Soviet nuclear submarine program may have caused (and may still be causing to this day).

In general, I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the Soviet naval program. It focuses on a relatively well-known incident while giving readers other incidents to research/read about should they choose to. The book is, in my opinion, well-written and easy to comprehend once you get the hang of some of the technical terms. So, in conclusion, if you've an interest in Soviet military history, especially Soviet naval history, I would recommend this book as a starting point.

[Tyler Strandberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tyler Strandberg 3rd
K-19: The Widowmaker by Peter A. Huchthausen

I choose to read another original by Peter A. Huchthausen, K-19: The Widowmaker. It is one of his better books, but for some readers may seem quite bland. It takes place in the year 1961, when the nuclear race with Russia was at its highest tension point. This book was good, bad, dull, exciting, and filled with many more feelings. It follows the story of Captain Alexei Vostrikov and Mikhail Polenin.

In the beginning the story goes into long detail and specs about all different types of submarines and boats that were used in the previous war. It talks about how other countries, such as Russia, would take old shipwrecks from Germany and rebuild them to better condition. It also begins to talk about all the mishaps and other problems with this. Now back to the K-19, everyone on the ship were friends and shipmates for quite sometime other than Captain Alexei Vostrikov. While the Captain was going through inspections he had two crewmen replaced and one doctor was killed. To start their journey the bottle of champagne fails to break when it hits the ship, which symbols bad luck. Throughout the rest of the book in talks about fighting among crew members, people accusing other people of misfortunes, and other problems. Most tensions are between Vostrikov and Polenin about what the ship can handle. You also see the ship go through tough times facing other countries in battle.

People who enjoy naval battles, WWII history, boats, fighting, and most of all a good story line; these people would very much enjoy this book. Some things I liked, were how the author describes all the tension and battles on the ship. He does this with such good detail you almost feel apart of the crew itself. With the good, there is bad; including all the tedious descriptions of all the previous ships. Huchthausen goes into extreme detail on this portion of the book that is it hard to read and understand. But overall I very much liked this book and I do hope that you will like it too when/if you read it.

[Erik Kalm · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read that suffers from some clumsy writing and poor editing. The subject matter is certainly interesting, and actually quite frightening.
More than just a discussion of the K19 itself, the book gives a total overview of the criminally inept Soviet nuclear submarine and ship program. It is truly frightening to read how poorly the former USSR handled this dangerous material.It is certainly enough to make even this supporter of nuclear energy think seriously about how it should be controlled and used.
I wish I could give a half star, as 3 is a little low, and four is a little high.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling, quick read--even for those who aren't that interest in engineering. The idea of submarines makes me a little uncomfortable, and the thought of one with a nuclear reactor on board makes me even more so. I had no idea there had been so many Soviet sub incidents, although I am not entirely surprised.

Although this book has very technical aspects, it reads like a novel. I expected the book's focus to be more definitively on K-19. That particular sub does take up a hefty chunk of the pages, but its purpose is largely to be illustrative of the problems with the Soviet nuclear sub program. The title should probably have been tweaked somewhat to convey this.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative book relating to russian development of nuclear powered submarines. There are a lot of very tragic stories concerning the russian military's push for superior fighting vessel. I thought the book was really good, but really sad as well.

[Maysaloon Abu-Zaglan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let's be honest , the first thing that make me reading it is the title (widow maker), looks like will be a massacre and a lot of bloody views.

It is a historical true story , great full to read it and going to see the movie after word.

[Andrew]

Don't know if I'll be finishing this one. The writing is overly technical and incredibly boring. Hopefully we'll move past the submarine diagrams and into some good stuff.

[Robert Kaufman · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW

[Norbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting - but I preferred his k219 or (by other authors) "Blind man's bluff"

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't remember much about it.

This note was added years after reading the book.

Newmarket library.

[Scott Umphrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book. However, because it was written by two men, kind of disjointed.