Customer Reviews

Cry from the Deep: The Submarine Disaster That Riveted the World and Put the New Russia to the Ultimate Test

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In August 2000, a Russian sub goes mssing. The Russian authorities delay the news and, when they say anything at all, first want to blame an unspecified American sub for causing the demise of the Kursk. Cooler minds and a more open Russian press prevail, and the truth leaks out. A thorough, impressive work, "Cry" represents an excellent piece of investigative journalism, pushing aside the misguided "collision" theories and illustrating the demise of the Russian military.

Although long-time enemies of the Russians, American, Norwegian or British rescue craft and experts volunteered to try and could have perhaps saved lives after a low-quality, high-risk torpedo exploded inside the Kursk's hull during a training mission. But it was not to be. Old habits die slowly and the stubborn, proud, resentful Russians would rather be dead than helped. The result was even greater embarrassment, in addition to the sad deaths of the crew that survived the initial blast.

No one in the Russian naval, or political hierarchy comes off well in this story. The harsh truth is that Russia tried to maintain a world-class military appearence using dated and rusty methods, including unserviced supply cranes for loading torpedoes and a torpedo that -- although an $11,000 "bargain" when compared with America's million-dollar torpedoes -- was more likely to destroy its launch ship. And that is just what happened.

The real pity must go out to the patriotic, well-intentioned yet poorly trained and equipped sailors of a decaying naval power. And not only the determined sailors, their parents, wives, brothers and sisters, and children all deserve our prayers and our sympathy.

Ramsey Flynn jumped on the story early and had to deal with tremendous obstacles of technology, geography, politics, culture and language to piece together a true multi-cultural experience and a story that speaks for the tenuous nature of Russian-American relations today. He did a fine job. Maps, details, notes, photos and extensive notes document all the sordid details.

Let's hope we learned something from out mistakes, for the sake of our children and the memories of these heroic victims of a corrupt, disingenuous system.

Submarine disasters usually happen like the rest of the things about subs, alone, silent and deadly. Of the 52 boats lost during WWII, some are still unaccounted for, just not yet returned from patrol. With the Kursk, we know what happened. Experimental hydrogen peroxide powered torpedoes exploded inside the boat. (Strangely enough it appears that the American submarine Scorpion sank in 1968 because of a fire in their torpedos.)

The main part of this book, however, is not on what happened to the Kursk. It is on what happened afterward. The coverups by the Russian military and Government. The less than stellar performance of the American and British navies in delaying the offer of help.

This part of the book is extensively researched. It's tragic, but unfortunately the way of the world. People don't want to tell their managers bad news.

I've got to add that at least one wit has come up with another answer, it was Microsoft Windows XP. See: peter-marina.com/kursk.html

As I suspect many people can, I recall learning of the downed Russian submarine, the Kursk, in August 2000, and following the efforts of the Russians to recover any survivors from the wreck, as well as the tragic discovery after a week that none of the crew remained alive. Ramsey Flynn's account of the disaster, coupled with an analysis of the responses to the disaster by both the Russian and American governments, makes for a gripping tale that at once informs and saddens the reader.

The sadness is natural regardless of what the book might say, for the story of the Kursk is the story of the deaths of 118 sailors in the icy waters of the Barents Sea. The story is made far sadder, however, by the revelations provided by Flynn. At the same time, the depth and breadth of information the book provides the reader is a great value in understanding not only the particulars of this specific disaster, but just how risky military service remains even in peace time in the 21st century.

Flynn's prose may not be soaring, but it is quite sufficient to the story, and I found myself almost unable to put the book down as I followed the twists and turns of the story. The failures of the Russian navy and the Russian government to react promptly and effectively to the disaster are chilling reminders of how Russian history taints its ability to make a true transition to a free society. And the actions taken by the American government as they learned of the disaster, while understandable, provide a harsh lesson in the calculus of international relations. It's quite likely that, no matter what the U.S. government had done in response to the disaster, the results would have been the same. But if there was a chance for the doomed sailors of the Kursk, the actions of both the Russian and American governments helped to ensure that chance faded quickly.

My one complaint with the book is that, for all its information, the book never appears to answer one vital question: for how long were the sailors of the Kursk still alive in the crippled submarine? Flynn clearly wants to place some of the blame for the lost sailors on the slow reactions of foreign governments to the disaster (although that reaction was in large part predicated on the failure of the Russian government to tell the world what had happened), but without knowing how long the sailors remained alive, it is impossible to know if an immediate response on the part of the west might have made a difference. It's likely that nobody actually knows precisely how long the sailors survived after the explosions that crippled the sub, but spelling that out a bit more clearly would have helped immensely in interpreting the meaning of various delays.

Flynn's decision to tie the Kursk disaster to the larger question of precisely where Russia appears to be heading in the 21st century is a good one, and it adds some good relevancy to the work. (Although I am of the opinion that simply telling the story of the disaster would provide an adequately gripping tale.) The future of Russia remains very much up in the air, as their transition to democracy appears to have stalled in large part thanks to cultural conditions in Russia very different than those western audiences may take for granted. Flynn rightly leaves those questions to be answered in the future, but the signs he has identified through his work are discouraging at best.

Ramsey Flynn has performed a heroic task in researching the disaster that befell the Russian submarine Kursk. The Russians, clearly, are still not entirely forthcoming about all the events that led to the explosion of a torpedo inside the sub and the horrifying efforts of the Russian navy to first ignore the disaster, then its inadequate rescue efforts and the final attempts to blame the disaster on other nations.

Flynn explains every important element of the disaster in considerable detail --- and that is unfortunate because Flynn's writing is a bit pedestrian. While Flynn never leaves the reader wanting for information, he sometimes becomes boring.

Ultimately "Cry From The Deep" is readable and highly informative. You may just find yourself having to approach this book a bit at a time, lest Flynn's writing style cause to you to lose focus.

Jerry