Preminin Sergey: biography and photos

At all times a man who accomplished a feat became a national hero. And if he did this at the cost of his own life, then the memory of his deed became eternal. But how else, because as a result hundreds, thousands and even millions of people are saved. And one of these heroic acts distinguished sailor Preminin Sergey. His feat will be proud of more than one generation of descendants. He demonstrated his strength and courage, without which it is impossible to accomplish anything standing on this planet. It can be no exaggeration to say that Preminin Sergei prevented a nuclear war that could unravel between the two superpowers. Thanks to him, the Atlantic Ocean was not affected by radioactive contamination.

The catastrophe that occurred with the submarine, caused a huge resonance in society. For the first time in the history of the Cold War, the party elite of the USSR did not classify it and the US openly declared it. Journalists subsequently turned to the topic of the catastrophe more than once. And today it is periodically covered in the media. The feat, thanks to which the young Preminin Sergey became famous, will certainly go down in history. But what is known about the sailor who, not being afraid to die, dared to do a heroic deed? Let's consider this issue in more detail.

Years of childhood and adolescence

Preminin Sergey Anatolyevich is a native of the village of Skornyakovo, located in the Veliky Ustyugsky district of the Vologda region. He was born on October 18, 1965 in an ordinary Soviet family living in the countryside. My father worked as an electrician, and my mother worked at the local linen combine as a cloth bleacher. Sergei was sent to study in a city school, located three kilometers from his native village. He walked every day on foot to get knowledge. Preminin Sergey grew up a modest, benevolent and hard-working boy and, as a teenager, he knew about carpentry quite well. He even could build a wooden hut with his own hands.

After graduating from the eight-year school, the young man became a student of GPTU No. 4 of the river fleet, which was in Veliky Ustyug.

Service at sea

In 1984, Preminin Sergey became a sailor of the Navy, before passing an internship in a special training unit of Severodvinsk. The young man was assigned to serve on the K-219 submarine missile cruiser of strategic importance in the position of "special bloom sailor of the 7th reactor compartment".

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Sergei Preminin, a photo of which 30 years ago did not leave the front pages of Soviet newspapers, would have continued his career in the Navy, if not for this terrible catastrophe.

In the fall of 1986, when an official meeting of the Soviet and American presidents was due in the near future, a torpedo explosion exploded in the rocket compartment of the K-219 submarine. Subsequently, experts have put forward several versions of why this happened.

The most probable of them was the assumption that there was a clash of K-219 and an American submarine that was following a Soviet ship. The incident occurred in the waters of the Sargasso Sea, directly off the coast of the United States.

As a result of this incident on our cruiser was damaged skins, and one of the rocket shafts began to fill with water. But it was not so bad. The military missile, which was in the mine, was squashed by a colossal water pressure, eventually a tank with an oxidizer was damaged. Toxic liquid in a few seconds poisoned the mine, which was filled with deadly gas. The boat began to quickly sink to the bottom. Only the operational and coordinated actions of the crew and the commander prevented the sinking of the vessel, which for a time even surfaced, which meant a complete failure of combat duty. But it was necessary to save the lives of people by all means. And then there is a new problem: one board was completely de-energized. After that, the emergency protection of the nuclear reactor was switched on. However, to neutralize the problem this was not enough. It was necessary to land the compensating grids of the reactor on the lower stops. And soon there is another problem. A very short time will pass, and the reactor, having increased its thermal power, will enter a state of acceleration. And then…

It is necessary to act immediately

To prevent a catastrophe, it was necessary to penetrate the "poisoned" mine, get to the hardware partition and personally land the compensating grids on the stops.

This task was assigned to the commander of the reactor compartment of Nikolai Belikov. It was expected that he would cope with it brilliantly, because he clearly knew where and what mechanisms are in the reactor. The commander had to find and mount a special key for manually lowering the compensating grating onto the actuator stem. At stake were not only the lives of people, but also the security of the whole planet. Wearing a special form, Nicholas reached the fence, he found a safe in which the special key was stored. He knocked the constipation with a sledgehammer and took out the treasured key. After mounting it, Belikov attempted to make several turns, but each of them took away an incredible amount of forces, the grating was giving way with great difficulty. The calmed, but glowing reactor made the temperature of the partition wall unbearably high. The compartment became very hot and stuffy. The commander fainted.

Sailor's help

It was necessary to do something urgently. It was decided to send Sergei Preminin into the problem compartment. The comrades believed that he would not fail. The young man dressed in a protective suit and went to help to Belikov, who had already begun to recover. After a while they worked together in the compartment. In turn, they made turns with a key and eventually dropped one lattice. However, it was incredibly difficult to work on a heated deck, so the commander and the sailor decided to relocate to the eighth compartment.

But then Nikolai Belikov became ill. Preminin Sergey, whose biography is familiar to many students of naval schools, ventured to go to the stokehold alone.

There is only one hope for him

Armed with the latest regenerative cartridges and stocking up with the remnants of drinking water, the sailor continued to solve the problem. And the temperature in the compartment was already prohibitively high - 80 degrees Celsius. Sergei understood the full extent of the responsibility that was assigned to him, and he was not afraid to die for the sake of saving his comrades. Once inside the compartment, he stopped for a moment. Probably wanted to warn about something. Putting on a gas mask and adjusting the box with cartridges, Preminin Sergey (the sailor) took a step in the opening of the bulkhead ...

Goal Achieved

He managed to cope with the task: all the grilles were attached to the lower stops, but back from the compartment the young man did not come out. After 30 minutes, the pressurized the bulkhead. Balanced it between the 7th and 8th compartments could not. Vasily Yezhov (the senior midshipman) and two other sailors tried to open the jammed door.

Inhaling with a couple of poisonous gases, putting out of action two emergency stops, tired sailors did not cease to hope for the salvation of their comrade, although they understood that Sergey's protective gear had already exhausted his resource.

Evacuation

The crew, although in every possible way resisted the catastrophe, but could not change the fact that the water gradually filled the ship's hold.

On the morning of October 6, 1986, the sailors of K-219 were evacuated to a court that came to the rescue. The last sinking boat was left by the commander. The crew members silently watched the K-219 hide in the depths of the ocean, taking with them the body of their comrade.

Awards

11 years after this terrible tragedy, Sergei Preminin was given the title of Hero of Russia posthumously. Ten years earlier, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, he was awarded the Order of the Red Star for his feat. Subsequently, the American ex-attache of the navy Peter Huhthausen and former K-219 star Khordin Igor Kurdin sat down to write the book in order to perpetuate the feat of Sergei. It was called "Hostile Waters". And in 1997, based on this work, the same film directed by David Drury was released. The role of the protagonist went to the famous actor Rob Campbell.

It should be noted that it was Peter Huhthausen who was collecting documents to the White House that the deceased sailor from the submarine K-219 was awarded the "Purple Heart" medal, which is presented to the distinguished serviceman.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, Preminin Sergey is the hero of the country. He accomplished the greatest feat for his Fatherland. And not only for him. He saved not only the US, but the entire planet from the threat of anthropogenic nature, which was very acutely perceived by the Soviet authorities after the Chernobyl disaster.