Vsevolod Bessonov

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Vsevolod Borisovich Bessonov (October 7, 1932 – April 12, 1970) was a Soviet Navy officer who commanded the submarine K-8. Born in Ivanovskoye, Kursk Oblast, he joined the Navy in 1951 as a torpedo specialist in the Northern Fleet and helped test a nuclear‑armed torpedo near Novaya Zemlya. In 1968 he became second in command of K-8, and in 1970 he was its captain.

During the Ocean-70 exercise on April 8, 1970, fires broke out in two compartments at about 120 meters depth. The reactors were shut down, and the crew initially evacuated, then re-boarded the surfaced submarine as a towing ship arrived. K-8 sank in the Bay of Biscay, northwest of Spain, with four nuclear torpedoes on board. Fifty-two crew members, including Bessonov, died; 73 survived. All hands died due to carbon monoxide poisoning and flooding during the damage-control efforts.

Bessonov was posthumously named Hero of the Soviet Union and also received the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner.