Home Potato Khrushchev's visit to England on the cruiser Ordzhonikidze. Death under the cruiser. "Ordzhonikidze" followed the British

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Khrushchev's visit to England on the cruiser Ordzhonikidze. Death under the cruiser. "Ordzhonikidze" followed the British

The shooting of the historical documentary film with the working title "Attempt on Khrushchev", dedicated to the official visit of the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev to Great Britain on the cruiser "Ordzhonikidze" in 1956, has finished.

Among the cruisers of the 68-BIS project, to which the Ordzhonikidze belonged, only Mikhail Kutuzov survived, so the shooting was carried out on a museum ship, which is moored at the sea terminal in Novorossiysk.

The film crew of the United Media Group television studio commissioned by the Rossiya TV channel undertook to reconstruct the events of April 1956, when the world was on the brink of a spy scandal. The activities of the special services against the Soviet Navy culminated during the visit of the leader of the Soviet Union on the Ordzhonikidze cruiser to the port of Portsmouth. The main intrigue of the events is associated with the name of the ace of underwater sabotage operations of the British Navy combatant Lionel Philip Kenneth Crabbe, with his secret mission and the ensuing mysterious death.

It is expected that TV viewers will be able to see the film on the Rossiya TV channel in the first days of 2009.

An eyewitness to the events, retired captain 1st rank Viktor Mukhortov, told the SV correspondent what actually happened on the Ordzhonikidze cruiser:

- In April 1956, a detachment of Soviet ships as part of the Ordzhonikidze cruiser, whose party organization secretary I was at that time, of the Watching and Perfect destroyers were on a visit to England. He brought there a large party and government delegation of the USSR - the first secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU N.S. Khrushchev, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR N.A. Bulganin, the country's leading aircraft designer A.N. Tupolev, academician-atomic scientist I.V. Kurchatov and other officials.

Early in the morning of April 19, the watchman of one of the destroyers noticed how someone surfaced on the side of the cruiser and immediately sank. This was immediately reported to the commander of the ship, and he handed it over to the cruiser. The suspicion arose that the British scouts were trying to conduct a secret survey of the ship's bottom and propellers, since the cruiser had a high speed - 32 knots and very good maneuverability. A sabotage was not ruled out - the installation of a mine under the bottom so that when the cruiser enters the North Sea, it explodes. The death of the ship with the government delegation could be explained by the fact that the cruiser was blown up by a wartime mine.

Appropriate security measures were taken and the British authorities were informed. Soon, on one of the islands near Portsmouth, a corpse was found in a light diving suit, in which Lieutenant-Commander Leonel Crabbe was identified, a formerly famous underwater swimmer who fought with Italian scuba divers-saboteurs in the Mediterranean during the Second World War. A scandal broke out in British government circles over the so-called "Crabbe case." The Prime Minister of England, Anthony Eden, was forced to speak in the House of Commons and declare that the government was not informed by the intelligence services about the Crabbe operation and could not authorize it. The Labor Party, which was in opposition at the time, condemned the British government for the act of espionage during a friendly visit by Soviet ships and demanded an investigation.

On April 19, 1956, the British Navy announced that Crabbe "did not return from an experimental dive to test some submersibles at Stoke Bay, Portsmouth." Therefore, many versions and assumptions arose about it. For example, there were rumors that Crabbe's associate in the fight against Italians, Sydney Knowles, claimed that Crabbe was a double agent and immediately after the war began working for Soviet intelligence. And the operation against "Ordzhonikidze" was used to transport him to the Soviet Union. There were other versions: allegedly when the diver was found near the cruiser, the Soviet divers caught up with him and captured him. Then they recruited him, and he began to train Soviet submariners.

I personally happened to hear one military propagandist who claimed that when a diver was found, an order was given and the cruiser turned the propellers, which destroyed the saboteur. After the lecture, I went up to the lecturer and tactfully explained: in order for a cruiser at anchor to turn the propellers, it takes four hours of preparation, and urgently - two hours. During this time, the saboteur would have swum long ago in the direction he needed.

Only quite recently has there been a clarification of the event that took place on April 19, 1956 in Portsmouth under the cruiser Ordzhonikidze. The "RenTV" channel showed the documentary "The Revelation of the Sea Devil", in the preparation of which I also took part. Its main hero was Eduard Koltsov. In his interview, Koltsov said that at the time, at the age of twenty-three, he was an underwater scout. When the cruiser's acoustician discovered a suspicious object under the bottom of the ship, the head of the reconnaissance group called Koltsov and instructed him to go under the water and act according to the circumstances. Koltsov did just that. Soon he noticed the silhouette of a man in a light diving suit who was planting a mine on the starboard side, exactly where the charging cellars are. Observing caution, our scout approached the saboteur, grabbed him by the boots and pulled him towards himself. When the body of the saboteur swam next to him, Koltsov cut the breathing device with a knife, and then the throat of the enemy. The swimmer's corpse let go downstream, removed the mine from the side and dragged it to the corner of the pier, where there were no people, a lot of silt and all kinds of refuse accumulated. For this feat, Eduard Koltsov received the Order of the Red Star.

This is how we found out what really happened. As for Leonel Crabbe, the English archives about him are classified until 2057. Why? Apparently, on his conscience and on the conscience of the British government the death of many ships, including, perhaps, our battleship Novorossiysk, which exploded in 1955 in Sevastopol. In any case, at the time, Crabbe was in command of the 12th naval sabotage group.

It is curious that the further fate of the cruiser "Ordzhonikidze" is connected with the name of Khrushchev.

In February 1960 Nikita Sergeevich arrived in Indonesia. During the visit, an agreement was signed on the supply of ships, aircraft, helicopters, tanks and other weapons. Undoubtedly, the most expensive object among them was the Ordzhonikidze cruiser. Until that day, ships of such a displacement had not been transferred to other fleets of the USSR. On August 5, 1962, the Ordzhonikidze cruiser arrived in Surabaya and, after the transfer ceremony and renaming into Irian, on January 24, 1963, she was expelled from the USSR Navy. In 1965, as a result of a coup, Suharto came to power in Indonesia. The cruiser was turned into a floating prison for opponents of the new regime. In 1972 "Ordzhonikidze" - "Irian" was dismantled for scrap.

Warships go down in the history of their state not only by victories in naval battles. Sometimes they have to carry out important diplomatic missions. The author of these lines happened to witness such a mission of the seamen of the Baltic Fleet.

Heading to Portsmouth

55 years ago, on April 15, 1956, a detachment of ships of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet consisting of the Ordzhonikidze cruiser and the Watching and Perfect destroyers left Baltiysk and headed for the shores of England.

On board the cruiser were the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee N.S. Khrushchev, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR N.A. Bulganin, members of the government delegation, famous aircraft designer A.N. Tupolev and the little-known at that time academician-atomic scientist I.V. Kurchatov. This campaign is significant in that then for the first time in the history of the Soviet Navy, a government delegation of such a high level was delivered to a foreign country on a warship.

On the ship during the cruise, the members of the delegation behaved in a relaxed and approachable manner. Each of them could be addressed with any question. I also had a chance to talk with Khrushchev. During our conversation, I said that I had heard from the party activists about the decision of the Soviet government to start large construction projects in Siberia and the Far East. At the same time, it was supposed to invite workers from China. Khrushchev replied: “Before, when we were with Bulganin and Mikoyan in China, there really was a conversation about this. But now we have decided that we will have enough of our own labor force. will give us industrial cities ... "

The assistant commander of the ship, Lieutenant-Commander Varik asked Bulganin: "Is it true that Kurchatov is three times Hero of Socialist Labor?" Nikolai Aleksandrovich replied: "Yes, three times Hero. This is our big head. He invented the atomic and hydrogen bombs, no matter how they stole him from us in England."

On April 17, the cruiser was in the North Sea - it was Khrushchev's birthday (he turned 62). The ceremony of congratulating the hero of the day took place on the ship's quarterboard. Khrushchev in his speech thanked the audience for their good wishes. Then he briefly spoke about the responsible mission to be carried out in England, emphasized the desire of the Soviet people for peaceful coexistence with all countries. After the official events, we all took pictures together, and then watched the concert of the Baltic Fleet Song and Dance Ensemble.

The next day, Portsmouth, the main base of the British Navy, awaited us.

Stay in England

On the morning of April 18, on the way to Portsmouth, we were greeted by the British destroyer Vigo, with whom we exchanged fireworks and accompanied by which we passed the sea channel to the wall, where we moored. Members of the Soviet government delegation went ashore, they were greeted by officials of the British government and the Soviet embassy.

On the very first day of our stay, a large group of our officers were invited to a friendly dinner by the British sailors of the Tyne floating base. Officers from the aircraft carrier "Bulvark" and many other ships also arrived here. The entire reception, according to Western etiquette, took place while standing. This surprised us a lot. There were many drinks, and as a snack a piece of sausage or a small sausage was served on a stick. What is this for a Russian person?

And when the return visit of British officers to our cruiser took place, we met them according to Russian custom. They sat down at tables bursting with an abundance of food and drinks. Not all Englishmen could endure this kind of hospitality ...

During our stay in Portsmouth, an incident occurred which later became widely known as the "Crebb case." In the early morning of April 19, a watchman on the tank of one of the Soviet destroyers saw a man in a diving suit emerge from the side of our cruiser and, after staying on the surface for a short time, sank again. This was immediately reported to the command of the detachment. The suspicion arose that the British were trying to conduct a secret inspection of the ship's bottom. Sabotage was not ruled out - blowing up the cruiser after entering the open sea. Therefore, an urgent inspection of the underwater part was organized.

Soon, our command learned that Lionel Crabb, a well-known underwater saboteur, had disappeared from the British Navy. It was assumed that he died. After the collapse of the USSR, many versions and the most incredible assumptions appeared. So, in one of the Moscow newspapers, a small report was published that Krebb was ... our intelligence officer and returned to the Soviet Union on a cruiser. And in the book "One Hundred Great Mysteries of the 20th Century" it was stated that Soviet scuba divers captured the Englishman, on board a cruiser he was secretly taken to the USSR, where he became a coach of Soviet submariners.

In November 2007, the film Revelations of the Sea Devil was shown on television. In the film, a new interpretation of events was given, their participant Eduard Koltsov spoke about this. According to him, after the cruiser's acoustician discovered a suspicious object under the bottom of the ship, Koltsov was instructed to dive and act according to the circumstances. When he went down into the water, he soon noticed the silhouette of a man in a light diving suit, who was planting a mine on the starboard side - where the charging cellars are located. Being careful, he approached the diver and cut his breathing device, then hit him in the throat. The swimmer's body was carried away by the current, and our scuba diver moved the mine to the corner of the pier. For this feat, Eduard Koltsov, as claimed, received the Order of the Red Star ...

Homecoming

On April 27, members of the Soviet government delegation returned from London to Portsmouth, and on the same day the cruiser Ordzhonikidze, together with the destroyers, gave up the mooring lines and departed from the pier.

Leaders and members of the government delegation rarely appeared on the upper deck. This, apparently, was not facilitated by the gloomy, cloudy weather on the high seas.

A significant event for our crew was the presence on the ship of such prominent scientists as aircraft designer A.N. Tupolev and academician-atomic scientist I.V. Kurchatov. My acquaintance with Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov took place back in Baltiysk. Then I was instructed to meet him on the ladder and escort him to the cabin reserved for him, which I did.

True, at that time there was a small incident. When Kurchatov climbed onto the deck, I went up to him, introduced myself and wanted to take his briefcase from him to help carry him to the cabin. He politely stopped me. Believing that all this is done out of modesty, I persisted, and the briefcase was in my hands. It was only later that I realized that I had been tactless. After all, in his portfolio he obviously had secret documents, and he was afraid to entrust them to a stranger. But be that as it may, we walked across the waist to his cabin, I put his briefcase on the table and wished him a happy voyage.

On the way back to Baltiysk, we had the opportunity to organize meetings of Academician Kurchatov with the ship's personnel. As the secretary of the cruiser's party organization, I was instructed to contact Kurchatov and, if he agrees, to agree on the time of the speech.

Igor Vasilievich warmly received me in his cabin and immediately agreed when I conveyed the crew's request. When asked about the time of the speech, he replied: "Despite the fact that I have a lot of work here, I still would not want to disrupt your daily routine, so let's arrange a meeting when it is more convenient for the sailors."

We agreed to hold the event after the change of the next watch - at 16 o'clock. At the appointed time, Igor Vasilyevich came to the ship's cockpit, sat down on the sailor's locker and for about two hours told the audience about the peaceful use of atomic energy. He also talked about the creation of atomic weapons. He spoke in particular detail about how the hydrogen bomb was created. I remember his words well: "Everything that happened during its tests exceeded all our expectations, the power of the bomb was truly amazing." Then we learned that the test of the thermonuclear bomb was carried out on August 12, 1953.

In the early morning of April 30, the shores of their native land appeared on the horizon. Baltiysk greeted us with a salute of warships.

The Barracuda Bite: Why England's Best Diver Didn't Return From a Mission

In England, documents were declassified, which many immediately rushed to call sensational. This is an incident that in the mid-50s actually disrupted the "peace process" between Great Britain and the Soviet Union. During the "sea" visit of Nikita Khrushchev, Lionel Crabbe disappeared under the bottom of the Ordzhonikidze cruiser, the legendary leader of the reconnaissance and sabotage unit of British submariners. The secret of his death is revealed. We publish the material of the newspaper "Argumenty nedeli", in which the authors return to this story, taking into account the newly discovered circumstances.

Troika that sank "Novorossiysk"

Lionel Crabbe, the leading expert in the organization of submarine work, has received numerous awards for his courage. His combat swimmers conducted several sabotage against enemy ships using torpedo transporters.

On January 3, 1943, in the port of Palermo in Sicily, British submarine saboteurs sank the Italian light cruiser Ulpio Traiano with a displacement of 5,420 tons and a transport ship. On January 18 of the same year, they managed to damage transport in the Libyan port of Tripoli. And on June 21, 1944, in the port of La Spezia, they sank the heavy cruiser Bolzano with a displacement of 14 thousand tons, which after the capitulation of Italy was in the hands of the Germans.

After British troops entered Italy, Commander Crabbe also arrived there. He actually saved a detachment of Mussolini's combat swimmers from destruction. Learning that the famous Crabbe in Italy, the commander of the 10th flotilla of diving special forces of Italy, Alexander Volkov - a descendant of White émigrés - personally came to surrender to his famous colleague. Birds of a feather flock together. Volkov's calculation came true. With him, Crabbe fully restored the detachment of Italian combat swimmers, who then not only advised specialists from the British 12th Flotilla, but also participated in combat operations together. Later Volkov left for Argentina, where he became the "father of Argentinean combat swimmers."

The third in this "gang" was the American sailor-diver Anthony Marslow, with whom Crabbe was friends, visited him in the USA. True, Marslow was posing as Antonio Mardzullo, one of the dons of the Italian-American mafia.

On October 29, 1955, this troika blew up the Soviet battleship Novorossiysk, which posed a special danger to England. The fact is that the Soviet command wanted to equip Novorossiysk with nuclear weapons. The former Italian battleship Giulio Cesare was ideal for this purpose. Great Britain as an island in this case turned out to be the most vulnerable target for the Soviet Navy.

The newest Soviet cruisers of Project 68 bis have repeatedly shocked the British Admiralty. In the first decade of October 1955, the cruiser Sverdlov, as part of a detachment of Soviet ships, began to move to the British naval base of Portsmouth on a friendly visit. Following the Belt Strait, accompanied by 2 destroyers, he accomplished the impossible in thick fog. The ship briefly went out of order, deviated from the deep-water channel and at full speed crossed a sandbank with a depth of only about 4 m! NATO experts took a gross mistake in the actions of the Sverdlov's navigation bridge during the turn for secret tests of the head cruiser of Project 68 bis, as close as possible to the conditions of a combat breakthrough of Soviet cruisers-raiders into the Atlantic from the Baltic Sea. The Admiralty decided to inspect the bottom of the cruiser at the earliest opportunity.

When the Sverdlov entered the harbor of Portsmouth, the British were ready to carry out their plan. True, there was one "but". The Sverdlov came to Portsmouth at the invitation of the government, and therefore British intelligence was obliged to leave him alone. The Admiralty came up with an option: if the United States invites a civilian diver to "secretly inspect" the ship, the British authorities will always be able to declare that they have nothing to do with it. Crabbe was to become such a diver.

The secret dive of Commander Crabbe took place in October 1955. Unnoticed by anyone, he sailed under the hull of the ship. There was a large round hole on the nose. Inside there was a propeller that could be lowered to various levels in order to achieve better maneuverability of the vessel. Crabbe managed to find out what was required. He made his way ashore and went to London to report.

"Ordzhonikidze" followed the British

But the British wanted a more detailed description. And such an opportunity presented itself to them ...

On April 18, 1956, a detachment of Soviet ships arrived in England on an official visit. On board the flagship cruiser Ordzhonikidze (twin brother of Sverdlov) were Khrushchev, Bulganin, Kurchatov and the chairman of the KGB, General Serov. The ship docked in Portsmouth, after which the steam turbine power plants on the cruiser were drowned out. On the evening of the day of his arrival, the Soviet leader gave a reception on the ship. Politicians, bankers and other representatives of the country's business circles were invited. Glasses of ice tinkled. A chamber quartet was playing.

In the meantime, Crabbe got to work again. The Admiralty's assignment was formulated as follows. Crabbe must examine the cruiser's propellers and rudder, as well as discover the ultra-modern Ordzhonikidze sonar system, install technical intelligence sensors on the cruiser hull, and try to steal the ultra-sensitive equipment installed on the cruiser bottom.

If you believe the documents recently declassified in Britain, it turns out something like the following. On the line of the naval command from Forinoffis, to which the intelligence of Great Britain is formally subordinated, they gave the order - to cancel the dive. But Crabbe was a patriot and did not carry out the order of the command. That is, he carried out the reconnaissance operation "in private." In principle, his motives can be understood: it was the height of the Cold War, and such an opportunity could not be missed ...

But not everyone on the cruiser relaxed. Behind tightly sealed armored hatches sat top-class specialists listening to the sea for miles around. When the fun on deck reached its climax, one of the watchmen, who kept his eyes on the display of the latest sonar instrument, recorded a splash of water near the cruiser - a sign of deep diving. At the agreed signal, the immediate response team got down to business. Secret monitors showed on the screens the figure of a scuba diver in a thermal suit, approaching the bottom of the ship. The scuba diver dived under the keel. The tracked target was not lost sight of. Soviet divers literally surrounded the ship ...

What happened to the scuba diver is still shrouded in darkness. But the very next day London newspapers reported about a certain amateur scuba diver Lionelle Crabbe, who “... on his own initiative undertook an adventurous undertaking - to examine the bottom of the Soviet cruiser Ordzhonikidze. Dilettantism cost him dearly. The oxygen supply system could not withstand excessive loads and was depressurized. The amateur scuba diver died. "

At the same time, other reports appeared in the press opposition to the government. Scuba diver Lionelle Crabbe was called the commander of the Royal Navy, not an amateur.

And finally, on April 29, 1956, the British Admiralty was forced to announce the disappearance of the diver Lionell Crabbe, who dived in Portsmouth harbor next to the Soviet cruiser, on which the leaders of the USSR arrived in Great Britain.

The English Cold War Secret Revealed!

The editorial mail, consisting of responses from readers of AN, was particularly rich this time. The most interesting was the letter from Rostov-on-Don. It was a response to the article “The best diver in England did not return from a mission”, published by us in November, in numbers 26 and 27. The author of the letter is E.P. Koltsov, a combat diver of the Barracuda special-purpose group, took part in a friendly visit to England of three ships of the Baltic Fleet: the Ordzhonikidze cruiser, the Watching and Perfect destroyers. Today he shares his memories, observations and details of how it all happened.

Given the sensationalism of this material, below is the verbatim author's text of the participant of this campaign.

“…. The preparation of the cruise was carried out in the Baltic, in the Mine harbor of Tallinn. They tried to have fewer foreign ships at that time in the nearby Merchant Harbor. The personnel on the ships were selected with the utmost care. Taking into account the fact that the upgraded cruiser had secret installations, including those used when mooring the ship. Mooring a giant like a cruiser requires a piece of jewelry.

Operational support of the campaign was carried out by the chief of intelligence, Rear Admiral Tishkov. It was decided, in the event of an emergency situation in England, unfriendly to us, to fully engage not only analytical intelligence, but also force. Divers from the elite Barracuda reconnaissance unit were recruited. Those dedicated to intelligence activities had to know how to distinguish scouts. It was decided to dress them in the uniform of senior sailors, because all the rest were foremen and a small number of sailors. The personnel, of course, did not know about this.

In Portsmouth, thousands of British greeted our 16,000-ton cruiser. He went to mooring stern to the quay wall at a speed of 30 knots. The stern of the cruiser is getting closer to the pier, the engines are working "full back", it seems that the cruiser will crash into the pier. The command “stop the car”, reverse, the command “full speed ahead”, the breaker of the wave, the cruiser froze in place and gently leaned against the pier. The sea power has never known such a masterful mooring. It was a triumph for the USSR Navy. It is impossible to convey what was happening on the shore. What a delight it was, some even cried.

When the distinguished guests left the ship, he stood against the wall. Residents and sailors of England were allowed to visit him. Buffet tables were set on the deck of the cruiser: caviar, balyk, pickles and, of course, Stolichnaya. The next day a caricature appeared in the newspapers: a stocky Russian sailor was dragging two thin and drunk Englishmen with bottles of vodka sticking out of their pockets.

At that time, the navy did not know the word "steal". "

“… .At 02 o'clock in the morning, the acoustics on duty around the clock reported an incomprehensible noise on the starboard side. To establish the causes of the noises, a combat swimmer immediately dived into the water from the port side. In such cases, for the purpose of conspiracy, he does not have two-way communication, and is forced to make all decisions on his own. His life also depends on it.

Descending from the port side, the swimmer came in from the stern to be in the shade of the pier. He saw that a man in a light diving suit was attaching a mine in front of the cruiser's powder magazines. Not knowing the weapons of the saboteur and his cover, our swimmer decides to go to the saboteur from below. Having gone to the depth, holding his breath so that he would not be given out by air bubbles, our swimmer abruptly pulled the saboteur by the legs. When his head was level with the swimmer, he cut the saboteur's throat along with the breathing tubes with a sharp side blow of a knife. Crabbe was a very short, frail build. At first, our swimmer was even frightened, thinking that he had killed the child, but after examining his face, he realized that it was an adult man.

Having tightened the diving suit at the throat to create buoyancy, and having determined the direction of the underwater current by blood, our swimmer sent the corpse downstream. So the duel of two combat swimmers ended. The incident was reported on command. It was decided to classify this case. The winner was awarded the Order of the Red Star for exemplary performance on a life-threatening mission and ensuring the rescue of thousands of people without fanfare. The acoustician was also awarded. "

As for the mine, it was safely removed and towed to the far end of the pier, where it may still be. Some time later, Crabbe's corpse was found without a head. Fish, currents and water fluctuations completed the deed that prevented the death of the innocent and an international scandal.

Stanislav Lekarev, "Arguments of the Week"

“The earth is shaped like a suitcase. You just turned the corner, and here I’m already standing! ”
S.Ulinich
"Dumansky's company welcomes Rostovites!"
Inscription in paint on the pier, n / p Nuevitas (Cuba)

One of my good friends asked me to expand the topic on the Ordzhonikidze cruiser. I have picked up some of my archives and correspondence. The material seemed interesting enough. The fact is that one of the main characters in this story is not only familiar to me personally for more than 30 years; as it turned out in 1993, he is also my neighbor. In general, spreading it out with minimal cuts and comments, I tried to keep the original sources in the form in which I have. The old man Skafandrych will be pleased, especially since his granddaughter taught him how to use the Internet, which, however, knowing his lively mind and crazy character, is quite expected. I know the Skafandrych himself (Eduard Petrovich Koltsov, an officer of the KChF in the field, the commander of a special division of combat swimmers) since the days of my "green cadet youth" It was he who taught us light diving, sabotage and anti-sabotage tactics of underwater operations in theory and in practice. It was under his leadership that I went underwater with scuba diving and instrumentation for the first time. Even then we knew that a hundred old man Skafandrych took part in special operations on the battleship "Novorossiysk". Later, after the death of "Admiral Nakhimov" in Novorossiysk, fate brought us together again - he then commanded a group of swimmers who destroyed evidence of the real cause of the collision of "Nakhimov" and "Vasyov", and we "provided".

And then, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, I accidentally met him at the market, he was buying dill from us. Truly, the Earth is shaped like a suitcase! I often see him, he lives next to the market and walks his dog Patrick. Here is his photo:

He was already an old man then.

So, some materials:

The weekly newspaper "Argumenty Nedeli" No. 18 (website www.argumenti.ru) published an article by S. Lekarev about the elimination of the main British saboteur Crabbe, this was in 1956. There was an attempt to blow up our cruiser "< Ордженикидзе >"in Portsmouth.

Here is this article:

At the jubilee celebrations dedicated to the centenary of the father of the Soviet atomic bomb, Academician Kurchatov, no one recalled this episode. Maybe in order not to darken the holiday mood, but most likely because they did not know ... They did not know about the attempted attempt on his life ...

Demand explosion

This international scandal of the Cold War began with the fact that on April 19, 1956, the watchman of the Soviet destroyer Lookout, who was accompanying the Ordzhonikidze cruiser on a government visit to Great Britain, noticed a head covered with black rubber diving mask under the stern of the flagship. Both ships were in the roadstead of Portsmouth. The sailor immediately reported on the mysterious diver to the ship on duty, the one to the commander ...

This fact would not have been given due publicity if the heads of the Soviet state, NS Khrushchev and N.A. Bulganin. Therefore, an official request was sent to the commander of the Portsmouth Naval Base. He got off with an unintelligible answer. Nor could British Prime Minister A. Eden be able to explain anything plainly in the House of Commons. Perhaps these demarches would not have attracted much attention from the press, but a week after the departure of a detachment of Soviet ships from Portsmouth, a message appeared in English newspapers that the body of a diver had surfaced in Portsmouth Bay. It was the captain of the Royal Navy, Lionelle Crabbe. The obituary stated that Crabbe "died while testing new underwater equipment." But such things are not experienced alone. The testers are always insured, and if an accident happens, the body of the diver is not found after a week, but is raised immediately ...

What did Captain Crabbe do under the bottom of the Soviet cruiser in Portsmouth, risking a diplomatic scandal, risking his life? Studying secret hull contours or looking for any new devices? The fact that they were not there, the British intelligence knew as well as we, today, devoted to almost all the secrets of the century. But above the bottom, in the cabins for the high command, the most important defense-strategic secrets of the Land of the Soviets were hidden. They were carried by at least two of the members of the government delegation - academician Igor Kurchatov and general aircraft designer Alexei Tupolev.

It is difficult to explain why Nikita Khrushchev took with him to England two completely "restricted to travel" scientists at once, on whose developments the entire strategic program of the USSR was based. Either he wanted to demonstrate his departure from the Stalinist policy of the "Iron Curtain", or he hoped to awaken loyal feelings in scientists, to achieve their special loyalty, special trust ... Perhaps he wanted to impress the West - here, they say, she is living power Soviet science, its mighty potential. One way or another, Igor Kurchatov and Alexei Tupolev stepped onto British soil from the newest handsome cruiser Ordzhonikidze and then safely returned to it to go home.

According to the military doctrine of the 1950s, long-range aircraft were the main means of delivering nuclear weapons. Such machines were created precisely in the Tupolev design bureau. Tupolev bombers were to deliver strategic strikes against the enemy with "Kurchatov" atomic bombs. Needless to say, what a tempting prospect opened up for the Atlantic hawks - to behead the entire defense industry of the country with one well-thought-out terrorist attack.

The temptation was fueled by the fact that the ends of such an operation were literally hiding in the water and quite deep - at the bottom of the North Sea, which was to be crossed by a Soviet cruiser with a representative delegation on board. Outwardly, everything looked so that even a shadow of suspicion would not have fallen on the British crown: the Ordzhonikidze left the British waters, went far into the open sea and ... blew up there on an old floating mine, one of those that were sown by the thousands in the North Sea and Germans, and British. In the 50s, quite a few of them were still worn by the will of the waves. Combat trawling continued (at least in the Soviet Union) right up to 1958.

The version of the explosion of the Ordzhonikidze cruiser on a stray mine looked all the more convincing since only six months ago, the battleship Novorossiysk was blown up on the same "untouched German mine" in the Northern Bay of Sevastopol. That night explosion (for some reason the "untracked mine" went off after midnight, and even in the area of the artillery cellars, which miraculously did not detonate) took the lives of over six hundred sailors. The government commission then named the most likely cause of the explosion - an old German mine. But that, as they say, is for the general public. For professionals, there was another version about the blowing up of the former Italian ship Giulio Cesare, which became the Novorossiysk after its transfer to the Soviet fleet: combat swimmers from the sabotage flotilla of Prince Borghese, which had not been disbanded after the war. The final act of the Commission spoke about this carefully, but nevertheless - "the possibility of sabotage is not ruled out."

"With a bunch of seaweed on my head ..."

How such "accidental" explosions occur at sea, the Royal Navy experienced the hard way during the then very recent Second World War. The memory of those losses and the experience of such sabotage were still very fresh. Just at that time - in 1955 - the memoirs of the "black prince" were published, in which he very frankly spoke about the exploits of his subordinates - the frog people. Here is just one episode from their "work" in the neutral Turkish port of Alexandretta:

“In the evening, when the surveillance of English agents, diligent but not particularly perspicacious, weakened, Ferraro and Roccardi stayed on the beach longer than usual. An exciting game of balloons made them forget that the time was late. When they were alone, Ferraro entered the bathing room. After a while he came out dressed in a black rubber suit, fins on his legs, and a mask (respirator) on his face. Two strange, apparently heavy objects were suspended from his belt. a bunch of algae attached. ”This diplomat was acting strangely on the beach!

A man in a black suit cautiously approached the sea, entered the water and immediately, without a single sound, disappeared without a trace into the darkness of the night. After sailing 2300 m, he found himself close to the Greek ship "Orion" (7000 tons), loaded with chromium. So he performed a maneuver, which he repeated many times in training sessions: under the beams of searchlights, in front of the watchmen, he slowly approached the ship, trying to keep in the shadow of the barges standing at the side, turned on the oxygen device and silently sank. Moving under water along the hull of the ship, he found the side keel and, unhooking the explosive charges from the belt, attached them with clamps to the keel. Then he pulled out the safety pin and returned to the surface. All this was done in a few minutes. He walked away just as carefully. At 4 o'clock in the morning, Ferraro returned to the consulate.

After 6 days, the Orion, having finished loading, went out to sea, but it did not manage to go far: an explosion occurred in the Syrian waters under the hull of a heavily laden vessel, and it quickly sank. The surviving sailors, who were admitted to the hospital in Alexandretta, claimed that the Orion was torpedoed. "

The Italians laid mines with turntables. Such a mine could "doze" as much as necessary, but as soon as the ship began to move, the stream of water rotated a small propeller, and after a few hours the released fuse went off ...

Someone who, and Captain Crabbe, like no one else knew the tricks of the Italian submarine saboteurs. Throughout the war, he fought them, guarding the inner raid of the British naval base in Gibraltar. Who else but he could go to a dangerous enterprise under the bottom of a Soviet cruiser. And he went. And he never returned alive ... The fact is that after the explosion of the Novorossiysk, all Soviet ships began to carry special watches - PDSS (anti-sabotage forces and means). These watches were also carried on on the Ordzhonikidze cruiser. The instructions demanded that a sentinel who spotted an alien diver at the side of the ship fired without warning - to kill. If you didn't have time, then you need to throw special stun grenades into the water. But in foreign ports it was strictly forbidden not only to use any weapon, but even to lower their scuba divers overboard without the consent of the port authorities. So the cruiser commander had only one way to turn the propellers. Huge sharp blades cut not only the water column ...

Jacket Kurchatov

So, Captain Crabbe died "while testing new diving equipment." Academician Kurchatov, as well as aircraft designer Tupolev, survived.

During the then recent war, Igor Kurchatov wore a naval jacket. In the belligerent Sevastopol, he, together with other physicists, solved the problem of demagnetizing ships, and did everything so that their steel hulls would not cause explosions of German electromagnetic mines. In memory of these works, there is a modest stele in the form of a U-shaped magnet in Sevastopol. In the same years, Lieutenant Crabbe fought in Gibraltar with Italian saboteurs. In that great and brutal war, Kurchatov and Crabbe were allies. But in the war after the war - cold, they became, alas, opponents. Crabbe wanted to save his country from the Soviet nuclear threat. Kurchatov protected his homeland from nuclear strikes by the opposing bloc. Not knowing each other personally, they met in Portsmouth, their fates crossed at one fateful point - the anchorage point of the Ordzhonikidze cruiser.

Kurchatov's jacket is kept in the State Historical Museum on Red Square. Captain Crabbe's tunic is kept in the Portsmouth Royal Navy Museum.

The best diver in England did not return from the mission

Part 1. Commander Crabbe's underwater mission

Recently in England, documents were declassified, which many immediately rushed to call sensational. This is an incident that in the mid-50s actually disrupted the "peace process" between Great Britain and the Soviet Union. During Nikita Khrushchev's "sea" visit, Lionell Crabbe, the legendary leader of the British submariners' reconnaissance and sabotage unit, disappeared under the bottom of the Ordzhonikidze cruiser. We are republishing the material of the newspaper "Argumenty nedeli", in which the authors return to this story, taking into account the newly discovered circumstances.

Troika that sank "Novorossiysk"

Secrets of the cruiser "Sverdlov"

"Ordzhonikidze" followed the British

But the British wanted a more detailed description. And such an opportunity presented itself to them ...

At the same time, other reports appeared in the press opposition to the government. Scuba diver Lionelle Crabbe was called the commander of the Royal Navy, not an amateur.

New documents about Khrushchev dived under the ship

In Britain, new documents have been declassified about the fate of the military diver Lionel Crabb, who, it is assumed, in 1956 dived under the ship of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and never returned. 50 years ago, Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, arrived in Great Britain on the Ordzhonikidze cruiser. On April 19, 1956, Crabb, an experienced military scuba diver, dived in the bay where the Soviet ship was stationed, but never showed up on the surface.

A year later, a decapitated body of a submariner without limbs was found near the British coast, which was identified as the remains of Crabbe. Later, an acquaintance of the diver admitted that, in his opinion, "it was not his body."

"My family was convinced that he was framed by Soviet agents who were then working in the British government."
Lomond Handley, a relative of Crabbe

The story of Crabbe remains one of the mysteries of the Cold War - there are still many ambiguities in it. The documents released on Friday in Britain show that official London has long sought to hide the circumstances of the case.
The then British Prime Minister Anthony Eden told MPs that disclosing the circumstances of Crabb's death "is against the national interest." "What was done was not undertaken at the direction of Her Majesty's ministers and without their knowledge," added the British Prime Minister.

The veil of secrecy over the events of 1956 led to the emergence of many versions.
Some believe that Crabbe acted on behalf of the British special services and was killed by the guards of the cruiser Ordzhonikidze. Others insist that Crabb was kidnapped by the Soviet secret services and spent the rest of his years in the Soviet Union. And some even claim that he voluntarily deserted to the Soviet side.
Either way, new documents prove that the Royal Navy knew nothing about the mission, although after the incident the Soviet authorities officially complained that Orzhonikidze was being followed when the ship was in Portsmouth.

The British authorities have declassified the testimony of the person who was the last to see the diver before the dive. An unnamed naval officer said that Crabb asked him to help with the dive "in a completely informal and purely private manner."

A KGB operation?

"He had enough oxygen to stay underwater for a maximum of two hours," said an unnamed sailor. "His actions were normal before disappearing under the surface of the water, and conditions for diving were good. I never saw him again."

"My family always believed that Crabbe was not killed, and that he was taken from British waters to the Soviet Union, because he had knowledge of explosives and diving," says a distant relative of the sailor Lomond Handley. Soviet agents who were then working in the British government. "

It is believed that Crabbe's story inspired writer Ian Fleming to write a series of James Bond spy novels.

Date and time of publication: 2006/10/27 04:47:42 GMT

THE ENGLISH SECRET OF THE COLD WAR IS DISCOVERED!

"Arguments of the week" reveals the secret of the elimination of the main underwater British saboteur who tried to blow up Khrushchev in 1956

CONSIDERING the sensationalism of this material, below is the verbatim author's text of the participant of this campaign.

At that time, the navy did not know the word "steal". "

Prepared by Stanislav Lekarev

"It was I who killed Commander Crabbe!"

"... The pier was brightly lit with lights, the night sea was slightly phosphorescent, so there was some visibility under the water. I carefully rounded the stern of the cruiser, and immediately noticed somewhere approximately in the middle of the hull, just opposite the place where the powder magazines are located, the swimmer's silhouette darkens ...
I grabbed his legs and dragged him sharply down towards me. When his face drew level with me, he stabbed me in the throat with a knife. Cut it along with the breathing tubes. Everything happened automatically: we practiced this technique in the intelligence school "...

This is how the famous English saboteur Lionelle Crabbe was eliminated. The person who did this now lives in Rostov-on-Don. This is a veteran of military intelligence Eduard Petrovich Koltsov. 50 years have passed, the Russian special services have declassified their archives regarding this sensational international scandal at the time, and now Eduard Koltsov can tell how he, just a boy, managed to eliminate the most experienced underwater swimmer and saboteur at that time.

In 2006-2008, a whole series of publications related to the distant 1956 appeared in our and foreign media. They concern the visit to Great Britain of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR N.A. Bulganin and a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR N.S. Khrushchev, who at that time began to take all the power in the country.

The leaders of the USSR arrived in the English city of Portsmouth on a goodwill visit on the Ordzhonikidze cruiser. The British government gave the Soviet side security guarantees: it meant that no reconnaissance actions would be taken in relation to the warship. And soon after the arrival, a "spy" scandal broke out: the famous English combat swimmer Lionel Crabbe disappeared. The British claimed that he was kidnapped or killed by the Russians.

One of the participants in this story, Eduard Petrovich Koltsov, now lives in Rostov-on-Don. “Fifty years have passed since those events, and the period during which I pledged to remain silent has already expired,” Eduard Petrovich told the Vecherny Rostov correspondent. - Now I can openly declare: I killed the Englishman Lionel Crabbe - in a short fight under water near the cruiser Ordzhonikidze.

In 1956, the Cold War was in full swing. Despite this, N.S. Khrushchev decides to visit England. This government visit was intended to improve relations between the USSR and Western countries. Khrushchev refused to fly by plane and ordered that three ships would go to Portsmouth: the newest cruiser Ordzhonikidze with members of the delegation on board, and the destroyers Watching and Perfect.

Naturally, preparations were made for such an important event. Intelligence was involved not only analytical, but also force, in case of an emergency.

The preparation of the cruise was carried out in the Baltic, in the Mine Harbor of Tallinn, and at that time they tried to have fewer foreign ships in the nearby Merchant Harbor, - recalls E.P. Koltsov. - The personnel on the ships were selected with great care. Training mooring was carried out. Mooring such a giant as a cruiser requires a piece of jewelry. And the USSR Navy should always be the best!

A group of combat swimmers "Barracuda", which included Eduard Koltsov, also boarded the cruiser. Her presence was kept in strict confidence: all the swimmers wore the uniform of senior sailors and formally entered the crew of the cruiser. But they performed special tasks.

- During the preparation of the campaign, an incident occurred in Tallinn, - says E.P. Koltsov. - The captain of the 3rd rank from the reconnaissance support department entered the BCH-4 cockpit, saw the senior sailors, and ignoring the presence of the destroyer personnel asked: "How are you, scouts?" A silent scene followed. They immediately reported to the head of counterintelligence Tishkin. The guys were exchanged with another destroyer, the cap got its own.

Eduard Koltsov is a native of Rostov. As he himself admits, he grew up a hooligan, cocky guy. He was engaged in boxing, even received the category of a master of sports. He entered the technical school, from where he was drafted into the army. The assembly point was in Sevastopol, so it immediately became clear: he was to serve in the navy.

We were called “team of times”, physically prepared guys were selected for it, ”recalls Eduard Petrovich. - And I, with my technical school (at that time, even ten years of school was like a higher education), in general, was considered an intellectual. The "Buyer", a captain of the third rank, took us to the Baltic, where in 1954 a special special-purpose school, OSNAZ, was created. There we, yesterday's boys, began to go through a real school of a saboteur. They learned to drive equipment, jump with a parachute, studied maritime science, explosives, sambo, and a completely new discipline: wrestling under water. Our unit was called "Barracuda": it was an elite special unit of the Main Intelligence Directorate.

At OSNAZ school, Eduard Koltsov first heard the name of Lionel Crabbe, who was considered a legend among combat swimmers. During the Second World War, Commander Crabbe's detachment confronted Italian combat swimmers in the Strait of Gibraltar. On the personal account of Crabbe, there were several blown up Italian and German transport ships (he attached mines to their bottoms). The closed textbooks included a fight under the water of Lionel Crabbe with three Italians. He killed two opponents, and captured the third.

Crabbe had the nickname Buster: in our way, the Scumbag

It is unlikely that then the guy from Rostov imagined that one day he would meet with Crabbe, and this would happen under water.

April 18, 1956. A detachment of ships from the Baltic Fleet enters the harbor of Portsmouth. Thousands of those who meet on the pier watch as the bulk of the cruiser with a displacement of 16 thousand tons goes to mooring directly to the quay wall at a speed of 30 knots. The cruiser stern is getting closer and closer. The scream of the frightened crowd, people rushed away from the pier in fright. But then the command followed: "stop the car", "reverse" and "full speed ahead." As if stumbling, the cruiser froze in place and gently leaned against the quay wall.

The crowd's delight knew no bounds. No one has ever seen such a mooring workshop in England. It was a triumph for the USSR Navy!

The meeting was unusually warm. When the distinguished guests left the ship, ordinary Englishmen were allowed to visit it. On the deck of the cruiser, buffet tables were laid with a truly Russian scale: caviar, balyks, various pickles, and of course "Stolichnaya" vodka. We saw how the British dragged sandwiches from the tables, and especially vodka. It was funny for us. The next day, a caricature appeared in local newspapers: a Russian sailor of short stature, powerful with broad shoulders, dragging two long, thin, drunken English sailors, and bottles of vodka sticking out of their pockets, recalls Eduard Koltsov.

At two o'clock in the morning the acoustician of the cruiser "Ordzhonikidze" reported that he heard suspicious noises on the starboard side. Eduard Koltsov, dressed in a light diving suit, went down the storm ladder from the opposite port side into the water. He was ordered to find out the cause of these noises. He had no connection, only a knife from a weapon. In "what if something" was ordered to act at their own discretion.

The pier was brightly lit with lights, the night sea was slightly phosphorescent, so there was some visibility under the water, - Eduard Koltsov recalls. - I carefully rounded the stern of the cruiser, and immediately noticed that approximately in the middle of the hull, just opposite the place where the powder magazines are located, the silhouette of the swimmer darkens.

He was so absorbed in his work that he did not notice the approach of the enemy. Koltsov had already seen what the diver was doing: he was attaching a magnetic mine to the side of the cruiser (the saboteurs called it “lipukha”). The underwater part of the cruiser was overgrown with shells, and in order for the mine to fit more tightly, the diver cleaned this place with a knife. He was ruined by self-confidence: these noises were heard by our acoustician.

I first looked around: according to all the rules, the saboteur should not have acted alone, there could be a cover nearby. But no one was there. And then I went straight to him from the depths.

Eduard Koltsov says he does not know what he would have done if he had known that he was opposed by Lionel Crabbe himself. Perhaps he would not have dared to join the fray: this name was pronounced with great respect in the Soviet intelligence school. I would have climbed aboard and reported to my superiors. During this time, the saboteur would have left. And the explosion could be heard at any moment.

When I approached Crabbe, he had already turned from the side to leave, - says Eduard Koltsov. - I grabbed his legs, and dragged him down on myself. When his face drew level with me, he stabbed me in the throat with a knife. Cut it along with the breathing tubes. Everything happened automatically: we practiced this technique in the intelligence school.

A brown cloud of blood immediately formed in the water. I pushed the body away from me, and suddenly noticed how small the saboteur was. I was even scared: didn’t I kill the child? Again he brought him closer to him, and saw in front of him the face of an adult man, about 50 years old (Crabbe was 48). It was amazing that he was not wearing a mask, but a diver's goggles, and I considered that the goggles were with diopters. Later, our scouts found out that Lionel Crabbe was short-sighted.

Koltsov tugged on Crabbe's suit with pipes, creating relative buoyancy, and let his body go with the flow. Then he approached the mine. He picked out the magnets with a knife, separating them from the side, and towed them to the far part of the pier, where there was an accumulation of branches and other debris. Stuck a mine under this heap. “It is quite possible that she is still there today,” says E.P. Koltsov.

When the swimmer boarded, his commander, a cavtorang, saw from his twisted face that something had happened under the water.

The fish, I suppose, hit the side, ”the cavtorang asked with a wink.

Yes, just a big fish, - Koltsov tried to answer as calmly as possible.

The commander took the swimmer to the stern, where he reported on how it was. “You shouldn't have removed the mine yourself,” the commander reprimanded Koltsov. "Now remember: there was absolutely nothing under the water."

A.N. Tupolev, I.V. Kurchatov, N.S. Khrushchev aboard the Ordzhonikidze cruiser

The next day, at a dinner party in honor of the Soviet delegation, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev suddenly asked the first lord of the British Admiralty: "And what kind of swimmer dived near our cruiser?"

A diplomatic scandal erupted. The USSR actually accused Great Britain of violating guarantees of immunity. And two days later the newspapers were full of headlines: "Where are you, Commander Crabbe?" Prime Minister Anthony Eden was forced to make excuses before his parliament. A government note, which mentioned the name of Crabbe, appeared on the pages of the newspaper Pravda.

The British immediately assumed that we had stolen Crabbe and were holding him somewhere on a ship, says E.P. Koltsov. - Under the guise of visitors, scouts climbed aboard the cruiser, we accurately calculated them by their posture and demeanor. They examined the entire ship, even asked to open the anchor boxes. We fulfilled their requests: Crabbe was not on board the Ordzhonikidze anyway!

VERSIONS

All documents related to this operation were classified by the British for 100 years, until 2056. In Russia, they started talking about the "Crabbe case" after 50 years. Information has appeared in the open press that allows us to put forward versions: what was Commander Crabbe doing under the bottom of the Ordzhonikidze cruiser?

Version number 1: technical espionage.

A year before the visit of "Ordzhonikidze", another newest cruiser of the same project, "Sverdlov", came to England. He impressed the British with his maneuverability and driving performance. The latest development of Soviet shipbuilders was used on the cruiser: steering propellers installed in the bow. This secret was hunted by Western intelligence.

In the English newspapers, in principle, it is not mentioned that Crabbe was trying to put a mine. The British say that the commander only "examined" the cruiser hull. But after all, a resident of Rostov Eduard Koltsov with his own hands removed an inertial magnetic mine from the board of the Ordzhonikidze!

Version number 2: destroy the Soviet leaders.

In addition to Khrushchev and Bulganin, there were people on board the cruiser, on whom the country's defense directly depended: this is the creator of the USSR nuclear shield, Academician I.V. Kurchatov and aircraft designer, father of Soviet strategic aviation A.N. Tupolev. The explosion of a cruiser in the North Sea, on the way back to the USSR (which could have been written off as a wartime mine) would have decapitated the USSR both politically and defensively.

I am not a supporter of this version, - believes E.P. Koltsov. - Before the cruiser set out to sea, we examined literally every centimeter of it - from keel to klotik. And of course they would have found a mine.

Version number 3: dirty political games.

Let us remind once again what those years were like. The XX Congress has just passed with the famous speech of N. S. Khrushchev, in which he exposed Stalin's "personality cult". Khrushchev began to pursue his policy and made attempts to get closer to the West. The US followed the Soviet visit to Britain with jealousy. The overseas power did not want England to play the first violin in its policy towards the USSR.

The calculation was also appropriate: if a mine was found on board the cruiser, relations between Great Britain and the USSR would be hopelessly ruined. Six months before this, an explosion thundered on the roadstead of Sevastopol, which destroyed the Soviet battleship Novorossiysk and killed more than 600 sailors. The battleship was blown up by an underwater mine. There is an assumption that Lionel Crabbe also worked here with the Italian saboteurs: the British were very afraid that Novorossiysk would be equipped with nuclear weapons. Captured Italian swimmers, by the way, were part of Crabbe's group and consulted the British.

British journalists conducting an independent investigation into the death of Crabbe found out that just before Ordzhonikidze's visit he had retired from military service. And the mysterious Mr. Smith, with whom Crabbe arrived in Portsmouth, was a career CIA officer. It turns out that the Americans hired Crabbe as a private person to do some work. The United States did not give government guarantees to the Soviet delegation.

Since May 1957, in Portsmouth Harbor, fishermen have found the headless corpse of a man, which was wearing the equipment of a British Royal Navy combat swimmer. He was identified as Lionel Crabbe, and was buried under that name, although the Commander's widow categorically refused to recognize her husband's decomposed underwater remains.

The official obituary stated that Crabbe "died while testing new diving equipment." Unofficially, British officials said that Crabbe allegedly fell under the screws of a Soviet cruiser, and thus his head was cut off.

This nonsense could have been voiced by a person who has no idea what a cruiser propeller is and how its rotation begins. Any diver within a mile will know that the engine is starting and that the propellers may be spinning. And Crabbe was an ace, and he could not make such a mistake! - says Eduard Koltsov.

Finally, in some English newspapers, several years after the commander's funeral, information appeared that Lionel Crabbe was alive, and under the name of Lev Lvovich Korablev was serving in the Soviet Navy. He was allegedly seen in Sevastopol and Vladivostok. Photos were even published showing a person vaguely reminiscent of Crabbe.

All this is complete nonsense! - smiles Rostovite Eduard Petrovich Koltsov. “With this very hand, I cut Commander Crabbe's throat underwater.

The Order of the Red Star - “for Crabbe” - was awarded to Eduard Koltsov without much fanfare. Two months after returning from England, he was summoned to his office by the chief of intelligence. I filled two faceted glasses with vodka. When they drank, he took out an order and a certificate to it from the safe. He handed them over to Eduard, admonishing them with a short phrase: "Don't wear it and don't talk!"

When a new wave of publications about this case began, I had the opportunity to answer the questions of an Englishwoman, a relative of Lionel Crabbe, - said E.P. Koltsov. - She asked the question: “Mr. Koltsov, why do you think that he wanted to put a mine on? Maybe he wanted to take it off? "

I replied: “Explain, dear lady, what kind of hobby is this: collecting war mines. And how did your relative know where to find them? "

The Englishwoman did not calm down: "Lionel was a sailor and would not allow himself to kill the same sailors as himself."

I replied: “We believe that your relative, Commander Crabbe, took part in the explosion of the battleship Novorossiysk, where more than 600 of our sailors were killed. He blew up other ships, where people also died. Don't try to imagine him as an innocent lamb. Commander Crabbe was a soldier and died in combat. "

THE AFTERWORD

Not long ago, while in London, I visited the British Admiralty Naval Museum located in Greenwich. I had a very clear goal: to learn something new about the fate of the English combat swimmer Lionel Crabbe

The British Naval Museum is very good and vividly tells about the various stages of the development of the fleet, from fragile fishing boats and Egyptian papyrus boats to the frigates of Nelson's flotilla. But in the 20th century, the history of the navy seems to be cut short: even little can be learned about the participation of British battleships in the naval battles of the First World War. What is it - political correctness in front of the current NATO allies, or the current secrecy regime?

On the third floor, in the electronic library, I meet an employee named Martin. He heard about Lionel Crabbe, and calls him a hero of the nation. And he is very surprised to hear that a man lives in Rostov-on-Don who openly declares that he killed Crabbe.

The electronic library contains books by V. Borghese, T. Voldron, P. Wright about the war under water, in which the name of Crabbe is mentioned. There are many links to newspaper publications (mostly in English) on this topic. In a short biography of Crabbe, the cause of death is the official version: he died while testing new equipment.

What the commander did under the bottom of the cruiser Ordzhonikidze is still a mystery. Russia after 50 years has declassified its documents regarding this incident. The British, on the other hand, kept the Crabbe case secret for a hundred years. Only in 2056 will the public be able to learn about the details of the secret operation of the special services, which pushed Lionel Crabbe and the Rostovite Eduard Koltsov under the water of the Portsmouth harbor.

The mysterious disappearance of Lionel Crabbe, the "frog man"

The diplomatic calendar of April 1956 was particularly overwhelmed. The main event of the month, which attracted the attention of both the press and public opinion, was undoubtedly the trip of B and X to the UK. The resourcefulness of the editor-in-chief of one of the English newspapers, who came up with a more cunning designation of two Soviet statesmen, was then rewarded with interest: after all, these mysterious letters meant Nikita Khrushchev and Marshal Bulganin. Only three years have passed since the "father of nations" passed away - his death marked the irrevocable end of the era of Stalinism. At that time Nikita Khrushchev was not alone at the helm of the authorities. Bulganin followed him everywhere, like a shadow. In the mid-fifties in international politics, this strange "tandem" strove for one and only goal - to strengthen the authority of the Soviet Union in the eyes of the world community. The simplicity of the old soldier-philosopher with a short beard, whose image was embodied by Bulganin, touched Western politicians. And the world already perceived Khrushchev's village humor with a sense of grateful delight. Then, in April 1956, B and X decided to take a daring step: they arrived in Portsmouth with the clear intention of winning the hearts of the British. The maneuver was a success - the goal was achieved.

While the two Soviet leaders were showing the art of aerobatics in the field of diplomacy, the cruiser Ordzhonikidze, which brought them to the shores of Great Britain, was quietly and peacefully in the roadstead of Portsmouth. The presence of the flagship of the USSR Navy in the English port marked the beginning of one of the most exciting stories of the past thirty-odd years.

On April 19, 1956, at 7:00 am, two guests at the Salliport Hotel in Portsmouth's old quarters left their room and left the key with the porter. One of them was very small in stature - no more than 1 meter 58 centimeters, thin, dark-haired, apparently forty-five years old; he was dressed in a gray cheviot pair. What was his name? In the guestbook, he is listed as Lionelle Crabbe. And his friend, according to the same registration book, was called Smith. As the receptionist would later testify, this Smith is a “rare” name, you won’t say anything! - was fair-haired, looked about thirty and spoke with a slight Scottish accent. That very morning, around seven o'clock, Smith warned the receptionist that he and Crabbe would be back in the late afternoon. Then the two of them left the hotel. Since then, no one in England will be destined to see Lionelle Crabbe alive ...

Who was he, this Lionelle Crabbe? Undoubtedly - the best submariner, the famous "frog man", as in the old days they called light divers, or scuba divers. There are so many miracles happening these days that in the end we got used to them and completely stopped being surprised. However, let us imagine a contemporary of Jules Verne, who was suddenly transported to the time of the Second World War and learned that there are people who, wearing spacesuits, with an autonomous breathing apparatus behind their shoulders, allowing them to swim completely freely in the depths of the sea, attack ships and conduct cruel underwater battles. A contemporary of the great science fiction writer would certainly have thought that he was seeing in reality the stunning pictures from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

No, nothing, it would seem, foreshadowed Lionel Crabbe's fame in such an unusual - for that time, of course - field. Oh really? - you ask. Exactly - nothing! Before the war, our hero did not even know how to swim. He tried himself in a variety of specialties, but did not stay in any one for a long time. In September 1939, after the declaration of war, he decided to join the British Navy. But he was refused a draft board. Indeed, Lionel Crabbe was far from being an athlete. In addition, he was short, thin, not strong in build - he had weak lungs. Not to mention severe myopia - he saw only twenty percent of one eye. But something, but the willpower and perseverance Crabbe was not to take - thanks to these two qualities, he managed to get into the naval reserve and ended up in Gibraltar - at the clerk's desk. He, who dreamed of naval battles, was now drowning in an ocean of papers every single day.

On September 19, 1941, a heavy fire broke out on the Denbyvale tanker in the Gibraltar roadstead. No sooner had the port authorities come to their senses, when the fire spread to two neighboring tankers - an explosion occurred on all three, and in the blink of an eye they went to the bottom. And this is in the most invulnerable raid in the world! Yes, there was something to smash the head of the British Navy headquarters. Submarine attack? Excluded. From the sea side, the roadstead was reliably protected by a continuous anti-submarine net. Then, in order to finally solve the riddle, divers were sent under the water. They found that "there were huge holes in the net that blocked the entrance to the port." In their report, the divers suggested that these holes were made using a compressed air apparatus. And all doubts were resolved at once - only "frog people" could do this. As you know, about the exploits of "people-frogs", or "people-torpedoes", as the Italian divers who were in the service of Prince Valerio Borghese were then called, were legendary at that time. So, in this case, too, they broke through the seemingly impregnable barrier that defended Gibraltar from the sea. The divers, in waterproof overalls on a woolen or thick silk lining, with breathing apparatus and fins, were delivered to the right place by a torpedo, or "pig" - a two-seater shell almost seven meters long and more than half a meter in diameter. The "pig" was set in motion by an electric motor. Its bow - a removable cone - contained 300 kilograms of explosives. The saboteurs brought the torpedo closer to the target ship and then abandoned it. Having done the job, they got away by swimming.

When this tragedy struck in the port of Gibraltar, the British did not even know about the "frog people". But then Lionelle Crabbe appears. Since the Italians attack under water, it means that in the same place, in the depths of the sea, they must be repulsed. Crabbe proposed to the British Admiralty to create a hitherto unprecedented team of light divers. And in view of the fact that the danger of attacks by Italian saboteurs-submariners increased every day, the Admiralty had no choice but to approve the proposal of the short man Crabbe. This is how the first team of English "frog people" appeared. This was the beginning of their heroic epic, in which the exploits of Lionel Crabbe, without a doubt, take the first place.

The equipment of British light divers, designed in a purely English style, had nothing to do with the ammunition of the Italians. Later, Crabbe himself admitted that he and his comrades looked "pretty funny" in beach suits, tennis shoes with lead soles and antediluvian oxygen tanks, which were fastened in half on the back with the help of belts and a belt. However, sometimes the equipment does not play the first role. The main thing is to be able to act, which Crabbe's team could not refuse. For such work, strong nerves were needed - the same iron as the ships themselves, which had to be protected. But probably no one will tell about this better than Crabbe. Once he had to examine the bottom of the raid. And suddenly in the distance he noticed some kind of shadow. “I was then at a depth of fifteen meters. The shadow was approaching. I could already make out her globular eyes and long white arms. It was an Italian. He immediately attacked me. He had a long, sharp knife - something I had never seen in my life. I drew my dagger and prepared to fend off the blow. A fight ensued. One of us was destined to remain forever on the seabed. And even both. Hand-to-hand combat under water occurs in slow motion - the movements are constrained, awkward. I think we were a weird sight. But nobody saw us. However, both of us did not care how we looked from the outside, we were worried about something completely different. The Italian outfit, as it turned out, gave me some advantages. He was much heavier and did not act as quickly. And I, in my tennis shoes and an old beach suit, moved around easily and freely. With a nimble blow, I ripped open his jumpsuit and cut the hose. And then I saw a column of large air bubbles from his scuba stretched upward. The Italian, though choking and drowning, resisted desperately. A few days later, we fished out his body in the bay. "

Another time Crabbe came across a mine, it was stuck to the bottom of an English ship. It was brought in by the Italians and secured with three vacuum grippers. As he swam closer, Crabbe heard the measured ticking of a clockwork built into the mine. At first he tried to clear it. But in vain. And suddenly a thought struck him: if he hesitated and God forbid he was late, the ship together with the crew would take off. Having swam to the surface, he boarded the ship and warned the captain, advising him to immediately evacuate the crew. Then he went under water again. I coped quite easily with the first capture, then with the second. “But with the third,” he said later, “I had to tinker. I still could not unhook it, and at the thought of the clockwork inside the mine I was constantly shivering. " Once again, Crabbe had to surface for new air cylinders. And again to the depth! “The water was just icy, my hands began to swell from the cold - quite inappropriate. Everything would be fine, but from the constant touch of the metal, rough, like emery, I managed to wipe my palms into the blood. " Finally, the last seizure yielded. Crabbe took the mine with both hands. The clockwork continued to work. Having sailed for a long time in an embrace with a mine, he hooked it to the farthest buoy so that in the event of an explosion not a single ship would be harmed. There, in peace and quiet - so to speak, - finally defused the mine. “Later, when our engineers disassembled it, they noticed with a bit of black humor that I could not have rushed, because before the explosion I had as much as 23 seconds.”

When the war ended, Crabbe was not left without work. Now he led a team of Italian divers who were called in to clear the ports. Former enemies already collaborated as best friends, the Italians even admired Crabbe, which surprised him at first. Then he learned that in Italy there were really legends about him. Soon he was awarded, and he left the fleet. Like many other demobilized people, it was not easy for him to get used to civilian life again. After a while, he, together with a certain Matland Pendock, opened a small furniture factory in London. However, in spite of everything, working under water was still the main goal of his life. The Admiralty knew about it. And now from time to time, Crabbe, having transferred the reins of the factory to his partner, began to go away for a day, now for two, now for three. And upon returning home, he happily told how he had the opportunity to put on his overalls and a diver's mask again. Usually he was assigned to investigate shoals and wrecks of sunken ships. And for each dive he received fifty pounds. But, to tell the truth, he was hardly interested in money. True happiness for him was the diving into the depths of the sea, where he could, as it were, relive the adventures of the war years. In the memory of his London friends, he remained as a frequenter of pubs and clubs, where he liked to visit after work.

Lionelle Crabbe lived alone. He divorced his wife Margaret in 1954.

Crabbe willingly talked about his military exploits - like any hero - and his adventures in peacetime, but he never mentioned diving in 1953. That year, Queen Elizabeth hosted a naval parade at Spighthead, which also featured ships from the great naval powers. Among them was the most modern Soviet cruiser "Sverdlov" - it was he who became the object of universal attention. Before entering the prescribed anchorage, the captain of the Sverdlov, oddly enough, refused not only the pilot, but even the tugs. The British sailors, gaping in amazement, watched how "swiftly and confidently" the Soviet cruiser went to its anchorage. “Everyone could see,” writes Robert Gale, “how the captain gave orders by simply pressing the buttons on the huge control panel located right in front of him.” Hitherto unprecedented ease of control and high maneuverability of the ship defied any explanation. Experts were literally lost in conjectures: maybe the new cruiser has “several rudders, additional propellers, or some super-modern hull shape?” ... However, the British did not come to a consensus, and then, apparently, it was decided to apply for help to Crabbe and ask him to examine the underwater part of the Sverdlov: what if the main secret is hidden there? Did Crabbe manage to complete this new assignment? Probably not, since three years later, when the Sverdlov-class cruiser Ordzhonikidze delivered B and X to Portsmouth, Crabbe was asked to repeat the dive, which apparently failed in 1953.

Now let's try to piece together what we have about what Lionel Crabbe did from April 17-19, 1956. After examining all the known documents, specialists from secret intelligence Kurt Singer and Jane Sherrod established the following with certainty:

Lionelle Crabbe arrives at the Sulliport Hotel, accompanied by a tall, blond man named Smith. Leaving their things in the room, they leave the hotel. What they did for several hours, no one knows. It is only known that Crabbe comes to the hairdresser's to get a haircut and shave. He also calls his companion Pendock in London several times.

In the evening, Crabbe is alone - wondering where Smith has gone? - looks into the bar "Nat". Then - in another, at the Keppels Head Hotel.

In the afternoon, Smith returns. But already one. Having paid the bill, he collects his things and leaves in an unknown direction.

Two days later, on April 21, the owner of the Sulliport Hotel is visited by a man who shows him a police card in the name of Stanley Lamport. The visitor requires a book of residents. Richman brings it in. Lamport, book under his arm, walks into the empty waiting room and locks himself. A little later, he returns the book, explaining his visit as follows:
- I acted on the orders of the high authorities.

The intruder's words struck Richman as odd and redundant. He was used to police checks. And what has the "high bosses" to do with it? It soon became clear to Richman, however. Leafing through the book, he noticed that the pages with the names of Crabbe and Smith were torn out.

But why?

Several days passed. Crabbe's London friends are beginning to worry. The first to sound the alarm is his companion. Friends go to his house - Crabbe's apartment is locked. The landlady assures that she has not seen him for several days. No doubt about it: Lionelle Crabbe has disappeared.

Soon one newspaper, then another, reports about his mysterious disappearance. And then the news was picked up by the entire British press. Journalists seek clarification from the Admiralty. It remains completely silent. Then his official representative told the Times journalist that the Admiralty had no information on this case. The police say that all this has nothing to do with them.

And only on April 29, the Admiralty finally makes the following message:
"Captain 3-Goranga Crabbe apparently died as a result of a broken breathing apparatus while diving in Stoke Bay."

Diving? What kind of immersion? It soon becomes clear to everyone that no further clarification will follow. And then suddenly an assumption arises: what if this dive is connected with the call to the English port of the cruiser "Ordzhonikidze"? What if Crabbe didn't die by accident? Sailing under the bottom of a Soviet cruiser looked more like an espionage operation than an ordinary underwater trip. And the means of protection against spies have existed from time immemorial. And in such a rather delicate matter, the Russians were far from novices. And then there is Sydney Knowles, Crabbe's diving teammate.

Yes, there is some mystery in the disappearance of Crabbe, - he says. - Since the authorities showed complete indifference to his fate, I decided to act myself and was about to dive in search of his body. And then, when everything was ready for the dive, one officer came up to me and said: “Don't do this. Crabbe's not there. "

Strange words, aren't they? However, let's hear what Knowles also has to say:
- I began to question him, - he continues. - The officer replied that he knew everything about Crabbe, but he could not say - they say, a professional secret.

Now, not only the British media, but also newspapers, radio and television all over the world are interested in Crabbe's disappearance. The House of Commons makes a request to the government. Anthony Idein (British Prime Minister 1955 - 1957) rises to the podium

In the public interest, he says, it would be advisable not to disclose the circumstances that led to the apparent death of Captain 3rd Rank Crabbe.

Here you should pay attention to another detail: the British government officially notified Crabbe's mother that her son had died. But the poor woman, however, confessed to reporters:
- And I feel that he is alive.

But what happened to Smith? Of course, if we could track him down and find out what they were up to when he last saw Crabbe, something might have cleared up. The best British reporters rushed to find Smith. But in vain. Finding Smith will not be destined for anyone.

But the journalists manage to collect other evidence. Some eyewitnesses, for example, said that on April 19 they saw Crabbe at the Vernoy floating base intended for training divers: on that day, Vernoy was just anchored fifty meters from the Soviet ships.

Following this, in turn, the Soviet government intervened in the matter. Expressing sincere indignation at the incident, it accused the British Admiralty of espionage. The Russians said they were confident that Captain 3rd Rank Crabbe had received orders to examine one of their ships underwater. "And the Russians do not know anything about the fact that he disappeared while carrying out his shameful assignment, but at the same time they strongly protest against the use of such illegal methods."

The British government had to answer. And it acted as it is customary to act in such cases - the agent was disavowed. However, what the British actually had in mind when their official statement appeared in the press, one could only guess: “We are accused of having ordered an examination of the underwater part of the Ordzhonikidze cruiser for reconnaissance purposes, but this is not true. We cannot be held responsible for what Tier 3 Captain Crabbe allegedly did. If he committed illegal actions, it was only on his own initiative. "

On June 9, 1957, a tremendous event took place. On that day, retired sailor John Randall, along with the Gibby brothers, went fishing in Prince's Bay, near the port town of Chichester, located in a narrow bay on the south coast of England.

Suddenly Randal noticed "a dark mass rippling on the waves." At first, he mistook her for "a lobster trap that had been torn from the anchor." But Ted Gibby had a sharper eye - he thought it was "the headless body of a frog man who, moreover, had no arms." The dark gray color of the rubber overalls indicated that its equipment had been made for the Admiralty.

The mutilated corpse was taken to Chichester. Upon learning of the ominous find, the British police, the Navy and the Air Force began a joint investigation. And some time later, the chief intendant of the Chichester police, L. Simmonds, told reporters that this was, without a doubt, the remains of Lionel Crabbe. Such a hasty and categorical conclusion of the police officer surprised many. And no wonder: after all, the body - if it really were the remains of Crabbe - lay in the water for more than a year, in addition, it lacked a head and hands, so it was almost impossible to identify it with accuracy.

To be frank, we never found out anything definite, - forensic doctor Dr. King was forced to confess after the autopsy.

Only the lower part of the body was more or less preserved, but there were no special signs on it.

The upper part was in such poor condition that it was even impossible to determine the exact cause of death.

The body was presented to Crabbe's ex-wife for identification. She stated that "she cannot claim that this is the body of her husband."

Meanwhile, the investigation continued. And good luck! One of the directors of the Heinky firm in Birdmonsie, which made the diving equipment Crabbe used, announced that he recognized the Crabbe's overalls. The brand name, the quality of the material, some secrets of production - everything was there. The headmaster also acknowledged the navy wool undergarment that Crabbe always wore when testing Heinke's gear.

But were the director's words an indisputable confirmation that it was Crabbe's body that was fished out of the water? After his testimony became public, the English magazine Reynolds News immediately questioned them, bringing to the readers' court its rather unexpected point of view: the jumpsuit and spacesuit could well belong to Crabbe, but the body could not be his, but whom something else, who "was deliberately mutilated beyond recognition." But why this masquerade? The magazine, taking on faith the information leaked from Eastern Europe, confidently declared that Crabbe was alive and was now behind the "Iron Curtain." As for the body caught in Chichester Bay, it was the corpse of a Russian diver, not Crabbe. Indeed, two weeks earlier, Soviet submarines had been spotted at the very spot, not far from the coast, where the body had been found.

So who was right?

On June 26, a Chichester police investigator, Bridgeman, concluded that the body, caught seventeen days earlier, was the body of Lionel Crabbe. It is interesting to know why he came to this conclusion. Those close to Crabbe testified that he had a small foot size - however, there is nothing surprising in this, because his height was one meter fifty-eight. Bridgeman just pointed to the fact that the caught corpse had "too small a leg, almost like a child." In addition, the corpse had a scar on its left knee. And in 1945, in Italy, during a dive near an American ship, fenced with a barbed wire net, Crabbe ripped open his left knee.

The investigator also referred to Dr. King's report, which said that death could have occurred six months, or even fourteen months ago. And during this time, Bridgeman noted, not a single diver was missing. Presumably, Crabbe's body - before or after death - was covered with something, and "so that the body and legs were protected from the decomposing action of sea water."

On July 5, 1957, the Daily Telegraph published the following message:
“Yesterday in Portsmouth the burial of the captain-submariner 3rd rank Lionel Crabbe took place. His body was discovered on June 9 in Chichester Bay a year after he went missing during the Russian ships' call in Portsmouth in April. Not a single representative of the Navy was present at the funeral. "

Was the Crabbe case over?

Some thought so. Others were still at a loss. “It was difficult to understand,” writes Robert Gale, “how the head and arms could separate from the body. That's really a riddle so a riddle! Moreover, because of these inexplicable injuries, it turned out to be impossible to identify the body. "

Two years have passed. The Mysterious Case of Crabbe was already mentioned occasionally. And suddenly it thundered again - like a bolt from the blue. In November 1959, the British Intelligence and Counterintelligence Service received a voluminous dossier from residents working behind the Iron Curtain. The documents collected in it, indeed sensational, concerned the disappearance of the famous "frog man" directly. This dossier formed the basis of the book by J. Bernard Hutton, which was called: "The Incredible Case of the Frog Man." The book immediately became a bestseller, since its author most definitely stated that he knew the solution to the riddle. According to Hatton, Lionelle Crabbe was not killed. And now he lived in Russia. In this book, Hutton describes in detail the extraordinary adventures of British intelligence officers who risked their lives to obtain stunning information for their superiors. In the end, thanks to their amazing diligence, they managed to get on the trail of Crabbe exactly in the very place where he seemed to be lost forever. So:
April 19, 1956. 7 a.m. Together with a certain Smith - the identity of this man has remained a mystery - Lionelle Crabbe leaves the Sulliport Hotel. He carries with him a suitcase, where light diving equipment lies.

8 hours 24 minutes. An alarm sounds at Ordzhonikidze. Soviet divers quickly plunge into the water from the cruiser. But why such a rush? The fact is that the signalmen-observers noticed a "frog-man" on board the ship. The chase begins. At first, Soviet divers fail to find the English light divers. When they finally notice him, he runs away and hides behind the hull of another Russian ship, the destroyer Lookout. Fatal oversight! Other Soviet divers are leaving the "Looker" under the water. With the help of their comrades from the Ordzhonikidze, they surround the Englishman and take him prisoner. At 0839 hours the prisoner is taken aboard the Ordzhonikidze. And they put him in the infirmary. But not at all because he was wounded or nearly choked. But because on warships, the infirmary is located in the most inaccessible place. Soon, a certain Vozensky interrogates the prisoner:
- Who you are?
No answer.
“We know you are Captain 3rd Rank Lionelle Crabbe. Do you admit it?

There is still silence.

The first interrogation ends in vain. A little later, a new interrogation follows. But all is in vain.

The silence of the Englishman confuses Soviet officers. But also anxiety. Of course, according to international law, a ship of this or that state is theoretically its territory. And according to the law, Ordzhonikidze is part of the Soviet territory. Although it is anchored in Portsmouth. In England. So the most important thing is not to attract the attention of the British authorities. There is a proven method for this - and it is used. A doctor approaches the prisoner and gives him an injection. The prisoner immediately falls asleep. He will sleep for several days in a row. He will need a lot of injections. They will feed him artificially. And the name of the prisoner is already known - Lionelle Crabbe.

B and X's visit is over. The best for the Soviet state. In the eyes of the British, the Russian colossus has now turned into a kind of smiling fat man, in which the features of Marshal Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev are combined. On April 28, the Ordzhonikidze takes off anchor, carrying two famous passengers on board. On April 29, at 6 am, a helicopter hovers over the hut of a Soviet cruiser, a special cradle is lowered from it on a cable, and “the insensible human body wrapped in a gray blanket is put there. Then the cradle is lifted into the helicopter's cockpit, and the helicopter flies away with a roar - straight to the east. "

Two hours later, the helicopter lands at the airfield in Szczecin. Lionell is still asleep ...

He will wake up only in the evening. They will bring him coffee and beef stroganoff. We need to recuperate - there is a new interrogation ahead. Entrusted this time with the care of professionals, Lionel Crabbe soon realizes that it is useless to keep silent. And he confesses. Yes, his name is Crabbe. Yes, he is a 3rd rank captain in the British Navy. Yes, on April 19 he made a dive in order to examine the underwater part of the Ordzhonikidze cruiser. But he swears that no one entrusted him with this task. He performed it on his own initiative. The Admiralty knew nothing. Now the colonel is interrogating him. Someone Jabotin. Threats. Promises. There is a whole arsenal of tried and tested police methods, as old as the world.

I know you worked for the Americans! - Colonel Jabotin shouts.

Perhaps he deliberately confuses him - in order to find out the truth? But Crabbe vehemently denies that he belongs to the American intelligence services. The next day, however, he confesses that he dived under the Sverdlov - in fifty-third:
“But just to make sure the bottom of the ship isn't mined.

Following that, Crabbe is transported to Moscow. Interrogations continue - several times a day. Polite handling is a thing of the past. Now Crabbe sits on the same bread with water, his strength is weakening day by day. The torturers, taking advantage of the prisoner's weakness, persistently try to beat him to admit that he worked for the Americans. They turn it into a kind of obsession. It should be noted that the events described take place in the midst of the Cold War. Soon the threats take on a very specific form:
- Do you know that we can shoot you as a spy?
- It is known.
- Do you know that your homeland has abandoned you? The British government has announced your death.

In vain efforts - Crabbe does not give up. His tenacity is admirable. On May 22, Colonel Myaskov offers Crabbe a deal. The prisoner will be able to avoid a military tribunal, but only on one condition: if he goes to serve in the Soviet fleet and begins to train Soviet divers. For this work he will be paid a thousand pounds annually. Before giving a final answer, Crabbe makes a demand: if he agrees, he will never work against his own.

To this Myaskov objected in a gloomy voice:
- Crabbe, the British government buried you long ago, or rather, it decided to present everything as if you really died. So you have no turning back. Now imagine that the British find your body. You will be buried in England, although in reality you will be living in Russia.

Further, as in a well-rehearsed scene, soldiers appear with stretchers. Shaken to the core, in complete despair, Crabbe sees his own body on a stretcher, without arms and head. Myaskov explains that in the very near future this supposedly "his" corpse will be fished off the coast of England.
- You and him are the same height. Then, after a long stay under water, it will be impossible to recognize him. It will also carry your gear.

After such a terrible sight, Crabbe breaks down.

Crabbe lowers his head. And agrees ...

On December 7, 1959, a lieutenant appeared in Vladivostok, he was assigned to the naval headquarters. His name was Lev Lvovich Korablev. He arrived from Odessa. For a Soviet submariner lieutenant, he had a fairly long track record. He especially distinguished himself while working on one of the Soviet icebreakers in the Baltic.

This lieutenant spoke Russian with a foreign accent. He never thought of his family.

Now is the time to take stock. Thirteen and a half months after the disappearance of Lionel Crabbe, in the very bay where his trail was lost, a body is fished out, without a head and without arms. It has been established that death occurred at least six and maximum fourteen months ago - therefore, from a medical point of view, it is possible that this is the corpse of Lionel Crabbe. The body is wearing a blue woolen jumpsuit and a light diving rubber diving suit. The diving jumpsuit and spacesuit are recognized by the diving equipment manufacturer, Crabbe's staff supplier, an indisputable fact taken into account when identifying the body. Add to this that the corpse had a very small foot size - like Crabbe's. And that he had a scar on his left knee - just like Crabbe's.

However, Margaret Crabbe, having examined the remains, at first doubts, and then strongly denies that this is the body of her ex-husband. And she knows better than anyone else about the size of his legs and about the scar on his knee.

However, soon Margaret Crabbe will ask us a new riddle. Bernard Hutton, the author of the book we mentioned, in whose opinion Crabbe remained safe and sound and now lived on the other side of the "Iron Curtain", based his arguments - as we recall - on a certain dossier brought from one communist country, or rather - East Berlin. After these documents were examined in London, they were apparently returned back to the police archives of the GDR, "by secret underground routes." And this is very annoying.

However, the aforementioned dossier was accompanied by a photograph showing a group of Soviet officers, but the original or a copy is unknown. Bernard Hutton once showed her to Margaret Crabbe. And she definitely recognized her husband, dressed in the uniform of a Soviet naval officer.

So what now?

Let the reader know that the book by Bernard Hutton, a former Czech journalist who remained in England, caused a violent reaction from the Admiralty. According to experts, the photograph shown by Mrs. Crabbe was small and indistinct, so that "it was almost impossible to identify Crabbe with accuracy from the image captured on it." As for the book itself, the official representative of the Admiralty called it "a fake, insulting the honor and dignity of an officer and a gentleman." The same idea was reflected in the written statement of the Admiralty.

Of course, if Hutton's book was indeed a pathetic fake, the highest ranks of the British Admiralty had every right to express their indignation at the version set out in it. But if Hutton's assumption was true, it turned out that an English diver on a spy mission was in peacetime! - by his actions he insulted the Soviet leaders, who at that time were on a state visit to Great Britain. However, this turn of affairs did not suit the British Admiralty in any way - that is why it hastened to announce its angry statement, accusing the poor journalist of outright slander.

How mysterious this story was! So the reader himself has to figure out what is true in it and what is speculation ...

In 1967, two remarkable events took place - as if History itself had undertaken to solve this great mystery of our day.

In January 1967, the Bonn newspaper Bild announced that Crabbe was alive and well and that he was currently training East German divers in Bolckenhagen, in the Mecklenburg Bay.

On March 8, 1967, the top of a human skull was found on the coast near Chichester. On the jaw - the upper one, of course - there were seven preserved teeth, no fillings or traces of caries were found on them. These remains ended up in the hands of the same forensic doctor who once examined Crabbe's body. The doctor said that, in his opinion, the skull had been underwater for about ten years. This roughly coincided with the date of Crabbe's disappearance.

But was it Crabbe's skull?

A new version of the disappearance of the "frog man" Lionel Crabbe: a Soviet sailor cut off his head

7:54 AM Friday, Nov 16, 2007

The story of the mysterious disappearance of the great British diver Lionel Crabbe in the harbor of Portsmouth on April 19, 1956 received a new twist. The leaders of the Soviet state Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin visited Great Britain on the Ordzhonikidze cruiser. As the editor of one of the British newspapers called them, H. and B. London could not afford a scandal with the Russian comrades H. and B., but the device of the Soviet cruiser, on which Bulganin and Khrushchev arrived, interested the British extremely. Therefore, Crabbe went to investigate the bottom of the Ordzhonikidze, not even being on the staff of the British Navy. Since he left the Portsmouth hotel with a certain Smith, no one else has seen the diver.

Koltsov found an Englishman who was trying to attach a mine to the ship's hull and cut his throat, NEWSru ua reports. "I saw the silhouette of a uniformed diver, who was fiddling with something on the starboard side, next to the ship's ammunition storage, - said the pensioner. - I swam closer and saw that he was attaching a mine." At the same time, Koltsov showed the knife, which he used, and the Order of the Red Star, which, according to him, he was later awarded for bravery.

According to Koltsov, he found Crabbe laying a mine. At the same time, even unofficial sources in Great Britain did not accuse their diver of trying to mine Ordzhonikidze.

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- Version: Crabbe - in the USSR, and in his grave - a double
- Version: Crabbe was just shot on the spot

In 1955, the Soviet cruiser Sverdlov entered the harbor of Portsmouth. The British have long shown an interest in this ship. He possessed excellent maneuverability and easily obeyed the steering wheel. The British could not figure out the secret of the Sverdlov's maneuverability and therefore sent a spy diver to him, reports the Submerged Productions website. Then Crabbe fulfilled his mission and returned. He found a large round hole in the nose. Inside was a propeller that could be lowered to various levels to achieve better handling, and therefore maneuverability, of the vessel, reports Allbestpeople.com.

But the British authorities wanted a more detailed description. This opportunity presented itself in April 1956, when Soviet statesmen arrived in Great Britain on an official visit. The small flotilla of three ships included the cruiser Ordzhonikidze, the twin brother of Sverdlov.

The Ordzhonikidze incident effectively drowned the efforts of a renewed rapprochement between post-war Britain and the Soviet Union, which had just said goodbye to Stalin. Moscow then protested, stating that the host side was spying on the distinguished guests, and representatives of the British government at parliamentary hearings were asked whether the special services had gotten out of its control.

London never gave out the secret - the "secret" stamp is valid until 2057

The British intelligence services have declassified only part of the documents relating to the disappearance of Crabbe. The main body of information remains closed until 2057. The British authorities at one time hastened to disown this incident, saying that they had nothing to do with it. The then British Prime Minister Anthony Eden warned MPs that disclosing the circumstances of Crabbe's death was against the national interest. "What was done was not undertaken at the direction of Her Majesty's ministers and without their knowledge," added the British Prime Minister.

A year later, the headless corpse of a submariner without arms was found near the British coast, which was identified as the remains of Crabbe and was buried. The remains were identified by his diving partner and close friend Sydney Knowles. He later admitted to lying. “It was not his body, but Intelligence Colonel Malcolm asked me to say the opposite for political reasons, in order to thereby serve our country,” Knowles said.

Only the testimony of the naval officer, who was the last to see the diver before the dive, was declassified. The unnamed officer said that Crabbe asked him to help with the dive "in a completely informal and purely private manner."

Crabbe is in the USSR, and there is a double in his grave

Thirteen and a half months after the disappearance of Lionel Crabbe, in the very bay where his trail was lost, a body is fished out, without a head and without arms. It has been established that death occurred at least six and maximum fourteen months ago - therefore, from a medical point of view, it is possible that this is the body of Lionel Crabbe. The body is wearing a blue woolen jumpsuit and a light diving rubber diving suit. The diving jumpsuit and diving suit are recognized by the diving equipment manufacturer, Crabbe's staff supplier, an indisputable fact taken into account when identifying the body. Add to this that the corpse had a very small foot size - like Crabbe's. And that on his left knee he had a scar - like Crabbe, writes the magazine "Vokrug Sveta". However, Margaret Crabbe, having examined the remains, at first doubts, and then strongly denies that this is the body of her ex-husband. And she knows better than anyone else about the size of his legs and about the scar on his knee.

The Vokrug Sveta magazine focuses on the version of the recruitment of Crabbe by the Soviet special services. According to this version, the diver was not killed, but taken prisoner with the help of the sailors of the "Watching" destroyer who was standing nearby. From the Ordzhonikidze, Crabbe was transported by helicopter to Szczecin. Gradually, a certain Colonel Myaskov convinced him to cooperate with the Soviets: after all, he was abandoned in England.

“Shocked to the depths of his soul, in complete despair, Crabbe sees his own body on a stretcher, without arms and head. Myaskov explains that in the very near future this supposedly“ his ”corpse will be fished off the coast of England:“ You and him are the same height. Then, after a long stay under water, it will be impossible to recognize him. It will also carry your gear. "

And the fact that he did not quite resemble Crabbe himself, in London, they preferred "not to notice."

Other details also fall into this version: the upper part of the body of the "Crabbe's corpse" was too poorly preserved and therefore completely defied identification. At the same time, the legs were better preserved, which made it possible to conclude about the size of the foot and the scar near the left knee. It is possible that the Soviet special services were able to pick up a body with a similar foot size, inflict a scar, like Crabbe's, decided to do without too gross inconsistency, and therefore, before throwing the corpse to the British, they brought it to this very form. In addition, two weeks earlier, Soviet submarines had been spotted in the same place, not far from the coast, where the body was found.

Presumably, the body of Crabbe (or the body that they wanted to pass off as the body of Crabbe) - before or after death - was filled up with something, and "so that the body and legs were protected from the decomposing action of sea water."

Meanwhile, the sea brought Crabbe's mother a bottle with a note from her son. She never told anyone about the contents of the note.

These and other facts are collected in the book by Bernard Hutton. The author based his reasoning on a dossier brought from East Berlin. After these documents were examined in London, they were apparently returned back to the police archives of the GDR, "by secret underground routes."

A photograph of a group of Soviet officers was attached to the aforementioned dossier, but the original or a copy is unknown. Bernard Hutton once showed her to Margaret Crabbe. And she definitely recognized her husband, dressed in the uniform of a Soviet naval officer.

The British Admiralty angrily branded the book as a "fake". But, writes "Around the World", if Hutton's assumption was true, it turned out that an English diver performing a spy mission - in a time of peace! - by his actions he insulted the Soviet leaders, who at that time were on a state visit to Great Britain. However, this turn of affairs did not suit the British Admiralty in any way - that is why it hastened to announce its angry statement, accusing the poor journalist of outright slander.

Crabbe was just shot on the spot

Nikolai Zenkovich, in his book "Attempts and Staging: From Lenin to Yeltsin," quotes the opinion of Joseph Zverkin, a former Soviet intelligence officer who now lives in Israel. In those years, Zverkin worked as our intelligence officer in London. “Crabbe worked rudely. He swam close to the ship, without camouflaging, in the surface mode, so to speak. survey of the surface of the water and issued a small sniper rifle ... Crabbe dived under the keel, but soon again rose to the surface and swam. Apparently, his oxygen supply failed. Then the lieutenant finished him off with a shot in the back of the head. The corpse sank. And all these stories that we caught him and that he was a Russian spy - all this is not true ... "

And now some of my correspondence on this topic with my acquaintances:

“Hello, Evgeny Evgenievich! Unfortunately, my father is now seriously ill and cannot answer your questions. What to do, age makes itself felt. However, I am familiar with the topic, I familiarized myself with your material sent to my father, and also reviewed the recording of the program from February 3-4, the general theme of which was the sabotage of combat swimmers against Soviet warships, including the Ordzhonikidze cruiser, with his visit to England in 1956.
As for the visit of "Ordzhonikidze", for the sake of "mystery and secrecy" facts and dates have been rearranged under the legend about the murder of Crabbe by our swimmer-swimmer Koltsov, and "sucking" the planned sabotage against the Soviet government delegation and the cruiser Ordzhonikidze. Bredi t and n a !!!

My father was a participant and eyewitness to these events, and not as a senior sailor, but as an officer of the RTS (radio technical service), which, in particular, was in charge of the hydroacoustic complex, which Koltsov refers to in his memoirs: "At 2 o'clock At night, the acoustician heard a noise on the starboard side ... "So, the sonar cabin, like all the other cabin rooms of the RTS, were closed and sealed, and no watch was carried in them! This was tightly controlled by the officers of the RTS. Further. Koltsov does not indicate anywhere on what date this happened. And this is understandable: if this happened on the night of April 18-19, 1956, then how could Crabbe leave the hotel in the morning on April 19, and then begin his sabotage actions, being already headless? If this happened on the night of April 19-20, then how on the afternoon of April 19, CIA officer Bernard Smith, accompanying Crabbe, could understand that Crabbe was missing (his things were urgently taken from the hotel and a page was torn from the registration book)? Moreover, how could Khrushchev protest Eden on April 18 or 19 about the April 20 incident (2 a.m., according to Kravtsov)? I must also say that Khrushchev was not the official leader of the delegation, but was simply the leader of the CPSU. The head is Bulganin. And in the official documents of the British liaison officers, they were designated as: Marshal Bulganin and Mr. Khrushchev. Moreover, it is in this sequence. You yourself understand now who could protest.

In fact, the chronology of events is as follows.
The Soviet delegation headed by Bulganin arrived in Portsmouth on April 18, 1956 at 11.45 (the cruiser Ordzhonikidze was moored). At 12.15 pm Bulganin and Khrushchev left Portsmouth and went to London. In the evening of the same day, in the interval from 21 to 23 hours from the aircraft carrier "Bulvark", moored in front of the cruiser "Ordzhonikidze", a beam of light was noticed under the water, which stretched almost to the cruiser and went out. They immediately reported on command, and the information reached Bulganin and Khrushchev the same evening. They, according to the memoirs of Khrushchev himself, did not attach much importance to this incident, but Eden expressed their dissatisfaction, and the cruiser commander was instructed to carry out all measures to ensure anti-sabotage security. The boats were lowered (at the cruiser stern), in which there was light diving equipment, the upper watch was strengthened, additional measures were taken to ensure direct communication of the upper watch with the power and survivability station, the turbine turning on the propeller was ensured, etc. The next day, April 19, 1956, at about 9.00 am, the personnel on the upper deck saw a man in a light diving suit who had floated up for a while. Then he plunged. This was reported from the upper watch to the PZH, and the turbines were turned on the propeller. On April 27, 1956, Bulganin and Khrushchev returned to the ship and departed for the USSR.

Conclusions:
1. It is clear that according to his own story, Koltsov could not kill Crabbe - he is too confused in dates, times and events. And the detailed story of how he cut off his head, and then removed the mine and left it to the British is an incredible tale, especially for those who have ever dived under water at night.
2. The body, found after 14 months and, so far, ambiguously identified ("against" says that the wife did not recognize the body and the mother hesitated in recognition; "for" indirect signs speak - equipment, a scar on the leg, a small size of the foot, etc. etc.) most likely belongs to Commander Crabbe. And he could be left without a head and hands only if he got under the cruiser screws. (Koltsov says nothing about his hands).
3. The British did not plan any sabotage: firstly, only 11 years had passed after the end of the war, and no one wanted a new war with the USSR - in England they well remembered joint convoys and the fight against Hitlerism; secondly, since Bulganin and Khrushchev were already aware of the incident, then, if there was a real danger, they would hardly have returned back on a cruiser - they could have flown away on a Tu-104, which made a huge impression on the queen, or at least - on the IL-18.
4. British and American intelligence were really interested in the running and maneuverability of the 68-bis cruisers, and especially in the propellers.
5. Crabbe carried out his activities under the guise of the CIA, which did not care deeply about the prestige of England.
6. And the main thing! When you make a program about mysterious and secret stories, it would be good to study the problem comprehensively, and not only from the words of representatives of intelligence, special forces and party bodies. It would be nice to raise the Western (English and French) press of those years. It would not be bad to see what my colleagues are doing about this: in April 2009, my father gave a short interview to 100-TV channel describing the events and providing the documents of the British liaison officers who served this visit.

P.S.
Who and why needed to make a hero out of Koltsov? The answer is on the official website of "United Russia" in the article "Meeting with the sea devil". There, the PR-specialists of "United Russia" even agreed on the prevention of World War III by Eduard Koltsov.
No words - only interjections!

Sincerely, Alexander.

“Hello, Evgeny Evgenievich. Father asked me to send you at last a description of the known events by a certain Fergus Fleming, stored in his archive:
"... watchkeepers on the ships stationed in the port of Portsmouth noticed that something incomprehensible was happening around the Ordzhonikidze cruiser. Soviet divers literally surrounded the ship. Suddenly, between Ordzhonikidze and the destroyer standing next to it, another diver surfaced to the surface. Divers from "Ordzhonikidze" rushed towards it A short struggle followed, and then they all went under water
Soon three of them surfaced. Two of them dragged the third to a nearby motor boat, which immediately started up and headed towards Ordzhonikidze. "
So it's clear that it's a dark matter. But our media, as far as I understand, did not hush up this event, and everyone knew about the treachery of the former ally in the USSR, and the relevant authorities made the appropriate organizational conclusions.
A. Khokhlov "

“Hello, Eugene.
This secret cruiser was sold to Indonesia in 1961, where it soon turned into a heap of scrap metal. But not with all the giblets
The cruiser was sold in 1963, and many of its giblets were removed long before the sale. The Indonesians turned it into scrap metal.
My friend was closely acquainted with the late Alexei Ivanovich Kholodov - in 1956 he served as a midshipman-DIVIDER on it. Even in the mid-90s, he was afraid to talk about the episode with the English diver. Gave a subscription. Periodically turning the screws was a routine procedure for two reasons, he said.
-ПДСС-already then understood and organized
-the readiness of the turbines for immediate running.
He did not say anything about the mine, but the emerging corpse, poked with screws, was discovered almost immediately that he did not know what they had done to him.
Best regards, Maxim "

"" Nikita Khrushchev arrived in Indonesia in February 1960. During the visit, an agreement was signed on the supply of ships, aircraft, helicopters, tanks and other weapons. Undoubtedly, the most expensive object among them was the Sverdlov project cruiser. did not transfer to the fleets of the USSR.

The light cruiser Ordzhonikidze from the Baltic Fleet was selected for the transfer ("object 055"). On January 11, 1961, a special decree was issued, according to which TsKB-17 began to develop a project for the "tropicalization" of the ship. Large modernization works were planned for the following climatic requirements: air temperature +40 degrees. С, humidity 95 percent, water temperature +30 degrees. C. The work went on in a big way, but the representatives of the Indonesian Navy who arrived in Baltiysk hinted that they would not give money for such a large work. Requirements decreased, and everything was done only by replacing diesel generators with more powerful ones (for installing additional fans, mostly individual ones).

On February 14, 1961, the Ordzhonikidze arrived in Sevastopol and entered the plant, and on April 5, 1962, it went out for sea trials. By that time, the Indonesian Navy officer corps had already been formed and was on the ship. Incidentally, the mechanic of the cruiser Yatijan subsequently "rose" to the head of the technical department of the Indonesian Navy. Most of the seafarers were also promoted to management positions.

On August 5, 1962, the Ordzhonikidze cruiser arrived in Surabaya and, after the transfer ceremony and renaming into Irian, on January 24, 1963, she was expelled from the USSR Navy.
Not having before their own fleet, the Indonesians had to master expensive ships and rather complex equipment by trial and error. In November 1962, when surfacing from a water hammer, diesel engines on one of the submarines went out of order, one of the destroyers broke its stern, and three of six boilers stopped working on the cruiser. The state of the fleet was influenced by the high temperature and humidity of the air, as well as the aggressiveness of the seawater, and the equipment was not serviced properly.

By 1964, the cruiser had practically lost its combat capability. That is why it was decided to send "Irian" for repairs to the USSR, to Vladivostok. In March 1964, the cruiser arrived at Dalzavod. Both seamen and ship repairers were struck by the neglect of the ship and the huge number of small jobs that are usually performed by the crew. Nevertheless, all the points noted in the contract for the repair were fulfilled. In August of the same year, accompanied by our destroyer Irian, he left for Surabaya.

And already in 1965, the famous events took place, as a result of which the "father of creation" Suharto came to power. His attitude to the fleet was completely different from that of the previous government. The cruiser stood on the roadstead of Surabaya and eventually turned into a floating prison for opponents of the new regime.

In 1970, the abandoned and forgotten Irian was washed into the shallows. The body was filled with water. Nobody carried out rescue operations. And, according to Western sources, in 1972 the flagship of the Indonesian Navy began to be taken apart for scrap. "
The version of the diver's death as a result of turning the screws looks the most convincing.
By the way, the version of revenge on the part of Prince Borghese was not considered?

Sincerely,
Alexander "

“Hello Old! I'm not in the subject, ask Skafandrych, you are next to him - what is easier? Looks like a duck about the hijacking of an American nuclear submarine straight from Pearl Harbor.

Only hardly a duck. I heard this story in different rehash (different cruisers, different parking places) for a very long time, and many who told, assured that they knew this from very informed people. Here the principle is - there is no smoke without fire.

In one of the versions, they simply turned the screws, chopping it into cabbage, in the other, N.S. Khrushchev himself was on the cruiser. Etc.

Six months ago, an interview with the alleged widow of this very Krebs was shown on TV. She also carried some version of her own. Then his comrades were shown, who spoke about some vague task set to him.

In a word, a solid fog, similar to deliberately entangling everyone around in order to hide the truth. very similar to the handwriting of the secret service for covering traces.

Best regards, Hooke "

Hello, Evgeny Evgenievich!
I remember that there were freelance divers on the diz.plpl, who were supposed to be able to use scuba diving and inspect the hull for foreign objects, as well as loosen the screws if anything was wrapped around them. There was even a so-called "flagship diver" on the brigade, the chief officer was a diver-instructor. Every six months, it seems, was announced "The threat of the PDSS" (it seems that it was called), and we pretended to be setting up an additional watch with grenades.

But were the capabilities of the PDSS really appreciated only after Novorossiysk?
Nikolai Cherkashin writes this (presumably he voiced the official version):
"after the explosion of Novorossiysk, all Soviet ships began to carry special watches - PDSS (anti-sabotage forces and means). These watches also rushed on the Ordzhonikidze cruiser. If you didn't have time, then you need to throw special stun grenades into the water. one remedy is to turn the propellers. Huge sharp blades cut not only the water column ... "

By the way, a certain Stanislav Lekarev, in the same "Arguments of the Week" No. 26 of 2006, claims that Crabbe took part in the sabotage against "Novorossiysk."

Sincerely,"

"Hello. At your request, I am expanding: After the British troops entered Italy, Commander Crabbe arrived there. He actually saved the detachment of Mussolini's combat swimmers from destruction. Having learned that the famous Crabbe in Italy, the commander of the 10th flotilla of Italian diving special forces, Alexander Volkov - a descendant of white emigrants - personally came to surrender to his famous colleague. A fisherman sees a fisherman from afar. Volkov's calculation was justified. With him, Crabbe fully restored a detachment of Italian combat swimmers, who then not only advised specialists from the British 12th flotilla, but also participated in military operations together. Later Volkov went to Argentina, where he became "the father of Argentinean combat swimmers."

N. Cherkashin "

“After the Second World War, more precisely, by 1952, units of combat swimmers appeared in almost all NATO countries. But the Soviet Union realized their need only in April 1956, when the British combat swimmer, Lieutenant Commander Lionel Krebs, was allegedly killed in England. , who examined the bottom of the Ordzhonikidze cruiser. On it N. Khrushchev and N. Bulganin arrived in London on an official visit. It was then that the USSR Ministry of Defense urgently began to consider the issue of "the need to create special submarine reconnaissance and sabotage formations."

In Cam Ranh, I vouch for that, the high-level defense against PDSS has been worked out.

Best regards, N. Cherkashin "

And in conclusion, the simplest and most difficult thing in this topic that I managed to do personally was to talk to Eduard Petrovich himself and use the "key selection method" to bring him to a story about the events of those years in the first person and without cuts. I photographed him and his friend Patrick and promised to post the picture on the network (he himself does not know how, but he loves his dog and is proud of it - Patrick helped him survive the terrible timelessness of the 90s, he is 12 years old). And for this E.P. told me what was really going on. I cite this story from memory, there could be no talk of any dictaphones.

“… What is there to tell! Zhenya, you’re not a kid, you went under the water yourself, you must understand! How is it possible to cut off the head with one blow of a knife under water? With our diving knife ?! Nonsense, of course. You cannot on the surface - and the water is 500 times denser.

I didn't kill Crabbe. Everything was as I told these magazines from "Vechorka", only this way - but not so. At the end of the second hour of the night, the acoustician reported that he heard suspicious noises on the starboard side. From the opposite port side into the water and went. And I'm not the only one - there were still ours. And the guy who wrote to you about the "sealed" posts and fellings - did he ever see the sea? You yourself served at the RTK, at the BDK, you yourself know how it is done. The three of us walked under the stern and saw it at once - from below against the background of the surface, it was highlighted by searchlights on the pier. We saw him, but he did not. Three of us went at him - me from the bottom to my feet, the guys - to the right and to the left. I was young, strong and greyhound, Britt compared to me - an old man, and quite puny, but he had a reaction !!! Immediately, a blade turned out to be in my hand, as long as a dagger - he immediately hit my boy in the stomach, well, he hit the buckle. I hung on his legs, and Pashka Belov - our third - on his shoulders. In general, they twisted it somehow, pinched the air ducts so that they would not rock the boat too much - and to the ladder. Raised in the best possible way. And I took off the "lipukha" a little later, when I went down again. For her, and the "Star". Further - the guys from the boats were already working. What kind of body they threw in, where they got it from - I don't know. To be interested - you understand yourself. Immediately warned: First - nothing and no one! The second - if - what and whom, it means this: there was an underwater saboteur, you stabbed him alone, put his body under the screws.

The British immediately assumed that we took Crabbe and are keeping him somewhere. In civilian clothes, clowns came and asked to show it, to open it, but this is so, for show, they themselves understood that at least their entire Tower could be hidden on the ship - you will find hell.

That's why I still tell you that I chopped off Crabbe's head. For suckers. Do you remember the naval adage: "A clever one understands, but a fool doesn't care." Crabbe then served with us for a long time. The colossal experience, practice, knowledge. With his help, the scouts then turned such things - there is still a ringing. So, friend - I stabbed Crabbe for the whole world without a statute of limitations. This is their statute of limitations, but we do not have it. Yes, and his wife is easier - one thing: an officer's widow, another - the wife of a defector. In all conscience it is. "

Khrushchev's escapades, "translated" by Troyanovsky, meet with clear approval from the audience. Some phrases are even greeted with applause. And Khrushchev, who went into a rage, cannot correlate his revelatory passages with their enthusiastic reaction ...

The visit to England in April 1956 by the then leaders of the Soviet state, Khrushchev and Bulganin, was the first of its kind and exceptional in significance.

The fact that this visit was made by two reflected the alignment of forces that existed in the Kremlin at that time - Khrushchev had not yet taken the position of sovereign and sole leader, this happened somewhat later.

They arrived in Great Britain aboard the most modern ship of the Soviet Navy, the Ordzhonikidze cruiser. I happened to be on board this ship with a small group of accompanying persons. And watch everything further with your own eyes.

The details of this first-of-its-kind state visit have been repeatedly described, researched and evaluated by historians. Therefore, without undertaking the task of repeating the well-known, I will share with the readers some details that for many years lay like a dead weight in my notebooks.

On April 18, 1956, the cruiser Ordzhonikidze burst into the Portsmouth harbor at full speed - a miracle of technology of that time - and, to the admiration of the British who know a lot about maritime art, famously moored to the quay wall.

The distinguished guests were greeted by the Prime Minister of England, the right hand of the wartime leader Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, who uttered official words befitting the occasion. Churchill himself was then already in retirement.

Ten years earlier, in March 1946, he had given the infamous Fulton speech, in which he first coined the term "Iron Curtain." Stepping on the throat of his own song, Churchill wished in print success for the visit, which, he wrote, "should promote more fruitful relations between our countries."

The state visit of the Soviet leaders went on as usual: receptions, speeches, wreath-laying, negotiations - in a word, everything that is required in such cases.

All this was reported in the press, told on the radio. About everything, but not everything.

The Cold War, which had come into force by that time, dictated its own rules. The incident I want to tell about was then, so as not to spoil the general atmosphere, was passed over in complete silence both in the English and in the Soviet press. We were strictly ordered not to mention him.

On the second day of the Ordzhonikidze anchorage in the port of Portsmouth, Soviet sailors discovered suspicious noises under the bottom of the ship.

It turned out that a mysterious diver was nimble there. An unspoken but decisive presentation to the British authorities followed. In response, it was stated that the Russians were mistaken and that there were no divers in the area of the ship.

However, the next day, the incident repeated itself, and again categorical denial followed. No - so no. And the Soviet sailors took their measures.

A few days later, when the Soviet delegation was still in England, the headless corpse of an unknown diver was washed ashore. Soon the ubiquitous newspapermen found out the truth and even the name of this diver - the English soldier Crabbe.

According to them, the naval commanders showed an increased interest in the design of the underwater part of the new Soviet cruiser, which resulted in the spy's head cut off by an underwater autogen. This time, no protests followed, and the ends of the incident were literally submerged in water.

And the state visit proceeded on its own. Both Khrushchev and Bulganin had to face inconveniences and difficulties that were unusual for them. For official receptions at Buckingham Palace, foreign guests were supposed to appear in tailcoats, with which the Soviet guests decided not to agree. They came to the Queen's reception in strict black suits.

The well-groomed Bulganin, who smelled of perfume a mile away, looked even more or less decent. Nikita Sergeevich felt uncomfortable in such an unusual dress for him. Without the help of well-trained servants, he could not figure out the purpose of the numerous glasses, knives and forks placed in front of him.

For the arrogant regents of royal receptions, vaunted English self-control helped to suppress smiles. However, Nikita Sergeevich was not in the least embarrassed by this circumstance. He led a lively conversation, skillfully and deliberately playing the role of a simple Russian peasant who fell into the company of aristocrats who were not too revered by him.

But the most memorable incident during this visit, which adds finishing touches to the portrait of Khrushchev, occurred during his trip to the capital of Scotland - ancient Edinburgh.

In the ancient residence of the Scottish kings - Castle Holidruhaus, a palace with a medieval fortress wall, all the then flower of the English business world gathered to meet with the Soviet leader.

It was planned that during this meeting a serious conversation would take place on the topic of economic cooperation between our countries. This time, not aristocrats from the royal entourage, but the elite of the British business world, wanted to listen to the envoy of Moscow.

A small group of escorts went to Edinburgh with Khrushchev. Several diplomats, security guards, a doctor, a translator and the only journalist is the author of these lines.

During this dinner Nikita Sergeevich, who then did not shy away from glasses, as they say, went over a little. When coffee was served, he was to deliver an important speech, the prepared and verified text of which was in his pocket.

It is difficult for today's reader to understand the whole drama of what happened next. Let me remind you that it was the beginning of 1956. The black shadow of Stalin's repressions that hung over the country for decades has not yet dissipated.

According to the order that existed for many years, the speech of the leader was a "sacred text." Citing a quotation from such a speech, the editor had to write "verified with the text" in the margins and sign. Any retreat threatened with the most serious troubles.

And so Khrushchev got up from his chair and began his speech. However, being under wine vapors, he forgot about the text in his pocket and began to improvise. He spoke, apparently forgetting who was in front of him, in the words that became familiar to him and subsequently expressed in the style of "we will bury you", exposing world imperialism and its henchmen.

The first passage of the improvisation was recited. There is an agonizing pause. His translator, Oleg Aleksandrovich Troyanovsky, is supposed to translate, but he is silent. I see him turn pale, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. The pause drags on, Khrushchev pushes the translator to the side: "Translate."

And Oleg Alexandrovich begins to translate. But he says not what Khrushchev just said, but a phrase from the official text. Khrushchev says further. Troyanovsky continues in the same spirit. Khrushchev's escapades, "translated" by Troyanovsky, meet with clear approval from the audience, which is quite satisfied with the calls for cooperation made by the official translator. Some phrases even met with applause from the audience, and Khrushchev, who went into a rage, cannot correlate his revelatory passages in relation to those present with their benevolent, almost enthusiastic reaction.

I am sitting neither alive nor dead, and only one thought drills me: what if at least one person who knows Russian turns out to be here, and a remark follows that the translation is not at all what Khrushchev says.

Fortunately, there was no such person. Having finished his temperamental speech, Nikita Sergeevich, pleased with himself, leaves the hall under the thunderous applause of those present.

Backstage, the assistants, grabbing the arms, took him to the recreation room. And Oleg Alexandrovich and I were left in painful anticipation of what would happen next.

After sleeping, Khrushchev entered the room where we were sitting, and asked somewhat embarrassedly:

- I think I said something wrong?

- Yes, Nikita Sergeevich, - said Troyanovsky, - you have moved away from the prepared text.

“Don't wag, tell me exactly what I told them.

I had to tell.

- And you translated all this for them? - he turned to Troyanovsky.

“Nikita Sergeevich, I followed a pre-approved text,” Troyanovsky said in a low voice.

- What are you clever! - cried Nikita Sergeevich, hugged and kissed Oleg tightly.

In newspapers, the speech of N.S. Khrushchev was reproduced exactly according to the official text, and from that moment Oleg Troyanovsky began climbing the diplomatic career ladder. And deservedly so! He showed not only responsibility and concern not for his career, but for the interests of the country, but also outstanding political courage. In those days it was an Act.

And I would like to tell you about one more case of those days, which did not become widely known, or, more precisely, did not receive it immediately and in narrow scientific circles. The inclusion of Academician Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov in the Soviet delegation heading to England was unexpected for many.

There was, perhaps, in those days in the Soviet Union a figure more classified than one of the fathers of the Soviet atomic bomb. The name of this remarkable scientist was not mentioned in the press, and even his movements around Moscow were accompanied by more stringent precautions than in relation to members of the Politburo.

And suddenly - a public appearance of Kurchatov to the people and not just a phenomenon, but the presentation of this tall, imposing man, decorated with a thick beard, to the outside world. Assessing what happened in hindsight, we can say that the creator of the first Soviet atomic bomb was assigned the role of a political bomb at that time. And what he did exceeded the effect of all political speeches, social events, protocol events and even negotiations of that visit combined.

During the visit, Igor Vasilyevich kept in the background, almost did not appear in public, and the mission that he carried out on the fourth day of his stay was at first hushed up.

On April 22, several cars, one of which was the academician, headed for the small town of Harwell, sixty miles west of London, where a highly classified laboratory complex with six nuclear reactors is located. It was the main British research center, in which work was carried out on atomic energy.

Outwardly, everything happened more than routinely. A small conference room with rows of armchairs arranged in an amphitheater was filled with world-famous scientists. Kurchatov went to a large slate board, spoke rather briefly about the work of his and his colleagues on the problems of a controlled thermonuclear reaction, then began to draw formulas on the blackboard in chalk, accompanied by brief explanations.

A few minutes later, the hall resembled a stadium tribune at a poignant moment of a football match. Those present jumped onto the seats, waving their arms, filling the room with shouts of surprise and admiration.

Of course, I did not understand anything about what was happening. The formulas that Kurchatov deduced did not tell me, an uninitiated person, and I could not share the emotions of those present. When Kurchatov finished, shaking off the chalk from his hands, there was a standing ovation in the hall.

The Harwell lecture was a deliberate political and scientific move. As he himself later explained to me, he did not and could not give out any information important for the security of the country in that lecture:

- I told my colleagues about one of the directions of our scientific work in the field of thermonuclear fusion, which turned out to be unsuccessful and led to a dead end. They then followed the same path, but were in its initial stage. I showed them the results they would eventually arrive at, thus saving their Western colleagues time, effort and money. Of course, I did not talk about the new direction in which we were conducting research at that moment. So the interests of national security were not violated.

This way the level of our science and readiness for creative cooperation were clearly demonstrated.

From the book: Zorin Valentin. Unknown about the known, M .: Publishing house "Vagrius", 2000.

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