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Sailor of K-19 submarine nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
March 4, 2006, 16.53
YEKATERINBURG, April 6 (Itar-Tass) - Nikolai Batarev from the city of Nizhny Tagil, former sailor from the legendary K-19 submarine, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, Chief of the information-analytical center of the international non- government organization -the Federation of Peace and Accord (FPA) Marianna Yevdotyeva told.
In 2006, Russia will commemorate the victims of an accident on board the Soviet submarine on the occasion of the 45th anniversary since the tragedy. The FPA, Russian business circles and the Sobesednik weekly have put forward an initiative to nominate the submarine crew for the Nobel Peace Prize for the heroic efforts to prevent an international nuclear conflict.
On July 4, 1961 during the exercises in the Northern Atlantic the K-19 Soviet submarine was depressurized, which caused failure of the nuclear reactor cooling system. The crew managed to shut down the nuclear reactor, sacrificing eight lives, and prevented a nuclear explosion, which might have entailed an ecological catastrophe and provoked a nuclear war.
Nikolai Batarev was on board the K-19 submarine as a serviceman undergoing compulsory military service in 1957-1961. After the accident in the Northern Atlantic Batarev underwent a course of rehabilitation therapy at a military hospital, and then returned to his home place in Nizhny Tagilm where he lives now.