Comments: Admiral I.I. Nalyotov

Dear Reader! It is a great honour and privilege for me to write these few lines about a legendary nuclear submarine commander and a true sailor. I have consciously avoided hyperbole in this brief foreword and used every word in its true sense. Alexander Ivanovich Terenov and I commanded nuclear submarines of the same class – I a little earlier, and he a little later. We served together in the 11th Division of the Northern Fleet and carried out patrols in the middle of the Arctic, in the Pacific, and the Mediterranean, and now we are both together in the Department for Foreign Cooperation.

The K-43 is a legendary submarine, and the author writes about her exploits with great affection, as befits one who has been her Commander. This submarine had the longest, most difficult and the most hazardous career of all the vessels of her class, and stood testimony to the high degree of reliability of Soviet technology. I remember an occasion when I had dived my submarine to its working depth and was congratulating the younger sailors in the crew when I received a report of flooding in one of the compartments. We dealt competently with that emergency and surfaced the submarine successfully. Alexander Ivanovich had several similar experiences with the Indian crews – the reliability of Soviet technology notwithstanding, machines are machines.

The experience with foreign crews is of great benefit to our submariners, too. I was always struck by their dedicated approach to their training, their hunger for knowledge and their almost naive inquisitiveness. It often happened that their questions, which seemed simple at first glance, often hid deep professional ideas – at any rate, deeper than we had thought! Fate had stern trials in store for Alexander Ivanovich, as well as an amazingly wide circle of acquaintances in the navies of Russia and India. Not every submariner gets the opportunity to serve under the flags of different countries, sail in all the oceans and in practically all seas and then to write about it all. And note how simply he writes, in an amazingly readable style.

A talented person is talented in everything! Nuclear submarine Commanding Officers are handpicked specialists, and Alexander Ivanovich is one such unique professional. In life, too, he is open, without any hidden meaning to what he says. It is a pleasure to read him; it is equally a pleasure to be in his company. And now, he has unexpectedly displayed this talent as a naval author. Read his book, and you will agree with me.

I wish you, dear Alexander Ivanovich, many more creative successes and the best of naval luck!

Admiral I.I. Nalyotov Chief of Staff, Northern Fleet (1992-1996)

Contents
More