CRY FROM DEEP - Softcover

Flynn, Ramsey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 006093641X ISBN 13: 9780060936419

Publisher: Perennial, 2005

Synopsis

A gripping account of the disastrous Russian submarine explosion that killed the entire crew, devastated the Russian people, and defined Vladimir Putin's post–Cold War regime.

What were Russian officials thinking when they waited 48 hours to acknowledge their most prized submarine was in trouble? Why did they track the desperate tappings of an unknown number of trapped sailors without sending an international SOS? Why did they repeatedly decline international rescue offers while their own rescue equipment repeatedly failed to make any progress?

To a world community still mystified by deadly Russian deceits surrounding the Kursk submarine disaster, Ramsey Flynn's book uncovers the truth once and for all. Cry from the Deep has quickly become the definitive account of this pivotal moment in modern Russian history, as an angry Russian people – aided and abetted by a fledging independent media – openly clashed with Vladimir Putin and his new government's Soviet–era tactics of secrecy and deception.

Flynn's searing narrative also documents how western officials, in a practiced silence reminiscent of the Cold War era failed to notify their post–Soviet counterparts of the disaster, despite learning of the explosion hours before the Russians did.

About this title

About the Author

Ramsey Flynn, the winner of a National Magazine Award for reporting, is a former staff writer for the Washingtonian and chief editor of Baltimore magazine. His stories have also appeared in Esquire, Reader's Digest, Men's Journal, and Philadelphia. He lives outside Baltimore with his wife and two young sons.

From Publishers Weekly

A gripping and gruesome tale, this book is a superb account of the loss of the Russian submarine Kursk off northern Russia in August 2000. Long-range torpedoes fueled with hydrogen peroxide exploded in succession, which sank the submarine; a fifth of the crew of 118 survived the explosions, but probably did not last more than another eight hours. The Russian Northern Fleet failed to recognize the signs of an accident, failed to take any sort of constructive action with its limited resources, failed to inform political superiors, and didn't allow any cooperation with the efficient rescue gear of the NATO navies. Russian officials were then caught by the independent Russian media in several outright lies, which made for further scandal. Not that Western authorities were much more on the ball—the American and British embassies were left in the dark for several days—but the whole tragedy of errors profoundly embarrassed the newly elected Putin regime. Flynn has researched exhaustively in already crowded territory, interviewed widely and written clearly, leaving very little room for rumor, innuendo or propaganda (he definitely rules out any collision with a NATO submarine, for example).
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Perennial
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 006093641X
• ISBN 13: 9780060936419
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 304