A Time to Die: The Untold Story of the Kursk Tragedy - Softcover

Moore, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 140005124X ISBN 13: 9781400051243

Publisher: Three Rivers Press, 2004

Synopsis

Ona quiet Saturday morning in August 2000, two explosions--one so massive it was detected by seismologists around the world--shot through the shallow Arctic waters of the Barents Sea. Russia’s prized submarine, the Kursk, began her fatal plunge to the ocean floor.

Award-winning journalist Robert Moore presents a riveting, brilliantly researched account of the deadliest submarine disaster in history. Journey down into the heart of the Kursk to witness the last hours of the twenty-three young men who survived the initial blasts. Visit the highly restricted Arctic submarine base to which Moore obtained secret admission, where the families of the crew clamored for news of their loved ones.

Drawing on exclusive access to top Russian military ?gures, Moore tells the inside story of the Kursk disaster with factual depth and the compelling moment-by-moment tension of a thriller.

About this title

Review

In August 2000, explosions rocked the Russian nuclear submarine the Kursk, killing most crewmembers instantly and leaving the sub stranded in the Barents Sea where the remaining personnel would also soon perish. When the story was reported worldwide, it was met with considerably more questions than answers: What caused the explosion? Could the men be rescued? And why was the Russian military being so secretive about the incident? Journalist Robert Moore has gathered extensive information regarding the incident to answer those and numerous other questions in this exhaustive account. Moore pieces together a harrowing narrative of the events leading to the two on-board explosions that instantly killed 88 men while sparing, temporarily, 23 others. Soon, the story spreads beyond the Arctic Circle as the book offers tales of frightened families searching for information, international rescue teams attempting to reach the crew in time, a Russian government whose disorganization or obfuscation may have hampered those efforts, and American submarine crews poised just outside Russian waters. Where the book succeeds most is in the details: the fact that the rubber-wrapped Kursk was nearly impossible to detect on sonar, the speculation that the tapping noises often reported may have been tales invented by the Northern Fleet to add urgency to the rescue efforts, and the transcripts of notes left by the surviving crew members after the explosions had already occurred. --John Moe

From the Back Cover

“Robert Moore’s account of the Kursk disaster. . .is a gripping tale. It is a moving tragedy redeemed by acts of extraordinary courage, which Moore narrates with great dramatic skill. The book has the plot, the tension, and the excitement of a film.”
—Orlando Figes, author of A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution

Edition details

• Publisher: Three Rivers Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 140005124X
• ISBN 13: 9781400051243
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 288