Synopses & Reviews
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.
Synopsis
On August 12, 2000, the giant Russian nuclear submarine
Kursksank in the icy waters of the Barents Sea. As survivors of the 118-man crew struggled to survive, the Russian Navy failed to notice the unfolding tragedy, even as Western observers immediately alerted leaders in the United States and England to the explosion.
Why then did Western officials, in a practiced silence reminiscent of the Cold War, fail to notify Vladimir Putin and his new post-Soviet government of the disaster? Why did the Russian government later rebuff international rescue attempts even amid early reports of faint tappings coming from inside the hulking mass? And when, if ever, would a new Russia emerge from the specter of its Cold War past?
By turns thrilling, heart-wrenching, and absorbing, Cry from the Deepuntangles, once and for all, the knotty Soviet-era deceptions and conspiracies surrounding the submarine disaster that devastated the Russian people and shocked the world.
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.