Built as the first nuclear powered attack submarine in Russia as Project 627 K-3 (Kit means whale) at Molotovsk now Severodvinsk, near Archangels, Russia for the Russian Navy. NATO reporting name November.
24 September 1955 laid down. (other source gives June 1954.)
09 August 1957 launched as K-3
Displacement 3.065 ton surfaced, 3.986 submerged. Dim. 107.4 x 8.0 x 5.65m. (draught).
Powered by two 70 MWt VM-A pressurized water reactors, two turbines each 17.500 shp., twin shafts, speed 15.2 knots submerged, around 30 knots submerged.
Range got for 60 days provision on board.
Armament around 8 – 21 inch torpedo tubes.
Crew 110.
Save diving depth 480 meters.
01 July 1958 commissioned in the Russian Northern Fleet, with homeport Zapadnaya Litsa on the Kola Peninsula.
04 July 1958 for the first time her nuclear reactors were started.
June 1962 she had a reactor accident.
17 June (other source gives July) 1962 she was the first Russian submarine to reach the North Pole, for this feat she was renamed in
LENINSKY KOMSOMOL on 09 October 1962.
Summer 1967 she was appointed for patrol in the Mediterranean, when an other submarine scheduled for this patrol was not available.
With a new commander, Captain Stepanova and his Chief officer arrived a few hours before departure on board, and when she had reached the Mediterranean the submarine with a insufficiently trained crew was not ready for his task, the air-condition failed and the temperature in the ship reached 35 to 40 degree Celsius.
In the Mediterranean she was ordered to follow an American ballistic submarine in which she failed, the
LENINSKY KOMSOMOL was ordered to return to base.
08 September 1967 when sailing in the Norwegian Sea a fire broke out in the submarine’s hydraulic system, and the crew members in the compartment where the fire broke out had to evacuate.
Then the flames spread to other parts of the submarine, the automatic extinguishers were based on carbon dioxide gas, which killed the men in the first and second foremost compartments of the submarine.
When the crew to see what had happened with the crew in that compartment opened the watertight door between the third and second compartment, the gas spread and more people lost consciousness.
The foremost compartments were then completely sealed off, and the submarine surfaced.
Four days later she arrived at Zapadnaya Litsa.
In the accident 39 crewmembers were killed.
The subsequent investigation determined that the most probably cause of the fire was ignition of an explosive concentration of hydraulic oil, and that the reactions of crew were prompt and correct. Numerous rewards were recommended for the crew, including seven nominations for Hero of Soviet Union- four of them posthumous.
A later commission from Moscow however found a cigarette lighter in the torpedo compartment and found the position of a sailor’s body suspicious.
They ruled that the sailor’s smoking had caused the fire and prohibited any reward.
1991 Stricken from the Russian Navy list.
1991 A memorial was erected in Zapadnaya Litsa to the men lost on board the
LENINSKY KOMSOMOL.
First nuke-sub may be scrapped
15 March 2009
K-3 submarine
The plan to rebuild the Soviet Union’s first nuclear powered submarine into a museum is in jeopardy due to the financial crises.
It was supposed to be the year of pride for the old submarine, Leninskiy Komsomol. 2009 marks the 50 year anniversary for the Northern Fleet’s first operational nuclear powered submarine. On March 12th, 1959 the submarine joined the 206th brigade of the fleet, based in Zapadnaya Litsa.
In February 2004 it was decided to rebuild the submarine into a floating museum to be located near the historical Aurora battleship in St. Petersburg, writes Murmanskiy Vestnik. The estimated cost of rebuilding Leninskiy Komsomol is 500 million rubles (some 11 million Euros).
Now, according to Murmansk Vestnik, the famous submarine might end its days as scrap metal, although no funds for scrapping the sub exists on this year’s budget.
The submarine itself is laidup at the Nerpa naval yard on the Kola Peninsula. The reactor compartment from the sub is taken out and safely stored at the onshore facility for reactor compartments in the Saida bay, also on the Barents Sea coast.
Leninskiy Komsomol, also known as K3, was built at the naval yard in Severodvinsk in the period from September 1955 till it was commissioned on July 1st 1958.
Source: mostly copied from
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/row/rus/627.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-3
USSR's first-ever nuclear sub was destroyed by beer bottle cap
11.09.2012
The first and one of the major accidents at the Navy of the USSR took place
45 years ago. On September 8, 1967, an accident on board the first Soviet
nuclear submarine K-3
LENINSKY KOMSOMOL killed 39 people. The causes of the
accident had been classified for 20 years. It is only now, in September
2012, when a special commission is going to finish the investigation.
Before we go directly to the accident, let us remember the heroic and
long-suffering history of the submarine.
LENINSKY KOMSOMOL, originally K-3,
was the very first Soviet (and the third in the world) nuclear submarine,
the head one of the series.
It was the only sub of Project 627. All subsequent subs in the series were
based on the finalized project 627A. The sub inherited the honorary title
LENINSKY KOMSOMOL from the diesel submarine M-106 of the Northern Fleet,
which was destroyed in one of the combat missions in 1943. During the last
years of service, the K-3 was reclassified from cruise to large submarine.
The construction of the sub was started on September 24, 1955 at the plant
in Severodvinsk (nowadays Sevmash Plant), serial number 254. In August of
1955, captain of the first rank Leonid Osipenko was appointed the commander
of the sub.
The reactors were placed in September of 1957; the sub was launched on
October 9, 1957. It was passed into service on July 1, 1958.
In 1961, the submarine was on combat duty in the Atlantic Ocean. In July
1962, for the first time in the history of the Soviet Navy, it went on a
long mission under the ice of the Arctic Ocean, in which it passed the North
Pole twice.
Under the command of Lev Zhiltsov, on July 17, 1962, the K-3 surfaced near
the North Pole for the first time in the history of the Soviet submarine
navy. The crew hoisted the flag of the USSR somewhere near the pole.
Nikita Khrushchev himself and Defense Minister Rodion Malinovsky came to the
pier to celebrate the return of the submarine. The administration of the
legendary, first-ever mission to the Pole later received the title of the
Hero of the Soviet Union. The entire staff of the sub were decorated with
orders and medals.
But there were some difficulties too. Since the boat was entirely new, and
because it was designed and built in a hurry, it constantly required repairs
and technical servicing. The works were hidden under the words "pilot
operation."
In the first years of service and during the mission to the North Pole, the
maintenance of the submarine, which was often staying in a state of
emergency, was provided by a very skilled team of people, who could perform
complex repairs themselves.
The never-ending technical works on board the sub and the appearance of new
welded seams led to the increased exposure of the crew to radiation.
On September 8, 1967, a fire broke out in the first and second compartments
during a combat mission in the Norwegian Sea. Thirty-nine people were
killed. The sub returned to the base, though. The probable cause of the
accident was the unauthorized replacement of a gasket in the fitting of the
hydraulic machine. There was a leak, and the leaked hydraulic fluid, which
was not collected in full, caught fire...
BaltInfo agency quoted then-deputy commander of the sub, Alexander Leskov.
According to him, the accident was actually based on the fact that after the
mission to the North Pole in 1962, the crew of the
LENINSKY KOMSOMOL was
executing presumably representative functions at countless Komsomol and
party conventions. The submarine did not participate in combat missions for
three years, and the level of training of the crew considerably decreased.
The crew of the sub became exemplary.
The circumstances of the fire and the actions of the crew at the time of the
accident were kept secret for a long time. The official version of events of
September 8 did not correspond to reality. The survivors were obliged not to
disclose any details for several decades.
At the end of September 2012, a commission of experts is to dot all i's in
the case of the tragic death of submarines of the first Soviet nuclear sub
K-3
LENINSKY KOMSOMOL.
"A non-standard gasket from...a beer bottle was installed in the ballast
tank. Naturally it was displaced, the hydraulic fluid leaked under the
pressure of 100 atmospheres and got sprayed onto the lamp, which had a
broken protective cap. Inflammation occurred immediately," former assistant
commander of the K-3 said.
"By falsifying documents, investigation allegedly found that a submariner
climbed into one of the compartments and lit a cigarette, but it was not
true!" Leskov told a news conference. Only in 50 years it became known that
it was a man-made, not a human factor that caused the accident.
According to Leskov, on September 30, 2012, a meeting of the expert council
at the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy will take place to put an end to this
story. The killed 39 sailors will be submitted to state awards.
Andrey Mikhailov
Pravda.Ru
1988 Decommissioned
As of April 2017, K-3 is being prepared to be put on display as a museum ship. Its nuclear reactor was removed while dry docked at the Nerpa shipyard in Snezhnogorsk, Murmansk Oblast, with plans to float the submarine out by the end of the month.
2019 Is given she is on dry land as a museum ship by so far I can find out by the yard. The intention is that she will be moved to St Petersburg as a memorial ship, not a date given.
Togo 2014 750F sg?, scott?
Source: Various web-sites.
