First deputy chief of the 12th GUMO who commanded Soviet nuclear warheads in Cuba and, three decades later, wrote the definitive report
"During my many years of military service, the most dangerous and stressful periods were the years of the Great Patriotic War, and the months of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962."
Nikolai Beloborodov graduated from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy in 1941, served as a technical officer in aviation units, and fought in the Great Patriotic War. From 1958 he commanded a central nuclear weapons storage base of the 12th GUMO, and in 1962 during Operation Anadyr he led the nuclear-technical support group, personally delivering nuclear warheads aboard the ship Indigirka to the port of Mariel, Cuba. Over 59 days on the island he maintained combat readiness of all warheads and supervised their withdrawal; after retirement, in the 1990s he produced a detailed report based on contemporaneous documents that revealed the true scale of the crisis for the first time. As first deputy chief of the 12th GUMO from 1966 to 1983 he was a pillar of the Soviet nuclear weapons management system, and he received the USSR State Prize.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1937Entered the Armed Forces
- 1941Graduated Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy; technical officer, aviation units
- 1941–1945Served in the Great Patriotic War
- 1958–1966Chief of a central nuclear weapons storage base, 12th GUMO
- 1962Headed nuclear-technical group for Operation Anadyr; commanded all Soviet nuclear warheads in Cuba
- 1966–1983First deputy chief, 12th Main Directorate, USSR Ministry of Defense
- 1983Retired to the reserve
Related historical events
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic WarGreat Patriotic War veteranHe served in the Great Patriotic War.
- 1962The Cuban Missile CrisisSoviet nuclear weapons commander in CubaHe commanded the Soviet nuclear arsenal in Cuba during the crisis, and in the 1990s produced a report based on contemporaneous documents that detailed the delivery, deployment, and withdrawal of all nuclear warheads.
A pillar of the nuclear weapons system and his 1990s testimony
From 1958 to 1966 Beloborodov headed one of the central nuclear weapons storage bases, the Novgorod facility. By his own account, 1958 was the year the practice of keeping warheads in disassembled form gave way to a near-maximum state of readiness; placed in command of the newly reorganized Novgorod base, he ran its assembly brigades in two shifts and helped cut by more than half the time needed to issue nuclear munitions to the troops. After the Cuban crisis he served from 1966 to 1983 as first deputy chief of the 12th Main Directorate, at the centre of the Soviet nuclear weapons management system; he received the USSR State Prize in the same period and was transferred to the reserve in 1983.
In the 1990s he re-emerged as a witness to the historical record. In the autumn of 1996 and early 1997, on the decision of the then head of the 12th Main Directorate, Yevgeny Maslin, he was given access to the directorate's archives and studied its history directly through orders, directives, reports and inspection records. He left a report, based on contemporaneous documents, on the deployment and withdrawal of nuclear weapons in 1962 and on their storage in tropical conditions; the National Security Archive published it in English in 2012, securing its place as a key source for the study of the Cuban crisis. In his recollections he judged that the experience of 1962 helped change how states approached conflicts over nuclear weapons, adding that people should be honoured not for killing and destruction but for excluding such events.