by Sky Monnig
from maryland heights, missouri
Vasili Arkhipov was influential during the Cuban Missile crisis by averting the Soviet's sending a missile to counteract the American presence in Cuba
My hero project is a simple collage of pictures of my hero, Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov, one of Soviet Navy officers during the end of the Cold war. Additionally, in the background there are images of what was going on during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Arkhipov was a modest, soft-spoken man, according to his wife and an important part of the Cold War itself in my opinion. People nowadays believe that the missile supposedly was either obliterated through the air in the Atlantic Ocean before hitting the Americas or the missile itself back fired on the Soviets. However, it wasn’t that at all. It was Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov who said no to sending it off. He was an individual of the Soviet army who said no to violence. He believed that mankind should not kill one another over a situation that could’ve been handled with a simple agreement to make peace with one another.
A well-known channel called National Geographic states, “He was 34 at the time. Good looking, with a full head of hair and something like a spit curl dangling over his forehead. He was Savitsky’s equal, the flotilla commander responsible for three Russian subs on this secret mission to Cuba—and he is maybe one of the quietest, most unsung heroes of modern times. What he said to Savitsky we will never know, not exactly. But, says Thomas Blanton, the former director of the nongovernmental National Security Archive, simply put, this “guy called Vasili Arkhipov saved the world.” (Krulwich 2). Savitsky was one of the Soviet commanders above Vasili in the Soviet Navy,and who ordered the launch of the missile to the Americas during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
As seen on my hero portrait, there is young Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov and then Vasili when he was older with a lot more medals. In the background you have the missile itself, John F. Kennedy’s speech in the news paper, the checkpoints of where the Soviet Union would fire, the protests from the Cubans and Americans, the Cold war itself and the aircrafts being used. In my opinion, Alexandrovich Arkhipov was our “Superman” during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
