Letter From the Watery Grave

Oct. 27, 2000 -- Russian officials said no one survived the ferocious blast which sunk the Kursk — but a letter found on one of the bodies recovered from the site proves otherwise.

The note, found on the body of 27-year-old Lt. Dmitry R. Kolesnikov shows that at least 23 people survived the powerful explosions that killed most of the crew — and sunk the vessel, sealing the fate of the rest.

The desperate message says the survivors gathered in the compartment where the emergency escape hatch was located — but could not escape.

“I am writing blind,” he wrote. “It’s 13:15. Allpersonnel from sections six, seven and eight have moved tosection nine. There are 23 people here. We have made thedecision because none of us can escape.”

Russian officials believe the note was written at least two hours after the sub began to sink. It’s not clear how long they survived.

The letter may also turn into the most grisly and poignant indictment of President Vladimir Putin, who vacationed through the earliest days of the drama and reportedly rejected the first offers of international help in reaching the vessel. But it was unclear if a quicker response would have saved the survivors trapped inside the compartment.

Russian Navy chief Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov said at a meeting with submariners’ widows the note was written an hour or so after the Aug. 12 explosions.He was shown on RTR television saying the other side of the note was devoted to his wife, and the contents would not be made public.

Trapped in the 9th Compartment

After the Kursk sank, Russian submersibles were unable to latch onto the hatch, but Norwegian divers who followed managed to open it a week after the tragedy — and determined there were no survivors.

Kuroyedov said divers’ operations in the seventh and eighth compartments had been stopped and the divers were concentrating their search on the ninth compartment.

The letter contains important details about the accident that sank the Kursk — and the drama that captured the attention of the world, Vice-Admiral Mikhail Motsak, chief of staff of Russia’s Northern Fleet, said later during a TV interview.

Motsak also said the note proved sailors were trying to make their way out. According to Kolesnikov’s note, two or three tried to get out through the escape hatch.

“As we know, that attempt failed, maybe because it was filled with water,” he said in the port of Severomorsk.

Powerful Blasts

Foreign and Russian ships in the area and seismologists around the world registered two powerful explosions in the Barents Sea around 11:30 p.m. local time on Aug. 12. All 118 submariners were killed, either by the initial blast, or in the days following as desperate, repeated attempts to reach the vessel failed.

The cause of the disaster remains unknown, with authorities pointing at a collision with a Western submarine, World War II-era mine or an internal malfunction as possible reasons.

But the note contained no new evidence about what sank the “Kursk” whether it was an internal explosion or a collision.

The government’s handling of the disaster — including a perceived delay in requesting outside help, and the release of often contradictory information — angered and shocked many Russians and threatened to undermine the fledgling Putin administration. The letter could spark a new wave of outrage.

Initial sonar reports said tapping heard on the hull of the vessel suggested that at least some sailors were alive. But the tapping faded and disappeared in the days following the crippling explosion. Others discounted the reports as unsubstantiated and said the sounds could have been caused by collapsing equipment or the submarine settling into the seabed.

The letter was the first real confirmation that anyone had survived the initial blasts.

Russian officials say up to two-thirds of the crew were killed by powerful explosions in the weapons room in the submarine’s bow.The survivors of the initial explosions probably died of drowning, hypothermia or high pressure.

“It’s horribly painful, it’s awful,” Kolesnikov crying widow Olga said today. “I had a feeling that he didn’t, it’s awful.” she said.

“I had a feeling that he didn’t die immediately, and it turned out my feeling was right.”

Kolesnikov was the only seaman to have been identified so far, Kuroyedov said.

Dangerous Recovery Operation

Russian and Norwegian divers recovered the first four bodies after five days of painstaking work to cut holes in the top of the submarine.

The complex underwater operation is being performed with leading-edge diving equipment, including robots and mechanical arms. Divers have used an instrument that sprays pressurized water mixed with diamond dust to cut the Kursk’s 2-inch thick inner steel hull.

Kuroyedov had warned that he might cancel the recovery effort if experts ruled that divers’ lives were in danger. Two widows of the Kursk crew members visited the Regalia on Wednesday and, on behalf of all the families, pleaded with the divers not to take excessive risks.

But President Putin promised to recover the bodies at an emotional meeting with the crew’s relatives shortly after the disaster, and the government seemed bent on conducting the costly effort despite the shortage of funds for the military.

Some Russian media have pointed out that by stubbornly conducting the risky effort the government wants to vindicate its confused response to the sinking of the Kursk, when it resisted foreign help for days while botching its own rescue efforts.

ABCNEWS’ Bob Woodruff, Adaora Udoji and Linda Albin in London, and The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.