The Hunt for the Storozhevoy by Michael Fredholm von Essen - Book Review

The Hunt for Red October remains, over thirty years since its release (anyone feeling old yet?), one of the best submarine films of all time and one of the more intelligent of the genre. A peerless cast (accepting a Scots-accented Lithuanian), great effects, sparkling script and John McTiernan's taut direction combine to make it a must-watch even today. The book that inspired it, Tom Clancy's first novel, epitomised the popular 1980's and 90's genre of the techno-thriller. As with all good fiction, it was based on a grain of truth (one grain only, Vasily). This is where Helion & Co strike again courtesy of Professor Michael Fredholm von Essen. 

This is one of Helion's more slender volumes at 52 pages excluding the covers, but that is not to say its brevity is a negative. The book itself is effectively divided into two sections: the mutiny, and then the connection with the Swedish Intelligence Community, which in the case of this story, is extremely pertinent as they were a key source of information about the events that occurred. As always, there are many excellent photographs, colour plates, maps and tables galore. 

The story itself is quite a tale, worthy of the best of the 1980's techno-thriller writers. After convincing some of the crew of the Storozhevoy that all was not well with the Soviet leadership, Captain Third Rank Valeriy Sablin initiated a mutiny, the aim of which was to spread a new revolution amongst the Soviet Navy. That was, no matter your point of view, quite an ambitious undertaking, which says a great deal about Sablin's personality and state of mind.

Still, once the ship was under his control, he ordered it out into the Baltic, starting a chase that involved several pursuing surface ships, and attacks by Yak-28 tactical bombers and Tu-16 bombers. Add in a couple of friendly fire incidents and this had the making of a tragic foul up of Benny Hill proportions (period joke, geddit?). Except it nearly became one of the worst crises of the Cold War as one flight of Tu-16's were ordered to launch a missile strike that included the use of the special protocol to employ a nuclear weapon. 

Aircraft Nerd Alert! I do like a good old Yak!

You see, if Sablin had been on any old ship of the Baltic Fleet, the response might not have been so heavy handed, but the Storozhevoy was a very new ship - not quite two years had passed since its commissioning. That meant it was equipped with the latest and greatest Soviet kit for its assigned role and there was no way that could make it to the West. That assumption, by the way, very much highlights the paranoid nature that was prevalent in the Soviet Union's higher military and political leadership throughout the Cold War. They neither knew no cared that dissent of the kind that had driven Sablin to act existed.

Fortunately for the wider global population, the missile strike was never launched and the ship returned to port with the obvious consequences for Sablin. The incident was hushed up as much as possible but, thanks to the SIGINT (signals intelligence) and HUMINT (human intelligence) abilities of the Swedes, the incident was picked up and their records have been used for this superlative account.

Despite much enjoyment from reading the likes of Clancy (the early days, not the right wing textbooks his later tomes became - controversial, maybe, but he wore his politics on his sleeve and got more than a little "preachy" shall we say, especially as a counter to the Clinton years), the real world inspiration for his debut novel is much more engaging and fascinating. Mis-guided politics, hubris and desperation all combined to permit a series of events that very nearly altered the nature of the Cold War irrevocably. Some may find this an interesting divergence point for a game, others a detailed and timely reminder of how even "monolithic" entities are in fact no such thing. In either case, The Hunt for the Storozhevoy is an excellent read and one that is definitely worth your time.

You can buy The Hunt for the Storozhevoy directly from the Helion & Co website here or, if you check out their social media links, pick up a copy in person at the various shows they attend. The next one of these will be the Battleground Show in Stockton tomorrow.