Divers Recover Four Bodies From the Wreckage of Russian Submarine

Russian divers gingerly entered the wreckage of the shattered submarine Kursk on Wednesday and retrieved the first of what they hope will be dozens of bodies of the 118 sailors who perished in the naval debacle in August.

“I would refrain from calling it a success. Success is something that gives you joy and makes you happy,” said Vladimir Navrotsky, head of the press center for Russia’s Northern Fleet. “I would simply say that what we have achieved today is a considerable result.”

The divers, who arrived at the scene of the accident 100 miles off the Russian coast in the arctic Barents Sea on Friday, spent the last several days drilling through the nuclear submarine’s two hulls and making the openings wide enough for a diver to enter safely.

Naval officials provided few details Wednesday of what divers saw inside the sub, but they said three corpses were found and placed in special body bags for transport to the surface. A fourth body was recovered today, Reuters reported, but the salvage operation was halted because of worsening weather. The Itar-Tass news agency quoted Adm. Vyacheslav Popov, the Northern Fleet’s commander, as saying the body was found when the divers inspected the rear compartments of the sub. There was no immediate identification of the bodies or information about the cause of death.

The retrieval of the bodies is expected to unleash a new wave of public emotion over the Kursk disaster, in which anger and shame at the navy’s bumbling efforts to rescue the crew led to a public pledge from President Vladimir V. Putin to raise the bodies and compensate the families.

The salvage operation is perhaps the most extensive and dangerous in history. Divers who venture inside the wreckage must maneuver extremely carefully to avoid damaging their deep-diving suits with twisted metal or other hazards in the sub’s cramped interior.

Government officials have already warned that they expect to find only a fraction of the bodies intact because most of the sailors were located in the submarine’s forward sections, which were almost destroyed in the accident.

“If you want my personal opinion, if we manage to recover even 10 bodies from the entire submarine this would really be considered a very significant result,” Navrotsky said.

That’s one reason many observers and some of the sailors’ families have asked the government to drop the salvage operation and let their loved ones lie at the bottom of the sea in accordance with naval tradition.

The cause of the disaster remains murky. Norwegian scientists recorded two explosions at the time of the accident. Russian officials say they have three working scenarios about the cause of the blasts: a collision with an unknown vessel, a collision with a stray mine or other explosive, or an on-board explosion.

Navy officers on Wednesday broadcast new footage of the submarine’s shattered hull, pointing out what appeared to be a large dent and long gouges--evidence, they said, that the Kursk was struck by another vessel before it sank.

“I think that until we study the ship in detail and completely evaluate its condition . . . it is premature to speak about any particular version yet--although we have grounds to speak about a collision,” said the Northern Fleet’s chief of staff, Vice Adm. Mikhail Motsak.

Western governments discount that theory, insisting that they had no spy submarines or other vessels in the area that could have collided with the Kursk.

The salvage operation is being coordinated by U.S. oil services firm Halliburton Co., which sent its mobile diving platform Regalia to the site of the accident. Three-man teams include a diver from Halliburton, who remains in the diving bell to assist his Russian colleagues.

The bodies retrieved Wednesday were discovered in two compartments at the very rear of the 500-foot submarine.

Navrotsky said that under normal conditions, 40 people would be stationed in the sub’s rear five sections, which appeared to be intact.

“These are comparatively the most accessible sections. Then real problems begin when we start moving farther ahead,” he said.

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Sergei L. Loiko of The Times’ Moscow Bureau contributed to this report.