Kursk Sailors Hailed as Heroes at Funeral
A naval chief hailed the sailors killed aboard the Kursk as heroes who had prevented atomic disaster as Russia laid to rest on Saturday the last of the bodies recovered from the submarine’s wreck.
The captain of the nuclear-powered submarine, Gennady Lyachin, was among seven victims buried at St. Petersburg’s Serafimov cemetery, joining 25 crew members already laid to rest there.
The commander of the Russian navy, Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov, told reporters after the funeral: “In sacrificing their lives, they saved hundreds of thousands of people in northwestern Russia and Scandinavia, preventing a possible atomic explosion of the reactor.”
In fact, the factory that designed the Kursk says its reactors shut off automatically, suggesting that the crew might have had little role in preventing a possible nuclear accident.
About 1,000 mourners placed flowers on the coffins. An armed honor guard of naval officers wearing black overcoats fired a salute.
The Kursk’s crew of 118 was lost when the submarine sank in the Barents Sea in August 2000.
Russia has identified and buried 115 of the bodies. The three remaining crew members are believed to be unrecoverable.
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