Oral History and Military Publishing

Okolnaya Submarine Support Base

One of several strategically important Russian Navy submarine bases and submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) storage and loading facilities on the Kola Peninsula, the Okolnaya submarine support base likely stores nuclear warheads. It has been associated with nuclear-armed SLBMs since the late 1950s. It appears to have played a role during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when nuclear weapons may have been transported from Okolnaya to Cuba and back again during October-November 1962 by the merchant vessel Aleksandrovsk. See also Kola Peninsula