The idea came from a actual renegade officer that hoped to start a revolution
What my research came up with: The Hunt for Red October is a 1984 novel by American author Tom Clancy. It was inspired by two real events: (1) the deviation of a Soviet Navy submarine to Gotland in 1961 by Captain Jonas Pleskys (a Lithuanian), and (2) a 1975 mutiny aboard the Soviet frigate Storozhevoy, which was an attempt to defect to Gotland by Captain Valery Sablin.
have I got this right ?
Tom Clancy's book is an amazing read - I highly recommend it. Like Godfather and other movies based on books - much of the detail is dropped from the book to the movie.
1 Ramius tells the Kremlin he is going to attack America so now they think he has gone mad
No, he tells them that he is going to deliver the submarine to the Americans. In the movie, when the Russians realise they cannot stop the Red October, rather than have the ship fall into American hands - they come up with a story that Ramius is a renegade who will try to nuke the USA. This will enlist the help of the USA and ensure that any contact attempt by Ramius will result in the USA blowing the ship out of the water.
2 Ramius really plans a pretend nuclear accident near an American warship then pretend to scuttle the sub after evacuating the crew to the American warship
[That was the book's version. The crew never knew about a battle.]
3 the crew goes back to Russia and tells the Kremlin the sub was scuttled.
In the book, an old submarine is blown up and the only thing that is salvaged is a guage taken from the Red October which has the serial number on it.
4 Ramius is now free to defect
Weakness in the plot
1 He could have lied to his co-conspirators about telling the Kremlin and they would have been just as motivated.
Could be a character trait to be honest with his men.
2 now he risks American attack as well as Russian as he should assume the Kremlin will seek Americas help in destroying the sub
I don't think he foresaw the Americans hunting him.
3 if he did not tell the Kremlin there was no danger of the sub being attacked - all he would have to do is the pretend nuclear accident near an American warship then pretend to scuttle
The plot needs to have no glaring weakness as Ramius is a genius and I fail to see how telling the Kremlin makes his plan more ingenious, all it does is make his plan more risky
In the book you learn that Ramius's wife died because of incompetence and as the doctor was related high official and was not punished. The hatred of the system was documented so it was not a huge leap to think that he would tweak the leadership having the confidence they could do nothing about it.
