You may have seen Juliett 484 this summer in the Harrison Ford movie K-19: The Widowmaker. You also may have seen it three years ago on eBay, when the 47-year-old Russian submarine, originally designed to attack East Coast cities with nuclear cruise missiles, was up for auction. Minimum bid: $1 million.

Now you can see it in person, at Collier Point Park in Providence, on Allens Avenue near Rhode Island Hospital. More than 4000 visitors have paid the $8 admission ($5 for children and $6 for active military personnel in uniform) to tour the vessel since August 28, when the Russian Sub Museum opened its doors. "We get everything from families to groups of kids, to veterans groups and the Nautilus Society," says Bob Albee, project manager for the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation, which owns and manages Juliett 484.

Between its original home at a Soviet naval base in Latvia and its resting place in Providence, Juliett 484 spent brief stints in Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Florida, and Halifax, respectively, as a bar, failed tourist attraction, and movie star. The USS Saratoga Museum Foundation, which acquired the sub from Intermedia Film Equities for a confidential sum, hopes to create a museum, featuring both the sub and its Cold War adversary, the USS Saratoga, in Narragansett Bay. Until then, the general public can see the sub by itself.

"The sub was towed by a pair of tugs from Halifax," says John Martin, a USS Saratoga Museum Foundation spokesman, "and arrived in Providence on March 31, 2002, approximately six weeks after we began negotiations with Paramount." The foundation contacted a number of area ports, but former Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr.'s support for the idea made Providence a favorable location. "When Mayor Cianci wants something to happen," says Martin, "the process can be dramatically expedited."

Leading a tour group from the steps of the trailer that serves as his office and the museum's administrative center, Albee announces, "You're entering a warship. This isn't Disney World." Squeezed in between two industrial plants, with jet skis and motor boats buzzing in the background, the Russian Sub Museum certainly is a far cry from the Magic Kingdom. Rather, it is, according to the foundation's Web site, "a unique venue for understanding the Cold War era and symbolizing lasting peace between Russian and the United States."

Of course, the tour guides make the occasional crack about vodka, or more seriously, try to explain "the way the Soviet Union worked." But all in all, the tour reflects little of the mutual tension and animosity that characterized the Cold War. "In fact," says Doug Buckley, a guide and Vietnam veteran, "quite a few Russians come on board," including a former naval officer who, he quipped, "had to come to the States to get on a Russian ship."

Walking through Juliett 484, taking in the overwhelming smell of diesel fuel, it's hard to believe that the various missile hatches, radar systems, valves, and gauges were built to target East Coast cities like Providence. With the anniversary of September 11 just past and the specter of an attack on Iraq hanging over our heads, Juliett 484 serves not only as a reminder of peace between Russia and the United States, but also of the grim reality of war.

Issue Date: October 4 - 10, 2002