Today it is hard to imagine how famous the image of the legendary lieutenant of the Russian fleet P. P. Schmidt. Everyone knew his biography, Soviet children wanted to resemble the legendary revolutionary, and the uprising of the crew of the Ochakov cruiser was perceived as a glorious page in revolutionary history and a harbinger of the triumph of people's power.
Why did they forget the rebellious lieutenant
In the era of mature socialism, the rebellious officer who led the sailor's riot was also not forgotten, but rarely remembered. Especially after another “revolutionary”, captain of the third rank Sablin, almost took the Soviet large anti-submarine ship “Storozhevoy” to Sweden (1975), putting forward political demands to the leadership of the USSR. The similarity of the circumstances of the two rebellions, separated in time by a seventy-year interval, in a certain sense cast a shadow on the lieutenantSchmidt. The events at the Potemkin received great fame.
Two similar uprisings
In the memory of schoolchildren of the late socialist era, two episodes that occurred in the Russian fleet at the height of the Russo-Japanese war were mixed up. On the battleship "Prince Potemkin Tauride" the dissatisfaction of the sailors with bad food resulted in a riot, accompanied by violence and victims. The officers were drowned in the sea and killed by all means, then artillery shots began at Odessa. The ship went to Romania, where it was interned and the crew disbanded.
Something similar happened in Sevastopol, and not only on the Ochakovo, but also on other ships of the Black Sea Fleet. The difference was that of all the rebels on the Odessa roadstead, only the sailor Vakulenchuk, who was killed by an officer while trying to suppress the rebellion, entered history. The uprising on the cruiser "Ochakov" was led by an officer, a representative of the naval elite of Tsarist Russia. He was remembered for his spectacular and concise signal messages and a telegram to the emperor. And the number of victims this time was much greater.
Historical Background
Russia is a huge country. On its territory, neighboring states have always coveted, wanting to grab at least a little in their favor. The Far Eastern threat came from Japan. In 1904, intentions to expand territorial possessions grew into full-scale hostilities. Russia was preparing for this, but the country's leadership was not rearming fast enough. Still on the water for several years have beenpowerful cruisers of the latest projects were launched.
A series of ships of the 1st rank included Bogatyr, Oleg and Cahul. The last armored cruiser of this project was Ochakov. These ships were fast, had powerful artillery weapons and met all the requirements of naval science of that time. The crew of each of them was approximately 565 sailors. The cruisers were supposed to defend the shores of the Fatherland in different seas that washed the empire.
War with Japan
The war with Japan was extremely unsuccessful. There were several reasons for this - from poor preparedness of the troops to simple bad luck, expressed in the accidental death of Admiral Makarov in the Port Arthur roadstead. There was also the activity of Japanese intelligence, which manifested itself in a comprehensive undermining of the defense power of Russia and inciting discontent. Of course, it cannot be argued that a foreign intelligence service organized an uprising on the cruiser Ochakov. The date of November 13 marked the day when the officers left the ship, prompted to do so by the defiance of the crew and the fear of being killed. Without an analysis of previous events, it is impossible to understand the circumstances of the riot.
How it all started
And it all started back in October, during the all-Russian political strike. Japanese intelligence, of course, has a relation to the organization of this political action, although it is not decisive. Unrest took place, including in the Crimea. were on strikerailroad workers, employees of printing houses, banks and many other enterprises. The tsar's manifesto of October 17 did not cool the ardor of the fighters for civil liberties, on the contrary, they perceived this document as a sign of weakness. Lieutenant Schmidt spoke at the rally. During the dispersal of the demonstration, eight people died, the lieutenant himself, among other instigators of the riots, was arrested, but already on October 19, Schmidt was present at a meeting of the City Duma as a delegate from the people. At that moment, power in Sevastopol practically passed to the rebels, the order was controlled by the people's militia, and not by the legitimate police. Later, Schmidt will speak at the funeral of the victims of the crackdown and give a fiery speech. He was immediately arrested again and until November 14 was kept on the battleship "Three Saints" under the pretext of official embezzlement. It was released when the uprising on the cruiser "Ochakov" and several other ships of the Black Sea Fleet had already taken place.
What was Schmidt
Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt lived only 38 years, but his fate was so generously filled with various events that a whole book would be required to describe it, perhaps more than one. The rebellious lieutenant had a complex character, and his actions could be called contradictory if a certain logic was not guessed in them. From childhood, Peter suffered from a mental illness that did not leave him all his life - kleptomania. It manifested itself in childhood, in the junior preparatory class of the Naval School, when the boy began to steal small things from fellow students. After graduation, everyone who knew the young man noted his extremely bad temper and increasedirritability caused by hypertrophied pride. While serving in the Navy, he somehow managed to marry a prostitute, Dominika Pavlova, whom Mikhail Stavraki introduced him to (by the way, it was he who would command the execution of Schmidt in 1906). Only the origin of a glorious naval family more than once or twice saved a young man from being expelled from the fleet.
For all his shortcomings, the officer was distinguished by excellent abilities in the exact sciences, had a good command of navigation and other maritime tricks, and was very fond of playing the cello. After acquiring the officer rank, midshipman Peter Schmidt received a vacation - during this period he worked at an agricultural equipment plant. In the future, this gave him reason to consider himself a person who knows the life of the common people. When the opportunity to become famous arose, he led an uprising on the cruiser Ochakov - 1905 was his starry time.
The banner of the rebels
Official Soviet historical science claimed that the events of 1905 had a serious political and economic basis, but if not for one decisive officer, then they might not have happened, at least in Sevastopol. In fact, the uprising on the cruiser "Ochakov" was prepared and carried out not by Schmidt at all, but by a shock group consisting of underground Bolsheviks N. G. Antonenko, S. P. Chastnik and A. I. Gladkov. They obviously needed someone with a certain authority and wearing naval shoulder straps. The eloquent officer was noticed, most likely, indays before the riot. So Schmidt became a living "banner". He obviously enjoyed the role.
How Schmidt commanded the fleet
The uprising on the cruiser "Ochakov" took place on November 13, and already on November 14, a lieutenant released from the dungeons arrived on the ship, already wearing shoulder straps of a captain of the second rank. There is an explanation for this: in accordance with the current Table of Ranks, this rank was the next after the lieutenant, and upon retirement it was assigned automatically. However, the very fact that a fighter against autocracy is so reverent about ranks and ranks speaks volumes. The officer who arrived on the ship immediately ordered to cancel his assumption of the position of commander of the entire fleet, and also to give the emperor a telegram in which he demanded political reforms. In addition, he visited several combat units and successfully persuaded the crews to support the rebels.
Grigoriev's version
There was nothing surprising in the fact that the naval command immediately ordered the immediate and merciless suppression of the rebellion. But these events have another underlying reason, which allows them to be perceived somewhat differently. The well-known historian Anatoly Grigoriev wrote a number of articles about the uprising on the Ochakovo, from which it becomes clear that the actions were unusual for those times. The fact is that heavy fire was opened almost immediately on the rebel ships, which continued even after the combat mission was practically completed and resistance was suppressed. In addition, the cruiser could not give a fullrebuff, since work on it had not yet been completed - it was under construction and did not have weapons, which, of course, everyone knew.
The version is as follows: unlike the previously launched ships of the Bogatyr series, the Russian cruiser Ochakov was built with numerous violations of technology, and the construction process was accompanied by abuse of authority, expressed in the usual embezzlement. The persons involved in this criminal scam sought to cover their tracks. When the uprising began on the cruiser Ochakov, they took it as a happy chance to get rid of the evidence that this ill-fated ship was. The result was many casu alties and severe damage to the ship. It was not possible to sink it - even stealing, under the king they built it conscientiously.
Results
Today you can imagine how it was with a high probability. The uprising on the cruiser "Ochakov", like many other cases of mass disobedience in the army and navy, was the result of the subversive work of the Social Democratic Party, which sought to weaken tsarist Russia in every possible way, even at the cost of military defeats. Of course, there were problems in the armed forces. Moreover, they are and will always be in any country. If insufficient quality food causes a riot (and the allowance of sailors in general has always been very good, even by today's standards), then the country's leadership should have thought hard and taken urgent and tough measures to prevent such incidentshenceforth. Despite the death sentences handed down to the instigators (Schmidt, Gladkov, Antonenko and Chastnik were shot at Berezan), no serious conclusions were drawn. Many other tragic events took place, called the first Russian revolution, part of which was the uprising on the cruiser Ochakov. The date "1905" then turned blood red forever.
