- "OCHAKOV", the cruiser of the Black Sea Fleet, whose crew participated in the Sevastopol uprising of 1905. The commander of the revolutionary fleet P.P. Schmidt was on the cruiser ... encyclopedic Dictionary
OCHAKOV (city)- OCHAKOV, a city in Ukraine, Nikolaev region (see MYKOLAEVSK REGION), a seaport on the Dnieper estuary (see DNIEPRO ESTATE), 69 km from the railway station Nikolaev. Population 18.4 thousand people (2001). Food flavoring (including fish) ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
OCHAKOV- the cruiser of the Black Sea Fleet, the crew of which participated in the Sevastopol uprising of 1905. The commander of the revolutionary fleet P. P. Schmidt was on the cruiser. Source: Encyclopedia Fatherland, a city on the shores of the Dnieper estuary of the Black Sea, 19 ... Russian history
OCHAKOV- the cruiser of the Black Sea Fleet, whose team participated in the Sevastopol uprising of 1905. The commander of the revolutionary fleet P.P. Schmidt was on the cruiser ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Ochakov (armored cruiser)- "Ochakov"; from March 25, 1907 "Cahul" ... Wikipedia
OCHAKOV- Russian cruiser Black Sea Fleet, who led the detachment of the roar. ships during the Sevastopol armament. uprisings against the autocracy in November 1905. Launched in Sevastopol in 1902. By the time of the uprising, it was not completed and armed (because ... ... Marine encyclopedic reference book
Ochakov (disambiguation)- Ochakov (Ukr. Ochakiv) is a polysemantic term. Ochakiv is a city in the Nikolaev region of Ukraine, the administrative center of the Ochakiv region. Ochakov (large anti-submarine ship) Project 1134B large anti-submarine ship. Ochakov (armored deck ... ... Wikipedia
Cruiser of the first rank Type "Bogatyr"- Cruiser of the first rank Type "Bogatyr" (4 units) Bogatyr The project of the German company "Volcano". Laid down on 9/12/1899. Launched on 17/01/1901. in p. 08/07/1902 (Stettin / shipyard "Vulkan"). He was part of the 1st Pacific ... Military Encyclopedia
Ochakov- I Ochakov is a city in Ukraine, a seaport on the Dnieper estuary, 69 km from the railway station Nikolaev. 19.7 thousand inhabitants (1991). Food and flavor (including fish) industry. Climate resort. Museums: military historical named after ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
"OCHAKOV"- cruiser Black Sea Fleet, name. in honor of the victory near Ochakov in Russian. tour. war 1787 91. Launched in 1902. Water change. 6645 tons, speed 22.7 knots (42 km/h); armament: 12 (since 1915-16) 152 mm op. and 22 op. smaller caliber, 2 450 mm torpedoes. apparatus; crew... ... Military Encyclopedic Dictionary
Books
- Series "Remarkable Ships" (set of 4 books), . The series is dedicated to the history of domestic ships, fleet veterans who took part in the most important events and left a noticeable mark on history. The series includes the following books: R. M. Melnikov ... Buy for 1300 rubles
- Cruiser "Ochakov", R. M. Melnikov. The author, known to readers for his previous books (`Cruiser Varyag` - 1975 and 1982 and `Battleship Potemkin` - 1989), talks about the tragic and glorious history of the `rebellious ...
The history of the uprising in November 1905 of the cruiser "Ochakov" is described in detail in the literature. Equally well known to us is the story of the life and death of P.P. Schmidt, who led the uprising, whom Nicholas II ordered to be called “a lieutenant expelled from the fleet,” although in fact he was a retired captain of the second rank.
However, it still remains a mystery why, nevertheless - for no apparent reason - the cruiser Ochakov was destroyed, which could soon become one of the newest and most powerful ships of the Black Sea Fleet.
A study of historical documents on the Sevastopol armed uprising of 1905 shows that the death of the cruiser was a foregone conclusion even before the start of the uprising.
Before the pacification of the uprising, the chief commander of the Sevastopol port, Chukhnin, gave a telegram to Nicholas II, in which he indicated that the cruiser must be disarmed and only after that the troops could take decisive action. Someone, and the vice admiral, was well aware that the reconstructed cruiser had not yet entered service and was practically defenseless, since it did not have the required ammunition on board.
At the same time, Okhrana agents spread rumors around the city that Schmidt was going to bombard Sevastopol in order to kill the inhabitants and sailor teams who were not with him.
When the trial of the participants in the uprising began, the captain of the fortress artillery Ivanov, who received the order to sink the Ochakov without fail, stated that "seeing the cruiser already on fire, he decided not to sink it and take responsibility ...".
The soldiers of the fortress, who sympathized with the rebels, told their officers that they would not shoot, and if they opened fire, then only return.
The suppressors of the uprising did not disdain provocation: on November 15, at four o'clock, a shell exploded on the bastion. The officers who came running began to call the soldiers to the guns and at the same time claimed that the shell had come from the Ochakov or Panteleimon. They began to shoot, but only at Ochakov.
Both in court and in a number of official documents, the police authorities, including the prosecutor Ronzhin, tried to prove that the first shot during the uprising was fired from the Ochakovo. Meanwhile, from the numerous testimonies of witnesses, as well as reports from a number of newspapers, it can be concluded that the provocative shot belonged to the Terets gunboat. The defender in the Schmidt case, A. Alexandrov, regarding the accusation of P.P. Schmidt that Ochakov was the first to shoot, stated in his memoirs: consequently, the shelling of the cruiser by the squadron and the guns of the Konstantinovskaya battery was only an act of self-defense. The prosecutor had to prove this thesis at all costs, since otherwise the shooting of an almost unarmed cruiser at anchor would be a senseless act of cruelty. The prosecutor needed this shot from the Ochakov like manna from heaven, but this manna was never sent down to him by heaven, because most of the witnesses for the prosecution, if not all, denied the attack of the cruiser on the squadron, knowing full well that the almost unarmed cruiser did not would artificially provoke the squadron to be shot.”
As soon as they began to shoot at the Ochakov, a signal “Outraged by the actions of the squadron” soared over the cruiser. Then the cruiser began to shoot at government troops and coastal batteries.
Guns of all calibers fired at the cruiser from a distance of 50 to 200 fathoms. The shores of the bay were cordoned off by soldiers who shot from rifles and machine guns everyone who tried to swim away from the cruiser.
“On the Ochakovo,” a sailor who miraculously escaped from it recalled, “something terrible was happening. The shells exploded with terrible force, turning everything into ashes. On deck it was impossible to distinguish who was wounded and who was killed, as the wounded and the dead lay one on top of the other, forming a pile of bodies.
Nearby, in a pool of blood, the insides floated, arms and legs were lying around. One high-explosive shell hit the engine room and killed about twenty sailors. The shells that hit the Ochakov spared no one and produced terrible destruction inside the ship.
In the engine room lay about thirty people wounded by shrapnel: the wounded asked their comrades for help; The dying asked to finish them off in order to save them from suffering. The rumble of guns and machine guns did not stop.
Soon, the wounded and dying were engulfed in furious flames, and in a minute they were gone ... "
P.P. Schmidt recalled a month before the execution that when he left the Ochakov, most of the people had already jumped overboard or been killed. Captured officers from other ships, captured by the rebels as hostages, escaped from the wardroom from under arrest, lowered the red flag and instead hoisted a white tablecloth on the mast.
The fire on the cruiser immediately ceased. The officers were removed from the Ochakov safe and sound: this indicated that the cruiser had completely ceased resistance. In a telegram sent to the tsar, Vice-Admiral Chukhnin noted this fact, but to preempt possible questions about the fate of the cruiser, he indicated: "Ochakov" continues to burn, the fire cannot be extinguished.
Just at that time, it was still possible to save the cruiser, which cost the treasury very dearly. Equipped with modern mechanisms, "Ochakov" was preparing for the new year to take its rightful place among the warships of the Russian fleet. The ship was replete with many technical innovations: it had metal boats and furniture - a concern of shipbuilders to eliminate combustible materials. The drives of many mechanisms were electrified. New equipment was installed on the ship, which gained popularity in the navy, telephones of the Lieutenant Kolbasyev system, ship radio stations, mast semaphores, electrical fire control devices, rudder blade position indicators, and much more.
In the first days of November, the last works were hurriedly completed on the cruiser - about three hundred workers from the Sevastopol Marine Plant and specialists on main machines seconded from Sormovo worked on board every day. In a word, there was something to save ... And there was someone. The largest ships were under steam and could well put out the fire with water from their hoses. At this time, it was even possible to land troops without hindrance to capture the cruiser.
Mortgage board of the cruiser "OCHAKOV"
Instead of saving the burning ship, a second bombardment began, the reason for which was two shots allegedly fired from the Ochakov. P.P. Schmidt claimed that there was an explosion on the cruiser, which was given out by the punishers in all official documents as a shot.
"Ochakov" burned like a giant fire for two days in the middle of the bay. There is no exact information about the number of those who died on the cruiser. It is known that on November 15 there were up to 380 crew members on the ship, not counting sailors from the squadron and coastal units. According to other sources, there were about 700 people on the Ochakovo. The Bolshevik newspaper Borba wrote that “no more than forty or fifty people were saved. 39 Ochakovites were brought to trial. The gendarme captain Vasiliev in his report indicated: “... both the dead and the wounded remained on the Ochakov after it caught fire, and everyone burned down ... at nine in the evening I myself saw the red-hot sides of the Ochakov.
Mutilated by shells (there were fifty-two holes from large-caliber shells!), With bulkheads burned out, the ship's hull was towed to the deserted shore of the Severnaya Bay near Kilen-balka, where they began to dismantle the ship in a hurry.
“When we climbed the ladder to the ship,” one of the workers recalled, “we saw several dozen coffins on the upper deck, and the orderlies, like ants, carried the remains of the revolutionaries into the coffins. We went down to the cabin. There was a smell of burning here and charred corpses were visible. In those cabins where the fire did not penetrate, shapeless, mutilated human bodies lay. The walls and ceilings were spattered with blood."
At the trial on February 14, 1906, P.P. Schmidt said in his speech: “When I stepped on the deck of the Ochakov, then, of course, I fully understood all the helplessness of this cruiser, defenseless, with a machine that could barely give eight knots move, and without artillery, there were only two handles from six-inch guns, the rest could not operate ... "
Why was Ochakov still bombarded? The long construction period of the Ochakov testified to the criminal activities of factory contractors and the highest ranks of the fleet, headed by Vice Admiral Chukhnin, who received a lot from the subsidies allocated for the construction of the cruiser. Instead of workers, sailors were widely used during construction (fortunately, most of them were workers before service), and the monetary difference went into the pocket of clever businessmen.
The official tactical and technical data of the ship, which, according to all reports, was preparing to enter service, clearly did not correspond to reality. The cruisers Oleg and Memory of Mercury, similar to the Ochakov and laid down at the same time, entered service long ago, and the second one even participated in the execution of his brother.
Many naval officers spoke about abuses during the construction of Ochakov, and even wrote the newspaper "Pravovaya Zhizn". An unspoken investigation was conducted over the builders, which Chukhnin could not help but know due to his high official position. The uprising was an unusually convenient excuse for the destruction of the ill-fated cruiser.
On March 6, 1906, P.P. Schmidt and his combat comrades-in-arms - "Ochakovtsy" were shot on the island of Berezan. This was the final chord of the death of the cruiser "Ochakov", sacrificed to the interests of schemers.
Anatoly GRIGORIEV, captain of the second rank
Today it is difficult 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 be like 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 mutiny 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 Lieutenant Schmidt. The events at the Potemkin received great fame.
In the memory of schoolchildren of the late socialist era, two episodes that occurred in the Russian fleet at the very 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 was 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. Nevertheless, powerful cruisers of the latest projects were launched for several years.
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 the preceding events, it is impossible to understand the circumstances of the rebellion.
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. Railroad workers, employees of printing houses, banks and many other enterprises were on strike. 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. Schmidt would later speak at the funeral of the victims of the dispersal of the demonstration and pronounce it. It was released when the uprising on the cruiser "Ochakov" and several other ships of the Black Sea Fleet had already occurred.
What was Schmidt like?
Petr Petrovich Schmidt lived only 38 years, but his fate was so generously filled with various events that a whole book, perhaps more than one, would be required to describe it. 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 increased irritability caused by hypertrophied pride. During that time, 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 the 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 intricacies, and was very fond of playing the cello. After gaining 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 arose to become famous, he led the uprising on the cruiser Ochakov - 1905 was his stellar time.
The banner of the rebels
The 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, in the days preceding the riot. So Schmidt became a living "banner". He obviously enjoyed this 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 gave the order for 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 almost immediately heavy fire was opened 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 full-fledged rebuff, since the 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 casualties and severe damage to the ship. It was not possible to sink it - even stealing, under the tsar they built it to the conscience.
Results
Today it is possible to imagine with high probability how it was. 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 incidents in the future. 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, part of which was the uprising on the cruiser Ochakov. The date "1905" then forever turned blood red.
Revolutionary ferment among the workers of Sevastopol, naval crews and army units of the garrison in late October - early November 1905 grew with extraordinary speed. The slightest spark was enough to start a mutiny. Such a spark was "cut out" by the order of the command of the Black Sea Fleet, which forbade the sailors of coastal crews to leave the barracks and participate in joint rallies with workers and soldiers. On November 11, an uprising broke out spontaneously. By the night of November 13, power in the city actually passed into the hands of the sailor's commission - the Council of Sailors, Soldiers and Workers' Deputies. On November 13, an uprising began on the cruiser Ochakov. The officers, along with the conductors, left the ship. In the afternoon of November 14, Lieutenant Schmidt arrived at Ochakov, raising a signal on it: “I command the fleet. Schmidt. The legendary lieutenant Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt (if you do not take into account the works of revolutionary fabulists) in reality was a pitiful and terrible figure at the same time.
Red flags were hoisted on the Ochakovo and other ships that joined the mutiny. In order to win over the entire squadron to the side of the rebels, Schmidt bypassed it on the destroyer "Svirepy". Then the Ferocious headed for the Prut transport that had been turned into a prison. An armed detachment of sailors led by Schmidt freed the Potemkinites who were on the ship. The team of "Saint Panteleimon" (formerly "Potemkin") joined the rebels, but the battleship itself no longer represented a large military force, since it was disarmed even before the start of the rebellion. Having received no response to the surrender ultimatum, the troops loyal to the tsar began shelling the rebellious ships. After two hours of shelling, the rebels surrendered. Schmidt and his son tried to escape, but to no avail.
The personality of Schmidt is of interest in connection with the role he played in the rebellion on the cruiser Ochakov. Schmidt was turned into another legend by the Bolsheviks, although he did not belong to any political party ("a revolutionary outside the parties").
Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt (1867-1906) was born in Odessa, in the family of a hereditary naval officer. His father was a hero of the defense of Sevastopol, vice admiral and mayor of Berdyansk. After graduating from the Naval Corps in St. Petersburg (1886), Schmidt-son served in the Baltic and the Pacific Ocean; in 1898 he retired with the rank of lieutenant. Sailed on ocean merchant ships. With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Schmidt was mobilized and appointed senior officer on the Irtysh transport, but did not participate in hostilities. Before the departure of the Russian squadron to the Far East, Schmidt received 15 days of arrest for insubordination to the commander (according to another version, for a fight). During the campaign, after a neurasthenic seizure, he returned to Russia from Egypt. In January 1905 he was appointed commander of a detachment of two obsolete destroyers based in Izmail. The place is quiet, the position is not burdensome, but independent, so that you can calmly wait for the end of the war. But Schmidt can't sit still in Izmail, he steals the detachment's cash desk, in which there are only 2.5 thousand gold rubles, and sets off to "travel" around the south of Russia. The money ran out quickly, and Schmidt turned himself in to the authorities. During the investigation, he tried to prove that he lost the money or that it was stolen from him back in Izmail, and went on the run, fearing trouble. Desertion in wartime is no longer a misdemeanor, but a crime. Uncle had to try hard to save his nephew from trial and hard labor. It worked out this time too.
Schmidt's romanticism and adventurism manifested itself in his personal life. Being politically close to the populists, he marries a prostitute. For him, marriage to a prostitute was a peculiar form of going to the people. At the same time, the romantic Schmidt was in love with Zinaida Risberg, a woman with whom he spoke for only 40 minutes on the train.
Schmidt organized in Sevastopol the Union of Officers - Friends of the People. He is attracted by a career as a public figure. He enthusiastically spoke at many rallies. On October 20, Schmidt was arrested. The Sevastopol workers, in protest, elected him a life deputy of their Soviet. A few days later, Schmidt was released, but the fleet command dismissed him.
When a rebellion broke out, the center of which was the cruiser Ochakov, Schmidt, who had long imagined himself as a people's leader, willingly accepted the offer to lead the Ochakov and the entire Black Sea Fleet. He was so sure of victory that he even took his son with him to Ochakov. Schmidt believed that the government troops would refuse to fire on ships subordinate to such a popular man as he was. In addition, he took hostage the officers_negotiators who arrived on the Ochakov.
During the investigation, he behaved so inappropriately that his mental health was in doubt. Nevertheless, by decision of the military field court, Schmidt was sentenced to death.
Mutiny on the cruiser "Ochakov" in the autumn of 1905.
On November 11, 1905, a mutiny organized by the Social Democrats among the sailors of the Naval crew and soldiers of the Brest regiment began in Sevastopol. In a few hours, more than two thousand sailors of the naval division, part of the soldiers of the 49th Brest regiment, a reserve battalion of fortress artillery and port workers joined the rebellion. The rebels arrested officers, made political and economic demands to the authorities. During the endless rallies, a man in the uniform of a lieutenant in the navy stood out among the speakers. His name was Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt. He made speeches in which he accused the Tsar of the incompleteness of the granted freedoms, demanded the release of political prisoners, and so on. The personality of Schmidt is of undoubted interest to researchers in connection with the role he played in the Sevastopol events and, of course, in the rebellion on the cruiser Ochakov. Schmidt was turned into another legend by the Bolsheviks, and it must be said that a rare officer received such an honor from the Bolsheviks. But was Schmidt a combat officer? You can call it that only with very big reservations.
Armed uprising on the cruiser "Ochakov"
L.E. Muchnik
P.P. Schmidt was born in 1867 in Odessa. His father, the hero of the Sevastopol defense, the commander of the battery on Malakhov Kurgan, died with the rank of vice admiral. Mother was a native of the princes of Skvirsky. Early left without a mother, whom he dearly loved, Schmidt reacted very painfully to his father's second marriage, considering it a betrayal of his mother's memory. From a young age, he wanted to go against the will of his father in everything. Contrary to his father, he married a girl of very dubious reputation. Nevertheless, Dominika Gavrilovna Schmidt turned out to be a good and loving wife, and their marriage until 1905 was generally happy. They had a son, Eugene.
In 1866, Schmidt graduated from the St. Petersburg Naval Corps and received the rank of midshipman. However, he served only a short time. In the same year, he voluntarily left military service for health reasons. (Schmidt suffered from epileptic seizures). " Painful condition, - he wrote in a petition to Emperor Alexander III, - deprives me of the opportunity to continue serving Your Majesty, and therefore I ask you to dismiss me.”
Later, Schmidt explained his departure from the Navy by the fact that he wanted to be "in the ranks of the proletariat." But contemporaries testified that he initially did not like military service, and could not live without the sea and ships. Soon, due to lack of money, thanks to the patronage of a high-ranking uncle, Schmidt returns to the navy. Midshipman Schmidt is sent to the cruiser Rurik. By a coincidence, it was on this cruiser in 1906 that the Social Revolutionaries were preparing the assassination of Nicholas II. On the "Rurik" Schmidt did not stay long, and soon was assigned to the gunboat "Beaver". His wife followed him everywhere. At this time, Schmidt's psychopathic character traits, his painful pride, bordering on the inadequacy of reactions, are increasingly manifested. So, in the city of Nagasaki, where "Beaver" had one of its hospitals, the Schmidt family rented an apartment from a wealthy Japanese. Once there was a dispute between the Japanese and Schmidt's wife over the terms of renting an apartment, as a result of which the Japanese said a few harsh words to her. She complained to her husband, and he demanded an apology from the Japanese, and when the latter refused to bring them, he went to the Russian consulate in Nagasaki and, having obtained an audience with the consul V. Ya. Kostylev, demanded that he take immediate measures to punish the Japanese. Kostylev told Schmidt that he could not do this, that he sent all the materials of the case to the Japanese court for a decision. Then Schmidt began to shout that he ordered the sailors to catch the Japanese and flog him, or he himself would kill him on the street with a revolver. " Midshipman Schmidt- wrote the consul to the commander of the "Beaver", - behaved indecently in the presence of consular employees».
The commander of the Beaver decided to subject Schmidt to an examination by a medical commission, which concluded that Schmidt was suffering from a severe form of neurasthenia combined with epileptic seizures. In 1897, however, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. According to his wife, in 1899 Schmidt's mental state deteriorated so much that she placed him in the Savey-Mogilevsky psychiatric hospital in Moscow, after leaving which Schmidt retired and got a job in the commercial fleet. Upon retirement, as was customary in the Russian army, Schmidt was awarded the rank of captain of the II rank.
Schmidt began sailing on commercial ships. Most likely, Schmidt was a good captain, since it is known that Admiral S. O. Makarov intended to take him on his expedition to the North Pole. He passionately loved and knew the maritime business. At the same time, painful pride and ambition were present in him all the time. " Let it be known to you he wrote to his friend, that I have a reputation as the best captain and experienced sailor.”
With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Schmidt was called up for military service and appointed senior officer on the Irtysh large coal transport, which was to follow along with Admiral Rozhestvensky's squadron. For the inept management of the ship, Rozhestvensky put Schmidt for 15 days in a cabin under a gun. Soon the squadron went in the direction of the Far East towards Tsushima. But Schmidt fell ill and stayed in Russia. Schmidt was not liked among the officers, he was considered a liberal.
However, liberal views did not yet mean that Schmidt was ready to take part in an anti-state rebellion. The fact that this happened nevertheless indicates that Schmidt somehow, even before the events at Ochakovo, got in touch with the revolutionary underground.
Schmidt himself, although vaguely, spoke about this during the investigation: I cannot be seen as separate from the movement I was a part of.” During the uprising on the cruiser "Ochakov" he said: " I have been engaged in revolutionary activities for a long time: when I was 16 years old, I already had my own secret printing house. I don't belong to any party. Here, in Sevastopol, the best revolutionary forces are gathered. The whole world supports me: Morozov donates whole millions to our cause.
Although it is difficult to figure out from these confused words of Schmidt where the truth is in them, and where the wishful thinking is presented as real, the fact that he was supported by the revolutionary organizations of Sevastopol, that Lenin himself knew about its existence, that Schmidt knew about the “Morozov millions”, speaks that there really were real organizations behind Schmidt's back. Therefore, it seems that it was not by chance that Schmidt ended up on the rebel cruiser Ochakov.
In November 1905, when riots broke out in Sevastopol, Schmidt took an active part in them. He made friends with the Social Democrats, spoke at rallies. This participation of Schmidt in revolutionary meetings had a very negative effect on the already painful state of his psyche. He began to demand from his wife that she take part in revolutionary meetings, help him in his new revolutionary activities. When his wife refused, Schmidt left her. They were not destined to see each other again. A few days later, Schmidt joined the uprising on the cruiser Ochakov.
"Ochakov" returned from training navigation on November 14, 1905. The team was no longer calm and the sailors Gladkov, Churaev and Dekunin, known for their revolutionary spirit, worried her with questions of establishing democracy in Russia. Upon the return of "Ochakov" to Sevastopol, the unrest among the team intensified even more, as rumors about the indignation of the Sevastopol garrison reached her. Captain II rank Pisarevsky, in order to ease this excitement, gathered the sailors after dinner and began to read to them about the heroes of the Russo-Japanese War. However, the team listened to him poorly. However, the night passed quietly. On November 12, the call signs “Ochakov” and the signal “send deputies” were raised on the mast in the division, that is, the revolutionaries from the rebellious military units demanded that the “Ochakovites” join them by sending their deputies. This greatly agitated the team, which interpreted this signal in its own way, deciding that the sailors of the naval division were being massacred. The team demanded that deputies be sent to Sevastopol to find out what was going on there. At 11 o'clock in the morning, the signal was again raised on the mast of the division with the same call. Sailors Dekunin, Churaev and Gladkov began to shout that it was necessary to answer the call signs of the division and send deputies to it, that "people are being slaughtered there." All attempts by Lieutenant Vinokurov to influence the team were unsuccessful. Then the senior officer allowed to send two deputies to the division. For this, the sailors chose Gladkov and Dekunin, together with midshipman Gorodyssky, went to the division. They did not find anyone in the naval division and went to the Brest regiment, where a rally was taking place at that moment. On the way to the regiment, they met the commandant of the fortress who was riding in a cab, arrested by rebellious sailors. The crowd walking around the wagon shouted: “by their own court!”. At the meeting in the regiment, the deputies saw a large number of sailors and soldiers. Demands of sailors and soldiers were also put forward there, mainly to improve the conditions of service, amnesty for political prisoners of sailors and soldiers, polite treatment of lower ranks, an increase in salaries, the abolition of the death penalty, and so on.
Gladkov and Dekunin spoke with the sailors, learned their requirements and, making sure that nothing bad was happening to them, returned to the cruiser.
The team began to calm down, but some of the sailors continued to worry her, demanding immediate fulfillment of the requirements. Sailor Churaev bluntly told Lieutenant Vinokurov that he was a convinced socialist and that there were many like him in the Navy. At 17 o'clock the commander's order was received: " Whoever does not hesitate to stand for the King, let him stay on the ship. Those who do not want to have Him or doubt, they can go ashore.”
This order was announced on the morning of November 13 after the flag was raised. To the question of the captain of the 2nd rank Sokolovsky: “Who is for the Tsar?”, The team answered: “everything!”, And not a single person came out to the order to come forward to those who were for the rebellion. Nevertheless, the dull unrest among the team continued. At the same time, an officer arrived at Ochakov from another ship of the squadron, who said that if Ochakov answered the signals of the rebels from the garrison again, they would shoot at him. Sailor Churaev replied to this: "Well, let them shoot."
The sailors decided to continue to communicate with the shore. Around 14:00 on November 13, two deputies arrived at the Ochakov from the shore. The commander of the Ochakov tried to prevent them from meeting with the sailors. but the team did not listen to him. The deputies told the sailors that the entire Brest regiment, the fortress artillery, the Bialystok regiment and other military units were on the side of the uprising. It was a strong exaggeration, but it had an effect on the team. The deputies told the sailors that they should support the rebels. The team answered in the affirmative. Then the officers decided to leave the cruiser, which they did by moving to the Rostislav cruiser. After lowering the flag, the captain of the 1st rank Sapsay arrived at Ochakov with a flag officer. Sapsay held a speech to the Ochakov team, urging them to stop the rebellion. At the end of the speech, Sapsay demanded that those who wants to serve faithfully to the Sovereign Emperor come forward". Again, like the first time, the whole team came forward. Then Sapsay demanded that those who did not want to serve further be extradited. The team replied that everyone wanted to serve. But at the same time, someone from the team asked: “What about our requirements?” Sapsay replied that they would be sent to St. Petersburg and examined there. The sailors asked Sapsay to have the officers return to the cruiser. Sapsay said that the officers would return only if the team gave their word of honor not to participate in the rebellion and obey their officers. The sailors promised Inspired, Sapsay went to the Rostislav and told the officers that they could return. The officers returned and demanded that the sailors hand over the firing pins from the guns. The team was about to return the strikers when a man desperately shouted, “ Do not give up weapons - a trap! The sailors refused to give up the strikers, and the officers again left for the Rostislav.
As soon as the officers left the cruiser for the second time, the conductor Chastnin spoke to the sailors, who said that he had been a “fan of the ideas of freedom” for 10 years and offered his leadership, to which he received the consent of the team.
Meanwhile, the officers, hoping to calm the squadron's commands, decided to send deputies from all its ships to the rebellious Sevastopol. This was an absolute mistake, as it testified to the weakness of the officers, who, as it were, allowed to start negotiations with the rebels. At 8 am on November 14, the deputies went to the pier. But before going to the garrison, they decided to first go to Schmidt to ask him for advice. This moment is extremely interesting: someone skillfully promoted Schmidt in this way, otherwise it is difficult to explain why the sailors went to him for advice?
The deputies went to Schmidt's apartment. He greeted them very warmly. After reading the demands of the sailors, Schmidt broke out into a long speech criticizing the existing state system in Russia, spoke of the need for a Constituent Assembly, otherwise Russia would perish. Thus, he skillfully replaced the naive and, on the whole, unimportant demands of the sailors with the political program of the revolutionary parties. In addition, Schmidt declared that he was a socialist and that it was necessary to look for officers who sympathized with the revolution, choose commanders from them, and arrest the rest. When all the teams join the uprising, he will lead the fleet and send a telegram to the Sovereign Emperor, in which he will announce that the fleet has gone over to the side of the revolution. However, as soon as the deputies left him, Schmidt, dressed in the uniform of a captain of the II rank, went to Ochakov and told the team: “ I came to you, because the officers moved out from you and therefore I take command of you, as well as the entire Black Sea Fleet. Tomorrow I will sign a signal about it. Moscow and the entire Russian people agree with me. Odessa and Yalta will give us everything we need for the entire fleet, which will join us tomorrow, as well as a fortress and troops, on a prearranged signal by hoisting a red flag, which I will raise tomorrow at 8 o'clock in the morning. The team covered Schmidt's speech with a thunderous "hooray!"
It is difficult to say whether Schmidt himself believed in what he said. Most likely he did not think about it, but acted under the impression of the moment. The essay by F. Zinko about Schmidt says: “ Exalted, struck by the grandeur of the goals opening before him, Schmidt not so much directed the events as inspired by them.».
But despite the exaltation, Schmidt showed himself as a prudent, cunning and double-minded person. When Captain II rank Danilevsky arrived on the cruiser, Schmidt received him in the captain's cabin and said that he had arrived on the cruiser in order to influence the crew, that his main task was to calm her down and return the cruiser to normal. Schmidt also stated that he considered wartime propaganda to be very dangerous. Danilevsky returned to the Rostislav in full confidence that the Ochakov was in good hands.
However, at 18 00 a meeting of deputies was held in the garrison, at which Schmidt spoke. Schmidt again declared that he was a socialist by conviction, that it was necessary to demand the convocation of the Constituent Assembly. He called for a general uprising in the army and navy. Further, Schmidt said that it was necessary to capture the Rostislav. To do this, he proposed the following plan: he, Schmidt, having made his way to the Rostislav, would arrest the admiral, then on his behalf he would give a command to all the officers to gather in the admiral's cabin, where he would also arrest them all.
In the meantime, the counter-destroyer Svirepy and three numbered destroyers went over to the side of the uprising, which were assigned to Schmidt, who returned to Ochakov in the evening, taking with him his 16-year-old son Yevgeny. At about 6 o'clock in the morning, officers arrested in the garrison from the cruiser Griden and the destroyer Zavetny were brought to Ochakov. These officers went to the garrison for provisions, where they were captured by the rebels. Among them was also Major General Sapetsky. Schmidt ordered that the arrested be placed in their cabins. Then, on his orders, the passenger steamer "Pushkin" was seized. Schmidt ordered all the passengers to gather on the deck of the Ochakov, which was done. At sunrise, in the presence of the crew and captured passengers, he raised a red flag over Ochakovo. At the same time, Schmidt gave a signal: “ I command the fleet - Schmidt. Interestingly, during the raising of the red flag, the orchestra played "God save the Tsar!". By this, he wanted to win over other ships of the squadron to his side, to reassure the officers and sailors of other ships, convincing them that he was not a rebel. However, they were indifferent to this signal.
Seeing that red flags were not hoisted on other ships, Schmidt went to the destroyer "Svirepy" and began to call on the sailors of other ships to go over to his side, as " God, the Tsar and all the Russian people are with him. The answer was the deathly silence of the rest of the courts.
Then Schmidt, with a group of armed sailors, arrived at the Prut transport, where the arrested sailors from the Potemkin battleship were kept. The Prut officer mistook Schmidt and his men for guards, who had come to pick up another batch of prisoners. Entering the ship, Schmidt immediately arrested the officer and released the prisoners, taking them all to the Ochakov, where they were greeted with shouts of "Hurrah!" At this moment, unsuspecting officers arrived at the Ochakov: the commander of the Prut, captain of the 1st rank Radetsky and his entourage. They were immediately arrested and placed in cabins.
Meanwhile, Schmidt became increasingly convinced of the failure of his plans. When he followed from the Prut to the Ochakov, they shouted to him from the Ferocious: “ We serve the Tsar and the Fatherland, and you, the robber, force yourself to serve!”
Schmidt ordered the passengers to be released from Pushkin, as he no longer needed them. To his surprise, two of them, students, refused to leave the ship and joined the rebellion.
Convinced that the rebellion did not receive support from the rest of the courts, Schmidt threw off his mask and began to act like a real terrorist and revolutionary: “ I have many captured officers, that is, hostages", he sent a signal to all ships. Again there was no answer. Then Schmidt decided to capture the battleship "Panteleimon", the former "Potemkin", which he managed to do. Having arrested all the officers, he addressed them with a speech: “ Here, he said, in Sevastopol, gathered the best revolutionary forces. The whole world supports me. (…) Yalta supplies me with provisions for free. None of the promised freedoms has yet been realized. The State Duma is a slap in the face for us. Now I have decided to act, relying on the troops, the fleet and the fortress, which are all loyal to me. I will demand from the Tsar the immediate convocation of the Constituent Assembly. In case of refusal, I will cut off the Crimea, send my sappers to build batteries on the Perekop Isthmus, and then, relying on Russia, which will support me with a general strike, I will demand, I am already tired of asking, the fulfillment of the conditions from the Tsar. During this time, the Crimean peninsula forms a republic in which I will be president and commander of the Black Sea Fleet. I need a king because without him the dark mass will not follow me. The Cossacks interfere with me, so I announced that for each blow with a whip I would hang in turn one of you, and my hostages, of which I have up to a hundred people. When the Cossacks are handed over to me, I will put them in the hold of the Ochakov, Prut and Dniester and take them to Odessa, where a folk festival will be held. The Cossacks will be put up at the pillory and everyone will be able to express to their faces all the vileness of their behavior. I included economic needs in the sailors' demands, because I knew that without this they would not follow me, but the sailors and I deputies laughed at them. For me, the only goal is political demands.”
Here Schmidt, as always, wishful thinking. There was no talk of any significant assistance to the rebels either from Yalta, or from the Crimea, and even more so from all of Russia and “the whole world”. On the contrary, General Meller-Zakomelsky was moving towards Sevastopol with loyal units, the rest of the ships of the Black Sea squadron remained completely loyal to the government. Schmidt could not but understand that the hours of his illusory power were inevitably numbered. And he went for broke, fantasizing about the republic, secession of the Crimea, his presidency and so on. Rather, he convinced of his power not the captured officers, but himself. His thoughts sometimes take a painfully feverish turn: “ I will demand, I am already tired of asking, the fulfillment of the conditions from the Tsar ... ". From whom and what did Schmidt ever ask? But the main thing in these words is different: the Tsar, humiliatedly fulfilling the conditions of Schmidt, is what the first “red admiral” dreamed of!
But one should not think that Schmidt was insane and acted in a semi-delirious state. No, his methods and tactics are absolutely thought out: hanging hostages, his fellow officers, hiding behind sailors for his ambitious goals, deceiving them, laughing at their naivety and gullibility, exposing them in the name of his pride to a crime for which the death penalty threatened, planning reprisals over the Cossacks - all these are well-known methods and tactics of terrorists of all times and peoples, and Schmidt acted like a terrorist.
But like any terrorist, no matter how lucky he was, Schmidt was doomed. His situation worsened every minute. General Meller-Zakomelsky entered Sevastopol, who quickly put an end to the rebellion. The coastal artillery of the Sevastopol fortress opened fire on the Ochakov, which, together with the Ferocious, Prut and Panteleimon that joined it, was surrounded by ships loyal to the Tsar. Hurricane fire was opened on the rebel ships from all guns. The Ferocious tried to return fire, but it was suppressed and the ship lost control. The crew of the Fierce dived into the water. "Prut" and "Panteleimon" after the first shots lowered the red flags.
Meanwhile, on the Ochakovo, Schmidt completely lost his composure. He shouted that he would hang all the officers if the fire did not stop. Then he said: "I'm going to accept death." But at that moment, all the turret guns of the Rostislav, Terts and Memory of Azov, as well as the coastal artillery of the fortress, began to hit the Ochakov. The Ochakov team rushed into the water. One of the first to escape was Lieutenant Schmidt. This was not due to his cowardice: just like any revolutionary, he found it inappropriate to accept a "stupid" death on a doomed cruiser. He and his son were picked up by destroyer No. 270. A few minutes later, a boat sent from Rostislav delivered Schmidt to the battleship. "Ochakov" raised the white flag.
Schmidt and his accomplices were tried by the Black Sea Naval Court chaired by Admiral Chukhnin, who in March 1906 sentenced Schmidt to death by hanging, which was later commuted to execution. The sailors Gladkov, Chastnik and Antonenko were sentenced to death by the court. On March 6, 1906, the sentences were carried out.
Speaking at the trial, Schmidt said: Behind me will remain the sufferings of the people and the upheavals of the past years. And ahead I see a young, renewed, happy Russia.”
As for the first, Schmidt was absolutely right: behind him were people's suffering and upheavals. But as regards young, renewed and happy Russia”, then Schmidt was not destined to find out how deeply mistaken he was. 10 years after the execution of Schmidt, his son, the young cadet E.P. Schmidt, volunteered for the front and heroically fought "For Faith, Tsar and Fatherland." In 1917, he categorically rejected the October Revolution and joined the White Army. He went all the way from the Volunteer Army to the Crimean epic of Baron Wrangel. In 1921, the ship took Yevgeny Schmidt abroad from the Sevastopol pier, from those places where in 1905 his father helped those who now enslaved his homeland and drove him to a foreign land. " What did you die for, father? Yevgeny Schmidt asked him in a book published abroad. - Is it really so that your son will see how the foundations of a thousand-year-old state are crumbling, shaken by the vile hands of hired killers, corrupters of their people?».
In this bitter question of the son of the "red admiral" lies the main defeat of Lieutenant Schmidt.
