In search of a cooperative commonwealth!
The Rise and Fall of the Russian Revolutionary Sailors
and Their Leader...
Pavel Efimovich Dybenko.
The following attempts to ensure historical justice for Pavel Dybenko, the sailors, and the Russian people, who considered the Great October Revolution truly the "dawn of a new era."
Pavel Efimovich Dybenko.
For all our loved ones whom we miss.
The following attempts to ensure historical justice for Pavel Dybenko, the sailors, and the Russian people, who considered the Great October Revolution truly the "dawn of a new era."
Distancing themselves from the notion that by supporting the Great October Revolution, one supported Lenin.
Chapter One: Gestation
In 1905–1907, a wave of mutinies rocked naval bases in the Baltic, Black Sea, and Far East, involving the crews of 22 ships and more than 20,000 sailors.
From 1906 to 1915,
5,757 sailors were convicted of plotting mutinies.
Among them:
169 were executed by hanging,
1,032 were exiled to hard labor,
1,744 were imprisoned in various correctional facilities for varying terms,
20 were locked up in fortresses,
876 were imprisoned in a naval prison, and others were exiled and sent to civilian prisons with various types of punishment.
One life, one kopeck.
In the first months of 1905... Uprisings in the Baltics, Baku, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other regions shook the Tsarist regime to its foundations. Even some of the Tsar's most trusted officials breathlessly admit that the Tsar has lost his way. Dissent is not limited to workers, peasants, and others... but also to the Tsar's most loyal subjects... the highest officials in his government.
Chapter One: Gestation
A time of troubles and upheavals
Russians in the grip of the Romanov dynasty
In 1905–1907, a wave of mutinies rocked naval bases in the Baltic, Black Sea, and Far East, involving the crews of 22 ships and more than 20,000 sailors.
From 1906 to 1915,
5,757 sailors were convicted of plotting mutinies.
Among them:
169 were executed by hanging,
1,032 were exiled to hard labor,
1,744 were imprisoned in various correctional facilities for varying terms,
20 were locked up in fortresses,
876 were imprisoned in a naval prison, and others were exiled and sent to civilian prisons with various types of punishment.
In the first months of 1905... Uprisings in the Baltics, Baku, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other regions shook the Tsarist regime to its foundations. Even some of the Tsar's most trusted officials breathlessly admit that the Tsar has lost his way. Dissent is not limited to workers, peasants, and others... but also to the Tsar's most loyal subjects... the highest officials in his government.
January 22, 1905
Tsar Nicholas II's uncle, Grand Duke Vladimir, holds the post of military commandant in the St. Petersburg district.
It was he who commanded the troops on the day that later became infamous as "Red Sunday"...
Thousands of unarmed Russian citizens: men, women, children... led by Father Gapon, marched to the Winter Palace to present a petition to the Tsar... all of them were like-minded in the glorious and fiery phrase:
"Russia must and will be free."
May 1905
An article appeared in the Quarterly Review, and then another in National Review, titled simply "The Tsar"...
Parts of both articles quote the testimony of someone who knew the Tsar closely, presenting the views of his close associate, who reveals what many Russians already knew:
"the sun of Romanov rule was beginning to set."
July 1905
The rebels tell the story of the uprising on the Black Sea, the uprising took place on the battleship Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky, the leader of the uprising was Matyushenko, according to the Parisian magazine Le Journal.
"You mad creature," Pogovnets interrupted him, "you've forgotten that on July 5th, the entire fleet's crews were supposed to mutiny. The order hadn't been given to everyone yet. You started too early. They won't support us."
Tsar Nicholas II's uncle, Grand Duke Vladimir, holds the post of military commandant in the St. Petersburg district.
Russian Grand Duke Vladimir
It was he who commanded the troops on the day that later became infamous as "Red Sunday"...
Thousands of unarmed Russian citizens: men, women, children... led by Father Gapon, marched to the Winter Palace to present a petition to the Tsar... all of them were like-minded in the glorious and fiery phrase:
"Russia must and will be free."
The restless Tsar Nicholas II
May 1905
Parts of both articles quote the testimony of someone who knew the Tsar closely, presenting the views of his close associate, who reveals what many Russians already knew:
"the sun of Romanov rule was beginning to set."
July 1905
The rebels tell the story of the uprising on the Black Sea, the uprising took place on the battleship Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky, the leader of the uprising was Matyushenko, according to the Parisian magazine Le Journal.
Conversation with Matyushenko
"You mad creature," Pogovnets interrupted him, "you've forgotten that on July 5th, the entire fleet's crews were supposed to mutiny. The order hadn't been given to everyone yet. You started too early. They won't support us."
In 1905...sailors of the Tsarist fleet issued a statement;
"Comrades, do not lose heart! Not all is lost. The rotten tsarist government has not crushed everything in our fleet.
There are still people who honorably bear the glorious banner of social justice.
Do not lose heart, comrade sailors!
Do not lose courage, be bold. Do not lose courage and with all the strength and might of which you are capable, continue your great struggle for our noble cause - the liberation of the people from the yoke of tsarism! Let us be like tempered steel... Let our hearts feel neither mercy nor pity for our worst enemies in this struggle... A knee on the chest and a hand on the throat - let this be our motto!
Friends sailors, this time we were unable to prevent the Russian government from arresting our comrades, but we must avenge them. The Russian tsar will again be washed in the blood of the people, but the cause of freedom will not die.
No! Life itself is on our side. It pushes us to fight against autocracy.
No tsar can contain or control the raging ocean of popular anger. The time is not far off when, in a liberated Russia...free from tsarism...the sailors will engage in their final battle...a battle against the tsarist social order and move toward a healthy cooperative commonwealth.
July 1905.
Professor Reisner of the University of Berlin, a native of Russia, asserts that the naval mutinies were caused not by poor food, but by the revolutionary agitation that had been going on in the navy for years. According to the professor, the sailors cannot be classified as mutineers and murderers, but rather as heroes willing to sacrifice their lives for their country.
Professor Reisner added:
"The greatest mistake of the Russian government was that it turned the army into a political party supporting absolutism against the will of the people."
"Revolutionary Manifesto"
"Comrades, do not lose heart! Not all is lost. The rotten tsarist government has not crushed everything in our fleet.
There are still people who honorably bear the glorious banner of social justice.
Do not lose heart, comrade sailors!
Do not lose courage, be bold. Do not lose courage and with all the strength and might of which you are capable, continue your great struggle for our noble cause - the liberation of the people from the yoke of tsarism! Let us be like tempered steel... Let our hearts feel neither mercy nor pity for our worst enemies in this struggle... A knee on the chest and a hand on the throat - let this be our motto!
Friends sailors, this time we were unable to prevent the Russian government from arresting our comrades, but we must avenge them. The Russian tsar will again be washed in the blood of the people, but the cause of freedom will not die.
No! Life itself is on our side. It pushes us to fight against autocracy.
No tsar can contain or control the raging ocean of popular anger. The time is not far off when, in a liberated Russia...free from tsarism...the sailors will engage in their final battle...a battle against the tsarist social order and move toward a healthy cooperative commonwealth.
July 1905.
Professor Reisner of the University of Berlin, a native of Russia, asserts that the naval mutinies were caused not by poor food, but by the revolutionary agitation that had been going on in the navy for years. According to the professor, the sailors cannot be classified as mutineers and murderers, but rather as heroes willing to sacrifice their lives for their country.
Professor Reisner added:
"The greatest mistake of the Russian government was that it turned the army into a political party supporting absolutism against the will of the people."
St. Petersburg July 1905
The Rotten System in the Navy. "Fear," says the Captain, "is the only basis for discipline in the army and navy, and it will prove as poor a tool for maintaining the loyalty of rank-and-file soldiers to the throne as it is for suppressing discontent among the people. The government must learn the lesson that the soldiers and sailors are beginning to awaken, just as the people have awakened.
Revel July 1905.
Fearing a new rebellion, the authorities of Revel ordered the confiscation of weapons of the sailors on the cruisers Minin and Kremlin.
The official version cites serious discontent among some warship crews over the quality of food supplies.
The officer responsible for this situation was arrested.
August 1905.
The sailors of Kronstadt revolt!
At night, residents of St. Petersburg could see a bright light emanating from Kotlin Island.
"The skies reflected the glow of smoldering fires."
September 1905.
The sailors were punished...sent to the Far East.
A thousand sailors who participated in the uprisings in Libau and the Black Sea were transferred to the occupation army in the Far East.
October 1905.
cruisers "Minin"
cruisers "Kremlin"
The officer responsible for this situation was arrested.
August 1905.
The sailors of Kronstadt revolt!
At night, residents of St. Petersburg could see a bright light emanating from Kotlin Island.
"The skies reflected the glow of smoldering fires."
September 1905.
A thousand sailors who participated in the uprisings in Libau and the Black Sea were transferred to the occupation army in the Far East.
October 1905.
A march of many Russian citizens—workers, students, women, and children—was demonstrating in memory of January 22, or Bloody Sunday.
Without warning, Colonel Min brutally and mercilessly shot the demonstrators and threatened to burn down the Technological University with the students inside.
November 1905.
The latest reports from Sevastopol indicate that the mutineers forced the officers and crew of the cruiser Ochakov to abandon ship. The crews of the battleships Rostislav and Tris in Sulataly are known not to have mutinied. However, one reserve battalion joined the mutineers. Several companies of the Vlinsky Regiment arrived in Sevastopol from Feodosia.
The Sevastopol Uprising (November 1905), led by Lieutenant Schmidt, was an armed rebellion of Black Sea Fleet sailors and soldiers of the Sevastopol garrison, dock workers, and the Marine Plant.
The uprising was suppressed, and for his role in the putsch, Lieutenant Schmidt was executed on March 6, 1906, on Berezan Island.
Lieutenant Schmidt Petr Petrovich
A tragic incident occurred at the camp on Cape Churkin, where an officer who struck a sailor with a sabre because the latter did not salute him... was pursued by his fellow sailors to the officers' club... Hand-to-hand combat ensued, resulting in the death of four officers...
December 1905/January 1906.
Barricades on Presnya, 1905. Black-and-white photograph of a painting [preliminary sketch?] by Ivan Vladimirov (ru: Vladimirov Ivan Alekseevich, 1870–1947), depicting the December 1905 uprising in the Presnensky district of Moscow. Collection of the Moscow Museum of Contemporary History (former Museum of the Revolution).
Death to Lieutenant Schmidt and the rebel allies
Memorial service for Lieutenant Schmidt and his comrades
In memory of Lieutenant Schmidt.
Although this uprising was suppressed that same November, it demonstrated to the tsar and his naval leadership that they faced a very serious task. Following the uprising, 1,611 sailors were arrested, 11 were executed, including Lieutenant Schmidt, 107 were exiled to hard labor, and 226 were placed in various correctional facilities for varying terms. Of these, 18 were sent to a disciplinary battalion, and 25 were imprisoned.
Sevastopol. July 1906.
Admiral Skrydlov
Admiral Skrydlov shares the fleet is threatening more rebellion.
It is expected today, 2,500 sailors from all the warships will present a draft addressing certain economic demands.
Moscow January/August 1906
Former Colonel, now General Min... several months earlier, ordered the merciless murder of many residents of St. Petersburg who had participated in an honorary procession in honor of those who had called upon the Tsar for a better Russia. General Min would now deal with the so-called freedom fighters in Moscow. Having agreed to pardon... General Min would mercifully hang thousands of surrendered rebels at the entrances to Moscow... he did just that... so that everyone could see the wisdom of what happens when someone raises a fist against the Tsar!
General Min
St. Petersburg. August 1906. Arrests are on the rise. Repression in Russia is becoming increasingly brutal. Key members of all trade unions are in custody.Leading members of all trade unions worked among the Kronstadt sailors. Female university students were among those detained during the mutiny.
Zinaida Konoplyannikova
On August 26, 1906... she was brought to trial for the murder of General Min, the leader of punitive actions and atrocities committed against rebellious Russian citizens during and after the Moscow uprising of 1905-6.
Zinaida Vasilievna argued in front of her judges that in order to challenge the power of the Romanov rule and destroy the existing social structure and its dominant absolutism, an armed force would be required.
"I see clearly that the autocratic and bureaucratic superstructure rests on the armed force of the government and is able to maintain itself only through the constant practice of bloody terror on the part of those who steer our ship of state. And life itself has taught me this: you cannot create anything new without first destroying the old; if you cannot pierce an idea with a bayonet, you cannot resist the force of the bayonet by relying only on an idea."
The hope of Russia was placed within the will of the sailors.
Even President Wilson acknowledged:
Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States
“Revolutions do not happen overnight;
revolutions accumulate over centuries;
revolutions happen because of the long suppression of the human spirit;
revolutions happen because people know they have rights
and that they have been cast aside.”
Revel. August 1906.
The sailors of the "Memory of Azov" revolt!
Revel. August 1906.
The execution of seventeen sailors who participated in the uprising on the steamship "Memory of Azov" and their final refuge in the waters of the Baltic Sea.
The sailors write a plea,
WHERE ARE YOU, TSAR?
Corpses wander in the depths of the sea.
The splashing green waves carry them, their hands clasped tightly behind their backs.
Their faces are covered in salty, tarry sackcloth. Their
uniforms are stained with black blood.
These are the sailors of Kronstadt.
Their hearts are pierced by soldiers' bullets, and the commander ordered them thrown into the water.
In the gray fog, the shoreline is visible, its outlines painted against the dark sky, and there, above the water, rests the beautiful royal palace of Peterhof.
Where are you, Tsar?
Come out to us from behind your stern guards, see these bloody wounds that have appeared on our chests!
Cease your fear, you are our "father," and we are "your faithful children..."
We asked you for bread, and you gave us lead; parental affection was a whip for us.
The Russian elite seek changes in governance.
Count Witte authors
"The October Tsarist Manifesto of the Tsar"
Count Sergei Yulyevich Witte
Grand Duke Nicholas was quoted as saying, "that he would present the document to the Tsar, if the Tsar refused to sign, the Grand Duke would shoot himself in the presence of the Tsar".
Grand Duke Nikolay Nicholivitch
Odessa. August 1907.
Tsar Nicholas II is furious! He fears a new rebellion! An urgent inspection of the entire Russian fleet and fortresses has been ordered!
Tsar Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov II
Saint Petersburg, 1907
The authorities began to perceive the navy as a kind of powder keg under the very foundations of Russian statehood.
Defense Minister Roediger remarked: "Currently, the navy is not an element of strength, but rather a threat to the state. National security requires its elimination…"
Russian Defense Minister Alexander Roediger
We leave the story here, noting in the second chapter the sailor's of the Tsar's fleet embolden themselves and begin the decade long struggle toward 1917.
