Battleship Potemkin uprising

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The Potemkin uprising was a 1905 mutiny of the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin against their officers, which was part of the Russian Revolution of 1905. It later came to be viewed as an initial step towards the Russian Revolution of 1917, and was the basis of the silent film Battleship Potemkin.

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History

In 1905 The Central Committee of the Social Democratic Organization of the Black Sea Fleet started preparations for a simultaneous crew uprising on all of the ships of the fleet some time in the fall of 1905. However, at the time of planning Potemkin was away for firing exercises at Tendra Island and the rebellion broke out on its own on June 14, spontaneously and prematurely.

The uprising was sparked by the second in command of the battleship, who allegedly threatened reprisals against a number of the crew for their refusal to eat rotten meat. Reportedly he mustered the crew on the quarterdeck near where a tarpaulin was laid out and armed marines were drawn up. The sailors assumed that an group execution was pending and rushed the marines (themselves sailors) calling on them not to shoot. The actual events sparking off the mutiny remain uncertain and have been overshadowed by the version presented in the famous Sergei Eisenstein film "The Battleship Potemkin". Certainly discipline in the Tsarist navy was harsh and morale low following defeats in the Russo-Japanese War.

The mutineers killed a number of the officers, including Captain Evgeny Golikov, his second in command Ippolit Giliarovsky and the medical officer who had certified the meat as fit to eat. The surviving officers were placed under arrest. One sailor Grigory Vakulenchuk was fatally wounded during the fight. The seamen organized a Ship’s Commission led by Afanasi Matushenko. Potemkin was joined by the crew of the accompanying torpedo boat #267.

In the evening of that same day, the rebellious battleship came to Odessa flying a red flag. A general strike had been called in Odessa and there was some unrest, for which the arrival of the battleship provided a focus and incentive. However, the representatives of the contact commission of the Odessa Social Democratic parties were not able to convince the battleship crew to land armed sailors and help workers to get weapons and act together. There was division and confusion amongst both sailors and strikers.

On June 16, Vakulenchuk’s funeral turned into a political demonstration. Demonstrators crowded on the flight of steps leading from the port area to the centre of the city were fired on by dismounted cavalry, a scene that forms the dramatic highpoint of the film "Battleship Potemkin". Potemkin fired two shells at the part of the city where the head quarters of the Czarist military authorities was located. One civilian was killed and limited damage done. The Imperial military sent reinforcements to Odessa in order to suppress this civil disorder. The government issued an order to either force the Potemkin crew to give up or sink the battleship. Two squadrons of the Black Sea Fleet were sent for this purpose. They gathered at the Tendra Island on June 17. Potemkin faced the joint squadron and - refusing to give up – sailed through the centre of it. This “silent battle” ended victoriously for Potemkin: the crews of the joint squadron refused to fire at the battleship and one of the battleships – Georgiy Pobedonosets – joined Potemkin. The joint squadron went to Sevastopol. The three rebellious warships headed for Odessa.

The Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party tried to provide support for the Potemkin uprising. However, Mikhail Vasilyev-Yuzhin, who came to Odessa at the request of Vladimir Lenin to lead the uprising, found the battleship had left the port.

In the evening of June 18, the battleship sailed for Constanta (Romania) together with the torpedo boat #267 for fuel and supplies (by that time, Georgiy Pobedonosets had surrendered to the authorities). On June 20, the Ship’s Commission issued appeals “To all civilized world” and “To all European powers”, proclaiming the crew’s firm decision to fight against the Tsarist regime. Romanian authorities refused to permit supplies to be sent to the battleship. The same happened in the port of Theodosia on June 22. On June 25, Potemkin returned to Constanta and its crew handed the ship over to the Romanian authorities. Some crewmen returned back to Russia in 1905, only to be arrested and convicted. The majority of the crew returned to Russia after the February Revolution in 1917.

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Aftermath

Romanian authorities later returned the battleship to the Russian government. In October of 1905 it was renamed to St. Panteleimon. In April of 1917 the ship was renamed to Potemkin once again. However, in May they changed it to Freedom Fighter. In April of 1919, the interventionists blew it up in Sevastopol. After the Russian Civil War, Potemkin was raised from the bottom of the sea and dismantled because of irreparable damage.

Lenin wrote that the Potemkin uprising had had a huge importance in terms of being the first attempt at creating the nucleus of the revolutionary army, especially when a big part of the tsarist army sided with the revolution. Lenin called Potemkin an "undefeated territory of the revolution." The Potemkin uprising had a significant influence on the revolutionizing process in the Russian army and fleet.

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