On November 7, 1975, in honor of the 58th anniversary of the October Revolution, a naval parade was held in Riga, in which the large anti-submarine ship "Guard" took part. A little more than a day later, a mutiny broke out on it, organized by those who, according to their duty, had to educate the crew in the spirit of loyalty to the Communist Party.
The leader of the rebellion was the political commander of the 3rd rank Valery Sablin, born in 1939, a party member since 1959, the son of an honored naval officer and the great-grandson of a conductor who died in 1914 on the Pallada cruiser.
Sablin - 1970s Lenin?
The biography of the future rebel looked impeccable: during his studies at the M. V. Frunze was the secretary of the faculty committee of the Komsomol, and in 1973 his surname was knocked out on the marble plaque of the best graduates of the Military-Political Academy. IN AND. Lenin. He served in the Northern, Black Sea and Baltic fleets. He held the post of political officer of the "Watchman" since August 1973. During the voyages, Sablin studied the mood of the crew, coming to the conclusion that most of the officers and sailors were not ardent supporters of the Soviet system, and were treated with great skepticism about official slogans. True, he did not take into account that there is a huge distance from skepticism to readiness to break the oath.
Later, during interrogation, Valery Mikhailovich said that he saw a certain symbolism in the coincidence of his last name with one of Lenin's pseudonyms. Another significant association for him was the story of the battleship Potemkin, which, in Lenin's words, remained "the undefeated territory of the revolution." Signs from the past were superimposed on idealism mixed with ambition. All together and led him to an adventure.
A day after the parade in Riga, the "Watchman" was supposed to go to Liepaja for repairs.
On the eve of sailing, on the evening of November 8, Sablin informed the commander of the ship, Captain 2nd Rank Anatoly Potulny, about a fight that had allegedly begun in the sonar room. As soon as Potulnyi entered this small room, the door slammed shut behind him. Having locked it to the lock, Sablin left his only reliable assistant as a sentry - senior sailor Alexander Shein, who combined the duties of a librarian and a projectionist on the ship.
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Then, on the ship's broadcast, he ordered the officers and midshipmen to gather in the wardroom. The zampolit said that the ship will go to Kronstadt and further to Leningrad, where it will stand next to the cruiser Aurora, after which a representative of the crew will speak on television with the following statement: “The leadership of the party and the Soviet government has changed the principles of the revolution. There is no freedom and justice. The only way out is a new communist revolution. A revolution is a powerful movement of social thought, a colossal surge of fluctuations in the ionosphere, which will inevitably cause the activity of the masses and be embodied in a material change in the entire socio-economic formation."
It was like a holiday
The political officer's plan was based on the fact that the Soviet leadership would not want to bomb a warship and would allow Sablin to present his views. After which Valery Mikhailovich was going to put forward new conditions.
“To declare the territory of the Sentry ship free and independent from state and party bodies within a year.
Provide one of the crew members with the opportunity to speak on radio and television daily from 21:30 to 22:00.
Provide the ship with all kinds of provisions.
Allow Sentry radio transmissions in the Mayak radio network.
Consider them inviolable persons upon going ashore.
When Sablin offered to vote with black and white checkers, three lieutenants and several midshipmen spoke in his support. The rest - 10 officers and five warrant officers - were locked in their cabins.
The lack of resistance on their part can be explained either by the habit of following orders from their superiors, or by the phantasmagoric nature of everything that happens.
At 21:40, Sablin lined up the crew on deck and announced that the ship was sailing to Leningrad to organize a new revolution. According to Shein: “After his speech, there was general enthusiasm. What we were talking about among ourselves in the smoking rooms suddenly sounded publicly. It was like a holiday. A sense of dignity has awakened in everyone. We felt ourselves to be human beings. But Shein is likely exaggerating. Judging by subsequent events, confusion prevailed.
The investigation materials also indicated that “not all of the ship's personnel succumbed to Sablin's agitation, as evidenced by the attempts of individual sailors, foremen and officers to release the commander and capture Sablin at the beginning of events. But these attempts were prevented by Sablin's supporters."
Chasing the ship
Shortly before midnight, the Komsomol organizer, senior lieutenant Firsov, moved from the ship to the anchor barrel and, waving his arms, attracted the attention of the officer of the watch of the submarine B-49. So the command of the fleet learned about the events on the "Watchtower".
Sablin, in turn, learned about the flight of Firsov and ordered to wean anchor, heading for an exit to the Baltic Sea. The logic in his actions was probably as follows. The command will not shoot the rebel ship in broad daylight, in the middle of Riga, but it can order an attack against it at night. It is enough to release a torpedo from the same B-49 or send boats with paratroopers to board. With the exit to the international waters of the Baltic, Sablin got a chance to leave for Sweden and surrender just like the rebellious Potemkin in 1905 to the Romanians.
The Soviet command also calculated a similar scenario and threw nine ships of border troops and aircraft of the 668th bomber aviation regiment after the rebels.
In the morning it became known that the "Watchman" crossed the state border, and to the territorial waters of Sweden he had 43 miles, or 2.5 hours of travel.
At about 9:30 am, the bombers began their work. True, one of the "yaks" by mistake almost sank a fishing vessel, and the other attacked the pursuit ship. It was only by a happy coincidence that there were no casualties. But the bomb from the third plane hit the center of the Sentry's poop, destroyed the deck cover and jammed the rudder, after which the ship stopped. The command ordered an end to the attacks.
And on the "Storozhevoy" Petty Officer 1st Class Kopylov with the sailors Stankevichus, Lykov, Borisov and Nabiev, literally before the very bombing, freed the captain from prison. From the report of Captain Potulny: “I took a pistol, the others armed themselves with machine guns and in two groups - one from the side of the tank, and I along the inner passage - began to climb to the bridge. Seeing Sablin, the first impulse was to shoot him right there, but then the thought flashed: "He will still be useful to justice!" I shot him in the leg. He fell. We went up to the bridge, and I announced on the radio that order was restored on the ship."
Under the escort of other ships, the Sentry returned to the Gulf of Riga. The crew was disbanded. Sablin and 11 people who were believed to be his supporters were arrested, but in the end only Shein remained of the "supporters", who received eight years in prison.
During the investigation, Sablin kept calm, did not deny his political views, although he recognized the attempt to raise a rebellion as a mistake. The court sentenced him to capital punishment. On August 3, 1976, he was shot. The Sentinel story inspired Tom Clancy to write the novel The Hunt for Red October with a traditional happy ending. A film was made based on the novel in Hollywood. The role of the rebel captain was played by Sean Connery. True, the large anti-submarine ship was replaced by a submarine.
Visit the Swedes
Probably, Sablin's plan was influenced by the story of the captain of the barge MBSS-136150, Jonas Pleskis. In April 1961, having reoriented the ship's compass, he led his ship instead of Tallinn to the Swedish island of Gotland. The Swedes returned the ship, and Pleskis left for the USA, where he worked in Silicon Valley. Although he was sentenced to death in the USSR in absentia, his sister, actress Eugenia Pleshkite, safely continued to appear in Soviet films.
Magazine: Secrets of the USSR No. 5
