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''Storozhevoy'' (russian: link=no, italic=yes, Сторожевой, "guardian" or "sentry") was a Soviet Navy Project 1135 Burevestnik-class
anti-submarine An anti-submarine weapon (ASW) is any one of a number of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew, to destroy (sink) the vessel or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. In its simplest sense, an anti-submarine weapo ...
frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed an ...
(
NATO reporting name NATO reporting names are code names for military equipment from Russia, China, and historically, the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union and other nations of the Warsaw Pact). They provide unambiguous and easily understood English words in a uniform man ...
Krivak I). The ship initially was attached to the Soviet
Baltic Fleet , image = Great emblem of the Baltic fleet.svg , image_size = 150 , caption = Baltic Fleet Great ensign , dates = 18 May 1703 – present , country = , allegiance = (1703–1721) (1721–1917) (1917–1922) (1922–1991)(1991–present) ...
and based in
Baltiysk Baltiysk (russian: Балти́йск; german: Pillau; Old Prussian: ''Pillawa''; pl, Piława; lt, Piliava; Yiddish: פּילאַווע, ''Pilave'') is a seaport town and the administrative center of Baltiysky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, R ...
. It was involved in a
mutiny Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military, of a crew or of a crew of pirates) to oppose, change, or overthrow an organization to which they were previously loyal. The term is commonly used for a rebellion among memb ...
led by
Valery Sablin Corvette Captain, Captain 3rd Rank Valery Mikhailovich Sablin (russian: Вале́рий Миха́йлович Са́блин) (1 January 1939 – 3 August 1976) was a Soviet Navy officer and a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet ...
in November 1975.


Construction

''Storozhevoy'' was laid down on 20 July 1972 with yard number 155 at the
Yantar Shipyard Yantar Shipyard (russian: Прибалтийский судостроительный завод «Янтарь») is a Russian shipbuilding company based in Kaliningrad, Russia. Yantar Shipyard builds military ships, including antisubmarine and ...
in
Kaliningrad Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...
. The ship was launched on 21 March 1973 and was commissioned on 30 December 1973. The frigate was then assigned to the
Baltic Fleet , image = Great emblem of the Baltic fleet.svg , image_size = 150 , caption = Baltic Fleet Great ensign , dates = 18 May 1703 – present , country = , allegiance = (1703–1721) (1721–1917) (1917–1922) (1922–1991)(1991–present) ...
.


Mutiny

The mutiny was led by the ship's political commissar, Captain of the Third Rank
Valery Sablin Corvette Captain, Captain 3rd Rank Valery Mikhailovich Sablin (russian: Вале́рий Миха́йлович Са́блин) (1 January 1939 – 3 August 1976) was a Soviet Navy officer and a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet ...
, who wished to protest against the rampant corruption of the
Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and 1 ...
era. His aim was to seize the ship and steer it out of the Bay of Riga, to
Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
through the
Neva River The Neva (russian: Нева́, ) is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast (historical region of Ingria) to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length of , it ...
, moor alongside the
museum ship A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the small numb ...
''
Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...
'', an old symbol of the Russian revolution, and broadcast a nationwide address to the people from there. In that address, he was going to say what he believed people publicly wanted to say, but could only be said in private: that socialism and the motherland were in danger; the ruling authorities were up to their necks in corruption, demagoguery, graft, and lies, leading the country into an abyss; communism had been discarded, and there was a need to revive the
Leninist Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party as the political prelude to the establishm ...
principles of
justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...
. On the evening of , Sablin lured the captain to the lower deck, claiming that there were some officers who needed to be disciplined for being drunk on duty. When the captain arrived at the lower deck, Sablin detained him and other officers in the forward sonar compartment and seized control of the ship. Sablin then summoned a meeting of all the senior officers on the ship. Here a vote was taken amongst the fifteen officers present. Sablin informed the officers that he planned to sail to Leningrad and broadcast his revolutionary message. Eight officers voted in favor of the mutiny; the remaining seven senior members of the ship's crew who did not wish to go along with the plan were locked in a separate compartment below the main deck. Sablin then moved on to the next phase of the plan, which was to win the support of the seamen, numbering about 145-155 men. Sablin was a popular officer and he used this to his advantage. He assembled the crew and delivered a speech which instantly had all the seamen motivated and excited about a revolution. One of the officers who had voted in favor of the mutiny had escaped under the cover of night and had run across the naval dock to raise the alarm; however, the soldier at the gate did not believe him."The Hunt for Red October", ''True Story'', History Channel. On discovering that they might soon be detected, Sablin decided to set sail immediately, rather than wait till the morning and set sail with the rest of the fleet, as originally planned. The crew immediately set sail under the cover of dark and made their way out of Riga. Sablin also ensured that the radar was off to avoid detection from Soviet forces. When Soviet authorities learned of the mutiny, the Kremlin ordered that control must be regained, fearing Sablin might follow in Jonas Pleškys's footsteps to ask political asylum in Sweden. Half the
Baltic fleet , image = Great emblem of the Baltic fleet.svg , image_size = 150 , caption = Baltic Fleet Great ensign , dates = 18 May 1703 – present , country = , allegiance = (1703–1721) (1721–1917) (1917–1922) (1922–1991)(1991–present) ...
, including thirteen naval vessels, were sent in pursuit and were joined by 60 warplanes (including three Yak-28 bombers, this being the only instance of a Yak-28 firing in anger), which dropped 500-pound bombs in the vicinity of the rebel ship. The aircraft also strafed ''Storozhevoy'' repeatedly. The ship's steering was damaged and she stopped dead on the water from Swedish territorial waters and from Kronstadt. After warning shots from the closing loyal warships, the frigate was eventually boarded by Soviet marine
commando Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin">40_Commando.html" ;"title="Royal Marines from 40 Commando">Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin area of Afghanistan are pictured A commando is a combatant, or operativ ...
s. By then, Sablin had been non-fatally shot in his leg and detained by members of his own crew, who also unlocked the captive captain and officers. All the complement from ''Storozhevoy'' was arrested and interrogated, but only Sablin and his second-in-command, Alexander Shein, a 20-year-old seaman, were tried and convicted. The ship's crew was then changed completely. At his trial in July 1976, Sablin was convicted of high treason and was executed by firing squad on , while Shein was sentenced to prison and was released after serving eight years. The rest of the mutineers were set free, but dishonorably discharged from the Soviet Navy.


Aftermath

''Storozhevoy'' was officially transferred to the Pacific Fleet on 10 November 1975. The frigate departs
Baltiysk Baltiysk (russian: Балти́йск; german: Pillau; Old Prussian: ''Pillawa''; pl, Piława; lt, Piliava; Yiddish: פּילאַווע, ''Pilave'') is a seaport town and the administrative center of Baltiysky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, R ...
in early 1976, sailing through
Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popula ...
and later arrived in
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky ( rus, Петропавловск-Камчатский, a=Петропавловск-Камчатский.ogg, p=pʲɪtrɐˈpavləfsk kɐmˈtɕatskʲɪj) is a city and the administrative, industrial, scientific, and cultu ...
,
Soviet Far East The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admini ...
. On 10–15 September 1980, the ship made a call to the port of
Massawa Massawa ( ; ti, ምጽዋዕ, məṣṣəwaʿ; gez, ምጽዋ; ar, مصوع; it, Massaua; pt, Maçuá) is a port city in the Northern Red Sea region of Eritrea, located on the Red Sea at the northern end of the Gulf of Zula beside the Dahla ...
, at the time part of
Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
. The ship underwent routine maintenance at Dalzavod Shipyard in
Vladivostok Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, ...
from 21 April 1987 to 14 November 1994. ''Storozhevoy'' was decommissioned in June 2002 and later sold to
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
for scrap.


In literature

Gregory D. Young was the first Westerner to investigate the mutiny as part of his 1982 master's thesis ''Mutiny on Storozhevoy: A Case Study of Dissent in the Soviet Navy''. One of 37 copies of Young's thesis was placed in the Nimitz Library of the
United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...
where it was read by
Tom Clancy Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of his novels have b ...
, then an insurance salesman, who used it as inspiration to write ''
The Hunt for Red October ''The Hunt for Red October'' is the debut novel by American author Tom Clancy, first published on October 1, 1984, by the Naval Institute Press. It depicts Soviet submarine captain Marko Ramius as he seemingly goes rogue with his country's cut ...
''. That novel was turned into a 1990 film under the same name. Portions of Young's thesis were published in the naval magazine ''Sea Power'' in 1985 and in 2005, in the book ''The Last Sentry'', by Young and Nate Braden. The story of the mutiny was also told in the novel Krivak 500 by the Swedish professor of intelligence analysis, Wilhelm Agrell. According to the non-fiction Sprickor i järnridån ("Cracks in the Iron Curtain"), professor Agrell worked in Swedish military intelligence, collating and analysing signals intercepts among other things, at the time of the mutiny.


References

Notes Bibliography * * * * * *


External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Storozhevoy Naval mutinies 1975 in the Soviet Union Ships built in the Soviet Union Krivak-class frigates Krivak-class frigates of the Russian Navy 1973 ships Maritime incidents in the Soviet Union Maritime incidents in 1975 Cold War frigates of the Soviet Union