The Junker mutiny () was a Russian counterrevolutionary

mutiny Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military or a crew) to oppose, change, or remove superiors or their orders. The term is commonly used for insubordination by members of the military against an officer or superior, ...

of military school cadets in

Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

against the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

in October 1917. On October 29 (November 11 ( N.S.)) of 1917, students of junker schools in

rose up against the Bolsheviks under the leadership of the Committee for Salvation of Motherland and Revolution (Комитет спасения родины и революции), organised by the Right Esers. The goal of the mutiny was to support the Kerensky-Krasnov uprising (October 26–31, 1917). The rebellious students wanted to seize the city

telephone exchange A telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a central component of a telecommunications system in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It facilitates the establishment of communication circuits ...

, Peter and Paul Fortress, Smolny and arrest the

Soviet government The Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was the executive and administrative organ of the highest body of state authority, the All-Union Supreme Soviet. It was formed on 30 December 1922 and abolished on 26 December 199 ...

together with the Bolshevik leaders. On October 29, the Red Guard patrol detained one of the leaders of the Junker mutiny, an Eser named Aleksandr Arnoldovich Bruderer, who had a plan of the mutiny with him. Former Commander-in-Chief of the Petrograd military okrug, Colonel Georgi Polkovnikov, pronounced himself as commander of the so-called "Salvation Army" (войска спасения) and ordered his garrison not to execute orders issued by the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee (PMRC), arrest its

commissar Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English transliteration of the Russian (''komissar''), which means ' commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the political commissars of Soviet and ...

s, and send representatives from all military units to Nikolayevskoye School of Engineers (a.k.a. Engineer's Fortress), the headquarters of the mutiny leaders. The junkers of the Nikolayevskoye School of Engineers seized the Mikhailovsky Manege, stole a number of armored cars, captured the city telephone exchange, cut off power in Smolny, seized Hotel Astoria, and began to disarm the Red Guards and revolutionary soldiers. The students of Vladimirskoye Military School disarmed the school guards and arrested some of the PMRC commissars. At 8:30 a.m. on October 29, the leaders of the Junker mutiny sent out telegrams all over Petrograd, announcing the success of the rebellion and calling out for the arrest of all the PMRC commissars and the concentration of participating military units at the Nikolayevskoye School of Engineers. The revolutionary garrison of Petrograd, however, refused to support the mutiny. PMRC issued an appeal to the citizens of Petrograd and announced the state of siege. By 11 a.m. of October 29, the Red Guards and revolutionary soldiers had regained control over the telephone exchange and surrounded the Engineer's Fortress. Most of the junkers fled, but those who remained would be disarmed by 5 p.m. and sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress. The junkers opened fire on the 56th regiment of Kremlin guards that were sympathetic to the Bolsheviks and had agreed to surrender to the junkers in exchange for their freedom. However, all of them were shot with up to 300 people killed. The Vladimir military school was subjected to severe artillery shelling by the Bolshevik troops. Hundreds of junkers were killed or injured in the fighting. After the surrender of the schools dozens of junkers were shot at the walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress according to the testimony of Countess Lilli Nostitz.The End Of Passchendaele – Fighting in Petrograd I The Great War Week 173
/ref> Conversely, 238

Red Guards The Red Guards () were a mass, student-led, paramilitary social movement mobilized by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 until their abolition in 1968, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a ...

had been killed in the service of the Soviet regime were buried. However, some Bolshevik commanders such as

Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko Vladimir Alexandrovich Antonov-Ovseenko (; ; 9 March 1883 – 10 February 1938), real surname Ovseenko, party aliases 'Bayonet' () and 'Nikita' (), literary pseudonym A. Galsky (), was a prominent Bolshevik leader, Soviet statesman, mili ...

protected his prisoners and spared them from an enraged population in Petrograd.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Junker Mutiny 1917 in Russia 1917 riots Anti-Bolshevik uprisings Russian Revolution in Petrograd Riots and civil disorder in Russia Mutinies in World War I October 1917 in Europe November 1917 in Europe

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