Each fleet has its own traditions.
The British, who are probably the best sailors in the world, generally believe that the basis of the fleet is tradition. Well, excluding Churchill, with his famous remark about "rum, whip and sodomy."
The Russian Imperial Navy also had traditions. And we, alas, got away from these traditions with difficulty, even in the era of iron and steam. And the first of these traditions - since the time of Peter the Great, the fleet was staffed from noble officers and serfs-sailors.
Therefore, the officers did not perceive the personnel as full-fledged equal people, and, accordingly, treated their crews as some kind of things, useful and provided for by the charter, but no more. This, in principle, was in all sailing fleets, to one degree or another.
But the transition to iron made sailors highly qualified specialists with a serious level of education and scarce specialties. Mechanical engineers appeared, the work of an officer required more and more specific knowledge and ability not only to give orders, but in addition to work with personnel who learned to think and respect themselves. And with this it was … different, more often than not. Many considered it beneath their dignity to talk with the sailors about politics, and just heart to heart, which led to a series of uprisings during the years of the first Russian revolution.
For the sailors of that time, the situation was unique in its own way. On the one hand, the service on steam ships was hard labor; through all the memories of that time, the horror of coal loading shines through, especially on long voyages. On the other hand, the same galvaner (electrician) in civilian life easily found a high-paying job with a very good salary. The stokers, the artillerymen, who got the hang of working with devices, and other specialties did not remain hungry.
In those days and with that hunger in industry for intelligent specialists, one had to be a fool so as not to stay in a large city with a decent salary after the service. And it is clear that the personnel, well trained and with good prospects after demobilization, began to value and respect themselves. But many officers of the old school are accustomed to seeing them as a silent and powerless instrument. This was also superimposed on the specifics of the supply, when the inspector-officer bought food on his own, not always being clean on his hand. And the specificity of the service itself, which greatly brings the personnel together, for if anything, they all die together.
When the Russo-Japanese War began with its failures, it could not help but blaze.
Riots in the Second Squadron
In general, Rozhestvensky's trip, without calling at ports, without proper rest for the crews, with coal loading at sea and problems with uniforms and food, is a gamble. Even the officers complained about the constant coal dust, and about the heat, and about the lack of food and even trivial cigarettes. Newspapers and news rarely arrived, the prospects were unclear, and there were also constant intelligence reports about the enemy, who was right there, beyond that cape … Nerves were at their limit, there was a lot of work, so …
The riot on the battleship "Eagle" became famous:
“There was a little mess on the Eagle at Easter, the admiral went there and made them quite scared, he yelled like never before and said such things and in such figurative expressions that he gave us entertainment for at least a day. Yu and Sh. Flew in terribly, hitting the officers as well.
Thanks to letters from Vyrubov and "Tsushima" Novikov.
But there was also a flash on the armored cruiser "Admiral Nakhimov", the reason - the lack of bread. Transport "Malaya" has a large number of civilians and technical unreliability. On the cruiser "Terek" - a conflict between the crew and the senior officer … On the "Eagle", by the way, they rebelled over meat, more precisely - because of the slaughter of a sick cow for meat.
As we can see, there are two reasons: food, which is important for people constantly engaged in hard physical labor, and the attitude of the commanding staff - some of the officers sincerely did not understand that they were not in the Baltic, but were going to theater and possible death.
One could blame the revolutionaries, but apart from the memoirs of Kostenko and Novikov, no traces of revolutionary organizations have been found. People were stupidly driven without any politics, there were no red flags, no proclamations - only indignation. We must pay tribute to the command of the squadron and ships - all situations were settled without bloodshed, and in battle the crews behaved heroically.
Black Sea riots
A similar scenario began on the Black Sea, where the war did not threaten the sailors and the supply was in complete order, but …
There are two troubles in Russia - fools and roads. It's easier with roads to the sea, but with fools …
… the battleship commander sent the ship inspector, midshipman Makarov to Odessa to buy provisions … Makarov brought cooks and sailors-crewmen to the shop of his friend merchant Kopylov. There was meat here, but wormy. Not finding another, the sailors bought it … As a result, the officers who took the provisions noted that the meat had a "slight smell of staleness." There were refrigerators on the battleship, but they did not work - the ship was launched in a hurry. In addition, the ship's doctor Smirnov decided to show off his erudition: when the packages of pasta with the inscription Vermichelli were brought on board, he joked that the sailors would feast on worms.
But there was no shortage of fools. The commander does not control the auditor, the auditor works for kickbacks, the ship's doctor, who is obliged to prohibit and report, subtly and gracefully mocks the "cattle" … In the end: instead of issuing canned food and a promise to punish the auditor, there is a death penalty for those unwilling to eat rotten meat. As a result - a riot, aggravated by the general mood in the country, killed officers and a ship hijacked to Romania. Lucky, it could explode in the entire fleet. And again, the revolutionaries have nothing to do with it: simply the sane actions of the commander would have prevented a riot in the bud. But the commander was not sane, like a significant part of the officers.
This is not the end. In November 1905, the cruiser "Ochakov" flared up in Sevastopol.
Again the newest unfinished and undeveloped ship, again indistinct actions of the authorities, this time political. First, the shooting of a demonstration in Sevastopol, the departure of Chukhnin's fleet commander to the sea, the arrest of a deputy from the revolutionaries Kapdva Schmidt, in the end - the capture of a cruiser and its battle with the fleet. And, among other things, the crew's complaints about bad food and the rudeness of the commander.
Who thought of mixing 335 recruits with the workers before the acceptance tests? And what they thought - God knows, it is only clear that the living conditions on the unfinished ship were not very good, and the officers in the conditions of the chaos really broke down on their subordinates. It is clear, revolution and agitation, but with a normal organization of the service, this is simply impossible. There was no organization.
In the Baltic
Year 1906, old cruiser "Pamyat Azov":
Headquarters of the Guard Troops of the St. Petersburg Military District Office of the District Quartermaster General Department of the Military Court. July 3, 1906. No. 1374. Krasnoe Selo.
Secret.
Revel Provisional Military Governor-General.
By agreement with the Minister of the Navy, His Imperial Highness the Commander-in-Chief ordered your Excellency, after the trial of the rebel sailors of the cruiser Pamyat Azov, to take over the following instructions:
1) those rebels who are sentenced to death by the court, upon confirmation of such by Captain 1st Rank Bostrem, shall be shot on the island of Carlos indicated by the Minister of the Sea. The sentenced to be delivered there under a strong infantry escort at night, when the city street life will freeze, and the sentence itself should be carried out at dawn.
For execution to appoint the sailors of the same cruiser "Pamyat Azov" from among those sentenced to other punishments "…
Bury the bodies of those shot on the same island or betray to the sea, at the discretion of the Naval authorities, so that the necessary workers were appointed from among the sailors of the cruiser Pamyat Azov, who were sentenced to other punishments. The burial place must be carefully leveled …
On the above, by order of His Imperial Highness, the Commander-in-Chief, I notify for proper instructions.
A copy of this revocation has been sent to the Chief of the Naval General Staff along with the sim for information.
Signed by: District Quartermaster General of His Majesty's Retinue Major General Rauch.
Here, yes, pure revolution. An agitator entered the ship, he was arrested and left for the night on the ship, rewriting the names of those who spoke to him. After that, it exploded: at least two mistakes of the command - to leave at large the overwritten, who began to shine with serious problems, and the arrested person, although it would take an hour and a half to take him to the shore. A revolution, but a riot was easy to avoid, with the slightest sane actions of the command staff. As a result, dozens of corpses and an example - so it is possible.
Three uprisings of Vladivostok
An example is he is contagious. And, having received the understanding that riots are also a method of struggle, they began to blaze in all parts of the empire. The war did not have time to die down, as it exploded in Vladivostok.
General indignation was caused by the prohibition of the "lower ranks" to attend rallies and meetings and to leave the barracks in the city. On Sunday, October 30, 2 thousand sailors took to the streets, and 10 thousand soldiers of the Khabarovsk reserve regiment joined them (by the fall of 1905, the garrison of Vladivostok numbered 60 thousand people). The performances were spontaneous. The military units, summoned by the head of the garrison, refused to shoot at the insurgents, and some of the soldiers went over to their side. On October 31, the sailors, together with the workers and the soldiers who joined them, smashed the guardhouse, the military prison, the guard house and freed the arrested. Encouraging the actions of the Black Hundreds and criminals who robbed shops, liquor stores, set fire to private houses, the authorities tried to discredit the movement. At the same time, revolutionary-minded military units were withdrawn from the city. As a result of these and other measures, the uprising was liquidated.
Leaving aside about criminals and Black Hundreds - I give a guarantee that everyone who has no conscience participated in the pogroms, regardless of affiliation. Get what? According to Nikolai's Manifesto, freedoms are introduced, and immediately the command "tightens the screws." Well, it exploded, it could not but explode. What they thought is absolutely incomprehensible. All the more so - at yesterday's theater of operations, with people who have gone through the war, returning from captivity, awaiting demobilization, detained for reasons of riots.
But this is not the end of the story:
On January 9, 1906, the sailors of the Siberian crew seized a warehouse with weapons in Vladivostok. Despite the ban, on January 10, a crowded rally of port workers, sailors and soldiers gathered in the circus … The peaceful demonstration was greeted with rifle and machine-gun fire from officers, Cossacks and part of soldiers loyal to the government. Armed sailors and soldiers participating in the demonstration returned fire. The demonstrators lost 80 people killed and wounded. On January 11, artillerymen of the Innokentyevskaya battery revolted in Vladivostok. Almost the entire garrison of the city joined them. The rebels were supported by teams of cruisers and other ships of the fleet. The "Vladivostok Republic" did not last long. On January 26, troops entered Vladivostok and brutally suppressed the uprising. More than 2 thousand people were brought to trial, 85 people were sentenced to death, 29 of them were executed, the rest were sent to hard labor.
Pure revolution, of course. And the reasons are ideological.
But, again, what prevented a minimum of troops from being left in the city and ships out to sea? What prevented you from preparing for the anniversary of Bloody Sunday? What prevented you from establishing a dialogue with the rebels?
All three uprisings are the consequences of a reluctance to look at the lower ranks as people, and a wild desire to put pressure on any protest by force. That the uprising of 1907 only confirmed:
Soldiers of the mine battalion in Diomede Bay rebelled against the command in solidarity with the revolutionaries arrested in May 1907 during another uprising. The Social Revolutionaries became the initiators of the revolt. To mutiny they raised the sailors of the destroyers "Angry", "Anxious" and "Fast". Red flags were raised on three ships, the ships headed for the exit from the bay, but they failed to leave. Under heavy fire destroyers "Angry" and "Anxious" surrendered. And the "Fast", which was literally riddled with shells, barely made it to the shore. The trial of the rebels took place the next day. Thirty-five people were sentenced to death, and one hundred and eighty-three sailors were sent to hard labor.
This time the force helped, and the navy calmed down …
Temporarily calmed down, a radical recruitment and management reform was not carried out, and an example of how it is possible to resolve disputes with the command, remained in the memory. Fortunately, the lower ranks studied - and unrest for everyday reasons in the navy evolved over the course of a year into revolutionary uprisings with political slogans. But the command staff of the fleet learned only one lesson - the riots of servicemen can be suppressed by force, there is no great danger from them.
Ahead was the First World War and 1917 …
