Rebellion on the warship STOROŽEVOJ
On 8 November 1975, as was customary in the USSR, Riga hosted another large-scale celebration of the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. Nobody, even in their wildest nightmares, could have imagined that the 58th anniversary of the Revolution would go down in the history of Latvia and the USSR as something unprecedented and unprecedented - a mutiny on board the Storoževoj, a large anti-submarine ship. For 15 years, the USSR denied that a mutiny had taken place on board.
As usual on such holidays, battleships and submarines of the USSR navy anchored on the Daugava near Riga Castle. One of them is Storoževoj, "bolshoi protivolodočnij korabļ" or large minesweeper. Thus, the 36-year-old zampolite (head of political work education) or third-rank captain Mikhail Sablin decides to start a new revolution and become its leader, go with the whole ship to the cradle of the revolution in Petrograd or Leningrad and light a new revolution fire. He seems to be a panicked idealist who has carefully studied all the works of the classics of Marxism-Leninism and is able to quote them accurately and precisely if necessary. Sablin is convinced that the Communist Gene Brezhnev and his clique have betrayed the ideals of revolution and communism, become corrupt through and lead the country to the abyss. And so the country can only be saved by a new revolution and someone has to start and lead it.
Sublin manages to convince part of the ship's crew that his idea is correct, and the ship's captain and some officers who do not want to take part in the event and show no active resistance are locked up in separate rooms of the ship.
Sablin addresses the ship's crew and calls to raise the anchor and go to Leningrad, towards a new and beautiful future. As he has won the respect and trust of the ship's crew, he succeeds, not without some careful preparation. One of the officers manages to escape and land on one of the ship's ropes on a nearby submarine, where it raises an alarm about the riot on the ship. At first, no one wants to believe in something so fantastic ....
Storoževoj raises the anchor and without a pilot, under the direction of Sabļinas, goes down the Daugava and, passing the Daugavgrīva lighthouse, goes in full direction in the direction of Kolka Cape and the Irbe Strait. While an alarm is being set ashore and hastily reported to Moscow, the ship only interferes with the free waters of the Baltic Sea illuminated by camouflage lights. It doesn't take long and the other ships of the navy start to chase it, bombers take off from Rumbula airport and the genius Brezhnev from Moscow gives a command - to bomb and sink the ship!
The Irbe Strait is covered by a thick fog and it temporarily saves Storozhev. Due to the fog of the plane, the persecutors are considered refugees and a false fire is discovered, the court - the misunderstanding is cleared up and the persecution continues with full vigor.
The strike planes in the air are being lifted from Tukums airfield, because there are suspicions that the pilots in the air do not understand why they have to bomb their own and hesitate incomprehensibly, not wanting to comply with the order. The percussion aircraft are ordered to damage the steering gear of the fleeing ship so that it can be stopped. Bombs are thrown and one of them hits the steering gear and the ship is no longer able to escape ... it is occupied by paratroopers.
Such grandiose military activity almost in the middle of the Baltic Sea is causing panic at the Swedish military observatory on the island of Faro near Gotland. They are stunned and are already waiting for a military strike, seeing a squadron of warships coming in their direction and serious aviation forces with them. But after stopping the fleeing ship, everything calms down, the Swedes can wipe out their sweat of fear ....
The arrested ship's crew is taken to Riga for questioning, where it is being processed by the KGB, but the main rebel Sablin is taken to Moscow and placed in Lefortovo prison. There he is charged with treason, for wanting to go to Sweden with the whole ship and for other sins. He is sentenced and executed, and even his family still do not know where his grave is.
Storoževoj's crew was punished and disbanded. However, with rumors that something bad had happened on board to turn a blind eye to foreigners, Storozhevoj ran demonstratively along the northern shores of the Baltic Sea, demonstrating to everyone that everything was in order. For 15 years, the USSR stubbornly denied that a riot had taken place on board.
In the foreign military classification, Storozhevoy is called and by class corresponds to the "Krivak" class frigate.
Its length - 123 meters, width - 14m, draft - 7m.
The speed of the ship is 32 knots, it is propelled by 4 gas turbine engines.
Crew - 180 sailors.
Armaments include missile systems, artillery, torpedoes and mines.
GDJangs & N.Breiden "Storozhevoy. Rebellion on a USSR warship in 1975 in Riga," / Athens, 2006.
Internet resource: www.nirejs.lv
Your comments
I myself have served in the USSR army on a ship from 1973-1976. At that time, a well-known guy - Aivars Preinberg - served on the mentioned "Storoževoj". Together with him and a few others from Latvia, we served in Liepāja's "učebka" for half a year. He knows very well what happened at that time and how it all happened. It's just a pity that no one has talked to him about it while creating various publications and films. He currently lives in Viļani. I recommend listening to his memories.
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Today, you can see the abandoned airfield area.
The so-called zampolite was called Valerius. He was the third in a family of three children in a sailor's family.