30 years to anti -Soviet rebellion on the Soviet ship

The program is maintained by Andrei Sharogradsky. Anna Kolchina, a Radio Liberty correspondent.

Andrei Sharogradsky: Today it turns 30 years old in the dramatic events in the Baltic Fleet, when the political commander of the Soviet anti -submarine ship "Watchtower", the captain of the 3rd rank Valery Sablin raised the rebellion against the Brezhnev regime. He captured the ship and headed for Leningrad, intending to speak on radio and television with an appeal to the peoples of the Soviet Union on the need to restructure society. The rebellion at Storozhev was suppressed, Sablin was wounded and arrested, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR found Sablin guilty of treason and sentenced to death. Anna Kolchina will continue the topic.

Anna Kolchina: There is still no consensus on what actually happened on November 9, 1975. The head of the scientific and expedition department of the Naval Museum in St. Petersburg, Sergei Chernyavsky, believes that Sablin led the ship to Sweden, and not to Leningrad, that out of 60 officers and midshipmen, only three people supported him.

Sergey Chernyavsky: History, frankly, dramatic for the domestic navy. On November 6, 1975, then the Storozheva’s large anti -submarine ship, then it was retrained into the Watchtower, arrived at the November holidays in Riga, where he anchored at the mouth of Daugawa.

In the evening of the same day, the political officer of Sablin, whose plan had already matured to raise a riot on this ship, could be said to report the ship commander that an emergency had occurred on board, and invited him to follow him in one of the lower premises. In this room, the ship commander was locked. After that, Sablin gathered in officers and midshipmen and informed them of his decision to lead the ship supposedly to Leningrad in order to announce that he did not agree with the shortcomings that exist in society and in the navy. Of the 60 officers and midshipmen, three people openly supported him. And the ordinary personnel, which did not participate in this meeting, was not at all aware of the case.

The ship removed from the anchor and through the Irbensky Strait went towards Sweden. One of the officers managed to escape from the ship, reached the shore and reported that a riot had occurred on the ship. He was not believed at first. Time was partly missed. They only checked when the “watchtower” began to move in front of the eyes of observation posts. Then the team was given to stop it. Sablin also demanded that the fleet command declare the territory of the Watchtower ship free from the Soviet regime. After that, the order was given to detain the ship. Aviation was raised into the air, including two missile carriers, one of whom received an order to destroy the ship. True, it didn’t reach that, although the pilot was ready to use weapons. At this time, the assault aircraft dropped several bombs and damaged the steering on the "guard", he lay down in drift. It so happened that by this time the commander was released from custody, help him ordinary sailors, wounded Sablin, who was on the bridge, and took the ship’s control over himself.

It ended in the fact that Sablin and a few more people with him were put down, in my opinion, six officers and several midshipmen, but they were justified. By the way, this is completely not true when they published that everyone was sentenced to death. This is not true. Valery Sablin was sentenced to execution. The rest were released, with the exception of the sailor of Shein, who actively helped him. He received for 8 years.

Cheating to the Motherland in any country is punishable with any existing system, namely, this is so qualified. There is selfishness. People had to think about people. Thank God that this ship did not attack missiles. And if they attacked? How many people died. In my opinion, this is an officer suffering from greatness mania. By the way, rebellions in all fleets of the world have always been punished very cruelly. The rebellion on the warship is an unacceptable thing. This is by no means visible that the ship went to Leningrad. Representing the map of the Gulf of Riga, he should not follow the Irbensky Strait, but to go to the northeast, and he walked in the direction of the Swedish territorial waters. He, of course, was judged by the most stringent article.

I know people who personally knew Sablin. They were not his friends, but at different times they served with him. I can’t say that they spoke poorly about him, but spoke about a very ambitious person who had a career in the window and attract attention. He considered himself an extraordinary personality, and chose such a way to glorify his personality. Yes, I have never heard of anything like that.

In principle, if you want to fight the existing regime, then everything is very simple - hand over the weapon, take off the shoulder straps and start fighting. And if you swore, then what are you for a soldier!

Anna Kolchina: However, some believed and consider Sablin a hero. After the collapse of the USSR, Sablin and Shein were talked about the victims of the totalitarian regime. Law enforcement agencies took three times to revise their cases. In 1994, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court revised the case taking into account new circumstances. The article on treason was retrained in an article on military crimes, exceeding power, disobedience, resistance to the authorities, which was only 10 years of imprisonment. Latvian historian Oleg Pukhlyak tells.

Oleg Pukhlyak: Sablin, being a political worker, from the point of view of ideology did all this very competently. On that very night of the coup, when it was prepared, the film, which was twisted, was just the "battleship" Potemkin. The team was morally prepared. There is a film, Sablin informs the ship commander, the captain of the II rank that the hydroacoustics were struck, almost to the stabbing, the case reached, and this is just below the waterline. It turned out further than 15 officers and 14 midshipmen, who are informed that such events are being prepared.

The official version, which is then replicated, suggests that the officer and the Midmansk team did not support, but 165 sailors of 164 people supported. True, then, when the investigation was going on, an interesting thing happened. Then the majority abandoned their actions, recognized their errors. Nevertheless, 18 sailors during the investigation stood on the side of their political officer.