The Battleship Potemkin
The pre-dreadnought-type warship began construction in 1898 at the Mykolaiv shipyard on the Black Sea and was commissioned six years later as Knyaz Potemkin Tavrichesky. It was named after the renowned 18th-century military leader, Prince Potemkin, a favorite of Empress Catherine the Great. The ship could hold a crew of 780 and featured technical innovations, including liquid-fuel engines and centrally controlled guns. Commissioned in 1904, Potemkin joined the Black Sea fleet. In June 1905, Odessa's workers, following a nationwide wave of strikes, called for a general strike. Mutiny on the ship began at dawn on June 27 when the sailors discovered that the borscht served to them was made with meat swarming with maggots. This incident, coupled with the aggressive conduct of the deputy commander, led the crew of Potemkin to refuse obedience. After a brief firefight, the mutineers seized control of the cruiser; seven officers, including the captain and First Mate Giliarovsky, as well as one sailor, Grigory Vakulinchuk, lost their lives in the struggle. The 700-strong crew established a 25-member committee, led by Afanasy Matyushenko, which decided to return the warship to the rebellious Odessa.
Potemkin, now sailing under the red flag, docked at Odessa late on the evening of June 27. Its arrival inspired the striking workers of Odessa, thousands of whom mourned Grigory Vakulinchuk, the fallen sailor, the next day. However, the authorities moved to quash the uprising, which was also supported by the city's residents, using brutal measures. On June 28 and 29, an estimated over a thousand people lost their lives in clashes, the most famous episode being the massacre at the Richelieu steps. On June 30, Potemkin's sailors faced another challenge when three warships appeared opposite the port, dispatched from Crimea to seize or, if necessary, sink the rebellious cruiser. Potemkin set sail under this threat, while the guns of the opposing fleet remained silent; in fact, the warship Saint George switched to the rebels' side. Eventually, the remaining fleet dispatched against Potemkin withdrew from Odessa without a fight.
On the morning of July 1, loyal officers regained control of Saint George, leading it back to shore. Meanwhile, sabotage left Potemkin disarmed, leaving escape as its only option. The mutineers sailed to Constanța, Romania, but failed to secure adequate supplies there, so they attempted their luck at the Crimean Peninsula. When Matyushenko and his followers could not obtain water or fuel there, they decided to return to Romania and requested political asylum from the Balkan state on July 7. The story of Potemkin's mutiny concluded on August 9, when the Romanians returned the warship to Tsar Nicholas II. Before the rebellious cruiser could rejoin the fleet, the Tsar ordered it renamed Panteleimon, though after the victory of the 1917 civil revolution, it regained its original name. Later, the ship entered the Red Army register under the name Borets za svobodu, or "Struggle for Freedom," and served until it was decommissioned in 1924.
As for the Potemkin sailors, their fates diverged widely after the mutiny, with some finding new lives in Argentina, others in Ireland. Matyushenko, for instance, returned to Russia in 1907, hoping in vain for the amnesty he had been falsely promised. Since the rebellion was quickly suppressed, the events beginning on June 27, 1905, might have remained a mere footnote in history. Still, after the Bolshevik takeover 12 years later, Potemkin's sailors were elevated to heroic status as forebears of the revolution. The mutineers gained international fame when Sergei Eisenstein adapted the story of The Battleship Potemkin for the silver screen in 1925—a work that, despite its propagandistic nature, became one of the era's most distinguished achievements in cinema.