Red Mutiny (56 page)

[>]
 
At midnight, Kakhanov:
Inozemtsev, p. 82.

[>]
 
Kakhanov gave the order:
Hough,
Potemkin Mutiny,
pp. 77–80; Bogachev, p. 131; Inozemtsev, p. 95;
New York Daily Tribune,
June 30, 1905. In Richard Hough's history of the
Potemkin
mutiny, he provides the best description of the slaughter that occurred on the Richelieu Steps. But, as with Sergei Eisenstein's film, which made this scene famous, his book mistakenly situates this slaughter as taking place during the day. Although violence definitely occurred on the steps in the first stages of the riot as people tried to escape the port, the Cossacks and soldiers did not move in force until midnight, on Kakhanov's order.
In the city streets:
Bogachev, p. 129.

[>]
 
As the fires began:
Kovalenko, pp. 107–11.

[>]
 "
Listen, Matyushenko":
ibid., pp. 110–11; Feldmann, pp. 68–69.

[>]
 "
Fire! The city's on fire!":
Feldmann, pp. 70–73; Berezovsky, pp. 128–30; Ponomarev, pp. 102–3.
Gathered to avoid: Revolyutsionnyi bronenosets,
p. 15; Berezovsky, pp. 130–31; Gavrilov,
V borbe za svobodu,
p. 74.

[>]
 "
Whom will we be killing?":
Nevsky, p. 241.

CHAPTER 12

[>]
 
Feldmann and several
Potemkin
sailors:
Feldmann, pp. 74–77; Hough,
Potemkin Mutiny,
pp. 102–4.

[>]
 
Everywhere lay corpses:
ibid.;
Revolyutsionnyi bronenosets,
p. 34; Kardashev,
Burevestniki revolyutsii,
p. 24;
Chicago Daily Tribune,
July 25,
1905.
Feldmann and the others:
Feldmann, pp. 77–79.

[>]
 
While Feldmann and the sailors:
Nevsky, p. 264.

[>]
 "
We ask all Cossacks":
Grishin, p. 63.
Fewer than forty-eight hours:
Hough,
Potemkin Mutiny,
pp. 110–11.
"
Is it true":
Berezovsky, p. 138.

[>]
 
Then he recounted:
Kovalenko, pp. 125–27. According to Kovalenko, this idea of escaping to Romania was initiated in the stateroom where the officers were held, and then Ensign Alekseyev began speaking of it on June 16.
The two left:
ibid., p. 128; Berezovsky, p. 137. The two accounts of this conversation, and the time it took place, contradict each other, but the author has attempted to reconcile the differences to clarify the deep concern among the ship's leaders that support for the mutiny was in jeopardy.
Matyushenko dismissed any suggestion:
Kovalenko, p. 128.
Matyushenko had been busy:
Berezovsky, pp. 132–39; Ponomarev, pp. 104–5; Gavrilov,
V borbe za svobodu,
p. 77.

[>]
 "
He's still new":
Ponomarev, pp. 104–5.
"
They are the most rotten":
Berezovsky, pp. 134–35.
Matyushenko moved:
ibid.
Feldmann returned with:
Feldmann, p. 84.

[>]
 "
There's a big military conference":
Hough,
Potemkin Mutiny,
p. Ill; Feldmann, pp. 85–86. The author has drawn this conversation from Hough's account, but for one change: the time of the meeting. Hough stipulates that the military conference was to be held during the funeral, but this contradicts the timeline of when the
Potemkin
actually fired on the city.
That very morning:
Baylen, pp. 29–31, 49–50.
Before midnight on June 15:
Belomor, p. 172; Kardashev, "Novyye Svedeniya."
First, the transport ship:
TsGAVMF, f. 417, op. 1, d. 3023, p. 62.

[>]
 
Second, the squadron :
ibid., p. 53; Platonov, pp. 73–74; Gavrilov,
V borbe za svobodu,
p. 87.
Finally, reports had reached: New York Herald Tribune,
June 30, 1905;
Daily Telegraph,
June 30,1905; Saul, p. 25.
Infact, Chukhnin: Journal de St. Petersburg,
June 10–11, 1905.
"
Go to Sevastopol today":
Ponomarev, p. 103; Kardashev, "Novyye Svedeniya"; Gavrilov,
V borbe za svobodu,
p. 87. Whatever else was said at the meeting has been lost to history. None of the three recorded the details of their discussion in their diaries or correspondence, as if writing it down would remind them of this nadir in their lives. Yet the commands that followed reveal much.
When Chukhnin returned:
Kardashev, "Novyye Svedeniya"; Belomor, p. 173; Kardashev,
Burevestniki revolyutsii,
pp. 32–33; Romanov, N., June 16, 1905.
He also sent a message:
Kardashev, "Nesostoyavshayasya Kazn."

[>]
 
He was anxious:
Belomor, p. 174.
After his admirals left:
Gavrilov,
V borbe za svobodu,
p. 87.
Over the past sixteen hours:
Nevsky, pp. 363–66.
"
expended 1,510 bullets": 1905 god,
p. 220; Gavrilov,
V borbe za svobodu,
p. 72; TsGVIA, f. 400, op. 5, d. 31, p. 15.
In truth, the violence:
Bushnell,
Mutiny amid Repression,
p. 62; Ascher, p. 172.
The tsar had other concerns: Daily Telegraph,
June 29–30, 1905.
Chicago Daily Tribune,
June 29–30, 1905.
Trepov was cracking down:
Robbins, pp. 224–27; Surh, pp. 269–71.
Further, a conference:
Manning, p. 111.

[>]
 
And, finally, rumors: New York Herald Tribune,
June 30, 1905;
Daily Telegraph,
June 30, 1905. The author hesitated to include these rumors about mutiny in the army, but in almost every paper he read, they were repeated. Even if they were only such—rumors—Nicholas read foreign papers and would have been apprised of them, deepening his concern.
Prior to the Battle of Tsushima:
White, pp. 210–11; Esthus, pp. 26–35; Dennett, pp. 174–88.
On May 25:
Howe, pp. 156–62; "Letter from Roosevelt to Lodge, June 16, 1905," Morison, pp. 1221–32.
"
Russia is so corrupt":
Morison, pp. 1221–32.
In the two weeks:
"Letter from Roosevelt to George Meyer, June 19, 1905," ibid., pp. 1241–42.
Towering in height:
Essad-Bey, p. 94; Harcave,
Memoirs,
pp. 418–19; Harcave,
Count Sergei Witte,
pp. 142–43; Korostovetz, pp. 18–19.

[>]
 "
Only not Witte!":
Korostovetz, p. 11.
Instead the tsar chose:
White, p. 233; U.S. Department of State, pp. 814–15.
That afternoon, June 16:
Dillon, p. 229.
"
Fate of the Empire": Chicago Daily Tribune,
June 29, 1905.
"
Czar's Warship in": New York Times,
June 29, 1905.
"
There is always": Daily Telegraph,
June 29, 1905; Harrison, pp. 75–80.
The
Times
of London: Times,
June 29, 1905; Harrison, pp. 75–80.

[>]
 "
It had been hoped": Petit Journal,
as quoted in
Daily Telegraph,
June 30, 1905.
"
a flashlight revealing": Tageblatt,
as quoted in
New York Times,
July 1, 1905.
"
What is left for the autocracy": Nichi Nichi Shimbun,
as quoted in
Daily Telegraph,
July 1, 1905.
In the realm of finance: Daily Telegraph,
June 30, 1905;
New York Herald Tribune,
June 30, 1905.
"
It seems difficult": Parliamentary Debates,
p. 546.
The potential consequences:
Alzona, pp. 5–23; White, pp. 194–95; Lieven, pp. 92–93; Gwynn, pp. 469–70; Bulow, pp. 143–47.

[>]
 
The sultan of the Ottoman Empire:
Spector, I., p. 61.
"
preposterous little creature":
Dennett, p. 188.
Yet Roosevelt was a realist:
ibid., pp. 54–55.
The French ambassador:
Paleologue, pp. 258, 265.
Wilhelm II persistently urged:
Dugdale, p. 206.
British ambassador Charles Hardinge: British Reports,
report from Charles Hardinge, July 4, 1905 (FO 65/1701).
American ambassador Meyer:
Howe, pp. 173–75.
Sultan Abdul Hamid II:
Spector, I., p. 62.
"
Japan has had the luck":
Esthus, p. 56.

[>]
 
From his small Geneva apartment:
Service, p. 164; Valentinov, pp. 79–80, 146–47; Krupskaya, p. 120; Salisbury, pp. 138–39.
With his bald, egglike head:
Wolfe, p. 55; Fischer, L., p. 6; Valentinov, p. 13.
"
What is there for me":
Fischer, L., p. 17.
His first influences:
Payne,
The Life,
pp. 76–77.
Lenin also fell under the spell:
Figes, pp. 145–46; Fischer, L., p. 40.

[>]
 
In 1893, Lenin passed:
Fischer, L., pp. 18–35.
There he followed a road:
Payne,
The Life,
pp. 148–51.
In July 1903:
Figes, pp. 153–54; Wolfe, pp. 240–43.
"
Of such dough":
Trotsky,
My Life,
p. 163.
After the meeting:
Salisbury, pp. 142–43; Payne,
The Life,
pp. 176–78.
"
A military collapse":
Payne,
The Life,
p. 182.

[>]
 "
Squads must arm themselves":
Lenin,
Collected Works,
vol. 8, p. 237; Fischer, L., p. 44.
Lenin labored:
Wolfe, pp. 288–89; Salisbury, pp. 140–41; Lenin,
Collected Works,
vol. 8, pp. 144–47; ibid., vol. 34, pp. 296–300.
However, on the morning: La Tribune de Geneve,
June 29, 1905; Krupskaya, p. 110. The author has taken the liberty of selecting this newspaper as the one from which Lenin learned of the news. In his wife's recollections of Lenin's time in Geneva, she wrote, "We lived at one with all the Russian political emigrants in Geneva—from one number of the
Tribune
to the next." This was how Lenin learned of Bloody Sunday.

[>]
 
This was the beginning:
Lenin,
Collected Works,
vol. 8, pp. 560–73.
"
You'll leave for Odessa":
Vasilyev-Yuzhin, pp. 68–71; Fox, pp. 124–26; Prokhorov, p. 526; Keep,
The Rise,
p. 174. In places, this conversation between Lenin and Vasilyev-Yuzhin hints of Bolshevik revisionism, but the sources are clear that Lenin did in fact send Vasilyev-Yuzhin to Odessa. The author has eliminated a few of the more overreaching comments attributed to Lenin, including, most outrageously, the statement that once Vasilyev-Yuzhin commandeered the battleship, he was to send a torpedo boat to get Lenin, to bring him to Russia.

[>]
 
It was more than likely:
Bushnell,
Mutiny amid Repression,
pp. 58–62.

CHAPTER 13

[>]
 
An Orthodox priest led:
Gerasimov, pp. 130–31; Nevsky, p. 323; Berezovsky, pp. 140–44; Matyushenko, pp. 315–19;
Mew York Herald Tribune, June
30, 1905.
Matyushenko had come:
Matyushenko, p. 318.

[>]
 "
Keep moving":
Berezovsky, p. 141.
"
Long live freedom!":
ibid.; Ponomarev, p. 106.
Before the ceremony:
Matyushenko, pp. 315–18; Berezovsky, pp. 140–44.

[>]
 
With thousands of troops:
ibid.; TsGAVMF, f. 417, op. 1, d. 3023, p. 40;
Washington Post,
June 30, 1905.

[>]
 
When Kakhanov had authorized:
Inozemtsev, pp. 83–85.
If so, then ambushing the sailors:
ibid. In the long report that Kakhanov wrote about his actions during the
Potemkin
mutiny, he did not attribute to himself the plan to ambush the sailors on their return from the funeral. But given that, directly after the failed ambush, the
Potemkin
bombarded the city, one can imagine his hesitancy in accepting blame. The plot was obviously organized, and the author believes that the officers on the ground would not have risked the effort without Kakhanov's authorization. Therefore, the author has done his best to re-create the reasoning behind the ambush, particularly given the thoughts that Kakhanov was having during this time, as evidenced in his long report on the
Potemkin.
At 5:20
P.M.,
the battleship: Krasny arkhiv, St. George Mutiny,
p. 235; TsGAVMF, f. 920, op. 6, d. 428, p. 5.

[>]
 
given the unreliability:
Platonov, p. 75.
Vishnevetsky planned to send: Krasny arkhiv, St. George Mutiny,
p. 235; TsGAVMF, f. 920, op. 6, d. 428, p. 53.
on board the Twelve Apostles:
Pleskov, p. 19.
"
The question's whether":
ibid., p. 20.

[>]
 
Throughout the squadron:
TsGAVMF, f. 1025, op. 2, d. 37, p. 96.
"
I have no intention":
Platonov, p. 178.

[>]
 
On the
St. George: Gavrilov,
V borbe za svobodu,
p. 88.
late that afternoon:
Platonov, p. 101.

[>]
 
Although the sailor committee:
Feldmann, p. 87; Nevsky, p. 242.
"
Here, lads, a good man":
Feldmann, pp. 87–89; Berezovsky, p. 145.

[>]
 "
Stay, brothers! We must":
Feldmann, p. 90; Berezovsky, pp. 146–48; Nevsky, p. 241; Rostotskaya, p. 29.

[>]
 "
We will die together":
Berezovsky, p. 148.
"
Weigh anchor and get up steam":
Gavrilov,
V borbe za svobodu,
pp. 80–83; Feldmann, pp. 90–93; Hough,
Potemkin Mutiny,
pp. 116–19; Berezovsky, pp. 149–51; Kovalenko, pp. 131–52; Lychev, p. 69; Nevsky, p. 241; Platonov, pp. 69–71; Selivanov,
Matros Matyushenko,
pp. 20–23. The sources contradict one another as to the reason for and timing of the firing on the city. Some remark that the shelling began as the funeral party was still in the city, but this contradicts the viable account of Matyushenko, whose details of the funeral are vivid and clear. Since he gave the speech that inspired the crew to launch the attack—and he attended the funeral—the author believes the attack came afterward. More important, the sources give numerous reasons for the shelling: the ambush on the funeral party, Kakhanov's preventing the resupply of the ship, the slaughter on June 15, the military council meeting. The author weaves most of these reasons into the decision to shell Odessa.