Soviet frigate Storozhevoy

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A Krivak class frigate. The Storozhevoy would have looked identical in most respects to the vessel pictured here.
A Krivak class frigate. The Storozhevoy would have looked identical in most respects to the vessel pictured here.

Storozhevoy (Сторожевой, Storoževoj in Russian - meaning "Vigilant" - Soviet frigates were given adjective names) was a Soviet Navy 1135 Burevestnik class anti-submarine frigate (NATO reporting name Krivak). The ship was attached to the Soviet Baltic Fleet and based in Riga. It was involved in a mutiny in November 1975.

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[edit] Mutiny

The mutiny was led by the ship's political officer, Capt. 3rd rank Valery Sablin, who wished to protest the rampant corruption of the Brezhnev era. His aim was to seize the ship and steer it out of the Bay of Riga, to Leningrad, the Neva River, next to that symbol of the Revolution, Aurora, and broadcast a nationwide address to the people from there. In that address, he was going to say what many were saying privately: the revolution and motherland were in danger; the ruling authorities were up to their necks in corruption, demagoguery, graft, and lies, leading the country into an abyss; the lofty ideals of democracy had been discarded, and there was a pressing need to revive the Leninist principles of justice.

On the evening of November 9, 1975, Sablin locked the captain in his cabin and seized control of the ship. All of the ship's crew who did not wish to go along with the plan were given the option to lock themselves in their cabins to avoid being implicated.

When Leonid Brezhnev learned of the mutiny, he ordered Storozhevoy sunk, and many units of the Baltic Fleet began searching for her (to the great alarm of the Swedish Navy, who saw only numerous warships, ready for battle, heading toward them at high speed). However, several Naval units refused their orders since they meant they would kill their countrymen. Since they were not reliable, Brezhnev ordered the Soviet Air Force to attack. Storozhevoy was disabled, and boarded by Soviet Marines commandos. All the crew was arrested, but only Sablin and Alexander Shein, a 26-year-old seaman, were tried and convicted. Sablin was executed by firing squad, while Shein was sentenced to prison and was released after serving over 10 years there.

The mutiny was one of two incidents which inspired Tom Clancy to write The Hunt for Red October. The other incident was a 1961 defection, in which a Soviet Navy submarine captain, Jonas Pleškys, a Lithuanian by birth, sailed his vessel from Klaipėda to Gotland in Sweden, not the planned destination of Tallinn.

[edit] Aftermath

Storozhevoy continued in service until the late 1990s. The crew was changed completely and the ship made extensive visits to foreign ports. She was transferred to the Russian Pacific Fleet and was sold to India for scrap.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  • Braden, Nate (May 2006). "Reading the Signs of Threat Transformation". U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 132 (5): 58–60. ISSN 0041-798X. 
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