Free Red Mutiny by Neal Bascomb Page A

searches for illegal literature among his sailors, especially new recruits and those returning from overseas cruises, and to limit sailors' interaction with local workers. As long as he kept his sailors insulated from outside agitators, he was told, there would be no trouble. That sailors may have been open to radicalization as a direct result of their service conditions occurred neither to him nor to his superiors, nor did it inform their actions. Yet, try as Golikov might to eliminate this revolutionary influence, he discovered increasing amounts of literature, especially as the war in Japan began to go poorly. One seized pamphlet, tided "To All Sailors on Patrol," revealed the nature of the threat:
So to arms, comrades! We know you have them loaded. Turn against your oppressors, fire at your blood-thirsty commanders.... Show them you know how to die not as slaves in an unnecessary war, nor to protect the bloodstained throne of the tsar-executioner,
but for the freedom of your comrades, as true citizens. Down with autocracy! Long live the democratic public! Down with war!
    Deeply troubled over the gathering strength of revolutionaries in the fleet, the Naval Ministry appointed Vice Admiral Grigory Chukhnin in July 1904 to rescue Golikov and the other officers from these threats. An old campaigner, Chukhnin made marble look warm and malleable. Raised from the age of seven by the navy, he was strictly devoted to the tsar's motto: "Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality." A stern, decisive man with a wide-ranging knowledge of naval life and an exacting intelligence, he stood out as one of the tsar's best officers. Although he had recently reformed the Naval Cadet School, to great acclaim, he was passed over in favor of Rozhestvensky to lead the squadron heading to the Far East. Instead, the ministry chose him for the Black Sea Fleet.
    Chukhnin roared into Sevastopol with his own methods of rooting out the "revolutionary hooligans" and "illiterate sailors who blindly repeat words they can't possibly understand." His measures included additional and more frequent searches, the enlistment of spies, and the placement of undercover agents among the sailors. He demanded obedience to traditional naval discipline—no exceptions. He instructed Golikov and the other captains to put the men in their place, no matter how strenuous their efforts needed to be.
    Four months into this new regime, the Black Sea Fleet sailors went on a rampage at the naval base after being refused passes into the city. This was one of several new repressive measures, along with longer shifts and limited fraternization, that Chukhnin had instituted. After breaking down the gates while shouting "Beat them! Hurrah!" several hundred sailors turned their fury on the base, breaking windows, destroying furniture, and torching their barracks and the courthouse. Some officers shot blindly into the dark at the sailors; others simply hid in cellars until relief arrived. The onset of a thunderstorm dispersed most of the sailors; the arrival of a large police force several hours later dealt with the rest. The brief uprising was met with serious consequences. Thirty-six sailors were tried by court-martial, all but seven receiving sentences of hard labor or transfer to disciplinary battalions—despite Chukhnin's attempt to have several hanged. Those suspected of ties to radical organizations were transferred out
of their unit; those caught reading illegal pamphlets or participating in secret meetings faced court-martial, and if insufficient evidence was found to convict them, they simply remained in prison until Chukhnin ordered their release. Sevastopol soon ran out of jail cells, so Chukhnin petitioned St. Petersburg for money to build more prisons. He ordered each ship captain to keep a secret log of sailors suspected of revolutionary activity and to periodically deliver this list to him, so he could arrange for arrests.
    After Bloody Sunday, unrest in the fleet