| In the midst of the ball, during a break in the dancing, the senior officer of the Anadyr transport, Lieutenant Muravyov, who was dancing with the blue-eyed, blond beauty Baroness Krudener, sat and talked with his lady. At this time, the senior officer of the Irtysh transport, Lieutenant Schmidt, who was at the other end of the hall, came close to Muravyov and, without saying a word, slapped him in the face. Baroness Krüdener screamed and fainted; Several people from those sitting nearby rushed to her, and the lieutenants grappled in a deadly fight and, striking each other, fell to the floor, continuing to fight. From under them, as if from under fighting dogs, pieces of paper, candy, and cigarette butts flew. The picture was disgusting. Staff Captain Zenov was the first to rush to the fighting of the 178th Infantry Regiment; his example was followed by other officers who forcibly separated the fighting. They were immediately arrested and sent to the port. When they were led into the hallway, the large crystal glass windows of which looked out onto Kurgauz Avenue, where hundreds of cab drivers stood in line, then Lieut. Schmidt grabbed a heavy yellow chair and threw it at the glass. |
According to Rerberg, Schmidt staged this incident specifically to get kicked out of the service.
During the squadron's voyage, Schmidt was repeatedly subjected to penalties; at a parking lot in Port Said, at the entrance to the Suez Canal, Lieutenant Schmidt was decommissioned from the Irtysh “due to illness” and sent to Russia. Appointed commander of destroyer No. 253, based in Izmail to patrol the Danube.
At the beginning of the Revolution of 1905, he organized the “Union of Officers - Friends of the People” in Sevastopol, then participated in the creation of the “Odessa Society for Mutual Aid of Merchant Marine Sailors.” Conducting propaganda among sailors and officers, Schmidt called himself a non-party socialist.
On October 18 (31), Schmidt led a crowd of people surrounding the city prison, demanding the release of prisoners.
On October 20 (November 2), 1905, at the funeral of eight people who died during the riots, he made a speech that became known as the “Schmidt Oath”: “We swear that we will never cede to anyone a single inch of the human rights we have won.” On the same day, Schmidt was arrested. On November 7 (20), Schmidt was dismissed with the rank of captain 2nd rank.
On November 14 (27), he led a mutiny on the cruiser "Ochakov" and other ships Black Sea Fleet. The red flag was raised on the ship. Schmidt declared himself commander of the Black Sea Fleet, giving the signal: “I command the fleet. Schmidt." On the same day, he sent a telegram to Nicholas II: “The glorious Black Sea Fleet, sacredly remaining faithful to its people, demands from you, sovereign, the immediate convocation of the Constituent Assembly and no longer obeys your ministers. Fleet Commander P. Schmidt.”
The next day the revolt was suppressed.
Sentenced to death by a naval tribunal. Executed on March 6 (19), 1906 on Berezan Island. In addition to him, N. G. Antonenko (member of the revolutionary ship committee), driver A. Gladkov and senior battalion S. Chastnik were shot.
In May 1917, Schmidt was solemnly reburied at the Communard Cemetery in Sevastopol. Minister of War and Navy A.F. Kerensky, making a trip to Southwestern Front and having visited Sevastopol on May 17, he solemnly laid a wreath and the St. George's Cross on the coffin of Lieutenant Schmidt in the cathedral.
Peter Schmidt was the only officer of the Russian fleet who joined the revolution of 1905-1907, so his name was widely used by Soviet propaganda. His half-brother, hero of the defense of Port Arthur Vladimir Petrovich Schmidt, because of the shame that befell the family, changed his surname to Schmitt.
Named after him
- Shmidt street in Nizhny Tagil.
- Embankment in the city of Velikie Luki
- Street in Murmansk.
- Street and park in Berdyansk.
- Lieutenant Schmidt Street in Odessa.
- Shmidt street in Kazan
- Lieutenant Schmidt embankment in St. Petersburg.
- The Blagoveshchensky Bridge in St. Petersburg bore the name of "Lieutenant Schmidt" between August 14, 2007.
- Street in the city of Sevastopol.
- Kirovograd (Ukraine)
- Lieutenant Schmidt Street in the city of Samara.
- Lieutenant Schmidt Street in the city of Gatchina.
- Lieutenant Schmidt Boulevard in the city of Tver.
- Lieutenant Schmidt Street in the city of Yeysk.
- Plant named after Lieutenant Schmidt in Baku (Azerbaijan)
Lieutenant Schmidt in culture
- Konstantin Paustovsky - “Courage”.
- The poem "Lieutenant Schmidt" was written by Boris Pasternak.
- In the novel by Ilf and Petrov “The Golden Calf”, “thirty sons and four daughters of Lieutenant Schmidt” are mentioned - impostors and swindlers, “working” by mutual agreement in different regions of the USSR. Schmidt's real son is Eugene, who took part in the 1905 rebellion with his father, served in the White Army during the Civil War, and then emigrated abroad.
- In the film “We'll Live Until Monday,” the fate of P. P. Schmidt becomes the subject of discussion in a history lesson taught by one of the main characters of the film, teacher Ilya Semenovich Melnikov (Vyacheslav Tikhonov).
- One of the most famous KVN teams is called “Children of Lieutenant Schmidt”.
Notes
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
- Lieutenant P. P. Schmidt
- Leiter
See what “Lieutenant Schmidt” is in other dictionaries:
LIEUTENANT SCHMIDT- Military sailor, lieutenant of the Black Sea Fleet, leader of the uprising on the cruiser "Ochakov" during the Revolution of 1905–LEUTENA/NT SCHMIDT1907. Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt was born in 1867 into a family naval officer. Graduated from the Maritime School in St. Petersburg*,... ... Linguistic and regional dictionary
Lieutenant Schmidt (disambiguation)- Lieutenant Schmidt: Schmidt, Pyotr Petrovich, Russian naval officer and revolutionary figure. Lieutenant Schmidt icebreaker. Lieutenant Schmidt (yacht) ... Wikipedia
Lieutenant Schmidt (yacht)- This term has other meanings, see Lieutenant Schmidt (meanings). Yacht "Lieutenant Schmidt" (sp... Wikipedia
Yacht "Lieutenant Schmidt"- “Lieutenant Schmidt” is a historical sailing ship, yacht. It was built in 1910 in England according to the design of Alfred Milne. Sailing rig after construction of the tender. Before the October Revolution, the yacht bore the name “Mayana” and... ... Wikipedia
Lieutenant P. P. Schmidt
Schmidt, Peter- Lieutenant Schmidt Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt (Lieutenant Schmidt) (February 5 (February 17) 1867 (18670217) March 6 (March 19) 1906) one of the leaders of the Sevastopol uprising of 1905. Contents... Wikipedia
Schmidt, Petr Petrovich- Lieutenant Schmidt Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt (Lieutenant Schmidt) (February 5 (February 17) 1867 (18670217) March 6 (March 19) 1906) one of the leaders of the Sevastopol uprising of 1905. Contents... Wikipedia
Schmidt, Peter- Lieutenant Schmidt Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt (Lieutenant Schmidt) (February 5 (February 17) 1867 (18670217) March 6 (March 19) 1906) one of the leaders of the Sevastopol uprising of 1905. Contents... Wikipedia
Hostage of the Golden Calf
The expression “son of Lieutenant Schmidt” is firmly entrenched in the Russian language as a synonym for a swindler and swindler thanks to the novel “The Golden Calf” by Ilf and Petrov.
But today much less is known about the man whose sons were posed as cunning swindlers at the time the novel was written.
Glorified as a hero of the first Russian revolution, decades later Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt found himself somewhere on the periphery of the attention of historians, not to mention ordinary people.
Those who remember Schmidt differ radically in their assessments - for some he is an idealist who dreamed of creating a society of justice in Russia, for others he is a mentally unhealthy subject, pathologically deceitful, greedy for money, for high speeches hiding selfish aspirations.
As a rule, Schmidt's assessment depends on people's attitude to the revolutionary events in Russia as a whole. Those who consider the revolution a tragedy tend to have a negative attitude towards the lieutenant; those who believe the collapse of the monarchy is inevitable treat Schmidt as a hero.
Marriage for the purpose of re-education
Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt was born on February 5, 1867 in Odessa. Almost all the men of the Schmidt family devoted themselves to serving in the navy. The father and full namesake of the future revolutionary Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt rose to the rank of rear admiral and was the mayor of Berdyansk and the Berdyansk port. Uncle, Vladimir Petrovich Schmidt, held the rank of full admiral, was a holder of all Russian orders, and was the senior flagship of the Baltic Fleet.
Peter Schmidt graduated from the St. Petersburg Naval School in 1886, was promoted to midshipman and assigned to the Baltic Fleet. 
Among his colleagues, Peter Schmidt stood out for his eccentric thinking, diverse interests, and love of music and poetry. The young sailor was an idealist - he was disgusted by the harsh morals that reigned in the royal fleet at that time. The beatings of lower ranks and “stick” discipline seemed monstrous to Peter Schmidt. He himself quickly gained fame as a liberal in his relations with his subordinates.
But it’s not just the peculiarities of the service; the foundations seemed wrong and unfair to Schmidt Tsarist Russia generally. A naval officer was required to choose his life partner extremely carefully. And Schmidt fell in love literally on the street, with a young girl whose name was Dominika Pavlova. The problem was that the sailor's beloved turned out to be... a prostitute.
This didn't stop Schmidt. Perhaps his passion for Dostoevsky affected him, but he decided that he would marry Dominika and re-educate her.
Merchant Navy Captain
Peter Schmidt's father could not accept and understand his son's marriage, and soon died. Peter retired from service due to illness with the rank of lieutenant, went with his family on a trip to Europe, where he became interested in aeronautics, tried to earn money through demonstration flights, but in one of them he was injured upon landing and was forced to give up this hobby.
In 1892, he was reinstated in the navy, but his character and views led to constant conflicts with his conservative colleagues.
In 1889, when leaving service, Schmidt cited a “nervous illness.” Subsequently, with each new conflict, his opponents will hint at the officer’s mental problems.
In 1898, Peter Schmidt was again dismissed from the navy, but received the right to serve in the commercial fleet.
The period from 1898 to 1904 in his life was perhaps the happiest. Service on the ships of the Russian Society of Shipping and Trade (ROSiT) was difficult, but well paid, employers were satisfied with Schmidt’s professional skills, and there was no trace of the “stick” discipline that disgusted him.
However, in 1904, Peter Schmidt was again called up to serve as a naval reserve officer in connection with the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War.
Love in 40 minutes
The lieutenant was appointed senior officer on the coal transport Irtysh, assigned to the 2nd Pacific Squadron, which in December 1904 set out to catch up with the squadron with a load of coal and uniforms.
The 2nd Pacific Squadron was waiting tragic fate- it was defeated in the Battle of Tsushima. But Lieutenant Schmidt himself did not participate in Tsushima. In January 1905, in Port Said, he was discharged from the ship due to worsening kidney disease. Schmidt’s kidney problems began just after an injury received during his passion for aeronautics.
The lieutenant returns to his homeland, where the first volleys of the first Russian revolution are already thundering. Schmidt was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet and appointed commander of destroyer No. 253, based in Izmail
In July 1904, the lieutenant, without receiving permission from the command, went to Kerch to help his sister, who had serious family problems. Schmidt was traveling by train, stopping in Kyiv while passing through. There, at the Kiev Hippodrome, Peter met Zinaida Ivanovna Risberg. She soon turned out to be his companion on the Kyiv-Kerch train. We drove together for 40 minutes, talked for 40 minutes. And Schmidt, an idealist and romantic, fell in love. They began an affair in letters - this is what Vyacheslav Tikhonov’s hero recalls in the film “We’ll Live Until Monday.”
This romance took place against the backdrop of increasingly heated events that reached the main base of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. 
Oath over the grave
Peter Schmidt did not participate in any revolutionary committees, but enthusiastically greeted the Tsar’s manifesto of October 17, 1905, guaranteeing “the unshakable foundations of civil freedom on the basis of actual inviolability of the individual, freedom of conscience, speech, assembly and unions.”
The officer is delighted - his dreams of a new, more equitable structure of Russian society are beginning to come true. He finds himself in Sevastopol and participates in a rally at which he calls for the release of political prisoners languishing in a local prison.
The crowd goes to the prison and comes under fire from government troops. 8 people were killed, more than fifty were wounded.
Transport officers "Irtysh". In the center in the first row is Lieutenant P.P. Schmidt 
For Schmidt this comes as a deep shock. On the day of the funeral of the murdered, which resulted in a demonstration with the participation of 40 thousand people, Peter Schmidt makes a speech at the grave, which in just a couple of days makes him famous throughout Russia: “It is proper to say only prayers at the grave. But may the words of love and the holy oath that I want to pronounce here with you be like a prayer. The souls of the departed look at us and silently ask: “What will you do with this benefit, which we are deprived of forever? How will you use your freedom? Can you promise us that we are the last victims of tyranny? And we must calm the troubled souls of the departed, we must swear to them this. We swear to them that we will never give up a single inch of the human rights we have won. I swear! We swear to them that we will devote all our work, all our soul, our very life to preserving our freedom. I swear! We swear to them that we will devote all of our social work to the benefit of the poor working people. We swear to them that between us there will be neither a Jew, nor an Armenian, nor a Pole, nor a Tatar, but that from now on we will all be equal and free brothers of the great free Russia. We swear to them that we will carry their cause to the end and achieve universal suffrage. I swear!”
Leader of the rebellion
For this speech, Schmidt was immediately arrested. The authorities were not going to bring him to trial - they intended to resign the officer for his seditious speeches.
But at that moment an uprising had already actually begun in the city. The authorities tried their best to suppress discontent.
On the night of November 12, the first Sevastopol Council of Sailors, Soldiers and Workers' Deputies was elected. The next morning a general strike began. On the evening of November 13, a deputy commission, consisting of sailors and soldiers delegated from various branches of arms, including seven ships, came to Schmidt, who was released and awaiting resignation, with a request to lead the uprising.
Peter Schmidt was not ready for this role, however, having arrived on the cruiser "Ochakov", whose crew became the core of the rebels, he finds himself carried away by the mood of the sailors. And the lieutenant makes the main decision in his life - he becomes the military leader of the uprising.
On November 14, Schmidt declared himself commander of the Black Sea Fleet, giving the signal: “I command the fleet. Schmidt." On the same day, he sent a telegram to Nicholas II: “The glorious Black Sea Fleet, sacredly remaining faithful to its people, demands from you, sovereign, the immediate convocation of the Constituent Assembly and no longer obeys your ministers. Fleet Commander P. Schmidt.” His 16-year-old son Evgeniy, who participates in the uprising along with his father, also arrives on the ship to join his father.
The Ochakov team manages to free some of the previously arrested sailors from the battleship Potemkin. Meanwhile, the authorities are blocking the rebellious “Ochakov”, calling on the rebels to surrender.
On November 15, the red banner was raised over the Ochakov, and the revolutionary cruiser received its first and last Stand.
On other ships of the fleet, the rebels failed to take control of the situation. After an hour and a half battle, the uprising was suppressed, and Schmidt and its other leaders were arrested. 
From execution to honors
The trial of Pyotr Schmidt took place in Ochakov from February 7 to 18, 1906, behind closed doors. The lieutenant, who joined the rebel sailors, was accused of preparing a mutiny while on active duty. military service.
On February 20, 1906, Pyotr Schmidt, as well as three instigators of the uprising at Ochakov - Antonenko, Gladkov, Chastnik - were sentenced to death.
On March 6, 1906, the sentence was carried out on Berezan Island. Schmidt’s college classmate and childhood friend, Mikhail Stavraki, commanded the execution. Stavraki himself, 17 years later, already under Soviet power, found, tried and also shot.
After February Revolution the remains of Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt were reburied with military honors. The order for the reburial was given by the future Supreme Ruler of Russia, Admiral Alexander Kolchak. In May 1917, Minister of War and Navy Alexander Kerensky laid the officer's St. George's Cross on Schmidt's gravestone.
Schmidt's non-partisanship played into the hands of his posthumous fame. After the October Revolution he remained among the most revered heroes revolutionary movement, which, in fact, was the reason for the appearance of people posing as the sons of Lieutenant Schmidt.
Schmidt's real son fought in Wrangel's army
The only real son of Peter Schmidt, Evgeniy Schmidt, was released from prison in 1906 as a minor. After the February Revolution, Evgeny Schmidt submitted a petition to the Provisional Government for permission to add the word “Ochakovsky” to his surname. The young man explained that this desire was caused by the desire to preserve in his offspring the memory of the name and tragic death of his revolutionary father. In May 1917, such permission was given to the son of Lieutenant Schmidt.
Schmidt-Ochakovsky did not accept the October Revolution. Moreover, he fought in the White Army, in the shock units of Baron Wrangel, and left Russia after the final defeat of the White movement. He wandered around different countries; arrived in Czechoslovakia, where in 1926 he published the book “Lieutenant Schmidt. Memoirs of a Son,” full of disappointment in the ideals of the revolution. The book, however, was not a success. Among the emigration people, the son of Lieutenant Schmidt was not even treated with suspicion, he was simply not noticed. In 1930 he moved to Paris, and the last twenty years of his life were not marked by anything remarkable. He lived in poverty and died in Paris in December 1951.
The lieutenant's last lover, Zinaida Risberg, unlike his son, remained in Soviet Russia and even received a personal pension from the authorities. Based on the correspondence she saved with Peter Schmidt, several books were created, and even a film was made.
But the name of Lieutenant Schmidt was best preserved in history thanks to the satirical novel by Ilf and Petrov. Amazing irony of fate...
SCHMIDT PETER PETROVICH
Schmidt (Petr Petrovich) is a Russian politician. Born in 1867; studied at the naval school, served first in the navy, then in the commercial fleet; after the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, he joined Rozhestvensky’s squadron at the beginning of 1904, but on the way to the Far East he fell ill and had to return to Sevastopol. Here he was assigned to a destroyer. Conducting propaganda among sailors and officers, Sh. called himself a non-party socialist, condemned the Social Democrats for their insufficiently attentive attitude to the demands of the peasantry, and the Socialist Revolutionaries for terror, to which he had an absolutely negative attitude; stood for a constituent assembly elected by universal suffrage; defended a constitutional monarchy. On October 20, 1905, during the funeral in Sevastopol of civilians killed during a demonstration, he made a political speech that gave him wide popularity. On November 7, he received his resignation, but remained in Sevastopol. On November 8 - 10, strong fermentation began on the cruiser "Ochakov". The sailors of the cruiser negotiated with Sh., and when on November 13, 1905, fermentation broke out in a riot, Sh. found himself at its head. The battleship Panteleimon and several other ships moored to the mutinous cruiser. On November 14, Sh. turned to the Sovereign Emperor with a demand for a constituent assembly and a statement that the fleet had ceased to obey the ministers. The commander-in-chief of the Black Sea Fleet, Chukhnin, subjected the revolutionary ships to shelling with shrapnel. Sh. threatened to execute a captured officer for every executed or killed sailor, but did not fulfill this threat. According to the indictment of the court, Sh. responded to the fire with weak fire; according to other sources, they did not answer them at all. In any case, Sh., avoiding bloodshed, did nothing to defend his demands with an armed hand. On "Ochakov" a fire was started by cannonade; the surviving part of the crew began to escape on boats. Sh. was captured and brought before a naval court. At the trial, Sh. tried to mitigate the punishment for others, took all the blame upon himself, and expressed his complete readiness to be executed. Not a single defense witness was allowed to appear at the trial. Sh. and three sailors were sentenced to death and executed on March 6, 1906 on the island of Berezan (near the city of Ochakov). Excerpts from Sh.'s autobiography, written by him in prison, were published in Nasha Zhizn, 1906, February 11; indictment - in "Prava" 1906, ¦ 11. V. V-v.
Brief biographical encyclopedia. 2012
See also interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what SCHMIDT PETER PETROVICH is in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:
- SCHMIDT PETER PETROVICH
(1867-1906) retired lieutenant of the Black Sea Fleet, leader of the Sevastopol uprising of 1905. ... - SCHMIDT PETER PETROVICH in big Soviet encyclopedia, TSB:
Pyotr Petrovich, Russian revolutionary, democrat, one of the leaders of the Sevastopol uprising of 1905. Born in Odessa into a noble family... - SCHMIDT PETER PETROVICH
Russian politician. Genus. in 1867; studied at the naval school, served first in the navy, then in the commercial fleet; ... - SCHMIDT, PETER PETROVICH in the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedia:
? Russian politician. Genus. in 1867; studied at the naval school, served first in the navy, then in the commercial fleet... - SCHMIDT in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons:
MODEL 5 - 1. German automatic pistol of 6.35 mm caliber. 2. German gas or starting... - SCHMIDT in the Encyclopedia of Russian surnames, secrets of origin and meanings:
- SCHMIDT in the Encyclopedia of Surnames:
Among the people who glorified Russia is the name of Black Sea Fleet lieutenant Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt, the leader of the uprising on the cruiser Ochakov in 1905... - PETER in the Bible Dictionary:
, Apostle - Simon, son (descendant) of Jonah (John 1:42), a fisherman from Bethsaida (John 1:44), who lived with his wife and mother-in-law in Capernaum (Matthew 8:14). ... - SCHMIDT in 1000 biographies of famous people:
Otto Yulievich (1891-1956). Soviet scientist, specialist in mathematics and astronomy. He joined the party in 1918, worked as director of the State Publishing House from ... - PETROVICH in the Literary Encyclopedia:
Veljko is a prominent contemporary Serbian short story writer and poet. He took an active part in the national movement in Hungarian Serbia, edited a number of... - SCHMIDT
Otto Yulievich (1891-1956), public and statesman, scientist, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1935) and the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (1934). After 1917 one of... - SCHMIDT in the Pedagogical Encyclopedic Dictionary:
(Schmidt) Karl (1819-64), German educator. Supporter of the anthropological approach in pedagogy. He was a Protestant pastor. Since 1850, teacher of history and ancient languages; ... - SCHMIDT in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
(Schmidt) Arno (1914-79) German writer. In the novels ("Heart of Stone", 1956; science fiction - "Republic of Scientists", 1957) - a critical understanding of the problems of our time. ... - PETROVICH in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
(Petrovici) Emil (1899-1968) Romanian linguist. Works on dialectology, linguistic geography, history, onomastics, phonetics and phonology Romanian language and Slavic... - PETER in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
Old Russian architect of the 12th century. Builder of the St. George Cathedral of the Yuriev Monastery in Novgorod (started in ... - PETROVICH V Encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Euphron:
(Petrovics) is the real name of the Hungarian (Magyar) poet Petofi... - PETER SAINTS OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron:
1) St. martyr, suffered for his confession of faith at Lampsacus, during the Decius persecution, in 250; memory May 18; 2) St. ... - PETER in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron:
St. The Apostle is one of the most prominent disciples of I. Christ, who had a huge influence on the subsequent fate of Christianity. Originally from Galilee, fisherman... - PETER in the Modern Encyclopedic Dictionary:
- PETER in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
(? - 1326), Metropolitan of All Rus' (from 1308). He supported the Moscow princes in their struggle for the great reign of Vladimir. In 1324... - SCHMIDT
Yak. Iv. (Isaac Jacob) (1779-1847), orientalist, one of the founders of Mongolian studies, academician. Petersburg AN (1831). He was the first to introduce the study of Mongol. language And … - SCHMIDT in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
(Schmidt) Helmut (Helmut) (b. 1918), Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1974-82. In 1969-74 min. defense, agriculture and finance in the government of V. ... - SCHMIDT in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
Fed. Bogd. (1832-1908), geologist, paleontologist and botanist, academician. Petersburg AN (1874). Tr. according to the stratigraphy of the Silurian... - SCHMIDT in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
Sigurd Ottovich (b. 1922), historian, honored. activities Sciences of the RSFSR (1989), acad. RAO (1992), Doctor of History. sciences, prof. RSUH (since 1970). ... - SCHMIDT in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
Peter Yul. (1872-1949), zoologist, prof. Petersburg agricultural Institute, scientific secret. Pacific Faculty of the USSR Academy of Sciences (since 1930). Research ichthyofauna of the Pacific Ocean, ... - SCHMIDT in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
Peter Peter. (1867-1906), leader of the Sevastopol rebellion. 1905, retired lieutenant of the Black Sea Fleet. ... - SCHMIDT in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
Otto Yuhl. (1891-1956), scientist, state activist, one of the organizers of the development of the North. mor. ways, acad. (1935), vice-president. USSR Academy of Sciences (1939-42), academician. ... - SCHMIDT in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
Johannes (1843-1901), German. linguist, in. h.-k. Petersburg AN (1892). Tr. in the field of Indo-European. languages and compare. language-knowledge. Nominated (at the same time as... - SCHMIDT in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
Wilhelm Matheus (1883-1936), Austrian. geophysicist Tr. on turbulent mixing and heat exchange in the atmosphere and... - SCHMIDT in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
(Schmidt) Wilhelm (1868-1954), father, Austrian. ethnographer and linguist, one of the founders of the cultural-historical school, head of the Viennese school in ethnography. Had tried … - SCHMIDT in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
You. Vl. (1886-1938), polit. and state activist In 1918 secret. All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, in 1918-28 People's Commissar of Labor, in 1928-30 deputy. prev SNK... - SCHMIDT in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
(Schmidt) Arno (1914-79), German. writer. After 1949 he lived in Germany. In the novels ("Heart of Stone", 1956; science fiction "Republic of Scientists", 1957) - ... - PETROVICH in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
PETROVICH (Petrovici) Emil (1899-1968), rum. linguist. Tr. in dialectology, linguistics. geography, history, onomastics, phonetics and phonology of rum. language, in the area... - PETER in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
PETER "TSAREVICH", see Ileika Muromets... - PETER in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
PETER RARESH (Retru Rares), mold. ruler in 1527-38, 1541-46; pursued a policy of centralization and fought against the tour. yoke, supporter of rapprochement with... - PETER in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
PETER OF LOMBARD (Retrus Lombardus) (c. 1100-60), Christ. theologian and philosopher, rep. scholastics, Bishop of Paris (from 1159). Studied with P. Abelard... - PETER in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
PETER THE venerable (Petrus Venerabilis) (c. 1092-1156), Christ. scientist, writer and church member. figure, abbot of Cluny mon. (from 1122). Conducted reforms in... - PETER in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
PETER DAMIANI (Retrus Damiani) (c. 1007-1072), church. activist, theologian, cardinal (since 1057); formulated a position on philosophy as a handmaiden of theology. ... - PETER in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
"PETER THE GREAT", the first battleship grew. Navy; in service since 1877; the prototype grew. squadron battleships. From the beginning 20th century educational art ship, … - PETER in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
PETER OF AMIENS, Hermit (Petrus Eremita) (c. 1050-1115), French. monk, one of the leaders of the 1st crusade. After the capture of Jerusalem (1099) he returned... - PETER in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
PETER II PETROVICH NEGOS, see Njegos... - PETER in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
PETER I PETROVICH NEGOS (1747-1830), ruler of Montenegro from 1781. Achieved (1796) actual. independence of the country, published “The Lawyer” in 1798 (added to ... - PETER in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
PETER III Fedorovich (1728-62), grew up. Emperor (since 1761), German. Prince Karl Peter Ulrich, son of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp Karl Friedrich and Anna... - PETER in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
PETER II (1715-30), grew up. Emperor (from 1727), son of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich. In fact, A.D. ruled the state under him. Menshikov, then Dolgorukov. ...
November 15 is the next anniversary of the Sevastopol events of 1905, in which the well-known lieutenant Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt, glorified first by the liberals of those times and then by the Bolsheviks, participated.
Honestly, I didn’t like him at school either, when in history lessons we “got through” “THE FIRST RUSSIAN REVOLUTION OF 1095-1907,” I didn’t like him. With some sixth sense, I understood that this was not some kind of “hero of the revolution,” etc. And now, when, thanks to the Internet, so much diverse historical material has become available, this dislike has grown into specific hostility, mixed with pity for a mentally ill person and disgust as to a former officer of the Russian Navy, who stole money from sailors from the ship's cash register and ultimately betrayed his oath.
Reading about the events of those years, you are simply amazed - what idiots our enlightened history teachers did not push into our children’s minds as examples to follow! What kind of lies did these political leaders from education spread in the name of propaganda of Marxist-Leninist ideas.
In the cult film directed by Rostotsky “We'll Live Until Monday” (1968), the teacher, as soulfully and very talented as Vyacheslav Tikhonov can, told his students: “His (Schmidt’s) main gift is to feel other people’s suffering more acutely than one’s own. It is this gift that gives birth to rebels and poets.”
It is unlikely that I will be able to objectively, without political bias, express my point of view about this person, but I will try anyway.
Who is this man who, after his death, was turned into a revolutionary idol?
A Russian officer who betrayed his oath and military duty? Unhappy, entangled in absurdities personal life, sufferer, vain romantic, frantic adventurer? Or is he still a fighter for the freedom of oppressed humanity, the “Petrel of the Revolution”?
Who is he, Lieutenant of the Russian Navy P.P. Schmidt?
Let me start with the fact that Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt is a hereditary nobleman, all of his male relatives have been shipbuilders and naval commanders since Peter the Great’s time. His father is also Pyotr Petrovich, a rear admiral, a veteran of the defense of Sevastopol, who finished his service as head of the Berdyansk port. His uncle, his father’s brother, Vladimir Schmidt, was an even more successful naval officer, a full admiral, also participated in the defense of Sevastopol, commanded the Pacific squadron, was on the Admiralty Council, was a holder of almost all orders, and at the end of his career - a senator.
Almost according to Dostoevsky.
The educated and well-read young man dreamed of the sea from childhood and, to everyone’s delight, after graduating from the Berdyansk men’s gymnasium in 1880, he entered first the Naval Cadet Corps, and then the naval school in St. Petersburg. He was distinguished by great academic abilities, sang, played music and drew excellently. But along with these wonderful qualities, everyone noted his increased nervousness and excitability. In addition to everything, despite his German roots, which implied pedantry, hard work and a philosophical mindset, at school the young man’s thoughts were suddenly taken over not by Hegel and Goethe, but by the Russian anarchist Bakunin and the People’s Volunteer Lavrov (by the way, a demoted naval officer). However, the corps and school authorities turned a blind eye to the oddities of the cadet and then midshipman Schmidt, believing that over time everything would work out on its own: the harsh practice of ship service drove even more dangerous inclinations out of the naval “Fendriks”.
But in vain! The dreamy, intellectual nature of the young midshipman was densely mixed with the Narodnaya Volya ideas that were in the air, Tolstoyism, and utopian socialism. Apparently unable to cope with all this liberal-revolutionary nonsense of that time, plus family troubles - difficult relationships with his stepmother, internal loneliness - young Petrusha suddenly had several nervous attacks during his studies. This, in turn, caused the appointment of a psychiatric examination with subsequent very serious and unpleasant conclusions. But, thanks to my father’s connections, the matter was hushed up.
Ultimately, in 1886, Peter Schmidt graduated from college and entered the Baltic Fleet with the rank of midshipman, where on January 1, 1887 he was enlisted in the rifle team of the 8th Baltic Fleet Crew. But his conceit and extreme ambition caused him to be rejected by the officer team - and after 20 days (!) Schmidt was expelled due to illness with a six-month leave and transfer to the Black Sea Fleet.
Bonds of Hymen.
The service on the Black Sea did not go well either. This is due to his action, which not only really surprised everyone, but also caused a real shock among all the friends and people close to him around him. In the twenty-first year of his life, a nervously enthusiastic young man, thirsting for fame, exploits, reconstruction of the world and sacrifice in the name of high ideals... marries Domnikia Gavrilovna Pavlova, a professional street prostitute who had a “yellow ticket” instead of a passport. Probably for the purpose of her moral rebirth. However, then it was fashionable among liberal youth, having become friends with the “fallen”, to try to save her. Remember Kuprin's novel "The Pit". Twenty-year-old Schmidt met her in some restaurant in the capital. His memories on this topic are like some kind of ravings of a madman: “She was my age,” Pyotr Petrovich said many years later. - I felt sorry for her unbearably. And I decided to save. I went to the bank, I had 12 thousand there, took the money and gave it all to her. The next day, seeing how much spiritual rudeness there was in her, I realized: here you need to give not only money, but all of yourself. To get her out of the quagmire, I decided to get married...” “The Lost Soul,” however, bore little resemblance to the meek Sonya Marmeladova. Ignorant, illiterate, with petty-bourgeois demands and absolutely indifferent to the ideals of her husband, she was in no hurry to get out of the network of vice.
This marriage in literally words killed the father of Pyotr Petrovich: he cursed his son, and soon after that he died.
For the original midshipman himself, after marriage, the prospect of immediate and shameful expulsion from the fleet arose with the shameful wording “for actions contrary to officer honor.” But, despite the fact that there was murmur in the wardrooms, and many former acquaintances broke off relations with Schmidt, there was no reaction from the fleet command. They didn’t even demand an explanation from him, because behind midshipman Schmidt, the figure of his uncle, Vladimir Petrovich Schmidt, the senior flagship of the Baltic Fleet, rose like a mighty cliff. Actually, it’s hard to think of a greater punishment than he inflicted on himself: even revolutionary myth-makers, hushing up the details, certainly noted that “ family life things didn’t work out for Schmidt,” and the lieutenant’s wife was blamed for everything. Although, as in such cases, the Ukrainians say: “Bachili ochi scho kupuvali.”
Be that as it may, Domnikia Gavrilovna Pavlova, having become the wife of Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt, gave birth to a son a year after the wedding, who was named Evgeniy.
This is what he writes about his mother in his memoirs: “My mother was so terrible that one has to marvel at the inhuman patience and, truly, angelic kindness of my father, who bore on his shoulders the 17-year hard labor yoke of family hell.”
Is this the main reason for deep disappointment in life, mental breakdown, and, in essence, the collapse of Schmidt’s personality? Sex therapists and psychotherapists could answer this question. At the very least, it cannot be denied that heartache on the verge of mental illness can sometimes push one to the most unbridled actions.
Soon after this joyful event, the lieutenant again did something big. Having come to see the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Kulagin, he threw a real hysteria in his office - “being in an extremely excited state, he said the most absurd things.” Straight from headquarters, the midshipman was taken to a naval hospital, where he was kept for two weeks, and upon discharge, the doctors strongly advised Pyotr Petrovich to see a good psychiatrist. But the unpleasant matter was again hushed up, and, taking a year’s leave “to improve his health,” Schmidt went to Moscow, where he went to the clinic of Dr. Mogilevich. However, after undergoing a course of treatment, he was still forced to submit a letter of resignation. His illness was expressed in unexpected attacks of irritability, turning into rage, followed by hysteria with convulsions and rolling on the floor. This spectacle was so terrible that little Evgeny, who once became an involuntary witness to his father’s sudden attack, was so frightened that he remained a stutterer for the rest of his life.
Pacific squadron.
Fortunately, his grandfather left him some inheritance, and his grandson went to Paris, then to Italy. The inheritance, as usually happens, was quickly squandered, and as a result he ended up working as a clerk in a commercial bank. For such an excited and sublime nature as P.P. Schmidt was very bored, and he asked to return to military service.
His uncle's patronage helped and he was accepted again.
Schmidt served for some time in St. Petersburg, and again acquired a reputation as a quarrelsome, quarrelsome, and undisciplined officer. An influential uncle again came to the rescue, having achieved the transfer of his nephew to a hydrographic vessel of the Pacific squadron. The “heroic relative” naively believed that the everyday life of naval service in Far East will change the nephew’s character and his attitude towards life.
The family went to pick him up, but this only made things worse for Pyotr Petrovich. His wife considered all his reasoning and teachings to be foolishness, did not give a damn about him and openly cheated on him. In addition, Pyotr Petrovich had to take care of the housekeeping and raising his son, since Domnikia was lukewarm about household duties. Service on the Pacific squadron lasted five years. And there, as before in the Baltic, Peter Schmidt showed himself to be an extremely quarrelsome officer; he never stayed on a single ship for more than two months. He even managed to come into conflict with Rear Admiral Grigory Chukhnin (it was this admiral who would order the arrest of the rebellious lieutenant in 1905). Whether the hardships of naval service, family troubles, or all together had a depressing effect on Schmidt’s psyche, but after some time he experienced an exacerbation of his nervous illness, which overtook the midshipman during an overseas campaign. He ended up in the naval hospital of the Japanese port of Nagasaki, where he was examined by a council of squadron doctors. The attack was so strong that he was taken under escort to Vladivostok and locked up in a psychiatric hospital. On the recommendation of the council, Schmidt was transferred to the reserve.
It was 1897...
Past Tsushima
But the omnipresent and all-powerful relative again hushed up the incident with the “psychiatric hospital” and ensured that Schmidt was fired without publicity. He got him a quiet and profitable job in the commercial Volunteer Fleet, and from there transferred him to the Shipping and Trade Society. Schmidt became for a short time the captain of the steamship Igor, and then the captain of the steamship Diana, which transported goods across the Black Sea. His wife remained with him, but the family actually fell apart: Domnikia was followed by a trail of scandalous rumors, and Pyotr Petrovich, escaping from them, was almost never at home, spending most of the year sailing and constantly living in the captain’s cabin on the Diana.
Nevertheless, his life seemed relatively settled: troubles remained on the shore and seemed distant, almost unreal. The real thing was the sea, the ship on which he was captain, worries about the crew, course, speed, condition of the machines, weather - in a word, everything he had dreamed about since childhood, what he loved and what he knew how to do. During this time, Schmidt improved his health, increased his authority, improved his financial situation and, quite likely, would have become a successful, prosperous member of society, but... this happiness was taken away from him when the Great Patriotic War struck in 1904. Russo-Japanese War and he was called up from the reserves for active naval service.
Here, of course, the naval doctors screwed up by declaring a not very healthy person fit for service in the navy. They can only be justified by the severe need to make up for the losses suffered by the naval officer corps at the very beginning of the war in the Far East.
For the third time, Schmidt, who was then almost forty years old, returned to the fleet, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and again sent to the Baltic. He was appointed senior officer of the Irtysh coal transport, which was preparing to move to the Pacific theater of operations as part of the squadron of Admiral Z. Rozhestvensky.
Transport officers "Irtysh". P.P. Schmidt in the front row in the center.
It is very difficult: having been the captain, the absolute owner of the ship and crew, to again become subordinate to someone else. And the position of “ship dragon” was not at all for Pyotr Petrovich. The responsibilities of the senior officer of a warship include maintaining strict discipline, and the lieutenant did not want to “tighten the screws”: on the Diana, he easily smoked with the sailors, read books to them, and they called him “Petro.”
The captain of the Irtysh believed that the senior liberal officer was ruining discipline on the ship, and dreamed of getting rid of this eccentric who had fallen on his head before a long ocean voyage. An accident that occurred during the Irtysh's departure to sea added fuel to the fire - when leaving Revel, the ship hit pitfalls - it happened during Schmidt's watch. And although his actions in a difficult situation actually saved the ship, according to the old naval tradition, the watch officer was made “extreme”. Based on the captain's report, the squadron commander placed the lieutenant under arrest.
You can find any number of reasons for punishing the senior officer, because he is responsible for everything on the ship at once, and therefore penalties fell on the head of the unfortunate Pyotr Petrovich, as if from a nightmarish cornucopia. His psyche once again could not stand it and it ended with the fact that at the parking lot in Port Said, at the entrance to the Suez Canal, Lieutenant Schmidt was written off from the Irtysh “due to illness.”
In the personal cards of English and Russian military sailors there was a column: “lucky”. Can we call it bad luck what happened to Lieutenant Schmidt, who distinguished himself with a rare “unsinkability” such as, perhaps, never known in the history of navies? The officer is written off to the reserve several times and each time reinstated into service again and again.
The Irtysh transport in the spring of 1905, having passed through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea, caught up with the squadron in Indian Ocean, took part in the Battle of Tsushima, was blown up and sank. The surviving members of the team were captured by the Japanese. But... without the “lucky” lieutenant.
At that time he was in a hospital in Port Said with a certain “chronic illness”. Anything can be assumed about the mysterious decommissioning of Peter Schmidt shortly before the sinking of the ship. Whether this was due to the already mentioned mental syndrome, a tropical disease, or again my uncle tried... but the fact remains that by the will of fate he avoided death in the Tsushima battle, in which most of his ill-wishers perished.
The lieutenant’s naval “luck” seemed to preserve him for the time being for “some great mission.” Schmidt returned to Russia and was sent to the Black Sea Fleet to continue his service.
Hot autumn of 1905.
The Black Sea Fleet was then in a fever with the undying echoes of the epic on the battleship Potemkin. The excitement of the crews of other ships was constantly evident. Rear Admiral Chukhnin, probably not without taking into account the influence of his uncle, appointed an over-aged (39-year-old!) lieutenant as commander of a detachment of two small destroyers based in Izmail. And so, an officer, already written off three times due to mental illness, and three times reinstated, with a promotion in position and rank, guards the Danube from the Turks at the head of two small destroyers with a total number of subordinates of no more than twenty people...
Then the order was such that the commander managed all purchases and he had all the funds. And food for the crew of this destroyer cost one hundred rubles a month. And now Schmidt commits a double crime. Firstly, he, the commander, in war time leaves his ship and goes on unauthorized absence. And secondly, he steals all the destroyer’s cash - two and a half thousand rubles, a huge amount of money at that time. It is unknown where this money went. There is an assumption that Schmidt lost them in Kyiv on the races. Perhaps he decided to improve his condition. As usual in such cases, I thought that I would take this money, go to the races, win a million, return - and no one would notice.
But there is another version. 
He didn’t bring the money to the Kyiv races, because on the train the lieutenant met a pretty young woman, Zinaida Risberg. The meeting had a huge impression on him, the aging lieutenant fell in love. With your head! Head over heels! After the breakup, correspondence began. Back then people still wrote letters and even found some pleasure in it. The correspondence with his beloved lasted only three and a half months, but was regular and frank. Apparently, dreaming of happiness, “lucky” Schmidt lost (or had his money stolen from him). Or maybe even worse, he squandered everything on his new passion... Soviet historians diligently avoided this fact of Schmidt’s biography.
After some time he was detained and an investigation began. Documents opened these days show, like any person inexperienced in such matters, he awkwardly lied and made excuses, but no matter how much he dodged, he still admitted to embezzlement and desertion.
Here is such a “specialist in the suffering of others”!
This time he was no longer threatened with the “yellow house”, but with hard labor.
By the way, in Soviet time, in the 70s, the correspondence between Zinaida Risberg and Lieutenant Schmidt formed the basis of the film “Post Romance,” starring Alexander Parra. I watched this movie as a kid and liked it. But I don’t remember what they talked about there, although I know for sure that not a single word was said about the missing sailor’s cash register.
The party authorities, not knowing then how to buy young people, relied on romanticism. Even a term appeared - “romance of the revolution.” A play about Schmidt appeared, enthusiastic books appeared... Yes, a lot of things appeared then... standard Pompolitan oil.
In general, he is removed from office and put on trial. Moreover, this is a terrible shame: he stole from his sailors...
When I was collecting material for this article, I was incredibly surprised by the almighty and all-powerful uncle, Vladimir Petrovich Schmidt. What kind of patience you had to have in order to take the most active part in the fate of your unlucky nephew so many times. And this, for the umpteenth time, having by that time become a senator, my uncle helped out and stood up for his Petrusha. He personally contributed the amount squandered by his nephew and pressed all possible levers, ensuring that the idiot was quietly fired from the fleet, without publicizing the reasons.
For the fourth time!
So Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt in the fall of 1905 found himself without specific occupations and special prospects in Sevastopol. This happened just on the eve of the revolutionary events, when a sailor’s “fuss” was brewing in the coastal barracks and on ships. After the publication of the Tsar’s Manifesto on the granting of freedoms on October 17, 1905, the lower ranks demanded clarification, but they were told that the granted freedoms did not apply to them. At the entrance to the Sevastopol seaside boulevard there was still a shameful sign: “Entry with dogs and lower ranks is prohibited”; the transfer to the reserve of those who served their terms was delayed; With the end of the war, the families of those called up from the reserves stopped receiving benefits, and the breadwinners were still not allowed to go home, and every letter from home had a stronger effect on the servicemen than any revolutionary proclamation. All this escalated the situation to the extreme both in the city and on the courts, and the authorities, true to the precepts of antiquity, sought to “hold and not let go,” which led to the first clashes and casualties.
To "Ochakov"!
In October 1905, the newly retired Schmidt plunged headlong into the revolutionary struggle. He dreams of devoting himself entirely to political activity. This is his choice and the last chance for self-realization.
Perhaps an unrequited feeling pushed the restless lieutenant to this, by all measures, insane attempt at self-affirmation. It was probably this same desire to somehow distinguish himself that pushed him into the abyss of revolutionary rebellion. Let's leave these questions to psychoanalysts.
“Sailors are waiting for me in Odessa, who cannot unite without me, they have no the right person", Schmidt wrote to one of his associates. He was already taking on the role of leader of the flaring uprising, “trying on Robespierre’s frock coat.”
Schmidt was not a member of any party. He generally avoided “herding,” because he considered himself an extraordinary person, for whom all parties were too small. But when political events began to boil in Sevastopol, he, embittered by the “injustices,” joined the opposition and became very active. Being a good speaker, Pyotr Petrovich participates in anti-government rallies. The strange figure of the thin officer attracted the attention of the public, and this strangeness seemed to many to be some kind of special originality of the leader and fanatical martyr of the idea. On October 19, 1905, he was elected to the Council of People's Deputies of Sevastopol. At a rally on October 25, 1905, in the ecstasy of denunciations, calls and demands for punishment of those responsible for the shooting of a peaceful demonstration, in front of the crowd, Schmidt suddenly suffered a mental attack, but the crowd mistook the manifestation of mental pathology for a revolutionary obsession. However, this circumstance did not bother the gendarmes and he was taken into custody for the harshness, energy and radicalism of his speeches. From under arrest, the frantic recluse sends messages to newspapers, arousing public indignation. Surprisingly, under pressure from the “democratic public,” Schmidt was released from prison. They were released on bail and on my word of honor to leave Sevastopol immediately! Oh, how cruel the tsarist regime was!
And here there is no more uncle’s merit, other levers have come into play.
These speeches and his time in the guardhouse created his reputation as a revolutionary and sufferer.
“Ochakov” was the newest cruiser and spent a long time being “fine-tuned” at the factory. The team assembled from different crews, closely communicating with the workers and the agitators of revolutionary parties dissolved among them, turned out to be thoroughly propagandized, and among the sailors there were their own influential persons, who actually initiated, if not a rebellion, then at least demonstrative insubordination. This sailor elite - several conductors and senior sailors - understood that they could not do without an officer. Schmidt just happened to be “in the right place at the right time”! He was the only officer navy(albeit a former one), who took the side of the so-called revolution, and therefore it was to him that the deputation of the crew of the cruiser "Ochakov", heading to a meeting of representatives of teams and crews, turned to him. At spontaneous rallies of the lower ranks, it was decided at this meeting to formulate them General requirements to the authorities, and the sailors wanted to consult with the “revolutionary officer.”
They came to his apartment. Schmidt shook hands with everyone and sat them down at the table in the living room: all these were signs of unprecedented democracy in relations between officers and sailors. Having familiarized himself with the demands of the Ochakovites, Pyotr Petrovich advised them not to waste their time on trifles (the sailors wanted to achieve improved living conditions, conditions of service, increased payments, etc.). He recommended that they put forward political demands - then they would be listened to seriously, and there would be something to “bargain” about in negotiations with the authorities.
Completely enchanted by the reception, the sailor-deputies left for their meeting, and Schmidt began to hastily get ready. 
He sews himself the uniform of a captain of the second rank, and in all subsequent events he appears in the shoulder straps of a captain of the second rank. In principle, he was automatically entitled to this rank when he was transferred to the reserve in the usual manner, but under the circumstances under which he was dismissed, his right to wear a tunic was very doubtful.
Schmidt is completely intoxicated with himself. He is confident that he has a huge future ahead of him. He is in a hurry to go to Moscow. He needs to be near Miliukov, the leader of the party of constitutional democrats. Schmidt is confident that he will be elected to the State Duma and he will speak from its rostrum...
It is in this ecstasy that Schmidt finds himself on board the cruiser Ochakov. Moreover, completely by accident! He probably didn’t even understand how!
There was a general strike then and the trains didn't run. Schmidt hires a cab driver on a skiff and sails to a ship that will take him to Odessa. Firstly, “sailors who cannot unite without him(!)” are waiting for him there, and secondly, let me remind you, he has a subscription to the gendarmerie and “an officer’s word of honor” with an obligation to leave Sevastopol. Schmidt sails past the cruiser "Ochakov" and accidentally accosts it. Apparently, a recent meeting at his apartment with a deputation from this cruiser surfaced in the revolutionary’s fevered brain. He recalled that representatives of the crew who came to him said that after the sailors began to sabotage the execution of orders, the commander and officers left the ship in full force. 
After all, a cruiser is huge fighting machine, the management of which requires specialists; without them, the Ochakov would not even be able to be taken out of the bay. Unlike the Ochakov, the battleship Potemkin was captured at sea, already underway, but even there, after shooting at the officers, the rebels left two behind, forcing them to control the ship. It was not possible to repeat this on the Ochakov - the officers managed to move ashore, and the team found themselves in a deadlock. In addition, “Ochakov” had just returned from a training trip and without the supply of fuel, food and water, in a few days it would have turned into a metal colossus with cold boilers, inoperative instruments and mechanisms.
Therefore, Schmidt acted for sure. Climbing aboard the Ochakov, he gathered the crew on the quarterdeck and announced that, at the request of the general meeting of deputies, he had assumed command not only of the cruiser but of the entire Black Sea Fleet(!), which he ordered to immediately notify the Emperor by urgent telegram, which was exactly what happened done right away.
He signed the telegram as follows: “Fleet Commander Schmidt.”(!)
The calendar showed November 14, 1905.
Then he continued to selflessly either lie or dream. Crazy people sometimes have a hard time understanding what they mean. He said that on the shore, in the fortress and among the workers, “his people” were just waiting for the signal to begin an armed uprising. According to Schmidt, the capture of Sevastopol with its arsenals and warehouses was only the first step, after which it was necessary to go to Perekop and build artillery batteries there, block the road to Crimea with them and thereby separate the peninsula from Russia. Next, he intended to move the entire fleet to Odessa, land troops and take power in Odessa, Nikolaev and Kherson. As a result, the “South Russian socialist republic", at the head of which Schmidt saw himself.
The sailor leaders could not resist, and after them the whole crew followed Schmidt, as the peasants had previously followed the schismatic “apostles” who had come from out of nowhere, broadcasting that in a dream vision a place had been revealed to them where happiness and general prosperity awaited everyone.
Initially, he was successful: Schmidt’s superiors recognized the crews of two more destroyers, on his orders, port tugs were captured, and armed groups of sailors from the Ochakov drove around the squadron ships anchored in the Sevastopol Bay, landing boarding teams on them. Taking the officers by surprise, the rebels captured them and took them to Ochakov. Having thus gathered more than a hundred officers on board the cruiser, Schmidt declared them hostages, whom he threatened to hang, starting with the most senior in rank, if the command of the fleet and the Sevastopol fortress took hostile actions against the rebels. The lieutenant promised the same thing if his demands were not fulfilled: he wanted the Cossack units to be withdrawn from Sevastopol and the Crimea in general, as well as those army units that remained faithful to the oath.
He protected himself from a possible attack from the shore by placing the Bug minelayer with a full load of sea mines between the Ochakov and the coastal batteries - any hit on this huge floating bomb would have caused a disaster. The force of the explosion would have demolished the part of the city adjacent to the sea.
But by the morning of November 15, luck had turned away from him.
None of the battleships, except the Potemkin, disarmed and renamed"Panteleimon" did not join the rebellion.
The fleet did not rebel, there was no help from the shore, and the crew of the minelayer "Bug" opened the seams and sank the ship with dangerous cargo, leaving the "Ochakov" under the guns of the coastal guns. Schmidt threatened to open fire on barges with fuel standing on the pier in order to plunge the whole of Sevastopol into a terrible fire. But I didn’t have time. The gunboat "Terets", commanded by Schmidt's childhood friend and his college classmate, captain of the second rank Stavraki, intercepted and sent to the bottom several tugboats with the Ochakovo landing force.
In response, the cruiser opened fire on the city, but received a barrage of fire in response and, after eight hits, caught fire. In the current situation, as an honest man and officer, Schmidt should have remained until the end on board the cruiser with the sailors whom he provoked into mutiny and shared their fate. Moreover, at all rallies, Schmidt shouted that he dreamed of dying for freedom. However, even before the shelling began, on his orders, a destroyer with a full supply of coal and water was prepared at the side of the Ochakov. After the fire started, a white flag was raised on the cruiser and Schmidt and his sixteen-year-old son, taking advantage of the general confusion, were the first - and this is documented - to leave the ship. They jumped into the water and swam to the destroyer.
Schmidt hoped to break through to Turkey on the destroyer, but the ship was damaged by artillery fire from the battleship Rostislav and intercepted.
During the inspection of the ship, Schmidt was not found, but he was later discovered under metal decking. Dressed in a dirty sailor's robe, the would-be “red admiral” tried to pass himself off as an oblivious fireman.
Epilogue.
More than forty people were put on trial in the case of the riot on the cruiser Ochakov.
And here, for the first time in the history of Russia, the great power of the liberal press appeared. Schmidt was declared a hero. The only hero! The liberal press did not mention anyone else. At best they said: “Schmidt and the sailors.” The Cadet Party bought five of the best lawyers in Russia, the biggest names. They only defended Schmidt. They said: the trial was wrong and so on... Ten people were acquitted. Some were sentenced to short prison terms, while others were sent to hard labor. Four people were sentenced to death. The sentence against Schmidt was worded as follows: he “used the rebel force to achieve his personal goals.”
During the investigation, Prime Minister Sergei Witte reported to Nicholas II: “They tell me from all sides that Lieutenant Schmidt, sentenced to death, is a mentally ill person and his criminal actions can only be explained by his illness. All statements are made to me with a request to report this to Your Imperial Majesty.” The emperor’s resolution has been preserved: “I have not the slightest doubt that if Schmidt had been mentally ill, this would have been established by a forensic examination.” But not a single psychiatrist agreed(!) to go to Ochakov to examine Schmidt. The cadets objected: “How is it - our hero and suddenly crazy! No, it’s better that they shoot him!” And the examination did not take place.
Schmidt with several accomplices - non-commissioned officers Chastnik, Gladkov, Antonenko - was shot on March 6, 1906 on Berezan Island. The execution was commanded by the lieutenant's classmate in the Naval Corps, commander of the gunboat Terets, captain 2nd rank Mikhail Stavraki.
By the way, during the process the publishers made enormous profits by printing and selling postcards with portraits of Schmidt in monstrous quantities. He is this, he is that, he is in a white jacket, he is in a black jacket... Schmidt, as we would say now, became the brand of the 1905 revolution.
Soon the trials of the remaining participants in the Sevastopol armed rebellion took place. In addition to the Ochakovites, 180 sailors, 127 soldiers of the engineer company, 25 soldiers of the Brest Regiment, 2 soldiers of the 49th reserve battalion, 5 artillery soldiers and 11 civilians passed through them.
The verdict, and especially its execution, caused a lot of noise. Schmidt's case was covered in the American and European press.
More surprising than others is the collective message of 28 officers of the Turkish army and navy regarding the execution on the island of Berezan to the St. Petersburg newspapers “Rus” and “Put”: “An unheard-of crime has been committed - the valiant lieutenant Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt has been executed... We, the undersigned army officers, are full of indignation and the fleet of the Ottoman Empire, gathered in the amount of 28 people... In our hearts, Lieutenant Schmidt will always remain a great fighter and sufferer for human rights. He will be a teacher to our offspring... Together with the Russian people, we join our cry “Down with the death penalty!” "Long live civil liberty!"
For once, such humanistic impulses awoke among Turkish officers. (I wonder where they went during the Armenian genocide in 1915 and 1918. And whether this passage was dictated by disappointment from the unsuccessful separatist attack, leading to the collapse of the Black Sea Fleet, so hated by the Ottomans, and separation from Russia former territories Ports. A mystery... but also a frankly unceremonious invasion into the internal affairs of a foreign state.)
The liberal press of Russia, as is customary, condemned the cruelty of the authorities, declaring Schmidt the conscience of the nation and the petrel of the revolution.
Soon after Schmidt's execution, the terrorist Socialist Revolutionaries killed Admiral Chukhnin. He was buried in the Sevastopol Vladimir Cathedral, the tomb of famous Russian naval commanders.
In the same cathedral in 1909, the ashes of Admiral and Senator Vladimir Schmidt, who never recovered from the “surprises” of his nephew, rested.
His half-brother, an ardent monarchist, hero of the defense of Port Arthur, Vladimir Petrovich Schmidt, because of the shame that befell the family, changed his surname to ShmiTT. In the disintegrated after the October revolution Civil War fought on the side of the White Army and emigrated in the end. His further fate is unknown to public history.
Then the events of the fifth year were forgotten - there were too many others in Russia. The great and terrible war. But someone else's posthumous fame is the currency of politicians. In April 1917, Kerensky, speaking in Sevastopol, solemnly announced that Lieutenant Schmidt was the pride and glory of the Russian Revolution and the Black Sea Fleet. Schmidt and those shot with him on the island of Berezan were solemnly dug up, placed in silver coffins and taken, like Orthodox relics, to the cities of Russia. 
And then they buried him in Sevastopol.
Then she came new government, Bolshevik. And Schmidt was a lone hero, a proud revolutionary... These are exactly the kind of people Comrade Trotsky loved. And the new wave of Schmidt’s fame is thanks to Trotsky. When Trotsky became People's Commissar for Military Affairs, that is, the head of the army and navy, he ordered that Schmidt be raised on the shield. And since he was the only revolutionary naval officer-hero, then, for the edification of all naval officers, the Neva embankment near the Naval Cadet Corps and the bridge, which bore the name of Tsar Nikolai Pavlovich, were renamed the embankment and bridge of Lieutenant Schmidt. This was the decision of Trotsky and Zinoviev, the party leader of Petrograd. At the same time, twelve (!) ships of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet received the name "Lieutenant Schmidt". Maybe this is where the expression “sons of Lieutenant Schmidt” first came from?
Speaking at the trial, Schmidt in his “ last word" said
“I will have behind me the people’s suffering and the shocks of the years I have lived through.” And ahead I see a young, renewed, happy Russia.
Regarding the first, Schmidt was absolutely right: people’s suffering and shocks remained behind him. But as for “young, renewed and happy Russia,” Schmidt was not destined to find out how deeply he was mistaken. 10 years after Schmidt’s execution, his son, the young cadet E.P. Schmidt, almost repeating the fate of his half-brother, volunteered to go to the front and heroically fought “For the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland.” In 1917, he categorically did not accept the October Revolution and joined the White Army. It went all the way from the Volunteer Army to the Crimean epic of Baron Wrangel. In 1921, the ship took Yevgeny Schmidt from the Sevastopol pier abroad, far from the places where in 1905 his father helped those who had now enslaved his homeland and were driving him to a foreign land.
“Why did you die, father? - Evgeniy Schmidt asked him in a book published abroad, - Is it really so that your son can see how the foundations of a thousand-year-old state are crumbling, shaken by vile hands? assassins, molesters of their people?
Political assessments of the Sevastopol uprising are very controversial; only the role of the individual in one or another is indisputable. historical event. The role of a sober and reasonable or unstable and inadequate personality. Or maybe lucky or unlucky, according to the maritime code. After all, an uprising, if it ends in failure, is just a rebellion.
As for Schmidt’s beloved, Zinaida Risberg, in February 1906 she was present in Ochakov at the trial of the rebellious lieutenant. When prosecutor Ronzhin read out the guilty verdict, and naval judge Voevodsky made the decision: “The retired lieutenant... will be deprived of his rights... and subjected to death by hanging” (it was replaced by shooting), the last love of the “red admiral” yawned furtively and said to her companion that she was “very hungry and wants salmon.”
However, already at a very mature age, she obtained a personal pension from the Soviet state. She was assigned to her as a “comrade-in-arms of the revolutionary”! As confirmation of her relationship with the lieutenant, Zinaida Risberg provided written evidence, romantic letters from Schmidt to her.
Based on Internet materials.
Today, the name of Lieutenant Schmidt is known to many, even people with little knowledge of Russian history. “Children of Lieutenant Schmidt” was mentioned in the novel “The Golden Calf” by Ilf and Petrov, and relatively recently the famous KVN team from Tomsk performed under the same name. The debut of the “children” of one of the heroes of the first Russian revolution occurred in the spring of 1906, when, by court verdict, Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt, who led the sailor mutiny on the cruiser “Ochakov,” was shot. The high-profile trial of the revolutionary, which everyone knew about, attracted numerous swindlers and swindlers, whose heyday came in the 1920s.
Schmidt's name has been preserved in history, but not many people know about him. Hailed as a hero of the first Russian revolution, decades later this man faded into the periphery of history. Attitudes towards his personality are ambiguous. Usually, Schmidt's assessment directly depends on a person's attitude to the revolutionary events in Russia. For those people who consider the revolution to be a tragedy of the country, this character and the attitude towards him is often negative, while those who believe that the collapse of the monarchy in Russia was inevitable treat Lieutenant Schmidt as a hero.
Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt (5 (12) February 1867 - 6 (19) March 1906) - Russian naval officer, revolutionary, self-proclaimed commander of the Black Sea. It was Peter Schmidt who led the Sevastopol uprising of 1905 and seized power on the cruiser Ochakov. He is the only naval officer who took part in the revolution of 1905-1907 on the side of the socialist revolutionaries. It is worth noting that Lieutenant Schmidt was not actually a lieutenant at that time. In fact, it is a nickname that is firmly entrenched in history. His last naval rank was captain 2nd rank. The rank of junior naval officer “lieutenant,” which did not exist at that time, was invented and “assigned” to him in order to support the class approach and explain the transition of the nephew of a full admiral to the side of the revolution. According to a court verdict, Peter Schmidt was shot 110 years ago, on March 19, 1906, according to the new style.
The future famous, albeit unlucky, revolutionary was born into a very high birth. He was the sixth child in the family of a respected nobleman, hereditary naval officer, rear admiral and later mayor of Berdyansk Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt. His father and full namesake was a participant in the Crimean War and a hero of the defense of Sevastopol. His uncle was no less famous person, Vladimir Petrovich Schmidt rose to the rank of full admiral (1898) and was a holder of all orders that were in Russia at that time. His mother was Elena Yakovlevna Schmidt (nee von Wagner), who came from an impoverished but very noble royal Polish family. As a child, Schmidt read the works of Tolstoy, Korolenko and Uspensky, studied Latin and French, played the violin. Even in his youth, he inherited from his mother the ideas of democratic freedom, which later influenced his life.
In 1876, the future “red lieutenant” entered the Berdyansk men's gymnasium, which after his death would be named in his honor. He studied at the gymnasium until 1880, after graduating from it he entered the St. Petersburg Naval School. After his graduation in 1886, Peter Schmidt was promoted to midshipman and assigned to the Baltic Fleet. Already on January 21, 1887, he was sent on six-month leave and transferred to the Black Sea Fleet. The reasons for the leave are called different; according to some sources, it was associated with a nervous attack, according to others, due to the radical political views of the young officer and frequent quarrels with personnel.
Peter Schmidt always stood out among his colleagues for his original thinking and diversified interests. At the same time, the young naval officer was an idealist - he was disgusted by the rigid morals that were common in the fleet at that time. “Cane” discipline and beating of lower ranks seemed to Peter Schmidt something monstrous and alien. At the same time, he himself quickly gained fame as a liberal in his relations with his subordinates.
Moreover, it was not only a matter of the peculiarities of service in the navy. Schmidt considered the very foundations of Tsarist Russia unjust and incorrect. Thus, a naval officer was instructed to choose his life partner very carefully, but Schmidt met his love literally on the street. He saw and fell in love with a young girl, Dominika Pavlova. The main problem here was that the naval officer’s beloved was a prostitute, which did not stop Schmidt. Perhaps his passion for Dostoevsky’s work also affected him. One way or another, he decided to marry the girl and start re-educating her.
The young people got married as soon as he graduated from college. Such a bold step practically put an end to his military career, but this did not stop him. In 1889, the couple had a son, whom his parents named Evgeniy. It was Eugene who was the only real son of “Lieutenant Schmidt”. Schmidt lived with his wife for 15 years, after which their marriage broke up, but the son remained to live with his father. Peter Schmidt’s father never accepted his marriage and could not understand, and soon died (1888). After the death of his father, Vladimir Petrovich Schmidt, a war hero, admiral, and for some time now a senator, took patronage of the young officer. He managed to hush up the scandal with his nephew’s marriage and send him to serve on the gunboat “Beaver” of the Siberian Flotilla of the Pacific Squadron. His uncle’s patronage and connections helped Peter Schmidt almost until the Sevastopol uprising in 1905.
In 1889, Schmidt decides to leave military service. When resigning from service, he refers to a “nervous illness.” In the future, with every conflict, his opponents will make hints about his mental problems. At the same time, Peter Schmidt could indeed undergo treatment in 1889 at the private hospital of Dr. Savey-Mogilevich for the nervous and mentally ill in Moscow. One way or another, after leaving the service, he and his family went on a trip to Europe, where he became interested in aeronautics. He even tried to make a living by conducting demonstration flights, but in one of them he was injured while landing and was forced to give up his hobby.
In 1892, he was reinstated into military service, but his character, political views and worldviews became the cause of frequent conflicts with conservative-minded colleagues. In 1898, after a conflict with the commander of the Pacific squadron, he submitted a request for transfer to the reserve. Schmidt was dismissed from military service, but did not lose the right to serve in the commercial fleet.
The period of his life from 1898 to 1904 was most likely the happiest. During these years, he served on the ships of ROPiT - the Russian Society of Shipping and Trade. This service was difficult, but paid very well. At the same time, employers were satisfied with the professional skills of Peter Schmidt, and there was no trace of “stick” discipline, which he simply hated. From 1901 to 1904, Schmidt served as captain of the passenger and merchant ships Igor, Polezny, and Diana. Over the years of his service in the merchant fleet, he managed to gain respect among his subordinates and sailors. In his free time, he tried to teach sailors literacy and navigation.
On April 12, 1904, due to martial law, Russia was at war with Japan, Schmidt was called up from the reserves for active service. He was appointed senior officer on the Irtysh coal transport, which was assigned to the 2nd Pacific Squadron. In December 1904, a transport loaded with coal and uniforms set out to catch up with the squadron that had already left for Port Arthur. A tragic fate awaited the Second Pacific Squadron - it was almost completely destroyed in the Battle of Tsushima, but Peter Schmidt did not take part in it. In January 1905, in Port Said, he was decommissioned from the Irtysh due to worsening kidney disease. His kidney problems began after an injury he received while getting into aeronautics.
Schmidt began to conduct propaganda activities aimed at supporting the revolution in the summer of 1905. At the beginning of October, he organized the “Union of Officers - Friends of the People” in Sevastopol, and then took part in the creation of the “Odessa Society for Mutual Aid of Merchant Marine Sailors.” Conducting propaganda among officers and sailors, he called himself a non-party socialist. Peter Schmidt greets the Tsar’s manifesto of October 17, 1905, which guaranteed “the unshakable foundations of civil freedom on the basis of actual inviolability of the individual, freedom of conscience, speech, assembly and unions” with genuine jubilation. Dreams of a new, more equitable structure of Russian society were about to come true. On October 18, in Sevastopol, Schmidt went with a crowd to the city prison, demanding the release of political prisoners. On the approaches to the prison, the crowd came under fire from government troops: 8 people were killed and about 50 were wounded. For Schmidt, this comes as a real shock.
On October 20, at the funeral of the victims, he pronounces an oath, which later became known as the “Schmidt Oath.” For making a speech to the crowd, he was immediately arrested for propaganda. This time, even his uncle, who has extensive connections, could not help his unlucky nephew. On November 7, 1905, Pyotr Schmidt was dismissed with the rank of captain of the 2nd rank; the authorities were not going to try him for seditious speeches. While still under arrest on the battleship “Three Saints,” on the night of November 12, he was elected by the workers of Sevastopol as a “lifelong deputy of the Soviet,” and soon, under pressure from the broad public, he was released from the ship on his own recognizance.
Already on November 13, a general strike began in Sevastopol; in the evening of the same day, a deputy commission, which consisted of soldiers and sailors delegated from various branches of the military, including 7 ships of the fleet, came to Peter Schmidt with a request to lead an uprising in the city. Schmidt was not ready for such a role, but upon arriving on the cruiser Ochakov, whose crew was the core of the rebels, he quickly became involved in the mood of the sailors. At this moment, Schmidt made a decision that became the most important in his life and has preserved his name to this day: he agrees to become the military leader of the uprising.
The next day, November 14, he declared himself commander of the Black Sea Fleet, giving the signal: “I command the fleet. Schmidt." At the same time, the Ochakov team manages to free some of the previously arrested sailors from the battleship Potemkin. But the authorities did not sit idly by; they blocked the rebel cruiser and called on it to surrender. On November 15, a red flag was raised over the cruiser and the ship took its first and last battle in these revolutionary events. On other warships of the Black Sea Fleet, the rebels failed to take control of the situation, so the Ochakov was left alone. After 1.5 hours of battle, the uprising was suppressed, and Schmidt and other leaders of the rebellion were arrested. The cruiser's recovery from the consequences of this battle lasted more than three years.
Cruiser "Ochakov"
The trial of Peter Schmidt took place behind closed doors in Ochakov. The officer who joined the rebel sailors was accused of preparing a mutiny while on active military service. The trial ended on February 20, Peter Schmidt, as well as three sailors who instigated the uprising on the Ochakov, were sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out on March 6 (March 19, new style) 1906. The condemned were shot on the island of Berezan. The executioner was commanded by Mikhail Stavraki, Schmidt’s childhood friend and college classmate. Stavraki himself, 17 years later, already under Soviet rule, was found, tried and also shot.
After the February Revolution in 1917, the remains of the revolutionary were reburied with military honors. The order for the reburial of Peter Schmidt was given by Admiral Alexander Kolchak. In May of the same year, Russian Minister of War and Navy Alexander Kerensky laid the St. George Cross on Schmidt’s grave. At the same time, the non-partisanship of “Lieutenant Schmidt” only played into the hands of his fame. After the October Revolution of the same year, Peter Schmidt remained among the most revered heroes of the revolutionary movement, remaining among them throughout the years of Soviet power.
Based on materials from open sources
