Father of all "sons". The true story of the revolutionary Lieutenant Schmidt. Literary and historical notes of a young technician The city where Lieutenant Schmidt was executed

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 Ilfa And Petrova"Golden calf".

But today much less is known about the man whose sons were posed as cunning swindlers at the time the novel was written.

Hailed as a hero of the first Russian revolution, decades later Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt ended up 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 just society 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 (17), 1867 in Odessa. Almost all the men of the Schmidt family devoted themselves to serving in the navy. Father and full namesake of the future revolutionary Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt rose to the rank of rear admiral, was the mayor of Berdyansk and the Berdyansk port. Uncle, Vladimir Petrovich Shmidt, 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 affected Dostoevsky, but he decided that he would marry Dominica and re-educate her.

They got married immediately after Peter graduated from college. This bold step deprived Schmidt of hopes for a great career, but this did not frighten him. In 1889, the couple had a son, who was named Evgeniy.

Schmidt failed to achieve correction for his beloved, although their marriage lasted more than a decade and a half. After the divorce, the son stayed with his father.

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 had a romance in letters - this is what the hero remembers Vyacheslav Tikhonov in the film "We'll Live Until Monday."

This romance took place against the backdrop of increasingly escalating events that reached the main base. Black Sea Fleet in the 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, fairer 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.

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 Nicholas II: “The glorious Black Sea Fleet, sacredly remaining faithful to its people, demands from you, sovereign, the immediate convening 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 took on its first and last battle.

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 military service.

February 20, 1906 Pyotr Schmidt, as well as three instigators of the uprising at Ochakovo - Antonenko, Gladkov, Private owner- were sentenced to death.

On March 6, 1906, the sentence was carried out on Berezan Island. Schmidt’s college classmate, his childhood friend, commanded the execution. Mikhail Stavraki. 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 reburial was given 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 of the 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

Schmidt-Ochakovsky did not accept the October Revolution. Moreover, he fought in the White Army, in shock units 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...

People need heroes. This simple rule was strictly followed by the Soviet authorities. However, it often led to the fact that some individuals, “canonized” by propaganda, actually only partially corresponded to their bright images.

In the case of the legendary naval officer, one of the leaders of the Sevastopol uprising of 1905, Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt, this part was, perhaps, too small. His phony swindler sons, who proliferated in the 20s, oddly enough, actually had a lot in common with their illustrious “father.”

The glorious dynasty of naval officers, whose offspring was Peter Schmidt, gave Russia quite a few valiant sailors. His father, who at the end of his life rose to the rank of rear admiral, was a hero of the defense of Sevastopol in 1854-1855. It was during these dramatic events that he met his future wife, Kyiv noblewoman Catherine von Wagner. The girl valiantly fulfilled her duty, working as a nurse. So to young Peter Petrovich, born in February 1867, was destined for the fate of a military man.

Petr Petrovich Schmidt

We must pay tribute to Peter Schmidt; he really raved about the sea since childhood, and in 1880 he entered the St. Petersburg Naval School (Naval Cadet Corps). True, it quickly became clear that in reality military discipline was not for him. The boy immediately began to have nervous breakdowns and seizures. Only with the help of authoritative relatives did he overcome this stage of life and, upon graduation, was sent as a midshipman to the Baltic Fleet.

However, after just two years of service, the young officer commits an act that should put an end to his entire future career - he marries a woman with a “yellow ticket” - i.e. professional prostitute Dominika Pavlova. Peter Schmidt's father fell ill from such an act of his son and soon died. Further, his uncle, Vladimir Schmidt, senior flagship of the Baltic Fleet, was responsible for his fate. An influential relative managed to hush up the scandal and transfer his unlucky nephew to the Pacific Fleet.

Petr Petrovich Schmidt

In principle, the entire history of Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt’s service can serve as an example of how harmful family ties can be in cases where protégés really do not fit their place. His record is a motley patchwork of posts, ships, sick leave and punishments in a continuous sequence.

However, in 1895 he was promoted to lieutenant. He was fired several times and then returned to duty. It is interesting that during his retirement, Peter Schmidt lived for some time in Paris and studied aeronautics there. He returned to Russia, inspired by the idea of conquering the open spaces of the air, but during the first demonstration flight his balloon crashed. As a result, for the rest of his life he suffered from kidney disease, suffered as a result of the impact of the accident.

It should be noted that this man was truly mentally ill. In 1889, he even underwent treatment at the “Private Hospital of Doctor Savey-Mogilevich for the Nervous and Mentally Ill” in Moscow, and before that he treated neurasthenia at the Nagasaki Coastal Infirmary. WITH early youth he was prone to fits of uncontrollable rage, which often ended in spasms and convulsions.

It is possible that if he had been born in a calmer period for our country, his career would have ended quietly and ingloriously, without becoming a part of history. However, in moments of global change, such people, often possessing charisma, the talent of an orator and the ability to lead a crowd, sometimes turn out to be real “lighters” for revolutionary events.

Postcards depicting the hero of the Sevastopol uprising of 1905 P.P. Schmidt

By 1905, Lieutenant Schmidt, once again assigned by his uncle to a “warm” and quiet place - the commander of a detachment of two outdated destroyers in Izmail, managed to escape on a trip to the south of Russia, taking with him the detachment’s cash register. So, because of 2.5 thousand rubles, he once again, and now last time parted ways with the fleet. Desertion in war time, and even a high-ranking relative could no longer cover up the embezzlement. True, he helped return the money, but Pyotr Petrovich was expelled from military service.

Offended by everyone, Schmidt plunged headlong into politics - he began participating in rallies and speeches even before his dismissal, and now he openly joined the opposition during the riots in Sevastopol. Among the revolutionaries, a naval officer, and even with a well-delivered speech, was just in the right place and quickly gained popularity. His former numerous stints in guardhouses, and even his nervous temperament with periodic attacks (one happened right during a performance), gave him the aura of a sufferer.

One of the most famous was the speech of Peter Schmidt at the funeral of eight people who died during the riots. His fiery speech was preserved in history as the “Schmidt oath”: “We swear that we will never cede to anyone a single inch of the human rights we have won.”

“The Oath of Lieutenant Schmidt”, illustration from the Italian newspaper “II Secolo”, 1905.

In November 1905, when the unrest turned into a rebellion, Schmidt found himself practically the only Russian officer among the revolutionaries, which made him an indispensable figure. On the night of November 26, the rebels, together with Schmidt, arrived on the cruiser Ochakov and called on the sailors to join the “freedom movement.” The sailors took the cruiser into their own hands. Schmidt declared himself commander of the Black Sea Fleet, giving the signal: “I command the fleet. Schmidt". And immediately after this 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.”

If the plans of the newly-minted hero had come true, the Crimean peninsula would have separated from Russia, forming the “South Russian Socialist Republic” with Lieutenant Schmidt himself, of course, at the head. As midshipman Harold Graf, who served with Pyotr Petrovich for several months, later recalled, Schmidt “came from a good noble family, knew how to speak beautifully, played the cello superbly, but at the same time was a dreamer and visionary”. Of course, he did not have the slightest opportunity to realize his fantasies. After the suppression of the rebellion, all the leaders of the Sevastopol uprising, including P.P. Schmidt, were shot on the island of Berezan by verdict of a naval court in March 1906.

Schmidt is escorted to the courthouse, February 1906.

However, the death of a bright and memorable personality, as often happens, even made him even more popular. After the February Revolution of 1917, this name was again used as a symbol revolutionary struggle, as a result of which the unlucky officer and loser rebel became one of the most famous faces of the revolution.

To the question of who he really was - a hero, a mentally ill person or a swindler-embezzler, one can probably answer that he was, indeed, both. Finding himself in the right place at the right time, this strange and controversial personality was able to leave his mark on history. A huge number of streets, parks, factories and educational institutions, named in his honor in our country, still keep this name for posterity.

Monument at the grave of P. P. Schmidt at the cemetery of the Communards in Sevastopol

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.

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 of Tsarist Russia as a whole seemed wrong and unfair to Schmidt. 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

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.

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

A tragic fate awaited the 2nd Pacific Squadron - 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.

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

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

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 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.

On November 15, the red banner was raised over the Ochakov, and the revolutionary cruiser took on its first and last battle.

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

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 rule, was found, tried and also shot.

After the 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 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 through 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.

But the name of Lieutenant Schmidt was best preserved in history thanks to the satirical novel by Ilf and Petrov. Amazing irony of fate...

Birth, early years

Born on February 5 (17), 1867 in Odessa in the family of a nobleman. His father, Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt, is a hereditary naval officer, later a rear admiral, mayor of Berdyansk and head of the Berdyansk port. Schmidt's mother is Ekaterina Yakovlevna Schmidt, nee von Wagner. In 1880-1886, Schmidt studied at the St. Petersburg Maritime School. After graduating Naval School, was promoted to midshipman by examination and assigned to the Baltic Fleet.

Achievement list

09/12/1880 entered the junior preparatory class of the Naval School
On December 14, 1885, he was awarded the rank of midshipman.
09/29/1886 - graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps 53rd on the list and, by order of the Maritime Department No. 307, was examined as a midshipman and appointed to the Baltic Fleet.
In 1886 he was enlisted in the 8th naval crew.
On January 1, 1887, midshipman Schmidt began performing his duties in the shooting training team of the 8th naval crew.
For 1888-1889 - Schmidt (4th).
On January 21, 1888, he was dismissed from his post on a 6-month leave “due to illness, followed by transfer to the Black Sea Fleet due to the climate not suiting him.”
07/17/1888 By order of His Imperial Highness the Admiral General of the Naval Department No. 86, he was transferred from the Baltic to the Black Sea Fleet with enrollment in the 2nd Black Sea Fleet of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh crew.
12/5/1888 By the highest order of the Naval Department No. 432, he was dismissed on leave, due to illness, within the Empire and abroad, for 6 months.
In 1888 he was assigned to the Pacific Ocean squadron.
In 1889, he submitted a petition to the Highest Name: “My painful condition deprives me of the opportunity to continue serving Your Imperial Majesty, and therefore I ask you to resign me.”
03/10-04/10/1889 he underwent a course of treatment at the “private hospital of Doctor” Savei-Mogilevich for the nervous and mentally ill in Moscow.”
06/24/1889 By the highest order of the Naval Department No. 467, he was dismissed from service due to illness, as a lieutenant (due to a violation of the officer code on the issue of marriage). Lived in Berdyansk, Taganrog, Odessa, went to Paris.
On March 27, 1892, he submitted a petition to the highest name “for enrollment in the naval service.”
06/22/1892, a retired lieutenant of the 2nd naval crew of the Black Sea, by the Highest Order of the Maritime Department No. 631, was assigned to service with the previous rank of midshipman and was assigned to the 18th naval crew as a watch officer on the 1st rank cruiser "Rurik" under construction.
03/05/1894 By order of His Imperial Highness, Admiral General of the Naval Department No. 23, he was transferred from the Baltic Fleet to the Siberian Fleet crew. Appointed as watch commander of the destroyer "Yanchikhe", then of the cruiser "Admiral Kornilov".
For 1894 and 1895 - Schmidt (3rd).
12/6/1895 By the highest order of the Naval Department No. 59, he was promoted to lieutenant, along the line, on the basis of Art. 118 and 128, book. VIII Code of Maritime Regulations, continuation of 1892
Until 04.1896, staff officer of the LD "Strong", transport "Ermak".
On 04.1896, by order of the commander of the Vladivostok port, he was appointed as the watch commander of the fire guard, the gunboat "Ermine".
In 1896-1897, he was the watch commander and company commander of the CL "Beaver". In foreign voyages: 1896-1897. on CL "Beaver". Last voyage in 1897.
On January 14, 1897, he was sent to the Nagasaki coastal hospital for treatment of neurasthenia.
02.20-03.1.1897 was treated at the coastal hospital in Nagasaki, then recalled to Vladivostok.
Until the end of August 1897 - and. D. senior staff officer of the LD "Nadezhny".
On August 30, 1897, by order of the commander of the Vladivostok port, Rear Admiral G.P. Chukhnin, “... For anti-disciplinary actions regarding the ship’s commander and for the same report submitted on August 23, Lieutenant Schmidt is arrested and kept in a guardhouse for three weeks.”
In August 1897, he was decommissioned from the Nadezhny LD for refusing to participate in suppressing the strike and for reporting against commander N.F. Yuryev, who was associated with poachers.
10.28.1897 follows the order of the commander of the Vladivostok port, Rear Admiral G. Chukhnin: “...Due to the report of Lieutenant Schmidt, I propose to the chief doctor of the Vladivostok hospital V.N. Popov to appoint a commission of doctors and, with a deputy from the Crew, examine the health of Lieutenant Schmidt... The report of the commission should be provided to me".
08.1897-07.1898 watch commander at the fire guard guard of the Vladivostok roadstead.
In August 1898, after a conflict with the commander of the Pacific squadron, he submitted a request for transfer to the reserve.
On September 24, 1898, by order of the Maritime Department No. 204, Lieutenant Schmidt was dismissed from service in the naval reserve for the second time, but with the right to serve in the commercial fleet.
In 1898 he entered service in the Voluntary Fleet. 2nd mate of the p/h "Kostroma" (served for 2 years).
In 1900 he went to serve in Russian Society Shipping and Trade (ROPiT)
In 1900-1901 senior mate of the fishing vessel "Olga".
In 1901 he was appointed captain of the farm "Igor".
In 1901-1902 captain of the farm "St. Nicholas", "Polezny".
In 1903-1904 captain of the p/v "Diana".
04/12/1904, due to wartime circumstances, Peter Schmidt, as a naval reserve officer, was again called up for active duty military service and sent to the disposal of the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet with enrollment in the 33rd naval crew.
05/2/1904. By the highest order of the Naval Department No. 541, he was appointed to the service, from 03/30/1904.
On May 14, 1904, he was appointed as a 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.
06/12/1904 with rank for being in the naval reserve.
In September 1904, he was arrested in Libau for 10 days with a sentry for a disciplinary act (publicly insulting another naval officer).
In 1904 he was a member of the 9th naval crew.
For 1904 - Schmidt (3rd).
In January 1905, he was decommissioned in Port Said with a serious illness (kidney attack) and departed for Sevastopol.
02/21/1905 By order of His Imperial Highness, Admiral General of the Naval Department No. 36, he was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet and assigned to the 28th naval crew.
02/21/1905 By order of the Naval Department No. 36, he was appointed commander of MM “No. 253” (in Izmail).
In August 1905 he returned to Sevastopol, where he conducted anti-government propaganda.
On October 25, 1905, at a rally he had a seizure, and he was convulsing in front of the crowd.
At the end of October 1905 he was arrested for anti-government propaganda. During the investigation and an audit carried out at his place of service, it turned out that in 1905 he stole the cash box of the destroyer detachment entrusted to him (2 MM), (more than 2500 rubles), deserted, traveled around the cities, between Kiev and Kerch, wasting government money. He gave an explanation for his action: “I lost government money while riding a bicycle in Izmail.” The wasted amount was reimbursed from his own funds by his uncle, senator, Admiral V.P. Schmidt (1827-1909).
7.11.1905 By the highest order of the Naval Department, he was dismissed from service as a lieutenant.
On November 14, 1905, he boarded the ship "Ochakov" as the leader of the rebel sailors and arbitrarily assigned himself the rank of captain of the 2nd rank. On the evening of the same day, at a meeting on the Ochakov, it was decided to take a number of offensive actions both at sea and in Sevastopol itself: to seize ships and arsenals, arrest officers, etc. But the fleet under the leadership of Schmidt did not take active actions. The next day the revolt was suppressed.

Revolution of 1905

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 the evening of November 13, a deputy commission consisting of sailors and soldiers delegated from various branches of arms, including seven ships, invited retired naval lieutenant Schmidt, who had gained great popularity during the October rallies, for military leadership. “He courageously accepted the invitation and from that day became the head of the movement.”
On November 14 (27), he led a mutiny on the cruiser "Ochakov" and other ships of the Black Sea Fleet. 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.”

November 15, at 9 o'clock. morning, a red flag was raised on the Ochakovo. The government immediately opened military action against the rebel battleship. On November 15, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, a naval battle began, and at 4 o'clock 45 minutes. The royal fleet had already won complete victory. Schmidt, along with other leaders of the uprising, was arrested.
Since 1906, P.P. Schmidt has been an honorary member of the Sevastopol Council of Workers' Deputies.

Death and funeral

Schmidt, along with his comrades, was sentenced to death by a closed naval court, which was held in Ochakov from 02/7 to 18/02/1906. On February 20, a verdict was passed, according to which Schmidt and 3 sailors were sentenced to death. 03/06/1906 on the island of Berezan he was shot along with N. G. Antonenko (member of the revolutionary ship committee), driver A. Gladkov and senior battalion S. Chastnik. On May 8 (21), 1917, the remains of Schmidt and the sailors shot along with him, by order of Kolchak, were transported to Sevastopol, where a temporary burial took place in the Intercession Cathedral.

In May 1917, Minister of War and Navy A.F. Kerensky laid the officer's St. George's Cross on Schmidt's gravestone. 11/14/1923 Schmidt and his comrades were reburied in Sevastopol at the city cemetery of Kommunards. A monument was erected at their grave, which previously lay on the grave of the commander of the battleship “Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky”, Captain 1st Rank E. N. Golikov, who died in 1905.

Memory

Streets in the cities are named after Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt: Vyazma, Berdyansk, Tver (boulevard), Vladivostok, Yeysk, Gatchina, Yegoryevsk, Kazan, Murmansk, Bobruisk, Nizhny Tagil, Novorossiysk, Odessa, Pervomaisk, Ochakov, Samara, Sevastopol, Simferopol, Taganrog , Kirovograd, Kremenchug, Kamenets-Podolsky, Khabarovsk, Kharkov, Lyubotin. Embankments in St. Petersburg and the city of Velikiye Luki are named after Lieutenant Schmidt; the Annunciation Bridge in St. Petersburg bore the name of “Lieutenant Schmidt” in the period from 1918 to August 14, 2007. Also named after Schmidt is the Yacht “Lieutenant Schmidt”, the plant named after Lieutenant Schmidt in Baku. On Berezan Island in 1968, architects N. Galkina and V. Ochakovsky erected a monument in memory of the executed leaders of the uprising. The P. P. Schmidt Museum in the city of Ochakov was opened in 1962, currently the museum is closed, some of the exhibits were moved to the former Palace of Pioneers.

Lieutenant Schmidt in art

The story “The Black Sea” (chapter “Courage”) by Konstantin Paustovsky.
Poem "Lieutenant Schmidt" by Boris Pasternak.
Chronicle novel “I swear by the Earth and the Sun” by Gennady Aleksandrovich Cherkashin.
The film “Post Romance” (1969) (as Schmidt - Alexander Parra) is the story of the complex relationship between P.P. Schmidt and Zinaida Risberg based on their correspondence.
In the novel “The Golden Calf” by Ilf and Petrov, “thirty sons and four daughters of Lieutenant Schmidt” are mentioned - fraudulent impostors seeking subsidies from government agencies under the name of his famous "father". The thirty-fifth descendant of Lieutenant Schmidt was O. Bender.
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 teacher Ilya Semyonovich Melnikov (Vyacheslav Tikhonov).
One of the most famous KVN teams is called “Children of Lieutenant Schmidt”.

Ratings

Peter Schmidt was the only officer of the Russian fleet who joined the revolution of 1905-1907. On November 14, 1905, V.I. Lenin wrote: “The uprising in Sevastopol is growing... Command of the Ochakov was taken by retired lieutenant Schmidt..., the Sevastopol events mark the complete collapse of the old, slave order in the troops, the order that turned soldiers into armed machines, made them instruments of suppressing the slightest aspirations for freedom.”

Family

Son: Schmidt, Evgeniy Petrovich

Bibliography

"Crimean Bulletin", 1903-1907.
"Historical Bulletin". 1907, no. 3.
Vice Admiral G.P. Chukhnin. According to the memories of colleagues. St. Petersburg 1909.
Calendar of the Russian Revolution. Publishing house "Rosehipnik", St. Petersburg, 1917.
Lieutenant Schmidt. Letters, memories, M., 1922
A. Izbash. Lieutenant Schmidt. Memories of a sister. M. 1923.
I. Voronitsyn. Lieutenant Schmidt. M-L. Gosizdat. 1925.
Izbash A.P. Lieutenant Schmidt L., 1925 (sister of PPSh)
Genkin I. L. Lieutenant Schmidt and the uprising at Ochakovo, M.,L. 1925
Platonov A.P. Uprising in the Black Sea Fleet in 1905 L., 1925
Revolutionary movement in 1905. Collection of memories. M. 1925. Society of Political Prisoners.
"Hard labor and exile." M. 1925-1926.
Karnaukhov-Kraukhov V.I. Red Lieutenant, M., 1926
Schmidt-Ochakovsky. Lieutenant Schmidt. "Red Admiral" Memories of a son. Prague. 1926.
Revolution and autocracy. A selection of documents. M. 1928.
A. Fedorov. Memories. Odessa. 1939.
A. Kuprin. Essays. M. 1954.
Revolutionary movement in the Black Sea Fleet in 1905-1907. M. 1956.
Sevastopol armed uprising in November 1905. Documents and materials. M. 1957.
S. Witte. Memories. M. 1960.
R. Melnikov. Cruiser Ochakov. Leningrad. "Shipbuilding". 1982.
Popov M. L. Red Admiral. Kyiv, 1988
V. Ostretsov. Black Hundred and Red Hundred. M. Military Publishing House. 1991.
S. Oldenburg. The reign of Emperor Nicholas II. M. "Terra". 1992.
V. Korolev. Riot on your knees. Simferopol. "Tavria". 1993.
V. Shulgin. What we don't like about them. M. Russian book. 1994.
A. Podberezkin. Russian way. M. RAU-University. 1999.
L. Zamoyski. Freemasonry and globalism. Invisible Empire. M. "Olma-press". 2001.
Shigin. Unknown Lieutenant Schmidt. “Our Contemporary” No. 10. 2001.
A. Chikin. Sevastopol confrontation. Year 1905. Sevastopol. 2006.
I. Gelis. November uprising in Sevastopol in 1905.
F. P. Rerberg. Historical secrets of great victories and inexplicable defeats

150 years ago, on February 17, 1867, a Russian naval officer, one of the leaders of the Sevastopol uprising of 1905, Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt, was born. Peter Schmidt was the only Russian officer who joined the revolution of 1905-1907 and led a major uprising, so his name became widely known.

Pyotr Petrovich, who is now mainly remembered in connection with the “sons of Lieutenant Schmidt” from The Golden Calf, lived a short but very dramatic life full of contradictions. Born on February 5 (17), 1867 in the city of Odessa, Odessa district, Kherson province, into a noble family. His father, Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt, is a hereditary naval officer, a participant in the Crimean War, a hero of the defense of Sevastopol, later a rear admiral, mayor of Berdyansk and head of the Berdyansk port. Schmidt's mother is Ekaterina Yakovlevna Schmidt, nee von Wagner. Uncle, also a hero of the defense of Sevastopol, Vladimir Petrovich, had the rank of admiral and was the senior flagship of the Baltic Fleet. It was his uncle (at the time of his father’s death, Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt Jr. was only 22 years old) who became the main assistant in the young officer’s career.

Peter Schmidt Jr. dreamed of the sea since childhood and, to the delight of his family, in 1880 he entered the St. Petersburg Naval School (Naval Cadet Corps). After graduating from the Naval School in 1886, he was promoted to midshipman by examination and assigned to the Baltic Fleet. The young man was distinguished by great academic abilities, sang, played music and drew excellently. But along with his good qualities, everyone noted his increased nervousness and excitability. The authorities turned a blind eye to the oddities of cadet and then midshipman Schmidt, believing that over time everything would work out on its own: the harsh life of ship service would do its job.

However, the young officer surprised everyone. Already in 1888, two years after being promoted to officer, he married and retired “due to illness” with the rank of lieutenant. He underwent treatment in a private hospital for the nervous and mentally ill in Moscow. Schmidt's wife, to put it mildly, stood out from the crowd. The daughter of a tradesman, Dominika Gavrilovna Pavlova was a professional prostitute and had a “yellow ticket” instead of a passport. It is believed that Schmidt wanted to “morally re-educate” her, but in general family life it didn't work out for them. His wife considered all his teachings to be foolish, didn’t think twice about him, and openly cheated on him. In addition, in the future, Pyotr Petrovich had to take care of the household and raising his son Eugene, since Dominica was indifferent to household duties. The father did not accept this marriage, broke off relations with his son and soon died. In general, this incident, shocking for society at that time, had no consequences for Peter, but 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 Schmidt, the senior flagship of the Baltic Fleet, rose like a mighty cliff.

It is interesting that during his retirement, Peter Schmidt lived in Paris, where he became seriously interested in aeronautics. He purchased all the necessary equipment and intended to fly professionally in Russia. But, returning to Russia for demonstration performances, the retired lieutenant suffered an accident in his own hot air balloon. As a result, he suffered for the rest of his life from kidney disease caused by the violent impact of the balloon on the ground.

In 1892, Schmidt submitted a petition to the highest name “for enrollment in naval service” and returned to the fleet with the previous rank of midshipman, enlisting in the 18th naval crew as a watch officer on the 1st rank cruiser Rurik, which was under construction. Two years later he was transferred to Far East, to the Siberian Flotilla (future Pacific Fleet). Here he served until 1898 on the destroyer "Yanchikha", the cruiser "Admiral Kornilov", the transport "Aleut", the port ship "Strong" and the gunboats "Ermine" and "Beaver". However, soon the disease returned again. He experienced an exacerbation of a nervous illness that overtook Peter during a trip abroad. He ended up in the naval hospital of the Japanese port of Nagasaki, where he was examined by a council of squadron doctors. On the recommendation of the council, Schmidt was transferred to the reserve. The 31-year-old lieutenant enlists in the reserves and goes to serve on merchant (or, as they said then, “commercial”) ships.

During his six years of sailing on merchant ships, Peter managed to serve as a mate and captain on the ships “Olga”, “Kostroma”, “Igor”, “St. Nicholas”, “Diana”. With the beginning Russo-Japanese War The lieutenant was called up for active service and sent to the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet. Pyotr Petrovich was sent to the Baltic and appointed senior officer of the huge Irtysh transport at that time with a displacement of 15 thousand tons. The ship was intended to supply the 2nd Pacific Squadron of Admiral Rozhestvensky with the necessary materials and supplies. Peter traveled by transport only as far as the Egyptian port of Suez, where he was put ashore due to worsening kidney disease. During the Battle of Tsushima, the Irtysh received one large hole in the bow, not counting other less serious damage, and sank.

Schmidt spent the next few months as part of the Black Sea Fleet, commanding destroyer No. 253, which was stationed in Izmail. In October 1905, unexpectedly for his friends and acquaintances, he took part in a political demonstration in Sevastopol, after which he was arrested. During the ensuing investigation, it became clear that government money had been embezzled from the destroyer and neglect of service. In November, Schmidt was dismissed from service. Many naval officers were confident that the former commander of destroyer No. 253 managed to avoid trial solely thanks to the eternal patronage of his uncle-admiral.

Thus, Pyotr Petrovich in the fall of 1905 found himself without specific activities and special prospects in Sevastopol. Schmidt was not a member of any party. He generally avoided “herddom”, since he considered himself a unique person. But when trouble began in Sevastopol, he, embittered by the “injustices,” joined the opposition and became very active. Being a good speaker, Pyotr Petrovich, participating in anti-government rallies, spoke so sharply and energetically that he quickly became a famous person. These speeches and his time in the guardhouse created his reputation as a revolutionary and sufferer.

In November, during the revolution that swept Russia, strong unrest began in Sevastopol (). On November 24, 1905, the unrest grew into a rebellion. On the night of November 26, the rebels and Schmidt arrived on the cruiser Ochakov and called on the sailors to join the uprising. “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 the revolutionary parties among them, turned out to be thoroughly propagandized, and among the sailors there were their own informal leaders, who actually acted as initiators of insubordination. This sailor elite - several conductors and senior sailors - understood that they could not do without an officer, and therefore recognized the primacy of the unexpectedly determined revolutionary leader. Sailors under the leadership of the Bolsheviks A. Gladkov and N. Antonenko seized the cruiser into their own hands. The officers who tried to disarm the ship were driven ashore. Schmidt found himself at its head, declaring himself commander of the Black Sea Fleet.

He had grandiose plans. 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 place 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 forces of the rebels were apparently large: 14 ships and vessels and about 4.5 thousand sailors and soldiers on the ships and on the shore. However, their combat power was insignificant, since most of the naval guns were rendered unusable even before the uprising. Only the cruiser Ochakov and the destroyers had artillery in good working order. The soldiers on the shore were poorly armed; there were not enough machine guns, rifles and ammunition. The rebels missed the favorable moment for developing success, the initiative. The passivity of the rebels prevented them from attracting the entire Black Sea squadron and the Sevastopol garrison. Schmidt sent a telegram to Tsar 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.”

However, the authorities have not yet lost their will and determination, as in 1917. The commander of the Odessa Military District, General A. V. Kaulbars, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral G. P. Chukhnin, and the commander of the 7th Artillery Corps, Lieutenant General A. N. Meller-Zakomelsky, placed by the Tsar at the head of the punitive expedition, pulled up to 10 thousand soldiers and were able to field 22 ships with 6 thousand crew members. The rebels were given an ultimatum to surrender. Having received no response to the ultimatum, troops loyal to the government went on the offensive and opened fire on “internal enemies.” The order was given to open fire on the rebel ships and vessels. Not only ships fired, but also coastal artillery, guns ground forces, as well as soldiers with machine guns and rifles from the shore. As a result, the rebellion was suppressed. The wounded Schmidt and a group of sailors tried to break into Artillery Bay on destroyer No. 270. But the ship was damaged, lost speed, and Schmidt and his comrades were arrested. At the trial, Schmidt tried to mitigate the punishment for others, took all the blame upon himself, and expressed his complete readiness to be executed.

In general, given the scale of the rebellion and its danger to the empire, when there was a possibility of an uprising of a significant part of the Black Sea Fleet, with the support of part of the ground forces, the punishment was quite humane. But the uprising itself was suppressed harshly and decisively. Hundreds of sailors died. The leaders of the Sevastopol uprising P. P. Schmidt, S. P. Chastnik, N. G. Antonenko and A. I. Gladkov were shot on the island of Berezan by the verdict of a naval court in March 1906. Over 300 people were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment and hard labor. About a thousand people were subjected to disciplinary punishments without any trial.

It is worth noting that in the Russian Imperial Navy there was a strict ban on political activity. Moreover, this “taboo” was rather informal, but strictly observed. Even those naval officers who were considered liberals in the navy, for the most part, did not violate the established unwritten rules. Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov always directly said that the army and navy should be outside politics. The job of the armed forces is to stand guard over their Fatherland, which must be defended regardless of the form of the existing system.

Schmidt became a rare exception. It is possible that the reason for the naval officer’s abrupt transition to the side of the revolutionaries was Peter’s mental instability. In Soviet historiography, taking into account the popularization of this character, this issue was avoided. Pyotr Petrovich was an easily excitable person; he had previously been treated in a hospital “for the nervous and mentally ill.” His illness was expressed in unexpected attacks of irritability, turning into rage, followed by hysteria with convulsions and rolling on the floor.

According to midshipman Harold Graf, who served with Peter on the Irtysh for several months, his senior officer “came from a good noble family, knew how to speak beautifully, played the cello superbly, but was also a dreamer and visionary.” It cannot be said that Schmidt also fit into the category of “friends of sailors.” “I myself saw him several times, driven out of patience by the indiscipline and rude responses of the sailors, and immediately beat them. In general, Schmidt never curried favor with the team and treated them the same way as other officers treated them, but he always tried to be fair,” noted Graf. According to the naval officer: “Knowing Schmidt well from the time he served together, I am convinced that if his plan had succeeded in 1905 and revolution had triumphed throughout Russia... he would have been the first to be horrified by the results of what he had done and would have become a sworn enemy of Bolshevism.”

Meanwhile, revolutionary events in Russian Empire continued to boil, and very soon after the execution of the lieutenant, young people began to appear at rallies of various parties, who, calling themselves “the son of Lieutenant Schmidt,” on behalf of their father who died for freedom, called for revenge, to fight the tsarist regime, or to provide all possible financial assistance to the revolutionaries. Not only revolutionaries, but also simply speculators acted under the “son of a lieutenant.” As a result, a completely indecent number of “sons” divorced. Moreover, even “Schmidt’s daughters” appeared! For some time, the “children of the lieutenant” flourished quite well, but then, with the decline of the revolutionary movement, Lieutenant Schmidt was practically forgotten.

IN Soviet time The "lieutenant's children" were revived in the second half of the 1920s. In 1925, the twentieth anniversary of the first Russian revolution was celebrated. When preparing the holiday, party veterans, to their considerable surprise and chagrin, discovered that the majority of the country's population did not remember at all or did not know at all the heroes who died during the first revolution. The party press began an active information campaign, and the names of some revolutionaries were hastily retrieved from the darkness of oblivion. A lot of articles and memoirs were written about them, monuments were erected to them, streets, embankments, etc. were named after them. Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt became one of the most famous heroes of the first revolution. True, the propagandists were somewhat hasty and in a hurry missed some facts unfavorable for the hero. Thus, the revolutionary’s relatives turned out to be prominent tsarist admirals, and his son Evgeniy participated in Civil War on the side of the White movement and died in exile.