Compiled by: Oğuzcan Atış / Milliyet.com.tr - The rebellion, which can be called the 'Real Red October', developed under the leadership of Valery Mikhailovich Sablin, a navy officer. However, the real event was different from the movie. The movie Red October told the fictional story of Marko Ramius, a submarine captain who wanted to escape from the Soviet Union and seek asylum in the United States. In the real story, the main goal of a group of naval officers was to raise a flag against Leonid Brezhnev, the General Secretary of the Soviet Union at the time, and his administration and to start a new revolution to make the Soviet Union stronger. Sablin, unlike Ramius, was not trying to defect. On the contrary, he wanted to restart the communist revolution because he was convinced that the Soviet regime had moved dangerously far away from the Marxist principles in which he believed. For this, he was planning to take advantage of the excitement of the anniversary of the 1917 revolution, celebrated on November 7.
Valery Mikhailovich Sablin (Left) and Alexander Nikolayevich Shein (Right)
The warship used in the rebellion led by Sablin was Storozhevoy, one of the Project 1135 / Burevestnik class frigates, one of the most advanced ships of the Soviet Union navy at that time. The weapons of the ship, which served in the Baltic fleet, stood out with its anti-submarine warfare capabilities of this class.
THEY DECEIVED THE SHIP COMMANDER AND ARRESTED
Sablin took the first step to realize the plan in his mind on November 8, 1975. At that time, Storozhevoy was anchored in Riga, one of the countries of the Soviet Union, in the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, with all its weapons. Sablin's plan was to capture Storozhevoy, go to Leningrad (Saint Petersburg), capture the Aurora cruiser, one of the symbols of the 1917 revolution and used as a museum in Leningrad, and start a Leningrad-based uprising against the current regime under Leonid Brezhnev. When Sablin took action, he was accompanied by 20-year-old Aleksandr Nikolayevich Shein, whom he had previously persuaded to move with him, and several crew members.
Since the ship was anchored, a significant part of the 194-person crew was on land. Sablin and Shein took advantage of this and moved to seize command along with the soldiers acting with them. The duo managed to deceive the ship commander and soon imprisoned the commander on the ship and called other officers to a meeting. While Sablin was explaining his plans to other officers, Shein was waiting at the door with a gun in his hand and was ready to kill anyone who would oppose them, if necessary. When the meeting ended, other officers who refused to join the rebellion were arrested and imprisoned, as was the ship's commander.
After the meeting, two of the crew on the ship managed to escape from the ship without Sablin and Shein noticing. Although the two soldiers tried to explain to the other officers on land that there was a mutiny on the ship, they were not taken seriously. However, realizing that the soldiers were running away, Sablin gave up the idea of going to Leningrad, thinking that his plan had been revealed. Instead, Sablin planned to sail into international waters to prepare for the rebellion plan to gain more supporters.
THOSE WHO THOUGHT THEY WERE GOING TO ASYLUM
After the events, the Storozhevoy frigate, captured by Sablin and Shein, left the port in the early hours of November 8, 1975 and sailed to the Gulf of Riga. Immediately after it was noticed that the ship had left the port, other elements of the Soviet Union navy took action to intervene. However, the process of interfering with the rebel ship progressed slowly due to the fact that most officers consumed alcohol heavily during the celebrations held the day before. Other ships anchored in Riga were able to take action only 45 minutes after Storozhevoy set sail and began to follow him. Although smaller patrol boats made the first visual contact with the ship, they did not open fire on the ship because they did not have enough effective firepower.
IL-38 maritime patrol aircraft
Soviet officials initially thought that Sablin was trying to defect to the West. It didn't take long for him to realize that this was not the case. Sablin expressed his demands by sending an encrypted telegram to the Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy. These included non-interference with the ship, permission to broadcast radio and television, safe anchorage in Soviet waters, and more. The Navy rejected the demands and asked Sablin to bring Storozhevoy back to port. Meanwhile, information about the rebel ship also reached Moscow, and Brezhnev, who was woken up in the early hours of the morning, began to be given information about the incident. Brezhnev, fearing that these ships, one of the most effective weapons of the Soviet navy, would fall into the hands of the USA, ordered Storozhevoy to be destroyed at all costs. Following Brezhnev's order, preparations began to be made to attack the ship. For this, first the exact location of the ship had to be determined. For this reason, IL-38 maritime patrol planes stationed in Riga took off and began to search for the ship controlled by the rebels. Storozhevoy was soon detected at the exit of the Gulf of Riga and bombers were contacted for the attack.
After the location of the ship was detected, the bombers, which also had the authority to use nuclear weapons, took action towards the ship. At least one of the planes carried a nuclear-tipped K-10S missile, and otherwise nearly all of the planes were loaded with anti-ship missiles. The planes detected the ship and flew low for about an hour, forcing Sablin to surrender. At this point, Sablin decided to turn the ship's direction towards Sweden. In his later statement, he said that he had never planned to go to Sweden.
THE REBELLION ENDED WITH A CONFLICT
After Sablin directed the captured ship towards Swedish waters, the anxiety among Soviet officials increased even more and air force planes took off to destroy the ship. YAK-28 planes, which took off in Latvia, took off with free-fall bombs and were informed that they would attack a warship. However, the pilots had no experience in attacking sea targets and there was no coordination between navy aircraft and air force aircraft.
Shortly after taking off, the air force planes began to attack the first ship they saw in the reported area. However, the ship attacked by the planes was a civilian Soviet cargo ship. Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident, but after the truth was realized, the planes started to search for the real target again. When the YAK-28s attacked for the second time, instead of hitting Storozhevoy, they attacked another Soviet warship following it. After the second attack, the air force planes returned to their bases and the bombing mission was given back to the navy planes.
Just at this time, some soldiers who were with Sablin on the frigate Storozhevoy came to the conclusion that their attempt to mutiny would have no consequences and decided to refuse to join the mutiny while the ship was anchored and release the arrested officers. The freed officers armed themselves and began to clash with Sablin and the rebels accompanying him. As a result of the conflict, Sablin was shot in the leg. The released ship commander sent a message to the navy after the rebellion was suppressed and shared the information that control of the ship was regained and the rebellion was suppressed.
