Life story
Petr Schmidt retired lieutenant of the Black Sea Fleet, leader of the Sevastopol uprising of 1905. Shot.
Born into a marine family. His father in the days of the first Sevastopol defense commanded a battery on the Malakhov Kurgan. Subsequently, he rose to the rank of vice admiral and died the mayor of Berdyansk. Schmidt's mother came from the princes of Skvirsky, almost of the Gedimin family - an impoverished branch of the ancient Polish kings and Lithuanian grand dukes.

On September 29, 1886, Peter Schmidt, who graduated from the St. Petersburg Naval Corps, was promoted to midshipman.
First, he sailed as a second, and then a senior mate on the ships of the Volunteer Fleet, in particular, on the Kostroma, and later transferred to the service of ROPIT (Russian Society of Shipping and Trade). In the newspaper "Odessa News" dated November 6, 1905, that is, shortly after the first arrest of Schmidt, an unsigned note was placed - "Lieutenant - a fighter for freedom": "Among his comrades and colleagues, P.P. Schmidt always stood out as extremely enlightened and an outstanding mind, a man whose charm was irresistible. The honest, open and good-natured nature of this sailor attracted to him the sympathy of all who came into close contact with him. On those ships where Schmidt served, not only all members of the wardroom treated him with some kind of tender, kindred love, but even the lower staff of the team looked at him as if they were their senior comrade. With deep sadness, Pyotr Petrovich always spoke in a circle of friends about manifestations of bureaucratic arbitrariness, and from all his speeches there was an insatiable thirst for freedom, not personal , of course, but common, for the entire Russian population, civil freedom. The thought of this man was overwhelmed with faith in the proximity of freedom, faith in the strength of the advanced Russian intelligentsia.
And here is the memory of Karnaukhov-Kraukhov, who sailed with Schmidt, who later was one of the organizers, of the uprising on the cruiser "Ochakov" and went through all the stages of hard labor hell. Kraukhov sailed on the Ropitov cargo-passenger steamer "Igor" as a navigator's apprentice when P.P. Schmidt was the captain. “The Igor team,” wrote Kraukhov, “loved their formidable and fair commander, impeccably obeyed his orders and even guessed his gestures and movements.” With deep respect, recalls Kraukhov, Schmidt treated the sailors. "Muzzleslaps" I have no place! he said. - I left them from military service. Here only a free sailor is a citizen who strictly obeys his duties during the service.
Schmidt paid much attention to the formation of the team. "The navigators were instructed to study with the sailors at a time specially designated for this. For classes, textbooks and training supplies were purchased at the expense of the ship. The "teacher Petro", as we called Schmidt, sat on the quarterdeck among the crew and told a lot. (Karnaukhov-Kraukhov. Red lieutenant, 1926)
Demanding a lot from his subordinates, P.P. Schmidt faithfully fulfilled his duties as a captain. “There were also such days,” writes Kraukhov, “when Schmidt did not leave the bridge for 30 hours. He was a sailor who was in love with the sea to the marrow of his bones, who knew his own worth, who perfectly understood naval service.”
“Let it be known to you,” Schmidt wrote on November 2, 1905 to Zinaida Risberg, “that I have a reputation as the best captain and experienced sailor.” And a little later again: "If you spent a little time in Odessa, which is filled with sailors who served with me and depended on me, then, I know, they would speak well of me to you" ("Lieutenant Schmidt. Letters, memoirs, documents ", 1922). And this was not bragging in the mouth of a man who, two months later, the tsarist justice sentenced to the gallows.
When in 1889 Admiral S. O. Makarov decided to break through on the newly built Yermak to the North Pole, he was one of the first to invite Lieutenant Schmidt with him. Mutual respect and friendship united these different people.
In the same year, the steamer "Diana", ordered by ROPIT, was launched in Kiel. 8 thousand tons of displacement, 1800 forces in the car and 8.5 knots - at that time it was an impressive ocean-going vessel. Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt, who returned from the polar voyage, was appointed captain of the Diana.
“... He touched the land very little,” he wrote about subsequent years to Zinaida Rizberg, “because, for example, for the last ten years he sailed only on ocean lines and in a year there were no more than 60 days of parking in different ports in fits and starts, and the rest of the time found between the sky and the oceans."
"... If you knew what hard labor physical labor is like serving in the commercial fleet ... If they give me the Chernomorsky steamer temporarily, then this is what kind of work. I leave Odessa through the ports of the Crimea and the Caucasus and return back after 11 days.During these 11 days, in severe winter weather and storms, I have to visit 42 cities, in each of them to hand over and accept cargo and passengers.Arriving in Odessa, I take a bath, because it is almost impossible in the sea, and plunge into a lethargic dream on the first day, on the second day I already accept the cargo, fiddle with formalities and documents, and by the evening I’m already leaving again for 11 days using the same ports. .
In the newspaper "Odessa News" dated November 20, 1905, memories of Schmidt were printed, signed "Sailor". "The writer of these lines sailed as an assistant to P.P. Schmidt when he commanded the Diana. Not to mention the fact that all of us, his colleagues, deeply respected and loved this man, we looked at him as a teacher of maritime affairs. The most enlightened Pyotr Petrovich was a most enlightened captain, he used all the latest techniques in navigation and astronomy, and sailing under his command was an indispensable school, especially since Pyotr Petrovich always, sparing no time and effort, taught everyone as a comrade and friend. One of his assistants, who sailed for a long time with other captains and was then assigned to the Diana, having made one voyage with Pyotr Petrovich, said: "He opened my eyes to the sea!"
At the end of November 1903, the Diana sailed from Riga to Odessa. The storm did not subside for two days, and the captain did not leave the bridge for two days. Only when the weather improved a little did Schmidt go to his room and fall asleep.
“Not even two hours have passed,” writes the Sailor, “how the weather changed, found fog. The assistant who was on watch, through unforgivable negligence, did not inform the captain about this and did not wake him up, and the Diana ran into an underwater ridge of stones, as it later turned out off the Isle of Man. A terrible blow against the stones, the crack of the entire hull of the ship made the entire crew run out onto the deck. The darkness of the night, the storm, the violent blows against the stones, the unknown - all this caused panic, the crew was noisy, confusion began.
And then came a quiet, but some unusually firm and calm voice of Pyotr Petrovich. This voice called everyone to calm. It was an extraordinary power. In less than a minute, everyone was calm, everyone felt that they had a captain, to whom they boldly entrusted their lives. This calm courage of Pyotr Petrovich did not put him in all the days of the accident, and he saved the "Diana".
Radio at that time had not yet come to the fleet. The first radio station on the Russian merchant ship Rossiya was installed only five years later. Therefore, the victims of the accident did not have the opportunity to report their plight. And they were noticed only a few days later, when the storm subsided.
"On the third day, the ship was in a dangerous position, and Pyotr Petrovich ordered the crew and assistants to board the boats and throw themselves ashore on the island of Man. He himself calmly disposed of each boat, caring not only for people, but also for every sailor's bundle of things, he conveyed his calmness to us, and we all safely got ashore in breakers.
When we all got into the boats, we turned to him so that he would get on. He looked at us sadly and with his kind smile said:

I'm staying, I won't leave Diana until the end.

We all, barely holding back tears, persuaded him, but he remained at his decision. Then we ourselves wished to stay with him, but he allowed only four of us to do this, finding that he might need these people for signaling and communication with rescue ships, if any came.

Schmidt spent 16 days on the sinking ship, until on December 14 he was finally removed from the stones.

“After the accident,” the “Seaman” continues his story, “we were all embittered at the assistant who was the culprit of the misfortune. He, Pyotr Petrovich, did not utter a single word of reproach and then, in his reports to the director of ROPIT, he tried by all means to remove the blame with an assistant and take it over.

I'm the captain, he said, so I'm the only one to blame.

No wonder the influence of this impeccable personality on all who came into contact with him was so strong ... "
Recently, Nedelya published a letter from Schmidt to his son, written from Kiel, where the Diana was being repaired:

“A very big job must be completed, and only then can I ask to be released. Due to poor health, and even then I still don’t know how the repair of the ship will go and whether it will also require my presence. We must, son, look at things differently masculine and not allow weaknesses in the soul: if the steamer under my command suffered such a cruel accident, then it is my duty not to avoid all the work to put things in order.I want the Diana, after misfortunes and repairs, to be better and stronger than before , and for this you need my master's eye` if I don’t swim on it anymore, then let it swim for a long time and safely without me completely.
At the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, Schmidt was drafted into the navy and appointed senior officer of the Irtysh large coal transport, which was to accompany Admiral Rozhdestvensky's squadron, heading to the Far East from the Baltic. After loading coal, the transport was ordered to go to Revel for an imperial review. Let's give the floor to another eyewitness.
"Two tug boats were taken out of the channel to another channel" Irtysh ". It was necessary to make a sharp turn. They began to turn around, but due to the wind they turned unsuccessfully. The catastrophe would have been inevitable if the senior officer had not warned her. Without losing his presence of mind, Lieutenant Schmidt turned both handles of the engine telegraph, and both machines started full speed back. The senior officer commanded, as always, beautifully, giving orders in a calm, resonant voice.

"Commendators, to the rope," thundered a metallic voice.

The anchor flew into the water.

"Rope to poison up to five sazhens."

The gunners had just managed to stop the rope, as a command was heard from the bridge: "Get out of the left bay! Give up the anchor!"
Flew into the water and another anchor. "A rope to poison up to five fathoms. How is it on the lot?" - inquired the senior officer at the lot. "Stopped," answered the lotov. In less than a minute, the lotov shouted: "Go back!" The senior officer quickly switched the telegraph to "stop", and the disaster was over.
The commander, who had been standing motionless on the bridge all the time, like a statue, finally realized what danger the transport was exposed to. Excited, he approached the senior officer and silently shook his hand.
... The tugs were commanded by the manager. harbors. When the disaster was over, he again took command. The senior officer approached him: "Go away, I would have managed better without you..."

"And who would give you boats?" - asked his manager. "I would have managed without your boats under my own steam ... Get off the bridge!"

The manager stepped off the bridge with an offended look. "I will send a report to the admiral," he threw to the senior officer. "You have no right to insult me." (From the diary of a Tsushima sailor, Sovremennik, No. 9, 1913)
Rozhdestvensky, without understanding, put Schmidt for 15 days in a cabin under a gun.
But Schmidt was not destined to survive the shame of Tsushima. In Port Said, he fell ill and was forced to return to Russia. When Schmidt boarded the boat to leave the ship, the entire crew - more than two hundred sailors - ran out onto the shrouds and shouted "Hurrah!" with all their hearts.
It is not surprising that among naval officers Schmidt enjoyed a reputation as a freethinker, "pink". When the red flag of the revolution was hoisted on the mast of the Potemkin, a rumor spread around Sevastopol that Lieutenant Schmidt was commanding the rebellious battleship. And Schmidt at that time vegetated in Izmail on the destroyer No. 253.

After the famous speech at the cemetery, when Schmidt was already under arrest on the battleship "Three Saints", the workers of Sevastopol elected him a life deputy of the Soviet.

"I am a lifelong deputy of the Sevastopol workers. Do you understand how much happy pride I have from this title. "Lifelong." By this they wanted, therefore, to distinguish me from their deputies, to emphasize their trust in me for my whole life. To show me that they know that I will sacrifice my whole life for the interests of the workers and will never betray them to the grave ...
I have to appreciate it twice, because it can be more alien, like an officer for the workers? And they managed with their sensitive souls to remove from me the hated officer shell and recognize in me their comrade, friend and bearer of their needs for life. I don’t know if there is anyone else with such a title, but it seems to me that there is no higher title in the world. The criminal government can deprive me of everything, all their stupid labels: nobility, ranks, fortune, but it is not in the power of the government to deprive me of my only title from now on: life deputy of the workers.
Schmidt called himself "a socialist outside the party." His only "revolutionary" act before 1905 was correspondence for the hectographer of Historical Letters Lavrov. But at the same time, Schmidt "from a young age was interested in the social sciences, which demanded an offended sense of truth and justice." He possessed boundless, like the ocean, enthusiasm, crystal purity of soul. Schmidt was all woven from humanity.
And this man, by the will of fate and his love for freedom, was forced to become the leader of the rebellious sailors of the Ochakov. Schmidt was not the organizer of the uprising, he was not even its supporter. He went to the "Ochakov" only at the urgent request of the sailors. Exalted, struck by the grandeur of the goals opening before him, Schmidt not so much directed the events as inspired by them. And now a telegram to the tsar was sent to St. Petersburg, signed "Commander of the Black Sea Fleet, citizen Schmidt", and a signal was raised on the topmast of the "Ochakov": "I command the fleet. Schmidt." And he expects the entire squadron to immediately throw out red flags, arrest the officers led by the hated Admiral Chukhnin and join the Ochakov. And the squadron was ominously silent ... Then the casemate, the court. There was time to think about everything that was happening, to repent, to ask for forgiveness and thus beg for his life. But here Schmidt is unshakable: “It is better to die than to betray a debt,” he writes in his will to his son.
"... My faith is firm that in Russia the socialist system is not far off, and perhaps we will still live to see all the signs of a revolution, the last revolution, after which humanity will enter the path of endless peaceful perfection, freedom, prosperity, happiness and love! Long live the coming young, happy, free, socialist Russia!" .
“I know that the pillar at which I will stand to accept death,” Schmidt threw in the face of the judges, “will be erected on the verge of two different historical eras of our country ... Not citizen Schmidt, not a bunch of rebellious sailors in front of you, but a hundred millionth Russia, and to her you pronounce your judgment."
At dawn on March 6, 1906, rifle volleys broke out on Berezan Island. The sentence was carried out on lieutenant Peter Schmidt, conductor Sergei Chastnik, gunner Nikolai Antonenko and driver Alexander Gladkov. 48 young sailors from the gunboat "Terets" fired. Behind them stood soldiers ready to fire on the sailors. And the Tertz guns were aimed at the soldiers. Even the convicts, bound, put at gunpoint, were afraid of the tsarist government of Schmidt and his comrades.
Today, the name of Lieutenant Schmidt has become a symbol of the selfless desire for freedom, a symbol of the feat of the Russian intelligentsia. V.I. Lenin highly appreciated the significance of the uprising on the Ochakovo. On November 14, 1905, he wrote: “The uprising in Sevastopol is growing ... The command of the Ochakov was taken over by a 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 vehicles, did their instruments of suppression of the slightest desire for freedom".

Pyotr Schmidt was born into the family of a respected and honored veteran of the first Sevastopol defense. He was a Russian German by his father and mother.

The mother of the future "red" lieutenant E. von Wagner met her future husband Peter Schmidt in the besieged Sevastopol, where she worked in the hospital as a nurse. P. Schmidt's brother, Vladimir, was Admiral Butakov's junior flagship, commanded the Tikhookenskaya squadron, became a member of the Admiralty Council, became an admiral and holder of all orders that were at that time, and then a senator. The uncle treated his nephew like his own son and never left him without attention and care. In addition, he was the godfather of the future lieutenant. Therefore, the career of the young hero was already secured. He easily entered the Marine Corps, but he did not have good relations with fellow students, he was suspected of stealing, no one was friends with him, he was considered a psycho and was not expelled only thanks to his connections.

After graduation, Peter Schmidt is sent as a midshipman to serve in the Baltic Fleet. But the service did not go well at first. Peter's ambitiousness caused rejection by the ship's team.

Schmidt's next act shocked his entire family. He married a street prostitute in order to re-educate her. Her name was Domenika Pavlova. Schmidt's act was a defiant challenge. Michmano was threatened with expulsion from the fleet. At this time, Peter's father dies and only his uncle, a senator, remains of his trump cards. In order to avoid publicity of this case, the uncle sends his nephew to the Pacific squadron and gives him bail to Rear Admiral Chukhin. Uncle thought that the romance of naval service would correct Peter Schmidt, but the opposite happened, he immediately established himself as a quarrelsome person, for 1.5 years of service he was expelled from almost all squadron wardrooms.

Soon, Schmidt began to have mental seizures and he was placed in an appropriate clinic in Nagasaki. After that, the uncle decides to take his nephew to St. Petersburg.

Schmidt's wife, when she found out that he was crazy, went back to the panel while leaving her son to Schmidt. At this time, during a period of mental disorder, he is visited by the idea to build a balloon and fly with bombs to France, why exactly Schmidt hated Paris is unknown.

Further, the uncle arranges Peter for a prestigious service in the Volunteer Fleet. For several years, Schmidt sailed as a senior officer on the Kostroma steamer, then as a captain on the Diana steamer. His health improves markedly.

In 1904, the Russo-Japanese War begins and Schmidt, as a conscript, is called up for the active fleet and appointed senior officer of the Irtysh military transport. The ship became part of the Second Pacific Squadron. The squadron began its passage through three oceans. The Irtysh is sent along the shortest route through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. There was a danger ahead - a meeting with the Japanese fleet. Good opportunity for Schmidt to prove himself, but in Suez he gets off the ship. The reason for his action is difficult to establish now, historians say that he got off the ship because of some disease that he caught in tropical latitudes, or he was again overcome by mental attacks.

Peter Schmidt understood that the Second Squadron had no chance, it was simply doomed to death, but all the sailors knew this, but they remained on the ship and did not get off, as Peter did. You can’t call him a hero here ... In the Tsushima battle, the entire crew of the Irtysh military transport also heroically perishes. Most of the squadron was staffed by civilians, they could not be forced to die at all, but people fought for their fatherland, unlike Schmidt, they were heroes.

Uncle transfers Schmidt to the Black Sea Fleet, which did not participate in the war with Japan. Then Chukhin was appointed commander of the fleet. The boss and the subordinate met again. To make it easier for Peter to serve, Chukhin appoints him commander of a small destroyer. Despite the fact that the Black Sea Fleet did not participate in the battles, it still remained in full combat readiness.

Some mysterious committee is formed in 1905, its goal was to form a republic in the south of Russia. The committee members appoint Schmidt as protector of the South Russian Republic. The uprising in Odessa began on the morning of June 13, 1905. During the uprising, Schmidt was in Odessa, but did not show himself in any way. Events unfolded so rapidly that he decided to return to Ishmael. And then events take a steeper turn.

Schmidt steals the money of the destroyer detachment entrusted to him (almost 2500 gold) and deserts. The reason for this act was probably fear against the backdrop of the Odessa events. But here it was no longer a psychiatric hospital crying for him, but a tribunal.

Schmidt began to travel from Kerch to Kyiv, squandering government money. In Kyiv, a lady Zinaida Risberg pays attention to an officer at a horse race. It seemed very strange to her to see an officer at the races when there was a war, and even with a large sum of money. They began an affair, but ended just as quickly, because Schmidt simply ran out of money. After that, the lady quickly disappeared. Schmidt learns that he went unnoticed in the Odessa events and he will only have to answer for desertion and theft of public money. With the beginning of autumn, the activity of the Odessa committee members in Sevastopol sharply intensified, and the lieutenant was supposed to appear there. Therefore, Schmidt had no choice but to go and give up. But in this case, he does it very well. He does not go to Izmail, but goes to Sevastopol and telegraphs his uncle for help. Regarding desertion, he comes up with a version according to which he was forced to leave because of family problems with his sister in order to help her. Schmidt had a good relationship with his sister and she could help him arrange an alibi for himself. As for the money, he claims that he was robbed on the train. But later he has to confess under the pressure of facts.

The uncle pays off his nephew's debts from his own pocket. Schmidt is fired after his uncle's petition and is not imprisoned. At this time, peace negotiations are underway with Japan. The uncle provides the nephew with the opportunity to return as a captain in the commercial fleet. Immediately after the dismissal order, Schmidt began to actively speak at rallies in Sevastopol. He does this expansively and does not spare himself. After another rally, Schmidt is arrested. Chukhin is powerless in this, since the gendarmerie took up Peter. A retired lieutenant is sent to prison. Now he is not just a retired lieutenant, but a martyr for freedom! The Socialist-Revolutionaries elect him for life as a deputy of the Sevastopol City Council. In order not to escalate the situation in the city, Schmidt is released from prison on the promise that he will leave Sevastopol. Schmidt, of course, promises, but when he goes out of the gate, he forgets about this promise. And a few days later he is announced at the head of the uprising on the cruiser "Ochakov".

By the time Schmidt appeared on the Ochakovo, nothing had yet been decided about the rebellion. No one yet knew who the crews of the ships of the Sevastopol squadron and the soldiers of the garrison would follow. The chances of success were high. Several ships had already joined the rebellious Ochakov, and the rest of the teams were worried. The fact that it was not possible to win over most of the fleet to its side is primarily the fault of Schmidt himself. Schmidt's mental state left much to be desired. The uprising was in full swing and not a single shot had yet been fired at Ochakov. According to eyewitnesses, Schmidt missed many opportunities to attack while the command hesitated.

In the morning, none of the ironclads joined Schmidt. Finally, he realized that something had to be done. He put on the shoulder straps of a captain of the 2nd rank and raised a signal on the destroyer: “I command the fleet. Schmidt! - and went around the ships of the squadron, agitating the sailors to join him. Bypassing the squadron and shouting slogans calling for the fight for freedom, he returned to the rebel cruiser with nothing. When it was clear that no more help could be expected from Ochakov, the revolutionary enthusiasm on the ships of the squadron abruptly faded. The opportunity to reverse the situation in their favor was completely lost.

Chukhin quickly assessed the situation and immediately put things in order with his "iron" hand. Schmidt at this time had another hysteria. "Ochakov" was facing an artillery battle. Despite the fact that "Ochakov" was standing at the exit from the bay, he could not sail - there was no coal. When Schmidt realized that no one would help him, he again fell into hysterics. He gathers the sailors and talks about their defeat, although the battle has not even begun.

Chukhin sends a truce to Schmidt with a proposal to surrender. To which Schmidt replies that he will only talk to his classmates in the Naval Corps. Several officers, with whom he studied, are immediately sent to Schmidt. But as soon as he stepped onto the deck, Schmidt takes them prisoner. Schmidt declares to Chukhin that after each shot at the cruiser, he will hang one officer on the yardarms. Chukhin, despite the demands, puts forward an ultimatum that Ochakov should surrender within an hour. At 16:00, the ultimatum expires. The squadron ships fire several shots at the rebel ship.

To delay the defeat, Schmidt tries to attack government ships with torpedoes. It also brings the Bug mine transport to the Ochakov board, which at that time was loaded with 300 mines, which is 1200 pounds of pyroxylin. Schmidt does this with the aim of blackmailing Chukhin and in this way he wants to protect himself from shelling. Lieutenant Schmidt wanted to take the whole of Sevastopol hostage. Exploding, "Bug" would have claimed thousands of lives. But the "Bug" team managed to flood their ship and deprived Schmidt of his "trump card".

The Black Sea Fleet was not going to destroy its newest cruiser, Chukhin's task was to force the rebels to cease fire and surrender. When the rebels surrendered, the command stopped shelling the Ochakov. According to official figures, only 6 volleys were fired at the cruiser. During the volleys, Commander Schmidt showed himself to be a complete nonentity, probably another hysteria began in him, this was confirmed by the participants in the uprising at Ochakovo.

Schmidt does the same as when he was in command of the Irtysh and deserts from the Ochakov, he was the first to leave the ship with his son immediately after the start of the shelling. Subsequently, Schmidt justified his act by saying that he left the ship after the fire, when there was nothing to do there. At full speed, Schmidt on a destroyer headed for the exit from the bay. It is believed that he wanted to flee to Turkey. After the "red lieutenant" once again refused to surrender, his destroyer was hit with several accurate volleys and the ship was captured. During the initial inspection, the ship was not found, it was found later. He hid in the most shameful way under the rubble, he was wearing a sailor's uniform and he tried to pass himself off as a stoker. But despite his cunning, he was identified.

Then there was a loud trial and execution of the lieutenant on the island of Berezan. Schmidt had done his job and now had to leave. He achieved his goal - after his death, the whole world started talking about him.

The year 1917 came and Schmidt's name became popular again. The fact that few people knew about his exploits served as an impetus for the creation of various legends and the exploitation of his name by all who needed it.

It must also be said that no one knows the true political views of Peter Schmidt. It is only known that he was an active supporter of the convocation of the Constituent Assembly. The cultivated romantic image of Schmidt, as a lone wrestler, capable of giving his life, also raises doubts. Repeated desertions prove otherwise.

Lieutenant Schmidt was not a member of any party. But when passions boiled in Sevastopol, he immediately joined the opposition and became its activist. He was a good speaker and participated in anti-government rallies, spoke sharply and energetically, for which he was arrested. His mental attacks at rallies were evaluated by the public as a revolutionary obsession for a common idea.

Meanwhile, after the execution of Schmidt, revolutionary passions in the country continued to boil. Young people began to appear at the rallies, calling themselves "children of Lieutenant Schmidt", who spoke on behalf of their father, who died for freedom. They called for revenge for the death of their father-hero, to fight against the tsarist regime. The children of Lieutenant Schmidt made good collections at rallies, many did not spare money to donate money to help the revolution. The sons of the lieutenant divorced all over Russia, moreover, the daughters of the lieutenant began to appear. Since until then the real son of Lieutenant Schmidt was unknown and there was nowhere to get accurate data, the newspapermen described him in their own way. Thus, each newspaper gave birth to its own son, Lieutenant Schmidt.

Then the sons of Lieutenant Schmidt began to breed, who had nothing to do with the party. Newspapermen almost every day wrote about the capture of another lieutenant's son. For about a year, the children of Lieutenant Schmidt flourished, and then, when the rallies ended with the decline of revolutionary sentiment, where it was possible to bypass the crowd with a hat to develop the revolution, they disappeared somewhere, changed their repertoire.

In Soviet times, the children of Lieutenant Schmidt were born in the 20s, exactly coinciding with the chronology of Ilf and Petrov's novel The Golden Calf. In 1925, marking the twentieth anniversary of the revolution, the veterans discovered that almost nothing was known about its heroes in the country. The party press reacted instantly and the names of the counter-revolutionaries began to revive in the newspapers. The record holder was Lieutenant Peter Schmidt, and this gave birth to new children of the lieutenant, who dispersed throughout the Soviet Union.

The true story of the son of Lieutenant Eugene is that in 1917 he joined the "whites" and fought against the "reds". He then fled to Prague and later moved to Paris, where he died in 1951. But making a hero of the revolution out of the lieutenant, the party overlooked this biographical information about his son. In this way a hero was created, and on this soil thousands of children of Lieutenant Schmidt were born.

Today, the name of Lieutenant Schmidt is known to many, even people with little knowledge of Russian. “Children of Lieutenant Schmidt” were mentioned in the novel “The Golden Calf” by Ilf and Petrov, and relatively recently, the well-known KVN team from Tomsk performed under the same name. The debut of the "children" of one of the heroes of the first Russian revolution took place in the spring of 1906, when, according to the verdict of the court, Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt, who led the sailor mutiny on the cruiser Ochakov, was shot. The high-profile trial of the revolutionary, whom everyone knew about, attracted numerous swindlers and swindlers, who flourished in the 1920s.

Schmidt's name has been preserved in history, but not many people know about him. Glorified as a hero of the first Russian revolution, decades later this man moved to the periphery of history. Attitude towards his personality is ambiguous. Usually, Schmidt's assessment directly depends on the person's attitude to the revolutionary events in Russia. For those people who consider the revolution a tragedy of the country, this character and the attitude towards him are 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 (February 5 (12), 1867 - March 6 (19), 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, this is a nickname that is firmly entrenched in history. His last naval rank was captain of the 2nd rank. The rank of junior fleet officer “lieutenant”, which did not exist at that time, was invented and “assigned” to him in order to maintain a class approach and explain the transition of the full admiral’s nephew to the side of the revolution. According to the verdict of the court, Peter Schmidt was shot 110 years ago, on March 19, 1906, according to the new style.

The future famous, albeit unsuccessful revolutionary, was born in a family of very high origin. He was the sixth child in the family of a respected nobleman, hereditary naval officer, rear admiral and later mayor of Berdyansk, Petr 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 at that time in Russia. 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, and played the violin. Even in his youth, from his mother, he inherited the ideas of democratic freedom, which subsequently influenced his life.

In 1876, the future "red lieutenant" entered the Berdyansk men's gymnasium, which after his death would be named after him. He studied at the gymnasium until 1880, having entered the St. Petersburg Naval School after graduation. After graduating in 1886, Peter Schmidt was promoted to midshipman and assigned to the Baltic Fleet. Already on January 21, 1887, he was sent on a six-month vacation and transferred to the Black Sea Fleet. The reasons for the vacation are called different, according to some sources, it was associated with a nervous attack, according to others - because of the young officer's radical political views and frequent quarrels with personnel.

Peter Schmidt among his colleagues has always stood out for his eccentricity of thinking and diverse interests. At the same time, the young naval officer was an idealist - he was disgusted by the harsh morals that were common in the fleet at that time. "Cane" discipline and beating of the lower ranks seemed to Peter Schmidt something monstrous and alien. At the same time, he himself, in relations with subordinates, was quickly able to gain the glory of a liberal.

At the same time, the matter was not only in the features of service in the Navy. Schmidt considered the very foundations of tsarist Russia to be unfair and wrong. So the officer of the fleet 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 lover was a prostitute, which Schmidt did not stop. Perhaps, his passion for the work of Dostoevsky also affected. One way or another, he decided to marry the girl and take care of her re-education.

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 Eugene. It was Eugene who was the only real son of "Lieutenant Schmidt". Together with his wife, Schmidt lived for 15 years, after which their marriage broke up, but the son stayed with his father. The father of Peter Schmidt did not accept his marriage and could not understand, having died soon after (1888). After the death of his father, Vladimir Petrovich Schmidt, a war hero, admiral, and, for some time now, a senator, took patronage over the young officer. He managed to hush up the scandal with the marriage of his nephew and send him to serve on the gunboat "Beaver" of the Siberian Flotilla of the Pacific Squadron. The patronage and connections of the uncle helped Peter Schmidt almost until the very Sevastopol uprising in 1905.

In 1889, Schmidt decides to retire from military service. Leaving the service, he refers to a "nervous disease." In the future, with every conflict, his opponents will make allusions to his mental problems. At the same time, Pyotr Schmidt really in 1889 could undergo treatment in the private hospital of Dr. Savey-Mogilevich for the nervous and mentally ill in Moscow. One way or another, having retired from 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 upon landing and was forced to give up his hobby.

In 1892, he was again restored to 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 applied for a 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 very well paid. At the same time, the employers were satisfied with the professional skills of Peter Schmidt, and there was no trace of the “stick” discipline, which he simply hated. From 1901 to 1904, Schmidt was the captain of the passenger and merchant ships Igor, Polezny, and Diana. During 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 to read and write and navigate.

On April 12, 1904, due to martial law, Russia was at war with Japan, Schmidt was called up from the reserve 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 with a load of coal and uniforms left in pursuit of the squadron that had already left for Port Arthur. A tragic fate awaited the Second Pacific Squadron - it almost completely died 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 an exacerbation of kidney disease. His kidney problems began after an injury he received while taking a great interest in aeronautics.

Propaganda activities, which were directed in support of the revolution, Schmidt begins to conduct in the summer of 1905. In early October, he organizes in Sevastopol the Union of Officers - Friends of the People, and then takes part in the creation of the Odessa Society for Mutual Assistance of Merchant Marine Sailors. Conducting propaganda among officers and sailors, he called himself a non-party socialist. The Tsar's Manifesto of October 17, 1905, which guaranteed "the unshakable foundations of civil freedom on the basis of real inviolability of the person, freedom of conscience, speech, assembly and associations," Peter Schmidt meets with genuine jubilation. Dreams of a new, more just structure of Russian society were about to come true. On October 18, in Sevastopol, Schmidt, along with the crowd, goes to the city prison, demanding the release of political prisoners. On the outskirts of the prison, the crowd comes under fire from government troops: 8 people were killed, about 50 were wounded. For Schmidt, this becomes a real shock.

On October 20, at the funeral of the dead, he takes an oath, which later became known as the “Schmidt Oath”. For delivering a speech to the crowd, he was immediately arrested for propaganda. This time, even his well-connected uncle could not help his unlucky nephew. On November 7, 1905, Peter Schmidt was dismissed with the rank of captain of the 2nd rank; the authorities were not going to judge 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 "deputy of the Soviet for life", and soon, under pressure from the broad masses, he was released from the ship on bail.

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 from 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, having arrived 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 main thing in his life and 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 a 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 rebellious cruiser and urged him 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 on it was crushed, and Schmidt and other leaders of the rebellion were arrested. The recovery of the cruiser from the consequences of this battle lasted more than three years.

Cruiser "Ochakov"

The trial of Pyotr Schmidt took place behind closed doors in Ochakovo. The officer who joined the rebel sailors was accused of having been preparing the rebellion while on active duty. The trial ended on February 20, Peter Schmidt, as well as three sailors of the instigators of the uprising on the Ochakovo, were sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out on March 6 (March 19, according to the new style), 1906. The condemned were shot on the island of Berezan. The execution was commanded by Mikhail Stavraki, a childhood friend and fellow student of Schmidt at the school. 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 to reburial Pyotr Schmidt was given by Admiral Alexander Kolchak. In May of the same year, the Minister of War and Naval Affairs of Russia Alexander Kerensky laid the St. George Cross on the grave of Schmidt. 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 in the ranks of the most revered heroes of the revolutionary movement, being among them all the years of Soviet power.

Based on materials from open sources

November 14 (27) led the rebellion 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 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.

Throwing out the admiral's flag on the Ochakovo and giving a signal: "I command the fleet, Schmidt," with the expectation that this would immediately attract the entire squadron to the uprising, he sent his cruiser to the Prut in order to free the Potemkinites. No resistance was offered. "Ochakov" took the convict sailors on board and went around the entire squadron with them. A salutatory "cheers" sounded from all the ships. Several of the ships, including the battleships "Potemkin" and "Rostislav", raised the red banner; on the latter, however, it fluttered for only a few minutes.

November 15 at 9 a.m. In the morning, a red flag was hoisted on Ochakovo. Against the insurgent cruiser, the government immediately began hostilities. On November 15, at 3 pm, a naval battle began, and at 4:45 pm. the tsarist fleet has already won a complete victory. Schmidt, along with other leaders of the uprising, was arrested.

Death and funeral

Schmidt, along with his associates, was sentenced to death by a closed naval court, held in Ochakovo from February 7 to February 18, 1906. The surrender of a retired captain of the second rank Schmidt to a court-martial was illegal [ ], since the court-martial had the right to judge only those who were on active military service. Prosecutors alleged that Schmidt allegedly plotted while still a lieutenant on active duty. Schmidt's lawyers convincingly refuted this unproven fact by the fact that, for patriotic reasons, Schmidt, who voluntarily entered active service during the Russo-Japanese War, was considered to be subject to a court-martial illegally, since for health reasons he was not subject to conscription, regardless of his patriotic impulse, state his health is quite obvious, and his legitimate military rank is the rank of naval lieutenant, which did not exist for many years, the betrayal of which to a court-martial is not just a legal incident, but flagrant lawlessness.

On February 20, a verdict was passed, according to which Schmidt and 3 sailors were sentenced to death.

On May 8 (21), 1917, after the plans of the masses under the influence of a revolutionary impulse became known, to dig up the ashes of "counter-revolutionary admirals" - participants in the Defense of Sevastopol during the Crimean War and in their place to rebury Lieutenant Schmidt and his comrades who were shot for participation in the November 1905 Sevastopol uprising, the remains of Schmidt and the sailors shot with him were, by order of the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral A. V. Kolchak, expeditedly transported to Sevastopol, where they were temporarily buried in the Intercession Cathedral. This order of Kolchak made it possible to bring down the heat of revolutionary passions on the Black Sea Front and finally stop all talk about the exhumation of the remains of admirals who died during the Crimean War and rested in the Vladimir Cathedral of Sevastopol.

11/14/1923 Schmidt and his comrades were reburied in Sevastopol at the city cemetery Kommunarov. The monument on their grave was made of a stone that previously stood on the grave of the commander of the battleship "Prince Potemkin" - Tauride, captain of the 1st rank E. N. Golikov, who died in 1905. For the pedestal, they used granite confiscated from former estates and left after the erection of a monument to Lenin.

A family

Awards

• Medal "In memory of the reign of Emperor Alexander III", 1896.
• In May 1917, Minister of War and Naval A.F. Kerensky laid an officer’s St. George’s Cross on Schmidt’s gravestone.

Ratings

Retired captain of the second rank Pyotr Schmidt was the only known officer of the Russian Navy who joined the revolution of 1905-1907. To explain the transition of the nephew of the Admiral General to the side of the revolution by the class struggle, Peter Schmidt was "assigned" the rank of junior officer of the fleet - lieutenant. So, on November 14, 1905, V. I. Lenin wrote: “The uprising in Sevastopol is growing ... The command of“ Ochakov ”was taken by a retired lieutenant Schmidt ..., the Sevastopol events mark the complete collapse of the old, slavish order in the troops, the order that turned soldiers into armed machines, made them instruments of suppression of the slightest aspirations for freedom.

At the trial, Schmidt stated that if he had really prepared a conspiracy, then the conspiracy would have won, and he agreed to lead the uprising that was being prepared by the left and broke out without his participation only in order to avoid the massacre of all representatives of the privileged classes and non-Russians by the sailors and to introduce the rebellion into a constitutional channel.

Memory

Since Schmidt streets are located in several cities on different banks of the Taganrog Bay, journalists talk about the informal “widest street in the world” (tens of kilometers) (the official record holder - 110 meters - is  9 July Street in Buenos Aires, Argentina).

The P.P. Schmidt Museum in Ochakov was opened in 1962, at present the museum is closed, some of the exhibits were moved to the former Palace of Pioneers.

Since 1926, P.P. Schmidt has been an honorary member of the Sevastopol Council of Working People's Deputies.

Lieutenant Schmidt in art

• The story "The Black Sea" (chapter "Courage") by Konstantin Paustovsky.
• Poem "Lieutenant Schmidt" by Boris Pasternak.
• The novel-chronicle "I swear by the earth and the sun" by Gennady Alexandrovich Cherkashin.
• The film "Post novel" (1969) (in the role of Schmidt - Alexander Parr) - the story of the complex relationship between P. P. Schmidt and Zinaida Rizberg (in her role - Svetlana Korkoshko) based on their correspondence.
• "Lieutenant Schmidt" - painting by Zhemerikin Vyacheslav Fedorovich (oil on canvas), 1972 (Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts)

• In Ilf and Petrov's novel The Golden Calf, "thirty sons and four daughters of Lieutenant Schmidt" are mentioned - fraudulent impostors roaming the outback and begging for material assistance from local authorities, under the name of their famous "father". O. Bender became the thirty-fifth descendant of Lieutenant Schmidt. The real son of Pyotr Petrovich - Evgeny Schmidt-Zavoisky (memoirs about his father were published under the name "Schmidt-Ochakovsky") - was a Socialist-Revolutionary and an emigrant.
• In Berdyansk, the name of P.P. Schmidt is the central city park, named after his father, the founder of the park, and not far from the entrance to the park near the Palace of Culture. N. A. Ostrovsky installed a pair of sculptures (works by G. Frangulyan), depicting the “sons of Lieutenant Schmidt” sitting on a bench - Ostap Bender and Shura Balaganov.
• In the film "Vodovozov V. V. // Encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
• "Crimean Herald", 1903-1907.
• "Historical Bulletin". 1907, no. 3.
• Vice Admiral G.P. Chukhnin. According to colleagues. SPb. 1909.
• Neradov I.I. Red Admiral: [Lieutenant P.P. Schmidt]: a true story from the revolution of 1905. Moscow: Will, .
• Calendar of the Russian Revolution. From-in "Rose", St. Petersburg, 1917.
• Lieutenant Schmidt: letters, memoirs, documents / P. P. Schmidt; ed. and foreword. V. Maksakov. - M.: New Moscow, 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 PPSh)
• Genkin I. L. Lieutenant Schmidt and the uprising on the 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.
• "Katorga and exile". M. 1925-1926.
• Karnaukhov-Kraukhov V.I. Red lieutenant. - M., 1926. - 164 p.
• 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. Works. M. 1954.
• The 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.
• V. Long. Purpose. Novel. Kaliningrad. 1976.
• R. Melnikov. Cruiser Ochakov. Leningrad. "Shipbuilding". 1982.
• Popov M. L. Red Admiral. Kyiv, 1988
• V. Ostretsov. Black Hundred and Red Hundred. M. Military Publishing. 1991.
• S. Oldenburg. 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. Zamoysky. 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.
• L. Nozdrina, T. Vaishlya. Guide to the memorial house-museum of P. P. Schmidt. Berdyansk, 2009.
• I. Gelis. November uprising in Sevastopol in 1905.
• F. P. Rerberg. Historical secrets of great victories and inexplicable defeats

Notes

1. According to some reports, having unexpectedly received an inheritance after the death of his maternal aunt, A. Ya. Esther, Schmidt, with his wife and little Zhenya, leaves for Paris and enters Eugene Godard's aeronautics school. Under the name of Leon, Aera is trying to master ballooning. But the chosen enterprise did not promise success, the family was in poverty, and at the beginning of 1892 they moved to Poland, then to Livonia, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, where the flights of Leon Aer also did not give the desired fees. In Russia, on one of his demonstration flights, a retired lieutenant suffered an accident, and as a result, for the rest of his life, he suffered from kidney disease caused by a hard impact of a balloon basket on the ground. Further flights had to be stopped, the Schmidts ran into debt for the hotel. The balloon, along with the flight support equipment, had to be sold.. “In the midst of the ball, during a respite in dancing, the senior officer of the Anadyr transport Muravyov, who was dancing with a blue-eyed, blond beauty, Baroness Krudener, was sitting and talking with his lady. At this time, the senior officer of the Irtysh transport 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 shrieked and fainted; several people from those sitting nearby rushed towards her, and the lieutenants grappled in a deadly fight and, striking each other, fell to the floor, continuing to fight. From under them, like from under fighting dogs, pieces of paper, confetti, and cigarette butts flew. The picture was disgusting. Captain Zenov was the first to rush to the fighters of the 178th Infantry Regiment, his example was followed by other officers who pulled the fighters by force. Immediately they were arrested and sent to the port. When they were taken out into the hallway, the large windows of crystal glass overlooking Kurgauzsky Prospekt, where hundreds of cab drivers stood in line, Schmidt grabbed a heavy yellow chair and threw it into the glass. According to Rerberg, Schmidt staged this incident specifically in order to be expelled from the service. Fragment from the memoirs of the Chief of Staff of the Libava Fortress F.P. Here Schmidt saw Lieutenant D., who in the days of their youth was the cause of his family drama. Since then, he has not met D., but he did not forget his promise to “settle accounts” at the first meeting. On that ill-fated evening, many years later, this meeting took place, and when the dancing was over and almost the entire audience had dispersed, Schmidt went up to D. and, without much conversation, hit him in the face. /G. K. Graf “Essays from the life of a naval officer. 1897-1905./
, p. 166 Links

Birth, early years

Born on February 5 (17), 1867 in Odessa in the family of a nobleman. His father, Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt, was a hereditary naval officer, later 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 Naval School. After graduating from the Naval School, he was promoted to midshipman on the exam and assigned to the Baltic Fleet.

Achievement list

• 09/12/1880 entered the junior preparatory class of the Naval School
• 12/14/1885 was awarded the rank of midshipman.
• 09/29/1886 - graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps 53rd according to the list and by order of the Naval Department No. 307, he was promoted to the midshipman's exam and was assigned to the Baltic Fleet.
• In 1886 he was enrolled in the 8th naval crew.
• On 01/01/1887, midshipman Schmidt began his duties in the training rifle 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 a transfer to the Black Sea Fleet due to an unsuitable climate."
• 07/17/1888 By order of His Imperial Highness General-Admiral for the Maritime 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.
• On 12/5/1888, by the highest order of the Maritime 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 squadron.
• In 1889, he filed a petition to the Highest Name: “My painful condition makes it impossible for me to continue serving Your Imperial Majesty, and therefore I ask you to dismiss me.”
• 10.03-10.04.1889 he underwent a course of treatment in the "private clinic of the doctor" Savey-Mogilevich for the nervous and mentally ill in Moscow.
• 06/24/1889 By the highest order of the Maritime Department No. 467, he was dismissed from service due to illness, lieutenant (due to violation of the officer code on the issue of marriage). He lived in Berdyansk, Taganrog, Odessa, went to Paris.
• On March 27, 1892, he applied to the highest name "for admission to the naval service."
• On June 22, 1892, the retired lieutenant of the 2nd naval Black Sea crew, by the Highest Order of the Maritime Department No. 631, was assigned to the service with the previous rank of midshipman with enrollment in the 18th naval crew as a watch officer on the 1st rank cruiser "Rurik" under construction.
• On March 5, 1894, by order of His Imperial Highness General-Admiral of the Maritime Department No. 23, he was transferred from the Baltic Fleet to the Siberian Navy crew. Appointed watch officer of the destroyer Yanchikhe, then the cruiser Admiral Kornilov.
• For 1894 and 1895 - Schmidt (3rd).
• 12/6/1895 By the highest order of the Maritime Department No. 59, he was promoted to lieutenant, along the line, on the basis of Art. 118 and 128, bk. VIII Code of Maritime Regulations, continued in 1892
• Until 04.1896, the staff officer of the LD "Strongman", transport "Ermak".
• On April 4, 1896, by order of the commander of the Vladivostok port, he was appointed watch officer of the fire department, the gunboat Gornostai.
• In 1896-1897 he was a watchman and company commander of the Beaver KL. In foreign voyages: 1896-1897 on KL "Bobr". Last voyage in 1897.
• On January 14, 1897, he was sent to the Nagasaki Coastal Infirmary for treatment from the disease of neurasthenia.
• 20.02-1.03.1897 was treated at the coastal infirmary in Nagasaki, then recalled to Vladivostok.
• Until the end of August 1897 - and. d. senior staff officer 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 filed 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 the suppression of the strike and for reporting on commander N.F. Yuryev, who was associated with poachers.
• On 10/28/1897, the order of the commander of the Vladivostok port, Rear Admiral G. Chukhnin follows: “... As a result of the report of Lieutenant Schmidt, I suggest that the chief doctor of the Vladivostok hospital, V. N. Popov, appoint a commission of doctors and, with a deputy from the Crew, examine the health of Lieutenant Schmidt ... The act of the commission is to provide to me".
• 08.1897-07.1898 chief of the watch at the fire department of the Vladivostok raid.
• In August 1898, after a conflict with the commander of the Pacific squadron, he filed a request for dismissal to the reserve.
• On September 24, 1898, by order of the Naval Department No. 204, Lieutenant Schmidt was dismissed from service in the fleet reserve for the second time, but with the right to serve in the commercial fleet.
• In 1898 he entered the service of the Volunteer Fleet. 2nd assistant to the captain of the P / H "Kostroma" (served 2 years).
• In 1900, he transferred to the service of the Russian Society of Shipping and Trade (ROPiT)
• In 1900-1901. senior assistant to the captain of the P / H "Olga".
• In 1901 he was appointed captain of the Igor military camp.
• In 1901-1902. Captain P / H "Saint Nicholas", "Useful".
• In 1903-1904. Captain of the P / H "Diana".
• 04/12/1904, due to wartime circumstances, Peter Schmidt, as a fleet reserve officer, was again called up for active military service and sent to the Black Sea Fleet headquarters with enrollment in the 33rd naval crew.
• 05/2/1904 By the highest order of the Maritime Department No. 541, he was assigned to the service, from 03/30/1904
• On May 14, 1904, he was appointed senior officer to the Irtysh coal transport, assigned to the 2nd Pacific squadron, which in December 1904, with a load of coal and uniforms, followed the squadron.
• 06/12/1904 in the rank of being in the fleet reserve.
• In September 1904, he was arrested in Libava for 10 days with a sentry, for a disciplinary act (publicly insulting another fleet officer).
• In 1904 he was in the 9th naval crew.
• For 1904 - Schmidt (3rd).
• In January 1905, she was decommissioned in Port Said from the TR due to illness (kidney attack) and departed for Sevastopol.
• On February 21, 1905, by order of His Imperial Highness General-Admiral of the Maritime Department No. 36, he was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet with secondment to the 28th naval crew.
• 02/21/1905 By order of the Maritime 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 in front of the eyes of the crowd he was convulsing.
• At the end of October 1905 he was arrested for anti-government propaganda. During the investigation and the audit carried out at his place of service, it turned out that in 1905 he stole the cash register of the destroyer detachment entrusted to him (2 MM), (more than 2500 rubles), deserted, traveled around the cities, between Kyiv and Kerch, wasting government money. He gave explanations for his act: “I lost state money while riding a bicycle along Izmail.” The spent amount was reimbursed from his own funds by his uncle senator, Admiral V.P. Schmidt (1827-1909).
• November 7, 1905 By the highest order of the Naval Department, he was dismissed from service as a lieutenant.
• On November 14, 1905, he boarded the Ochakov cruise ship as the head of the insurgent 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 Ochakovo, it was decided to take a number of offensive actions both at sea and in Sevastopol itself: seize ships and arsenals, arrest officers, etc. But the fleet under the leadership of Schmidt did not take active actions. The next day the rebellion was crushed.

Revolution of 1905

• At the beginning of the Revolution of 1905, he organized in Sevastopol the "Union of Officers - Friends of the People", then participated in the creation of the "Odessa Society for Mutual Assistance of Merchant Navy Sailors". Conducting propaganda among sailors and officers, Schmidt called himself a non-party socialist.
• On October 18 (31), Schmidt led a crowd of people who surrounded 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 delivered 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 types of weapons, including seven ships, invited the retired naval lieutenant Schmidt, who gained great popularity during the October rallies, to lead the military. "He courageously accepted the invitation and from that day on became the head of the movement."
• November 14 (27) led the rebellion 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 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 15th at 9:00 a.m. in the morning, a red flag was hoisted at Ochakovo. Against the rebellious armadillo, the government immediately opened hostilities. On November 15, at 3 p.m., a naval battle began, and at 4:45 p.m. the tsarist fleet has already won a 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 Working People's Deputies.

Death and funeral

Schmidt, along with his associates, was sentenced to death by a closed naval court, which took place in Ochakovo from February 7 to February 18, 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 (a member of the revolutionary ship committee), the machinist A. Gladkov and the senior battalion S. Chastnik. On 8 (21) 05/1917, the remains of Schmidt and the sailors shot with him were transferred to Sevastopol by order of Kolchak, where a temporary burial took place in the Intercession Cathedral.

In May 1917, Minister of War and Naval A.F. Kerensky laid an 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 the Communards. A monument was erected on their grave, which previously lay on the grave of the commander of the battleship Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky, captain of the 1st rank E. N. Golikov, who died in 1905.

Memory

The name of Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt is worn by streets in the cities: Vyazma, Berdyansk, Tver (Boulevard), Vladivostok, Yeysk, Gatchina, Egorievsk, Kazan, Murmansk, Bobruisk, Nizhny Tagil, Novorossiysk, Odessa, Pervomaisk, Ochakov, Samara, Sevastopol, Simferopol, Taganrog , Kirovograd, Kremenchug, Kamenets-Podolsky, Khabarovsk, Kharkiv, Lyubotin. Embankments in St. Petersburg and the city of Velikiye Luki are named after Lieutenant Schmidt, the Blagoveshchensky Bridge in St. Petersburg was named after Lieutenant Schmidt from 1918 to August 14, 2007. Also, the Lieutenant Schmidt yacht, the plant named after Lieutenant Schmidt in Baku are named after Schmidt. In 1968, architects N. Galkina and V. Ochakovsky erected a monument in memory of the executed leaders of the uprising on Berezan Island in 1968. The P.P. Schmidt Museum in the city of Ochakovo was opened in 1962, at present 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.
• The novel-chronicle "I swear by the Earth and the Sun" by Gennady Aleksandrovich Cherkashin.
• The film "Post novel" (1969) (in the role of Schmidt - Alexander Parra) - the story of the complex relationship between P. P. Schmidt and Zinaida Rizberg based on their correspondence.
• Ilf and Petrov's novel The Golden Calf mentions "thirty sons and four daughters of Lieutenant Schmidt" - fraudulent impostors seeking subsidies from government bodies under the name of their famous "father". O. Bender became the thirty-fifth descendant of Lieutenant Schmidt.
• In the film "Let's 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

Pyotr Schmidt was the only Russian Navy officer who joined the revolution of 1905-1907. On November 14, 1905, V. I. Lenin wrote: “The uprising in Sevastopol is growing… The command of Ochakov was taken over by a retired lieutenant Schmidt…, the Sevastopol events mark the complete collapse of the old, slavish order in the troops, the order that turned soldiers into armed vehicles, made them instruments of suppression of the slightest aspirations for freedom.

A family

Son: Schmidt, Evgeny Petrovich

Bibliography

• "Crimean Herald", 1903-1907.
• "Historical Bulletin". 1907, no. 3.
• Vice Admiral G.P. Chukhnin. According to colleagues. SPb. 1909.
• Calendar of the Russian Revolution. From-in "Rose", St. Petersburg, 1917.
• Lieutenant Schmidt. Letters, memories, M., 1922
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• Shigin. Unknown Lieutenant Schmidt. "Our Contemporary" No. 10. 2001.
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• F. P. Rerberg. Historical secrets of great victories and inexplicable defeats