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HISTORY In 1905 The Central Committee of the Social Democratic Organization of the Black Sea Fleet started preparations for a simultaneous crew Uprising on all of the ships of the fleet some time in the fall of 1905. However, at the time of planning ''Potemkin'' was away for firing exercises at Tendra Island and the rebellion broke out on its own on June 14 , spontaneously and prematurely. The uprising was sparked by the second in command of the battleship, who allegedly threatened reprisals against a number of the crew for their refusal to eat rotten meat. Reportedly he mustered the crew on the quarterdeck near where a tarpaulin was laid out and armed marines were drawn up. The sailors assumed that an group execution was pending and rushed the marines (themselves sailors) calling on them not to shoot. The actual events sparking off the mutiny remain uncertain and have been overshadowed by the version presented in the famous Sergei Eisenstein film "The Battleship Potemkin". Certainly discipline in the Tsarist navy was harsh and morale low following defeats in the Russo-Japanese War. The mutineers killed a number of the officers, including Captain Evgeny Golikov, his second in command Ippolit Giliarovsky and the medical officer who had certified the meat as fit to eat. The surviving officers were placed under arrest. One sailor #267. In the evening of that same day, the rebellious battleship came to Odessa flying a Red Flag . A General Strike had been called in Odessa and there was some unrest, for which the arrival of the battleship provided a focus and incentive. However, the representatives of the contact commission of the Odessa Social Democratic parties were not able to convince the battleship crew to land armed sailors and help workers to get weapons and act together. There was division and confusion amongst both sailors and strikers. On '' – joined ''Potemkin''. The joint squadron went to Sevastopol . The three rebellious warships headed for Odessa. The Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party tried to provide support for the ''Potemkin'' uprising. However, Mikhail Vasilyev-Yuzhin , who came to Odessa at the request of Vladimir Lenin to lead the uprising, found the battleship had left the port. In the evening of June 18 , the battleship sailed for Constanta ( Romania ) together with the torpedo boat #267 for fuel and supplies (by that time, ''Georgiy Pobedonosets'' had surrendered to the authorities). On June 20 , the Ship’s Commission issued appeals “To all civilized world” and “To all European powers”, proclaiming the crew’s firm decision to fight against the Tsarist regime. Romania n authorities refused to permit supplies to be sent to the battleship. The same happened in the port of Theodosia on June 22 . On June 25 , ''Potemkin'' returned to Constanta and its crew handed the ship over to the Romanian authorities. Some crewmen returned back to Russia in 1905, only to be arrested and convicted. The majority of the crew returned to Russia after the February Revolution in 1917 . AFTERMATH Romanian authorities later returned the battleship to the Russian government. In October of 1905 it was renamed to ''St. Panteleimon''. In April of 1917 the ship was renamed to ''Potemkin'' once again. However, in May they changed it to ''Freedom Fighter''. In April of 1919 , the interventionists blew it up in Sevastopol. After the Russian Civil War , ''Potemkin'' was raised from the bottom of the sea and dismantled because of irreparable damage. Lenin wrote that the ''Potemkin'' uprising had had a huge importance in terms of being the first attempt at creating the nucleus of the revolutionary army, especially when a big part of the tsarist army sided with the revolution. Lenin called ''Potemkin'' an "undefeated territory of the revolution." The Potemkin uprising had a significant influence on the revolutionizing process in the Russian army and fleet. EXTERNAL LINKS
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