In this centennial year of the Russian Revolution, much interest is centred on events that took place in Petrograd, imperial Russia’s capital city. Yet a significant amount of revolutionary action in 1917 took place in Sevastopol, Russia’s principal warm-water naval base on the Black Sea. The Crimean city, Russia’s Portsmouth, had form in this respect. Honoured in Russia for its 349-day-long valiant defence in 1854–55 during the Crimean War, Sevastopol also became regarded as a hotbed of discontent.
Widespread civil unrest broke out in 1830 in the wake of a plague epidemic and the consequent isolation of Sevastopol. Military action suppressed a brief rebellion of townsfolk against the local authorities. In 1905, when much of Russia was shaken by revolution, sailors of the Black Sea Fleet mutinied on two separate occasions. In late June, the crew of the battleship Potemkin took control of the warship at sea and steered it to Odessa, events which were immortalised in Sergey Eisenstein’s film of 1925.
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