The Tsentralka sailor whose killing ignited the Potemkin mutiny; his Odessa funeral became a mass revolutionary demonstration
'To delay means to fail the revolution. At this moment, everywhere, workers and peasants are striking out. We must join the common fight.'
Born into a Ukrainian peasant family in Volhynia, he was conscripted into the Black Sea Fleet in 1898 and became an artillery non-commissioned officer on the battleship Potemkin. He joined the RSDLP in 1903, helped found the Sevastopol Sailors' Tsentralka (Central Committee), and hid a red flag aboard ship as he prepared the fleet-wide uprising. On 27 June 1905, confronting officers over maggot-infested meat, he was mortally wounded by Chief Officer Giliarovsky's rifle; two days later his funeral in Odessa swelled into a mass political demonstration that the Potemkin answered by shelling the city.
Career Timeline
- 1898Conscripted into the Black Sea Fleet
- 1900Graduates mine-artillery school; assigned as gunner, battleship Potemkin
- 1903Joins RSDLP; helps found the Sevastopol Sailors' Tsentralka
- 1905.06.27Mortally wounded by Chief Officer Giliarovsky during the Potemkin mutiny; dies aboard