The revolutionary naval officer who raised the red flag over the Black Sea Fleet and demanded a constitution from the Tsar
Schmidt's telegram to Nicholas II: "...demands Your Majesty to immediately call a meeting of the Constituent Assembly, and no longer obeys orders of Your ministers. Commander of the Fleet P. Schmidt."
Born into a family of Imperial Russian Navy officers, he emerged in the tide of the 1905 Revolution as the leader of the Sevastopol naval mutiny. He raised the red flag on the cruiser Ochakov, proclaimed himself Commander of the Black Sea Fleet, and sent a telegram to Nicholas II demanding the convening of a Constituent Assembly. The mutiny was crushed in ninety minutes and he was shot on Berezan Island, but his name was immortalized as "Lieutenant Schmidt" in streets, ships, and monuments across the Soviet Union, and in Boris Pasternak's poem.
Career Timeline
- 1886Graduated Naval Cadet Corps, commissioned michman
- 1888–92Resigned; civilian pursuits including ballooning in Paris
- 1892Re-enlisted in the Imperial Navy
- 1895Promoted to lieutenant
- 1904Recalled to active duty for the Russo-Japanese War
- 1905.10Arrested for revolutionary speech in Sevastopol; freed by crowd pressure
- 1905.11Led Ochakov mutiny, proclaimed himself Commander of the Black Sea Fleet
- 1906.3.19Executed by firing squad on Berezan Island