The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 21, 1926, Page 11

Allmored Cruiser Potemkin Tawrichesky = SE ee ee a ae ee Ce ee ee eee ee St ZHINSKY KREININ, tineers aside and cover the space between them and the rest with a sail. They all understood: it meant execution, The order was given to the guards: “Get ready!” The sailors watched in agony. Vakulinchuk, cried out: “Brothers what are you doing? Don’t shoot!” The guards refused to raise their rifles, In mad rage*the chief officer Giliarovsky pulled out his gun and shot Vakulinchuk dead. Two other gail- ors, Matiushenko and Poprucha, jumped out from the ranks. and shot the officeri The rest of the sailors after that brokes the ranks and attacked the officers. Some were thrown overboard and the others arrested. The craw of the mine sweeper joined the sailors. A meeting of all the sailors was called to discuss the situation. The situation in Odessa was also re- pogted. After a short discussion it was unanimously d ed to go ‘to Odessa and help the revoit -of the ers. A revolutionary committee of 26 was elected an@ Ensign Alexejev .was elected, commander of the cruiser. About 8 oclock in the evening the cruiser ar- rived at Odessa-and cast the anchor. The revolution- ary committeei-held- another..meeting and decided to send two'.sailors-ashore in the morning to inform the revolutionary organizations of the revolt. It was also decided to get good drinking water, coal and provis- ion. Action was taken to have the Sebastopol party organization inform the rest of the fleet of the revolt of the Potemkin and to issue proclamations to the army, Cossacks and the population. Here is one of the proc- lamations: Finally one. of them, “FROM THE CREW OF. THE CRUISER POTEMKIN TAWRICHESKY. “We ask all the. Cossacks and soldiers to put down their arms and Join-us in the battle fot free- dom. The last hour of our sufferings is here, Down. with autocracy! We achieved already lib- erty and are acting without the authority of the officers whom we destroyed. If force will be used against us, we request the population to leave the city. If we meet with resistance the city will _be destroyed.” * whe proclamations were reprinted by the under- round). party. print: shop im;.Odessa and spread all vet the:.city. All night the,cruiser, was playing its searchlights on. the city and the port, .In the meantime the sailors of.the cruiser Ekater- ina et Sebastopol heard of the Potemkin revolt and . refused.to sing the prayer, “Save Us God,” and “Vic- tory to Our Emperor,”. which was compulsory in the army and the navy. They were taken off the battle- . ship. 4 In the morning of June 15 the body of the killed sailor, »Vakulinchuk, was taken ashore and put under @ tent in the port. A guard of honor. was placed. The following note was pinned to the breast of the dead That there are such like you, Who trod the path of thorns | In their search for truth, And then they go... Leaving the seeds of their efforts For the future to reap. | ery not that you are gone, For | rejoice that you once came To follow in the footsteps of struggle. And struggle is life, And life is beautiful... SISO ME Rack iis Ped el bea ee “CITIZENS OF ODESSA “This Is the body of sailor Gregory Vakulin- chuk, who was killed by the chief officer of the armored cruiser, Potemkin Tawrichesky, because he refused to eat the rotten food and (a few words iNegible). Comrades, workers! Honor to his mem- ory. Let us avenge our comrade. Death to the blood-thirsty: vampires, Death to the oppressors. Long live liberty. One for all and all for ‘one, “The Crew. of Potemkin Tawrichesky.” A big crowd of workers and students at once col- lected near the body. A meeting started which lasted all day. A joint meeting of the Potemkin revolution- ary committee and the city revolutionary committees was held. The city committee wanted to capture the city at once, but the Potemkin “committee proposed to wait until the arival of the-rest of the fleet. It was decided to wait. At night shooting began all over the peity. The police and cossacks were shooting at work- ers. A bomb was thrown among the cossacks and thrown around the port and’ firing began. In the morning a’ committee “from the cruiser was sent to the-city administration demanding; ‘under threat of bombarding the city, permission to bury Vakulin- chuk with proper honors. Permission was at once granted. In the meantime the revolutionary commit- tee received information that the military council of the governor was meeting in the city theater. Two shells were fired but did not hit the theater. The funeral was held, but as the sailors of the honor guard did not return to the cruiser in the time agreed, two more shells were fired. Later it was disclosed that the sailors were fired upon by the police and two were killed. f The next morning Potemkin received information that the battleships 12 Apostles, Sinop, and Georgy Pobiedonosec were coming. The revolutionary cruiser at once got up steam and left the port to meet them in the open sea. As soon as the battleships sighted Potemkin, they turned back. Potemkin also returned to port. About noontime five cruisers were sighted and Potemkin again stripped for action and went out to meét them.’ When the crews of the battleships sighted Potenikin, they met her with “hurrah.” The commander was frightened and returned to Sebastopol. One cruiser, Georgy Pobiedonosec did not follow the Test and came up to Potemkin, returning to the port. A committee was elected to take care of the new bat- tleship in revolt, but the committee lacked revolution- ary strategy and permitted some of the ‘loyal’ offitials to remain aboard.’ Phey sucéecded in*taking the ‘ship back to Sebastopol. When the crew finally realized what happened it was too late. Sixty-three of them were arrested, In the meantime the government collected a big army in Odessa and Potemkin was cut off from the shore and was in need of water, coal and provisions. The crew was getting nervous. Some began to de- mand that the cruiser leave the Russian waters, It was finally decided to go to Konstanza, Roumania for provisions. The Roumanian authorities refused any supplies to Potemkin and the cruiser returned to the Russian port Theodosia. Under-threats of bombarding. the city pro- visions .were received from..the city administration. They, were unable to get any coal because there were no. coal loaders in .the port. Near the shore were standing three barges loaded with coal. The revolu- tionary committee decided to take the barges along: to sea. A boatload of twenty-five sailors undér the com- mand of Matiushenko and. Feldman (a student who joined the crew as a worker from the French: Marine Works) were dispatched to take the barges. As soon as the sailors reached the barges a company of in- fantry hidden on shore opened wp fire. One sailor was killed, some wounded and a few captured. The rest returned to the cruiser, Some of the committee insisted on bombarding the city, but a majority Was opposed to it. “This incident brought a crisis to the cruisér.” It was finally decided to go back to Roumania and turn the ¢ruiser over to the Roumanian: government. . Comrade * Christian Ra- kovsky, the present ambassador of the’ Soviet govern- ment in France, was at’ that’ time living in Roumania and he assisted the sailors in settling the matter with the Roumanian government. d That was the end of the “Floating Republic” and’ the “Unconquered revolutionary territory of 1905.” Matiushenko later returned illegally to Russia, was captured and executed in 1907. ; es 2 8 IWENTY years have passed. ‘ Under the revolutionary blows of the vanguard of the Russian ‘proletariat, after the most desperate battles known to mankind, czarism, fhe stronghold of autocracy and capitalism, lies shattered in dust. The last remnants of it are licking the boots of foreign masters, selling their swords and’ souls to the inter- national bandits and marauders. The vast territory of the former empire is ruled over by the revolutionary party of the former oppressed classes—the workers and the peasants—by the All-Union Communist Party, From a land of oppression where all nationalities were living in terror under the iron heel of the cossacks and sub- jected to the exceptional laws, the country is now a free union of many nationalities and all equal before the law. The former prisoners of the czar are now the rulers of the country. It is natural that the memory of those who were the vauguard of the revolution and fought the first battles many were killed. A cordon of* police and‘ soldiers was Doug and Mary in Berlin, Germany, after seeing the famous Soviet film, “The Armored Cruiser Potemkin.” een of revolt in 1905 shall be honored. On the twentieth anniversary of the Potemkin uprising a moving picture depicting the story was made. The hero of the story is the armored cruiser, Potemkin, itself. At present the ship is the property of the Soviet Republic. There are no individual heroes or heroines. No princes or beautiful girls play any part in the picture, The battle ship, the masses, the sailors and the machinery of the’”’ battleship are the heroes. And yet the picture makes a tremendous impression even upon movie critics and actors. In Great Britain where the picture was prohibited, it made a great impression even upon the capitalist newspaper men, when they witnessed a private showing of it. The Manchester Guardian proclaimed it to be one of the greatest films ever made, and the Sunday Observer stated that it was the greatest. The Berlin Tageblatt stated that “Serge Eisenstein (under whose direction the picture was made), with the aid of the victorious revolution has beaten all the hired American film technicians even in the small details.” The picture was shown in many cities of Germany until it was prohibited lately. ' When Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford arrived in Berlin, a private showing of the picture was arranged for them. They were so enthused and so surprised by the picture that they were unable to find enough words to express themselves. Fairbanks finally stated: “It is the greatest picture I have ever seen, and believe me, I have seen enough pictures in my life.” “Who is the director? Why don’t we know him in Hollywood?” inquired Mary Pickford. Both Fairbanks ‘and Pickford later visited Soviet Russia, Finally the film arrived “in the land of the free.” A private showing was arranged in New York for néwspaper men, movie censors, critics and actors. It made a great impression on all of them, They all ad- mitted that it was a great picture, but. the major- ity voted against showing it. All the newspapers with the exception of the Sun, didn’t even mention the film. The Sun stated that it is characteristic that the Union, and that the picture is so realistic and pathetic one forgets it is just a film, and actually lives thru the moments of the revolution. Nevertheless a majority of the protectors of our morals decided that we should not see it. And no won- der, They are afraid even of the shadow of Potemkin. While the story actually happened over twenty years ago, the conditions in the armies and navies of the in Russia under. the czar. The conditions of the work- ers‘and farmers in many cases are worse. What would happen if the soldiers, sailors, workers and farmers after seeing this picture would do a little thinking’? Who can tell what may happen? The rulers of Europe and the United States are be- giuning to shiver and are turning white in their taces when the shadow of Potemkin is training its guns in the film upon London, Berlin, Paris and New York. Who can guarantee that no real guns will follow in the wake of this shadow afterwards? : Therefore they must do to the shadow of Potemkin what the czar attempted to do to the real one: Down with Potemkin! And, . . God save the king! , — sR Tc idea i im tS NAC fA a chk UNI: Ol Cx ec ac eine ieee a allie Sie eee best movie of the year should come from the Soviet * capitalist countries are not much better than they were ' Beg pardon—the country! .