Red Mutiny: Freedom, Revolution, and Revenge on the Battleship Potemkin

The true story of the deadliest naval mutiny in history. For readers of Tom Clancy's Hunt for Red October and Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea, Neal Bascomb's gripping adventure at sea is the story of courage, the power of ideas, and the fragile nature of alliance.In 1905, after being served rancid meat, more than seven hundred Russian sailors mutinied against their officers aboard what was then one of the most powerful battleships in the world. Theirs was a life barely worth living -- a life of hard labor and bitter oppression, an existence, in its hopelessness and injustice, not unlike that of most of the working class in Russia at the time. Certainly their rebellion came as no surprise. Still, against any reasonable odds of success, the sailors-turned-revolutionaries, led by a charismatic firebrand risked their lives to take control of the ship and fly the red flag of revolution. What followed was a violent port-to-port chase that spanned eleven harrowing days and came to symbolize the Russian revolution itself.A pulse-quickening story that alternates between the opulent court of Nicholas II and the razor's-edge tension aboard the Potemkin, Red Mutiny is a tale threaded with terrific adventure, epic naval battles, heroic sacrifices, treachery, bloodlust, and a rallying cry of freedom that would steer the course of the twentieth century. It is also a fine work of scholarship that draws for the first time on the Soviet archives to shed new light on this seminal event in Russian and naval history."[An] elegiac and emotionally involving story...beautifully researched...[A] high-seas drama as gripping as a novel by C.S. Forester or Patrick O'Brian....Bascomb has written a remarkable book about an episode that, once historians get it right, will rank next to Spartacus' uprising against Rome and Washington rallying his troops at Valley Forge." -Los Angeles Times"I can pay this superb book no greater compliment than to admit that, despite knowing the outcome, I was genuinely gripped as the dramatic events unfolded. With this brilliant reassessment, Bascomb has restored the extraordinary story of the Potemkin to its rightful place in Russia's history." -Sunday Telegraph Book Review"An outstandingly good book."-Times of London"A masterful touch and perfect pacing."-Seattle Times"thrilling and judicious." -Boston Globe"A rollicking good yarn, an energetic, colorful account of 11 days that shook the world."-Daily Telegraph"A real page-turner."-Naval History"Bascomb has a knack for writing interesting books about events you're not sure you're all that interested in. Now he turns to the mutiny aboard the battleship Potemkin...His book all but throbs with Russia: vodka, fiery rhetoric, aristocratic snobbiness, peasant resignation, Russian glory, Russian shame and all the rest of the stuff that made Dr. Zhivago such a good movie."-St. Louis Post Dispatch"Bascomb presents the gripping events of June 1905 with sharply focused immediacy and a flair for high drama... In his capable hands, this powerful morality play vividly reminds us never to underestimate a handful of people willing to die for an idea... Bascomb recounts the unfolding events in a believable and authoritative voice... History at its best: readable, dramatic, and propelled by unforgettable principals."-Kirkus, starred review