Valery Sablin

Valery Mikhailovich Sablin (Russian: Валерий Михайлович Саблин; 1 January 1939 – 3 August 1976) was a Soviet Navy officer and member of the Communist Party who in November 1975, while serving as the political officer on the anti-submarine frigate Storozhevoy, led a mutiny against the Soviet state. Sablin's stated aim was to seize control of the ship, sail it from Riga to Leningrad, and broadcast a nationwide address protesting the widespread corruption and stagnation of the Brezhnev era, calling for a return to Leninist principles and a new communist revolution. The mutiny was suppressed by Soviet naval and air forces while the ship was still en route. Sablin was arrested, court-martialed, and convicted of high treason. He was executed by firing squad in August 1976. His second-in-command, Seaman Alexander Shein, was sentenced to eight years in prison. The incident remained largely classified and suppressed by the Soviet government until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The story became known in the West, albeit often inaccurately, and served as the inspiration for Tom Clancy's 1984 novel The Hunt for Red October. In 1994, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation posthumously reviewed Sablin's case, commuting the treason charge to lesser military offenses but upholding the original sentence.