Iron-clad most of them got away with it (Rating 4 of 5)
» happyreviewer
Other than its ultimately being unsuccessful, before picking up this book I knew next to nothing about the famous mutiny on the battleship Potemkin in 1905. This book told me all I needed to know and made it very exciting! It's also accessible as the author presumes very little background knowledge in his readership and so explains contemporary politics and helps to place the mutiny in some wider historical context. This story surely holds all the ingredients of a page-turner: murder, mutiny, revolution, plots, scheming, double-crossing, a thrilling hunt, tense armed stand-offs, sieges, bravery, sacrifice, stirring speeches! And it got the author it deserved.
The only difficulty I have with the story is the fact that we must surely rely exclusively on the mutineers' own account of what happened as for the most part they were the only witnesses to the events that unfolded. Consequently most of the ringleaders, and especially the leader Matyushenko, are portrayed as demigods with very few human shortcomings or endearing frailties (other than immodesty, presumably). It's difficult to empathise with superheroes. One other slight criticism I have is that this story does drag a little in the middle as the Potemkin steams around the Black Sea wondering what to do and seeking refuge. Again, how is this time accurately accounted for?
But still, this is a really good book. I say 4.5 stars, but not quite 5.
A good read (Rating 3 of 5)
» Mr. Stephen Bradley
First of all this a handsomely presented work that races along like a good novel. The characters that were part of this incident are all fleshed out from the Tsar down to the humble sailor and the reader is treated to such a staggering amount of backgrownd information on the people and the events that you begin to wonder how all this came to light. The fact is there is now much archive material available to the reseacher that was previously denied. I do however have some concerns especially as this book is part of the "battleship" section in these pages. The author has made some assumptions about her design that are simlply incorrect. For example the Potemkin was built before the Retvizan and some aspects of her design were used in that vessel, not the other way round. She was also designed for the Black Sea, had a short range and was comparatively slow so comparing her favorably with some foreign contemporaries is puzzling. In his 1960 book Richard Hough made some reference to her subsequent career, renamings etc that are somewhat sketchily done here. There is also the confusing and sometimes incorrect mixing of Russian and English translated names. It would have been better to have had a small index cum glossary of the ships mentioned and stuck to Russian names as is done with the the people and places involved. For example St. George referes to the Georgi Pobiedonosets, and should be translated as George the Conqueror, Panteilemon is the Saint of the same name. There are others such as the exact types of ships involved being incorrectly classed [ie Griden and Kazarski were neither destroyers or cruisers but torpedo gunboats]and the torpedo boat 267 being referred to as the Izmail when that name had not been used since 1895! Her top speed was also 15, not 25 knots which is a prime reason why she could not outrun even a battleship! A final grouse is in the choice of illustrations. There is not one of the 267 [unlike the Hough 1960 book], the single Potemkin illusration [many excellent ones of which are now obtainable] looks like one of those terrible Soviet era touch ups and the one purporting to be of the crew of the Potemkin is I think from the deck of another ship. Therefore at the expense of sounding a little pedantic errors of this kind should be missing from a book that contains such minute details in other areas, I purchased this book in conjunction with "Young Stalin" and that until I know better gets my *****, Steve Bradley.
thrilling and enjoyable (Rating 4 of 5)
» S. Sharpe
A great read, anyone interested in this episode in history will not be disappointed. quite how the author fleshed out the story im not sure but flesh it out he has, it reads more like a novel than a history text and is all the more enjoyable for that.
(Rating 4 of 5)
(Rating 3 of 5)
