From Publishers Weekly
Prolific thriller writer Hagberg (
Dance with the Dragon) and former Soviet naval officer Gindin recount the 1975 mutiny aboard the FFG
Storozhevoy, a Russian antisubmarine warfare ship, which inspired Tom Clancy's international bestseller. Gindin was a senior lieutenant and chief engineer on the
Storozhevoy when it was seized by Capt. Third Rank Valery Sablin. An idealist who actually believes the Party line, Sablin intended to sail the ship into the Baltic Sea and broadcast an appeal to the Russian people to overthrow the corrupt Kremlin leadership. He secured the crew's support by promising them an early out from the navy, and arrested the captain and the ship's officers, including Gindin, who refused to cooperate. Upon hearing the news, Kremlin leader Leonid Brezhnev ordered his navy to find that ship and sink it. Under attack, the mutiny fizzled and the ship and crew were spared, but the personal repercussions were severe. Another nonfiction account of the
Storozhevoy mutiny,
The Last Sentry, was published in 2005, but the eyewitness testimony of coauthor Gindin justifies a retelling. Unfortunately, tutorials on subjects as diverse as historical mutinies and Soviet executions slow the narrative, and the documentation is bare bones.
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--This text refers to the
Hardcover
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Product Description
In 1984, Tom Clancy released his blockbuster novel, The Hunt for Red October , an edge-of-your-seat thriller that skyrocketed him into international notoriety. The inspiration for that novel came from an obscure report by a US naval officer of a mutiny aboard a Soviet warship in the Baltic Sea. The Hunt for Red October actually happened, and Boris Gindin lived through every minute of it. After decades of silence and fear, Gindin has finally come forward to tell the entire story of the mutiny aboard the FFG Storozhevoy , the real-life Red October . It was the fall of 1975, and the tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States were climbing. It seemed the two nations were headed for thermonuclear war, and it was that fear that caused most of the crewman of the FFG Storozhevoy to mutiny. Their goal was to send a message to the Soviet people that the Communist government was corrupt and major changes were needed. That message never reached a single person. Within hours the orders came from on high to destroy the Storozhevoy and its crew members. And this would have happened if it weren't for Gindin and few others, whose heroism saved many lives.
