Afanasi Matushenko
Encyclopedia
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
: Афана́сий Никола́евич Матюшенко, May 2, 1879 - October 20, 1907), was a Ukrainian political activist, a non-commissioned officer
Non-commissioned officer
A non-commissioned officer , called a sub-officer in some countries, is a military officer who has not been given a commission...
in the Black Sea Fleet
Black Sea Fleet
The Black Sea Fleet is a large operational-strategic sub-unit of the Russian Navy, operating in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea since the late 18th century. It is based in various harbors of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov....
, and head of the uprising on the Russian battleship Potemkin
Russian battleship Potemkin
The Potemkin was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet. The ship was made famous by the Battleship Potemkin uprising, a rebellion of the crew against their oppressive officers in June 1905...
.
He was born into a peasant family in Derhachi
Derhachi
Derhachi is a city in the Kharkiv Oblast of eastern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Derhachivskyi Raion , and is located 12 km northwest of the oblast capital, Kharkiv....
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, 8 miles north west of Kharkov. He lived in a tiny hut (15 square feet) with his parents and 5 siblings. His father Nikolai was an ex-serf
SERF
A spin exchange relaxation-free magnetometer is a type of magnetometer developed at Princeton University in the early 2000s. SERF magnetometers measure magnetic fields by using lasers to detect the interaction between alkali metal atoms in a vapor and the magnetic field.The name for the technique...
, earning money on the side as a cobbler. After the famine of 1891
Russian famine of 1891-2
The Russian famine of 1891-2 began along the Volga River, then spread as far as the Urals and Black Sea. The reawakening of Russian Marxism and populism is often traced to the public's anger at the Tsarist government's handling of the disaster.- Weather :...
, Nikolai became an alcoholic. Afanasy, who had learned to read at 9, had to take up cobbling when he was 12. At 15 he ran away to Kharkov, became a railway oilman, and in 1896 he went to Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
, and became a coalman on a steamship that took him to Vladivostok
Vladivostok
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...
where he lived for 2 years as a railway machinist. In 1898, he became a docker at Rostov-on-Don
Rostov-on-Don
-History:The mouth of the Don River has been of great commercial and cultural importance since the ancient times. It was the site of the Greek colony Tanais, of the Genoese fort Tana, and of the Turkish fortress Azak...
where he joined a Marxist study circle led by future Bolshevik Vladimir Petrov.
On his 21st birthday, Afanasy was conscripted for 7 years into the navy and sent to Sebastopol for a 4-month training. The harsh discipline alienated him from the officers. After training, he went to St. Petersburg where he did a course in torpedo machinery. In 1902, he was promoted to quartermaster
Quartermaster
Quartermaster refers to two different military occupations depending on if the assigned unit is land based or naval.In land armies, especially US units, it is a term referring to either an individual soldier or a unit who specializes in distributing supplies and provisions to troops. The senior...
on the Battleship Potemkin
Russian battleship Potemkin
The Potemkin was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet. The ship was made famous by the Battleship Potemkin uprising, a rebellion of the crew against their oppressive officers in June 1905...
. Here he joined Tsentralka, the sailors' revolutionary organisation. Sailors looked up to him as a protector: "He would go through fire for his brother sailor", said one. On the morning of June 10, 1905, Tsentralka met on Malakhov hill, just outside Sebastopol. Over 100 sailors were there. In March,they had already written "The Resolution of the Black Sea sailors" calling for the end of Tsarism and a Constituent assembly
Constituent assembly
A constituent assembly is a body composed for the purpose of drafting or adopting a constitution...
. They agreed the Black Sea fleet would mutiny on 21 June (Matushenko had wanted it immediately).
During the Potemkin mutiny Matushenko took part in the murder of Captain Golikov and Ippolit Giliarovsky
Ippolit Giliarovsky
Ippolit Giliarovsky was the second in command of the Battleship Potemkin during the mutiny. He more than anyone was held responsible for the uprising due to his brutal treatment of the sailors. He was killed during the mutiny....
.
After mutinous sailors left ship in Constanza
Constanza
Constanza may refer to:*Constanţa, a Romanian seaport on the Black Sea*Constanza, Dominican Republic in the province of La Vega*R. v. Constanza , an English legal case in 1997*José Constanza, Dominican baseball player...
he lived in exile in Romania, Switzerland, US (June 1906 - March 1907) and France (March–June 1907). In exile he met with various socialist leaders: Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
, Christian Rakovsky
Christian Rakovsky
Christian Rakovsky was a Bulgarian socialist revolutionary, a Bolshevik politician and Soviet diplomat; he was also noted as a journalist, physician, and essayist...
, Vladimir Posse
Vladimir Posse
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Posse was a Russian socialist journalist and editor who typically signed his articles V. A. Posse....
, Maxim Gorky
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...
, Georgy Gapon and Boris Savinkov
Boris Savinkov
Boris Viktorovich Savinkov was a Russian writer and revolutionary terrorist...
. Matushenko was not member of any political party and had no distinct political views. Some considered his views close to social-democrats, while other thought him closer to SRs
Socialist-Revolutionary Party
thumb|right|200px|Socialist-Revolutionary election poster, 1917. The caption in red reads "партия соц-рев" , short for Party of the Socialist Revolutionaries...
or anarchists.
In June 1907 Matushenko returned to Russia under false name. He was arrested by police, tried by court in Sevastopol and sentenced to death. He was executed by hanging on October 20, 1907.