David Hagberg - Mutiny - The True Events That Inspired The Hunt for Red October

“Mutinies.” Wikipedia.org, February 4, 2006.

“NKVD, History.” Wikipedia.org, June 15, 2006.

“Patterns of Tissue Injury.” Med.utah.edu, “Firearms Tutorial,” 1987.

Remnick, David. “Seasons in Hell: How the Gulag Grew.” The New Yorker, April 14, 2003.

Russia, Ukraine & Belarus. Lonely Planet Publications, 1996.

“Sakharov, Andrei.” Wikipedia.org, January 8, 2006.

Solzhenitsyn, I. Aleksandr The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956. Harper & Row, 1973.

“Soviet Navy History, 1696-1991.” Wikipedia.org, February 21, 2006.

“Soviet Navy History to 1917.” Expo 96, January 26, 2006.

Soviet Union. Fodor’s Travel Publications, 1989.

“Soviet Union History, 1917-1975.” Wikipedia.org, March 22, 2006.

“Sukhoi Su-24.” Wikipedia.org, September 19, 2006.

“Swedish National Defence Radio Establishment, FRA.” Wikipedia.org, August 20, 2006.

Taylor, W. R., John and Kenneth Munson. History of Aviation. Octopus Books, 1975.

“Tupolev Tu-16. Wikipedia.org, September 19, 2006.

“Wound Ballistics.” Firearmstactical.com, August 16, 2006.

“Yakovlev, Yak-28.” Wikipedia.org, September 19, 2006.

Young, D, Gregory and Nate Braden. The Last Sentry. Naval Institute Press, 2005.

DAVID HAGBERG spent his early career as a cryptographer for the U.S. Air Force, where he traveled in the Arctic and in Europe at the height of the Cold War. For the past four decades he has studied America’s enemies and their militaries, especially the Soviet Union—its history, its secret intelligence services, and its navy—writing more than seventy novels, as well as novellas, short stories, and journalism. Mutiny: The True Events That Inspired “The Hunt for Red October” is his first book-length nonfiction. He has been nominated for the American Book Award, three times for the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar, and has won Mystery Scene’s Best Mystery three years in a row. He and his wife, Laurie, live in Sarasota, Florida.

BORIS GINDIN resigned his commission in the Soviet navy within two years of the incident. However, he remained in the Soviet Union until 1988 when he immigrated to the United States with his wife, Yana, and their son, Vladimir. They all became citizens, and have highly productive careers. Boris and Yana live in Stamford, Connecticut. Vladimir got married to Dana and lives with their daughter, Alexandra, in New York.

TWISTER

HIGH FLIGHT

THE CAPSULE

ASSASSIN

LAST COME THE CHILDREN

WHITE HOUSE

HEARTLAND

JOSHUA’S HAMMER

HEROES

EDEN’S GATE

WITHOUT HONOR

THE KILL ZONE

COUNTDOWN

BY DAWN’S EARLY LIGHT

CROSSFIRE

SOLDIER OF GOD

CRITICAL MASS

ALLAH’S SCORPION

DESERT FIRE

DANCE WITH THE DRAGON

THE KREMLIN CONSPIRACY

MOSCOW CROSSING

EAGLES FLY

THE ZEBRA NETWORK

THE TRINITY FACTOR

CROSSED SWORDS

THE HOLLOW MEN

COUNTERSTRIKE

FALSE PROPHETS

MOVING TARGETS

BROKEN IDOLS

WINNER TAKE ALL

GULAG

ACHILLES’ HEEL

MUTINY: THE TRUE EVENTS THAT INSPIRED THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER

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.

The granddaddy of the techno-thriller, Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October (1984), was based on a real mutiny of a Soviet warship in 1975. The definitive account of that event is The Last Sentry (2005), by Gregory D. Young and Nate Braden; here novelist Hagberg grafts the memories of a Soviet naval officer who was aboard the warship onto the thriller format. Then in his early twenties, Boris Gindin was the engineering officer of the Storozhevoi, an antisubmarine vessel whose name means “sentry.” Gindin was not disaffected with the Soviet system, opposed the mutiny, and was locked up with other loyalty-minded officers for the revolt’s brief duration. Its leader intended to sail into the Baltic Sea and broadcast an anti-Soviet manifesto, pirate-radio style. Readers not privy to the history will be surprised by the leader’s identity, and once those cards are on the table, Hagberg switches over to the thriller framework of admirals ordering pilots to sink the Storozhevoi . Although it is evident that creative license has been taken, the underlying truth of Gindin’s story comes through in Hagberg’s dramatized rendition.

Copyright © 2008 by David Hagberg and Boris Gindin

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

Book design by Ellen Cipriano

A Forge Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Forge® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hagberg, David.

Mutiny : the true events that inspired the hunt for Red October / David Hagberg and Boris Gindin.—1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7653-1350-8

ISBN-10: 0-7653-1350-2

1. Mutiny—Soviet Union. 2. Storozhevoi (Ship) 3. Soviet Union—History, Naval. 4. Soviet Union—History—1953-1985. I. Gindin, Boris. II. Title.

DK274.H244 2008

359.1’334—dc22 2008006492

First Edition: May 2008

Printed in the United States of America

0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied so that you can enjoy reading it on your personal devices. This e-book is for your personal use only. You may not print or post this e-book, or make this e-book publicly available in any way. You may not copy, reproduce or upload this e-book, other than to read it on one of your personal devices.