1906-03-05 FATE OF LIEUTENANT SCHMIDT

London Times, 5 March 1906, p. 5: THE SEVASTOPOL MUTINY./FATE OF LIEUTENANT SCHMIDT. ODESSA, MARCH 3.*

The trial by Court-martial at Ochakoff of Lieutenant Schmidt and the other persons accused with him of participation in the Sevastopol mutiny concluded to-day. Lieutenant Schmidt was sentenced to death by hanging, and the sailors Tchastnik, Antonenko, and Gladkoff were condemned to be shot. Two of the accused received sentences of penal servitude for life, and 16 others were sentenced to various terms of hard labour, while nine were ordered to serve time in the disciplinary battalions. Ten of the accused were acquitted.

The sentences of death will be carried out on Tuesday if the appeals of counsel for the defence to the Court of Cassation are not successful.

MARCH 4.*

The ilitary authorities have received a telegram from St. Petersburg announcing that the Tsar will to-day pardon Lieutenant Schmidt. The condemned man’s last words in Court were: “I am well aware that the gallows await me, but I will meet death firmly. I believe my pillory will be the fontier-post separating the old slavish Russia from the new free Russia. Liberty for the Russian people was the sole object of my life, and if I had to buy Russian freedom with the most terrible death, I would die smiling. Now you can condemn me; history will acquit Lieutenant Schmidt.”

Provided by Stephen McLaughlin