The Last Sentry: The True Story that Inspired The Hunt for Red October

296 Pages·2013·20.594 MB·English

by  Gregory D. Young, Nate Braden

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This real-life thriller, which insj I. ! i r
Clancy’s famous first novel, chi i i n
1975 mutiny aboard one of t! i
Navy’s most advanced warships, the
destroyer Storozhevoy (Sentry in English).
The mutiny was led by the ship’s political
officer, Valery Sablin, who planned to
launch a revolution and overthrow the
government. News of the incident was
suppressed by the Soviets, but Gregory
Young, an American naval officer study¬
ing at the Naval Postgraduate School in
Monterey, California, managed to piece
the story together. In 1982 while doing
some research in the basement of the
U.S. Naval Academy library, Clancy came
across Young’s report of the attempt and
B
wrote a fictionalized account that launched
Bo
his career.
s
The Sentry mutiny and the events that ot
so
preceded and followed it have never before
tn
o
been told in detail. With the help of recent¬
nP
ly declassified KGB documents and Sablin
,u

family papers, Young and Russian linguist Mb
l
Nate Braden provide a full account of A
i
c
events as they unfolded. In telling the
0
L
compelling story, they offer a candid por¬ 2
i
1
trait of life in the USSR and shed light on b
1
r
many myths of the Cold War.
6a
Once poised for a brilliant future in the r
y
navy, Valery Sablin had become disillu¬
sioned with Communist Party leaders and
managed to convince most of the Sentry’s
crew to sail to Leningrad and overthrow
Leonid Brezhnev. But the dramatic end¬
ing to this story is very different from
Clancy’s novel—the Sentry was hunted
down and Sablin was executed by the ?
KGB. Sablin’s family knows little about
his death, but the authors hope i, I Mr
publication of their book will e i Lragu
the Russian government to open i t I I •;
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2018 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation
https://archive.org/details/lastsentrytruestOOgreg

THE LAST
SENTRY

The True Story that Inspired
The Hunt for Red October
Gregory D. Young
Nate Braden
Naval Institute Press
Annapolis, Maryland
Naval Institute Press
291 Wood Road
Annapolis, MD 21402
© 2005 by Gregory D. Young and Nate Braden
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Young, Gregory D., 1953-
The last sentry : the true story that inspired the hunt for Red October /
Gregory D. Young, Nate Braden,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-59114-992-4 (alk. paper)
1. Mutiny—Soviet Union. 2. Soviet Union—History, Naval—20th century.
3. Soviet Union—History—1953-1985. 4. Sablin, Valeriaei Mikhaaeilovich,
1939-1977. 5. Storozhevosei (Ship) I. Braden, Nate, 1968- II. Title.
DK274.Y68 2005
947.085'2—dc22
2004030762
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 98765432
To Nina Mikhailovna and Mikhail Valerievich
Who have borne the burden of the true believer
and paid the price of the idealist.
HHHe n Mnxanjiy
Btl
llOTOMy, HTO HeCJIH 6peMH hcthhho BepyioiiiiHX,
3anjiaTHB neHy H^eanHCTa.
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