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the video description or at the end of this video. It’s February 1921, and at the important
Russian naval base of Kronstadt, thousands of sailors have risen in a
revolt against the Bolshevik regime, which plans on striking back and taking the
fortress by storm – it’s the Kronstadt Rebellion. Hi, I’m Jesse Alexander and
welcome to The Great War. By the end of 1920, Bolshevik leaders could
feel relieved after years of civil war: the counter-revolutionary Whites had been defeated,
the peace treaty with Poland was on its way, and there were some improvements in relations with
the Allied powers. But that didn’t mean that the Russian Civil War was over: disease and famine
swept the land, the countryside was in revolt, and Red Navy sailors were very unhappy with the
Bolsheviks. In this episode, we’ll take a look at the events surrounding the famous Kronstadt
rebellion, which broke out exactly 100 years ago. Russia in early 1921 was in a state of absolute
devastation. The transport system was in ruins, industrial production was a fraction of pre-1917
levels, and agriculture was in crisis. Bolshevik economic policies had mostly made things
worse by imposing the War Communism policy of grain seizures, abolishing private trade, and
nationalizing industry, even small businesses. They also began early attempts
at agricultural collectivization with Planting Committees. Now there is a debate
amongst historians as to whether War Communism was a series of improvisations during a
time of crisis, or a deliberate policy designed to create a Communist society
by forcibly re-organizing the economy. Whether improvised or by
design, for many peasants, this was not the system they had hoped
for when they mostly chose to support the Bolsheviks over the Whites during the Civil
War. They had wanted control of the land, but that wasn’t quite what they had gotten,
as a peasant delegate complained ironically to the 9th Communist Party Congress: “Everything
is just fine—the land is ours but the grain is yours, the water ours but the fish yours, the
forests ours but the wood yours.” (Avrich, 164). Instead, the normal sale and transport of food
between the countryside and the cities broke down, and the Bolsheviks cracked down on the
black market that sprang up to replace it. The result, combined with the effects of more
than six years of war, was widespread starvation. Anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman
were in Petrograd in 1920 after being deported from the US. Goldman described the crises: “With
the prohibition of trading came the […] detachment of [the Cheka secret police] at every station to
confiscate everything brought by private persons to the city. The wretched people, after untold
difficulties of obtaining a pass for travel, after days and weeks of exposure at the
stations, or on the [train] roofs and platforms, would bring a pood of flour or potatoes, only
to have it snatched from them.” (Smele, 201) From 1917 to 1920, Petrograd’s population
fell by more than two thirds, and Moscow’s by almost half (Avrich 24). Desperate citizens
hoped that once the war with the Whites was over things would improve, but the winter of 1920-1921
was the harshest yet. Food rations were reduced, and then delayed for weeks, while groups favoured
by the Bolsheviks, like party members, got more than their share. The collapse of transportation
also meant that there was nothing to burn for to heat homes or run the factories, and some had
to shut for lack of coal. These conditions were perfect for diseases like typhus and cholera,
which added to the mounting death toll. So Russians were starving, freezing, and dying
even after the Bolsheviks had taken control. It wasn’t long before even those who had supported
the Bolsheviks began to turn against them. One of the Bolsheviks’ most unpopular
moves was taking power away from the popular councils , or soviets, and
concentrating it exclusively in the party. They also suppressed other leftist groups like the
Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries, as well as trade unions. Workers had been the Bolsheviks’
main bastion of support since 1917, but now they connected the hunger and cold they experienced to
Bolshevik policies, so they took political action. In February 1921, strikes broke out in
Petrograd and Moscow. The striking workers not only demanded better living conditions,
but also political changes like free trade, the release of political prisoners, and the
end of War Communism. Some demonstrators even called for free elections of the soviets, or the
return of the pre- October Revolution parliament. In Moscow, Bolshevik leader Vladimir
Lenin addressed a crowd of metal workers, and asked them rhetorically if they’d
rather have the Whites running the country. One of workers answered him: “I don’t
care who comes along – Whites, Blacks, or the Devil himself – just as long
as you clear out!” (Avrich, 36) The situation was getting serious,
as the Petrograd Cheka reported: “Many provocative rumours are circulating, to the effect that Soviet rule will fall
this spring.” (Наумов, Косаковский, 26) The Bolshevik authorities sent in Red Army
troops and the Cheka arrested thousands, especially from other leftist groups like
the Mensheviks. But they also tried to calm the workers by giving them emergency
rations, and allowing private trade. These measures put a stop to the strikes in
Petrograd and Moscow, but were too late to stop the storm that was brewing at the important Red
Navy base at Kronstadt, not far from Petrograd. Kronstadt was a fortified city and naval base
on a small island in the Gulf of Finland, designed to protect the former capital. In
1921, more than half its population of 50,000 were sailors or soldiers, and since 1917 they
had ben influential supporters of the Bolshevik revolution (Наумов, Косаковский, 8). They’d
fought on the Red side against the Whites and had a reputation as, in the words of
Leon Trotsky “the glory and pride of the revolution.” (Smele 200) But now, the men were
angry, as sailor Stepan Petrichenko explained: “For years, the happenings at home
while we were at the front or at sea were concealed by the Bolshevik censorship.
When we returned home our parents asked us why we fought for the oppressors. That [got] us
thinking." (Avrich, 67) Between August 1920 and March 1921, the local branch of the
Communist Party lost half its organizers, and in January 1921 alone about 5000
sailors quit the party. (Avrich, 69) On February 26, a delegation of sailors from
Kronstadt visited Petrograd to learn more about the ongoing strikes. Two days later, they’d
returned to base and reported their findings. The result was the Petropavlovsk Resolution, named
after one of the warships anchored in Kronstadt. The sailors called for: new elections for
the soviets; freedom of speech for all anarchists and socialists; the liberation of
anarchist and socialist political prisoners; freedom of assembly, including for unions; the abolition of War Communism; and equal rations
for all workers. (Smele 203) A few days later, the sailors summed up their position in a document
entitled What We Are Fighting For: “In carrying out the October Revolution, the working class
was hoping to throw off the yoke of oppression. Yet that revolution resulted in even
greater enslavement […]. The power of the police–gendarme monarchism fell into
the hands of the conquering Communists, who instead of freedom gave the working people
the constant fear of ending up in a Cheka dungeon, the horrors of which have [far] surpassed those
of a tsarist gendarme prison.” (Smele, 203) The sailors’ demands show that they
were against the Bolshevik dictatorship but not against Bolshevik rule in principle
– they were still socialist and pro-Soviet. But their declaration that the current
situation did not express the will of the people was a direct challenge to Bolshevik power in that
it called on them to honor their own constitution. So the sailors of Kronstadt, once the scions
of revolution, had now fired a shot across the bows of the Bolshevik authorities – and
they weren’t about to stop at resolutions. On March 1, 1921, the sailors of the Baltic
Fleet assembled for a general meeting. They approved the Petropavlovsk resolution, and
shouted down government representatives, including Premier Mikhail KalInin and
Baltic Fleet Commissar Nikolai KuzmIn. The sailors also detained Kuzmin, and elected a
Provisional Revolutionary Committee the next day. The Committee was led by Stepan Petrichenko,
who summed up the movement’s objective: “Our revolt was an elemental movement
to get rid of Bolshevik oppression; once that is done, the will of the people
will manifest itself.” (Avrich, 95) On March 2, the Committee occupied
all strategic points in Kronstadt, including the Cheka headquarters. All warships
and coastal batteries in the town recognized the Committee’s authority – even a general,
Aleksandr Koslovskii. The rebellion had begun. The Bolshevik government in Moscow responded with
a series of ultimatums demanding the release of party members and an end to the revolt. They
also tried to discredit the revolt by calling it a mutiny, so they wouldn’t have to admit that
workers and sailors had turned against them. The Bolsheviks also publicly accused the rebels of
collaborating with agents of the Whites and the French, which wasn’t true. The sailors fired
back in a declaration to the people: “Our enemies are trying to deceive you. They say that the
Kronstadt rebellion was organized by Mensheviks, S[ocial] R[evolutionaries], Entente spies, and
tsarist generals. They say we’re led from Paris. Nonsense! If our rebellion were made in Paris,
then the moon was made in Berlin.” (Avrich, 98) The revolt had the Bolsheviks worried. They
were already dealing with peasant revolts in the provinces, but if they lost the workers and
military rank and file, they might lose their grip on power. In fact, some historians have
seen the rebellion as the starting point of a third phase of the revolution pitting peasants
and workers against the Bolshevik dictatorship. The Bolsheviks declared martial law, detained the
Kronstadt delegation that had come to Petrograd, and took rebel family members in other parts of
the country hostage. They also began planning an attack on Kronstadt. Communist party members,
volunteers, officer cadets, and Cheka troops were all mobilized and prepared to crush
the rebellion alongside the Red 7th Army. The Kronstadt sailors were
divided about what to do. General Koslovskii and other military specialists
wanted to send a force to land near Petrograd to seize more weapons, and link up with sympathetic
army units to march on Petrograd. They also urged the Committee to prepare for defence, by freeing
the two battleships in the harbour from the ice so they could have clear fields of fire,
which would also stop the Red Army from marching across the ice to attack
the town. But the Committee refused. According to some historians, at this early stage
they still saw themselves more as a political and social reform pressure group than a military
rebellion. (Avrich 111) Instead, they hoped the Bolsheviks would not attack before the ice melted,
and for the workers of Petrograd to rise up. Commissar for War Trotsky though, was not
willing to wait. He issued an ultimatum demanding the surrender of the rebels, and
warning them he was ready to suppress them by force. The committee was not impressed: “The […]
[Workers’] Revolution has risen and will sweep from the face of Soviet Russia the vile slanderers
and tyrants with all their corruption—and your clemency, Mr. Trotsky, will
not be needed.” (Avrich, 145) So the sailors of Kronstadt had declared open revolt against the Bolsheviks
in Moscow, but were hesitant about armed conflict. On March 7, the crisis
turned bloody as the Bolsheviks struck first. Under the command of the battle-tested General
Mikhail Tukhachevskii, the Reds had assembled a force of about 10,000 men, 85 guns, and 96 machine
guns The 25,000 Kronstadt sailors had 280 guns, 33 machine guns, and could also use some of
the guns on the two battleships frozen in the harbour ice (Smele 205). Tukhachevskii
was worried that the ice would soon melt, which would leave Kronstadt an island
fortress, so he wanted to act quickly, despite the problems he was facing. For one,
his troops were suffering from low morale. They were tired after years of fighting the
Whites, and since most of them were peasants, some sympathized with the rebels. Another
problem was the tactical situation. To attack Kronstadt’s fortifications, the Red
troops would have to first cross the open ice of the Gulf of Finland, which exposed them to
the defenders’ fire with no cover whatsoever. All the same, the Red Army attacked
on the morning of March 7. After a short artillery duel made difficult by
the fog and falling snow, the infantry began to move across the ice. The defenders
opened up from behind the fortifications, and the attackers hesitated. Shells opened
up huge holes in the ice which swallowed up dozens of Red soldiers. Some units refused to
continue the advance, and retreated in spite of the Cheka blocking detachments behind them.
The first assault on the fortress had failed. After this victory the Kronstadt Revolutionary
Committee put out a call to the Russian population in the hopes of gaining support:”The
workers and peasants steadfastly march forward, leaving behind them both the Constituent Assembly,
with its bourgeois regime, and the dictatorship of the Communist party, with its Cheka and its
state capitalism, [and] whose hangman's noose encircles the necks of the laboring masses and
threatens to strangle them to death. . . . Here in Kronstadt has been laid the first stone of
the third revolution, striking the last fetters from the laboring masses and opening a broad new
road for socialist creativity.” (Avrich, 166-167) But the labouring masses of the country did not
rise up with Kronstadt – in fact the strikes in Petrograd had stopped after food rations had been
distributed. The Tenth Party Congress in Moscow also voted to end War Communism and replace the
grain seizures with a tax in kind, the beginning of the more liberal New Economic Policy
meant to calm the workers and peasants. The Bolsheviks were also preparing militarily --
more carefully this time -- for another assault on the island. Tukhachevskii now had between 20,000
and 35,000 troops, and more heavy weapons at the ready (Smele 205). Meanwhile, the rebels’ position
was deteriorating. They were short on food, fuel, medicine, and ammunition. Their morale was
shattered, since it had become clear that the workers in Petrograd and the rest of the country
were not heeding their call to rise up. They had, in the words of one sailor,
sold out “for a pound of meat.” So Kronstadt had resisted
one attack, but it was now facing the Red Army alone. And the Bolsheviks
would not make the same mistake twice. The second Red Army offensive
against Kronstadt began on March 17. This time there were two attacking
groups, the larger in the south and the smaller in the north. After an
exchange of artillery fire through the night, the Northern assault group crossed the ice
in the early morning darkness and fog. After fierce fighting, they managed to capture all the
small forts but one, and reached the city walls. At the same time, the southern group had
launched an assault on the Petrograd Gate, the most vulnerable part of the fortress. They
reached the walls, but were driven back by the concentrated fire of the defenders. The Bolshevik
forces tried again, and managed to breach the wall north of the gate. They poured into the
city, where house-to-house fighting raged. Just before sundown, Red artillery was moved
into the city and brought a devastating weight of fire onto the remaining defenders.
Around the same time, the Northern Red force also broke into the town from the northeast.
They seized the rebel headquarters, and linked up with the southern group in the city centre.
By midnight, the fighting began to die down, and the last holdout forts surrendered the next
day. The Kronstadt rebellion had been crushed. The Battle of Kronstadt had been short but
bloody. Historians suspect that Soviet figures of the time are too low, and recent evidence
suggests that the Red Army lost up to 2000 dead, while the rebels lost at least the same
number (Smele 207). About 8000 sailors were able to escape to Finland after the Committee
asked for asylum. Of those who stayed behind, more than 2000 were sentenced to death,
about 6500 were sent to Gulags, and 2500 were deported from the
city (Наумов, Косаковский, 15). The Kronstadt Rebellion has gone
down as one of the most famous and dramatic episodes of the Russian Revolution
and Civil War. Although the rebellion had failed, it did have political consequences. Many
who had supported the Bolsheviks before, were now disillusioned, like Emma Goldman:
“Kronstadt broke the last thread that held me to the Bolsheviki. The wanton slaughter they
had instigated spoke more eloquently against them than aught else. Whatever their pretenses in
the past, the Bolsheviki now proved themselves the most pernicious enemies of
the Revolution.” (Smele, 208) To consolidate the Bolshevik
hold on power even further, the Tenth Party Congress also banned any fractions
or opposition within the Communist Party, which accelerated its
centralization and unification. Even though the Bolsheviks had defeated the
rebellion, many took it as a warning sign and enacted important reforms. They loosened
their economic policy by ending War Communism and adopted the New Economic Program ahead of
schedule. The NEP introduced taxes on surplus, and allowed private trade and small private shops
– which was just enough to keep most workers from revolting. Some historians have argued that
the Kronstadt rebellion was the catalyst that pushed the Bolsheviks into economic reform
– Lenin himself described Kronstadt as a quote “flash that lit up reality
better than anything else.” For many revolutionaries, like anarchist Alexander
Berkman, the new reality was bleak indeed: “Grey are the passing days. One by one the
embers of hope have died out. Terror and despotism have crushed the life born in October.
The slogans of the Revolution are forsworn, its ideas stifled in the blood of the people. The
breath of yesterday is dooming millions to death; the shadow of today hangs like
a black pall over the country. Dictatorship is trampling the masses under foot.
The Revolution is dead; its spirit cries in the wilderness.” (Smele, 208) But in the spring
of 1921, far from Kronstadt, the peasants of Siberia would soon show the spirit of resistance
to Bolshevik rule was still alive and well. Covering events like the Kronstadt rebellion
and the rest of the Russian Civil War is a lot of fun for us but it also has its challenges.
Frankly, history is somewhat of a niche topic in the grand scheme of YouTube’s reach
and in the past years they haven’t made it easier for us history creators
to bring you a detailed and hopefully objective view of historic events.
Frankly, history is somewhat of a niche topic in the grand scheme of YouTube’s reach and
in the past years they haven’t made it easier for us history creators to bring you a detailed
and hopefully objective view of historic events. That’s why we crowdfunded and released our
Battle of Berlin documentary 16 Days in Berlin specifically outside of YouTube – where 250
of our videos were retroactively demonetized because they changed their rules
years after these videos were made. And in this kind of climate we went even further
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We want to thank Sofia Shirogorova for her help with this episode. As usual, you
can find all our sources for this episode in the video description. If you want to support our
channel, you can support us on Patreon the link is in the video description below as well. I’m
Jesse Alexander and this is The Great War 1921, a production of Real Time History and
the only Youtube history channel that will sweep from the face of the internet the vile
slanderers and tyrants with all their corruption
Well there's a fun coincidence. I'm watching YouTube on one monitor as I scroll through Reddit on the other. And guess what's playing on YouTube as I scrolled down to this post. Yep the Kronstadt Rebellion.
I watched a documentary on Kronstadt rebellion years ago. It is a real life tale worthy of being a Shakespearean tragedy. There is nothing like seeing your dream crumble right before your own very eyes and then you're suddenly plunged into a nightmare. I wonder what communism would have been like if the Kronstadt rebellion had been successful. The ideology could have turned much more democratic in practice than it did in real life. Although on the one hand, without the centrally planned economy, would the Soviet have survived the German invasion during World War II?