This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Kronstadt Rebellion by soldiers and sailors attached to the Russian Baltic Fleet located near the port city of Kronstadt which is part of the St. Petersburg federal district. Although at one time they were the most ardent supporters and facilitators of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917-18, the Kronstadt sailors became increasingly alienated and disillusioned by the centralization of political and economic authority in Moscow, and what they saw as a betrayal of the socialist and democratic principles they fought for.

In previous years there had been several mutinies by the sailors of the Baltic Fleet, notably during the Revolution of 1905 and the February Revolution of 1917 which overthrew Tsar Nicholas II and established a provisional government in Petrograd (St. Petersburg), the Capital of Russia. The provisional government headed by Alexander Kerensky kept Russia in the First World War. As economic conditions deteriorated and war casualties mounted there was increased dissatisfaction and growing opposition to the moderate administration in Petrograd. By the Fall of 2017 radical socialists and anarchists affiliated with the Bolshevik Party led by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky began to call for drastic action against the Kerensky regime.

In late October/early November sailors and soldiers of the Baltic Fleet stationed in Kronstadt near Petrograd joined with Bolshevik paramilitary militias to begin the takeover of government buildings and ministries. On October 24 the Cruiser Aurora sailed into Petrograd and fired its guns signaling the start of the decisive assault on the Winter Palace which served as headquarters for the provisional government. Led by the Kronstadt sailors, the Bolsheviks captured the Winter Palace and subsequently the rest of the city. Within a few days the Bolsheviks consolidated their hold over most major cities in Russia.

During the ensuing civil war between the Bolshevik regime and counter-revolutionary forces aided by the US, Britain and France, the sailors of the Baltic Fleet actively supported and fought with the Red Army. However, as the war dragged on, living conditions at the naval base and on the ships deteriorated significantly. There were severe shortages of food, fuel and other supplies necessary to sustain even minimal living conditions. The shortages were exacerbated by bureaucratic control over the distribution of rations. Decision-making and administration by local committees, or soviets, elected by the people was replaced with central committees whose members were appointed by Bolshevik leaders.

After the initial Bolshevik takeover in November, 1917, a Central Committee composed of sailors and a few officers assumed control over the Baltic Fleet at Kronstadt. Since they were accountable and responsible to the sailors of the Baltic Fleet there was stability in control of the Fleet and its administration. However, as the Civil War effectively ended by 1921 the Bolshevik regime in Moscow began to tighten its control over the Fleet and its activities. The Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet was dissolved and replaced with a bureaucratic administration accountable only to Bolshevik leaders in Moscow.

In June, 1920, the Bolshevik regime appointed Fyodor Raskolnikov, a prominent Bolshevik leader, to take over as Commander-in-Chief of the Baltic Fleet. He was accompanied by his wife, Larissa Reissner, who was a well-known Russian poet and revolutionary activist. The Raskolnikov appointment was not well-received by the rank and file members of the Fleet. The sailors resisted Raskolnikov’s attempts to restore order and discipline  To make matters worse, both Raskolnikov and his wife Larissa began to exhibit the same behavior and tendencies as the pre-revolutionary Tsarist officers the Kronstadt sailors had rebelled against. As Raskolnikov reduced rations for the sailors, both he and his wife maintained a relatively lavish, bourgeoisie lifestyle.

The sailors became fed up with Raskolnikov and in January, 1921, they mutinied against his leadership and threw him off a pier while his wife fled to Petrograd. On February 15 an opposition group from within the Bolshevik Party and supported by delegates representing the sailors of the Baltic Fleet passed a resolution at a Bolshevik Party conference that was highly critical of the central government’s control over the fleet which it characterized as overly bureaucratic and anti-democratic. They demanded the reform and restructuring of the Baltic Fleet to decentralize its administration and to make its leadership more accountable to the sailors and local residents. The resolution also warned that if its proposed reform and restructuring of the fleet’s command systems were not made a rebellion was inevitable.

The proposed reforms fell on deaf ears. As shortages of food and fuel became worse during the winter of 1920-21, popular discontent increased against the central government. Protests and strikes broke out in large cities throughout Russia, especially in Moscow and Petrograd. The protests in Moscow were put down by armed troops loyal to the Bolshevik regime. In Petrograd the protests were more widespread and since Kronstadt was only a few miles away the sailors of the Baltic Fleet began to join the protestors. In late February, 1921, a delegation of sailors from Kronstadt visited Petrograd to observe the suffering and desperation of the people who lived there. They met with leaders of various groups that were protesting against living conditions and came to realize that significant changes had to be made.

After receiving news of the conditions in Petrograd the sailors held meetings and passed a resolution which would be submitted to the Bolshevik government with fifteen specific demands

regarding the administration and implementation of new reforms and policies not only in Petrograd but throughout Russia. Known as the Petropavlavsk Resolution, the demands submitted to the regime reflected the political beliefs of the radical socialists and anarchists who comprised the majority of the sailors at Kronstadt. These demands included new elections by secret ballot, freedom of speech and press, freedom of assembly, and the liberation of all political prisoners. To deal with the economic crisis the Resolution demanded equal distribution of rations to all workers, greater freedom for peasants to produce and trade food and other products by their own labor and resources, and allowing for individual production by personal effort.

The Petropavlavsk Resolution was designed to reinforce the principles that guided the “October Revolution” of 1917 which promised “Peace, Land and Bread”. Four years later the workers and peasants who supported the Bolshevik Party had neither peace, land or bread. During that time conditions for both peasants and workers had deteriorated significantly with extreme food shortages and the confiscation of land and agricultural products which belonged to the peasants. Working conditions in the factories were worse than ever, and attempts by workers to organize and protest were suppressed by brute force.

On March 1 approximately 15,000 people, mostly workers and sailors, held a protest rally in Kronstadt demanding that the Bolshevik leadership adopt the Petropavlavsk Resolution and act in accordance with its principles. The protestors specifically demanded open, free and fair elections as well as freedom of speech and expression. They also supported equal distribution of rations for everybody and the right of individuals to produce and trade goods and services by their own labor. Several speakers spoke on behalf of the Bolshevik leadership but they were ignored. Tensions between the Kronstadt sailors and Bolshevik leaders grew when a delegation of sailors sent to Petrograd to meet with other protest leaders were subsequently arrested and imprisoned by the Bolshevik government.

In anticipation of a Bolshevik government crackdown the sailors and soldiers attached to the Baltic Fleet joined with union leaders and organized a Provisional Revolutionary Committee to govern Kronstadt until a local soviet, or governing council, could be freely elected by the people. The Bolshevik officials who were nominally in charge of the city fled to nearby Petrograd since they had no significant forces with which to defend their position and suppress the revolt. Initially many Bolshevik leaders in Petrograd and Moscow were sympathetic to the sailor’s demands as enunciated in the Petropavlavsk Resolution. However, they were overruled by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky who suspected, without any evidence, that the Kronstadt sailors were influenced and manipulated by counter-revolutionary forces.

In the first few days of March Bolshevik leaders attempted to suppress the insurrection but found that soldiers of military units stationed in the Petrograd district were sympathetic to the sailors and workers in Kronstadt. The sailors were themselves surprised that there would be any attempt at military force against them since their demands were consistent with the principles of the October Revolution they fought so hard for. The rebels had hoped there would be negotiations with the Bolshevik regime regarding implementation of the programs and policies as stated in the Petropavlavsk Resolution, but their hopes for an amicable settlement were not fulfilled. Leon Trotsky, who led the Bolshevik military forces, was determined to crush the revolt. He arrived in Petrograd to take personal command of all military units in the area and issued an ultimatum demanding the immediate, unconditional surrender of Kronstadt and its military base. When the rebels rejected the surrender demand Trotsky prepared his forces for an all-out assault against the city.

The first assault against Kronstadt began on March 7. The attack failed miserably. The Bolshevik forces were comprised mainly of local militia, many of whom were sympathetic to the rebel cause. Thousands of Russian soldiers either deserted or defected to the rebels. Casualties were heavy on both sides but at the end of the day the Kronstadt fortifications were still in rebel hands.

Trotsky realized that his forces in the immediate vicinity were inadequate to defeat the rebels and he took measures to increase the strength of his army. Over the next few days Bolshevik military units from all parts of Russia poured into the Petrograd district. Trotsky took steps to make sure his reinforcements consisted of Communist Party members who were loyal to the Bolshevik regime.

On March 16 Trotsky had accumulated sufficient manpower and munitions to begin the final assault on Kronstadt. The Bolshevik army numbered approximately 60,000 men backed by heavy artillery and air support, while the rebel forces numbered less than 15,000 sailors and soldiers with dwindling food supplies and ammunition. Beginning March 16 the Bolshevik army launched a relentless air and artillery bombardment of the Kronstadt fortifications and naval fleet. On March 17 infantry units charged the rebel positions from all sides and by nightfall had captured most of the Kronstadt fortifications.

When it became apparent to the Kronstadt defenders that their cause was lost most of them deserted and fled to nearby Finland. The few thousand sailors who were left surrendered to the Bolsheviks and were subsequently either executed or sent to concentration camps. Casualties were heavy on both sides with thousands dead, wounded, missing or taken prisoner. The Bolshevik army suffered much more with as many as 10,000 men lost in the fighting.

With few exceptions none of the rebel demands in the Petropavlavsk Resolution were met. If anything, the centralization and bureaucratization of political authority under the Bolshevik regime accelerated even further. Libertarian socialists and anarchists who supported the rebellion were severely repressed along with any organized political activity that differed even slightly from Bolshevik orthodoxy. Local worker’s councils and soviets were abolished. Industrial workers had no say or input as to how their labor was to be utilized. Those decisions would be made by factory bosses loyal to the Bolshevik regime.

Shortly after the rebellion Vladimir Lenin came to realize that some reforms were necessary to appease the peasants who were becoming restless as the result of confiscating their property and assets, and nearly all of their productivity with little enough left over to meet their own personal needs. He instituted a New Economic Policy which allowed for a very limited amount of individual ownership, enabling peasants to keep some of the surplus value they created and to engage in trade with others on a small-scale level. The policy was effective in avoiding the kind of widespread peasant rebellions against the Bolshevik regime that would have been even harder to contain than the Kronstadt revolt.

For the next few decades the trend to centralize authority, forced labor and suppress dissent that the Kronstadt sailors and their supporters rebelled against continued unabated, culminating in Joseph Stalin’s forced industrialization policy in the 1930s as well as his reign of terror that continued until his death in 1953. Ironically, the Bolshevik leaders who mercilessly suppressed the Kronstadt rebellion, notably Leon Trotsky, were themselves murdered by the same regime they fought to protect. In subsequent decades, however, the authoritarian excesses of the Stalinist regime were repudiated, and under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev beginning in 1985 a new era of “Perestroika” and “Glasnost” was achieved reflecting many of the demands made by the Kronstadt sailors as expressed in their Petropavlavsk Resolution calling for restructuring, reform, local autonomy, openness and political tolerance.

The Kronstadt rebellion and the ideals expressed in the Petropavlavsk Resolution continued to be an influence not only on political developments in the Soviet Union but throughout the world. The struggle against repressive bureaucrats and authoritarian dictatorships continues to inspire democratic socialists and even anarchists to this day. Among those affected by the outcome of the rebellion was the noted anarchist philosopher Emma Goldman, who subsequently renounced her support for the Bolshevik regime. An example in the 1980s was the formation of a rock band called “Kronstadt Uprising” which was based in Great Britain as a tribute to the anarchist beliefs of the Kronstadt sailors. The memory of the struggle and sacrifices made by the rebels in 1921 has not been forgotten 100 years later.