The Kronstadt mutiny of March 1-18, 1921 - a speech by the sailors of the Kronstadt garrison against the Bolshevik government.
The Kronstadt sailors enthusiastically supported the Bolsheviks in 1917, but in March 1921 they rebelled against what they saw as a communist dictatorship.
The Kronstadt uprising was brutally suppressed by Lenin, but it led to a partial reassessment of plans for economic development in a more progressive direction: in 1921, Lenin developed the foundations of the New Economic Policy (NEP).
… Youth took us on a saber campaign, Youth threw us on the ice of Kronstadt…
In the relatively recent past, the poem, the lines from which are given above, was included in the compulsory program in Russian literature in high school. Even after correcting for revolutionary romanticism, it must be admitted that the poet is clearly exaggerating in regard to the fateful role of "youth". Those who "threw people on the Kronstadt ice" had very specific names and positions. However, everything in order.
The opening of access to archival documents kept with seven seals enables us to answer in a new way the questions about the cause of the Kronstadt uprising, about its goals and consequences.
Prerequisites. Reasons for the mutiny
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By the early 1920s, the internal situation in the Soviet state remained extremely difficult. Lack of workers, agricultural implements, seed fund and, most importantly, the food appropriation policy had extremely negative consequences. Compared to 1916, the sown area was reduced by 25%, and the gross harvest of agricultural products decreased compared to 1913 by 40–45%. All this became one of the main reasons for the famine in 1921, which struck about 20% of the population.
The situation in industry was no less difficult, where the decline in production resulted in the closure of factories and mass unemployment. The situation was especially difficult in large industrial centers, primarily in Moscow and Petrograd. In just one day, on February 11, 1921, 93 Petrograd enterprises were announced to be closed by March 1, among them were such giants as the Putilovsky plant, the Sestroretsk arms plant, and the Triangle rubber factory. About 27 thousand people were thrown into the street. Along with this, the norms for the distribution of bread were reduced, and some types of food rations were canceled. The threat of famine was approaching the cities. The fuel crisis has worsened.
The mutiny in Kronstadt was far from the only one. Armed uprisings against the Bolsheviks swept across Western Siberia, Tambov, Voronezh and Saratov provinces, the North Caucasus, Belarus, Altai Mountains, Central Asia, Don, Ukraine. All of them were suppressed by force of arms.
"Petropavlovsk" and "Sevastopol" 1921
The unrest in Petrograd, performances in other cities and regions of the state could not be overlooked by the sailors, soldiers and workers of Kronstadt. 1917, October - Kronstadt sailors were the main force of the coup. Now the powers that be took measures to ensure that the wave of discontent did not engulf the fortress, in which there were about 27 thousand armed sailors and soldiers. An extensive information service was created in the garrison. By the end of February, the total number of informers reached 176. Based on their denunciations, 2,554 people fell under suspicion of counter-revolutionary activity.
But this could not prevent an explosion of discontent. On February 28, sailors of the battleships Petropavlovsk (after the suppression of the Kronstadt mutiny, renamed Marat) and Sevastopol (renamed Paris Commune) adopted a resolution, in the text of which the sailors stated their goal was to establish a genuine people's power, not a party dictatorship … A resolution calling on the government to respect the rights and freedoms that were proclaimed in October 1917. The resolution was approved by the majority of the crews of other ships. On March 1, a meeting took place on one of the Kronstadt squares, which the command of the Kronstadt naval base tried to use in order to turn the mood of the sailors and soldiers. The chairman of the Kronstadt Soviet D. Vasiliev, the Commissioner of the Baltic Fleet N. Kuzmin and the head of the Soviet government M. Kalinin rose to the podium. But those gathered with an overwhelming majority of votes supported the resolution of the sailors of the battleships "Petropavlovsk" and "Sevastopol".
The beginning of the uprising
Not having the required number of loyal troops, the authorities did not dare to act aggressively at that time. Kalinin left for Petrograd in order to begin preparations for repression. At that time, a meeting of delegates from various military units by a majority vote expressed no confidence in Kuzmin and Vasiliev. To maintain order in Kronstadt, the Provisional Revolutionary Committee (VRK) was created. Power in the city passed into his hands without a single shot.
The members of the Military Revolutionary Committee sincerely believed in the support of the workers of Petrograd and the whole country. Meanwhile, the attitude of the workers of Petrograd to the events in Kronstadt was far from unambiguous. Some of them, under the influence of false information, negatively perceived the actions of the Kronstadters. To a certain extent, rumors did their job that the "rebels" were headed by a tsarist general, and the sailors were only puppets in the hands of the White Guard counter-revolution. The fear of "cleansing" by the Cheka also played a significant role. There were also many who sympathized with the uprising and called for support. This kind of sentiment was characteristic, first of all, of the workers of the Baltic shipbuilding, cable, pipe factories and other city enterprises. However, the largest group was made up of those indifferent to the Kronstadt events.
Those who did not remain indifferent to the unrest were the leadership of the Bolsheviks. The Kronstadt delegation, which arrived in Petrograd to explain the demands of the sailors, soldiers and workers of the fortress, was arrested. On March 2, the Labor and Defense Council declared the uprising a "mutiny" organized by the French counterintelligence and the former tsarist general Kozlovsky, and the resolution adopted by the Kronstadters was declared a "Black Hundred Socialist Revolutionary". Lenin and company were quite effectively able to use the anti-monarchist sentiments of the masses to discredit the insurgents. To prevent the possible solidarity of the Petrograd workers with the Kronstadters, a state of siege was introduced on March 3 in Petrograd and the Petrograd province. In addition, repression followed against the relatives of the "rebels" who were taken as hostages.
The Bolsheviks attack Kronstadt.
The course of the uprising
In Kronstad, they insisted on open and transparent negotiations with the authorities, but the position of the latter from the very beginning of events was unambiguous: no negotiations or compromises, the rebels should be punished. The parliamentarians, directed by the rebels, were arrested. On March 4, an ultimatum was presented to Kronstadt. The VRK rejected him and decided to defend himself. For help in organizing the defense of the fortress, they turned to military specialists - staff officers. Those were suggested, not expecting the storming of the fortress, to go on the offensive themselves. In order to expand the base of the uprising, they considered it necessary to capture Oranienbaum and Sestroretsk. But the proposal to be the first of the Military Revolutionary Committee was resolutely rejected.
In the meantime, those in power were actively preparing to suppress the "rebellion". First of all, Kronstadt was isolated from the outside world. 300 delegates to the Congress began to prepare for a punitive march to the rebellious island. In order not to go on the ice alone, they began to recreate the recently disbanded 7th Army under the command of M. Tukhachevsky, who was ordered to prepare an operational plan for the assault and "suppress the mutiny in Kronstadt as soon as possible." The assault on the fortress was scheduled for March 8th. The date was not chosen by chance. It was on this day, after several postponements, that the X Congress of the RCP (b) was to open. Lenin understood the need for reforms, including replacing the food appropriation system with a tax in kind and permitting trade. On the eve of the congress, the relevant documents were prepared in order to submit them for discussion.
Meanwhile, just these questions were among the main in the demands of the Kronstadters. So, the prospect of a peaceful resolution of the conflict could appear, which was not included in the plans of the Bolshevik elite. They needed a demonstrative reprisal against those who had the audacity to openly oppose their power so that others would be discouraged. That is why it was precisely on the opening day of the congress, when Lenin was to announce a turn in economic policy, that it was supposed to strike a merciless blow at Kronstadt. Many historians believe that from this time on, the Communist Party began its tragic path to dictatorship through massive repression.
Shelling of the Kronstadt forts.
The first assault
It was not possible to take the fortress outright. Suffering heavy losses, the punitive troops retreated to their original lines. One of the reasons for this was the mood of the Red Army, some of whom showed open disobedience and even supported the rebels. With great effort, even a detachment of Petrograd cadets, considered one of the most combat-ready units, was forced to advance.
Unrest in military units created the danger of the uprising spreading to the entire Baltic fleet. Therefore, it was decided to send "unreliable" sailors to serve in other fleets. For example, six echelons with seamen of the Baltic crews were sent to the Black Sea in one week, which, in the opinion of the command, was an “undesirable element”. To forestall a possible mutiny of sailors along the route, the Red government increased the protection of railways and stations.
The last assault. Emigration
In order to improve discipline in the troops, the Bolsheviks used the usual methods: selective executions, detachments and accompanying artillery fire. The second assault began on the night of March 16. This time the punitive units were better prepared. The attackers were dressed in winter camouflage, and they were able to covertly approach the positions of the rebels on the ice. The artillery preparation was not carried out, it had more problems than sense, holes formed that did not freeze, but were only covered with a thin crust of ice, immediately covered with snow. So the offensive took place in silence. The attackers crossed the 10-kilometer distance by the hour before dawn, after which their presence was discovered. A battle began, which lasted almost a day.
1921, March 18 - the headquarters of the rebels made a decision to destroy the battleships (along with the captured communists who were in the holds) and break through the ice of the bay to Finland. They gave the order to lay several poods of explosives under the gun turrets, but this order caused outrage (because the leaders of the rebellion had already gone over to Finland). On the Sevastopol, the "old" sailors disarmed and arrested the rebels, then released the communists from the holds and radioed that Soviet power had been restored on the ship. Some time later, after the start of the artillery shelling, Petropavlovsk surrendered too (which had already been abandoned by most of the rebels.)
The forts of Kronstadt 1855.
Outcomes and consequences
On the morning of March 18, the fortress was in the hands of the Bolsheviks. The exact number of victims among those who stormed to this day is unknown. The only reference point can be the data contained in the book "The classification has been removed: the losses of the armed forces of the USSR in wars, hostilities and military conflicts." According to them, 1912 people were killed, 1208 were wounded. There is no reliable information about the number of victims among the defenders of Kronstadt. Many of those killed on the Baltic ice were not even interred. With the melting of ice, there was a danger of contamination of the water area of the Gulf of Finland. At the end of March in Sestroretsk, at a meeting of representatives of Finland and Soviet Russia, the question of cleaning up the corpses left in the Gulf of Finland after the battles was decided.
Several dozen open trials were conducted over those who took part in the "mutiny". The testimony of witnesses was falsified, and the witnesses themselves were often selected from among the former criminals. The performers of the roles of Socialist-Revolutionary instigators and "spies of the Entente" were also discovered. The executioners were upset because of the failure to capture the former General Kozlovsky, who was supposed to provide a "White Guard trace" in the uprising.
Attention is drawn to the fact that the majority of those in the dock were guilty of being present in Kronstadt during the uprising. This is explained by the fact that the "rebels" who were captured with weapons in their hands were shot on the spot. With particular partiality, the punitive authorities pursued those who left the RCP (b) during the Kronstadt events. The seamen of the battleships "Sevastopol" and "Petropavlovsk" were extremely cruelly dealt with. The number of executed crew members of these ships exceeded 200 people. In total, 2,103 people were sentenced to capital punishment, 6,459 people were sentenced to various terms of punishment.
There were so many convicts that the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) had to take up the issue of creating new concentration camps. In addition, in the spring of 1922, a mass eviction of the inhabitants of Kronstadt began. A total of 2514 people were expelled, of which 1963 were “crown rebels” and their family members, 388 people were not associated with the fortress.
Yu Temirov