Why did the sailors of Kronstadt oppose the Bolsheviks, and the Red Army could not stop the mutiny on the first try

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The Kronstadt mutiny can be attributed to an episode of the Civil War, since the people of one country opposed here, as in the case of the White Guards. However, the rebels were not counter-revolutionaries, but, on the contrary, many of them beat the "bourgeois" and supported the Soviet regime at the beginning of the formation of the new system. They were forced into an uprising by protracted internal economic problems, as well as ideological differences that flourished in those days in the Bolshevik party.

Why the sailors of Kronstadt, whose garrison was a reliable support for the Bolsheviks, opposed the country of the Soviets

In 1921, against the backdrop of the continuing Civil War, the renewed Russia experienced great economic difficulties. The difficult situation in the economy, combined with the white and red terror, from which the civilian population suffered, - all this negatively affected the attitude of part of the people to the new government. People wanted stability and the improvements promised by the Bolsheviks, but instead, for objective reasons, the standard of living quickly tended to decline.

Interruptions in fuel and raw materials stalled the work of industry, and production facilities were sometimes destroyed or inactive, being in the territory of confrontation between the warring armies. In Petrograd alone, 93 factories were closed, leaving about 27,000 people unemployed. All in all, hundreds of thousands of people were left without a livelihood across the country.

At the end of February 1921, a wave of workers' rallies and strikes took place in former Petersburg. Although they put forward mainly economic demands, several enterprises came up with political resolutions at the same time. At the same time, Nikolai Kuzmin, the head of the political department of the Baltic Fleet, being at a meeting of the Petrograd Soviet, called for attention to the massive discontent that gripped the sailors. He did not hide his alarm that unrest in Petrograd could provoke anti-Soviet demonstrations in the fleet.

What was the reason for the start of the mutiny in Kronstadt

Kuzmin was right: having learned about the events in Petrograd, the teams of the battleships "Petropavlovsk" and "Sevastopol" at an emergency meeting decided to send a delegation to the city to find out the details of the events. The sailors who arrived in Petrograd saw the striking factories and the Red Army men, in the ring of which there were enterprises with people. “One might have thought,” as one of the initiators of the rebellion, former anarchist S. Petrichenko, wrote later, “that these are not factories, but old-regime labor prisons.”

On February 28, at a new emergency meeting, after the members of the delegation shared what they saw in the city, a resolution was adopted demanding: re-elect the Soviets, allow free trade, abolish commissars, and give equal opportunities to all parties with a socialist bias. In fact, the document called on the Soviet government to follow the Constitution and grant the freedom and rights that Lenin promised in 1917. "All power is to the Soviets, not to the parties!" - under this slogan, a rally was held on March 1, at which more than 15,000 people gathered.

The Kronstadters planned to achieve their demands peacefully - through open and public negotiations with the authorities. However, the latter was not initially inclined to any negotiations and concessions: the delegation of the garrison sailors was arrested immediately after arriving in the city to clarify the demands put forward by the fleet. On March 4, 1921, Kronstadt received an ultimatum from the Petrograd Defense Committee for unconditional and immediate surrender. In response, the sailors decided to defend the island, relying on 140 guns from battleships and coast guards, more than 100 machine guns and 15,000 fighters, of whom 13,000 were sailors and 2,000 were civilians.

How Red Army men in camouflage coats stormed Kronstadt

The 7th army of Tukhachevsky, which consisted of about 17,600 bayonets, was ordered to seize the fortress and suppress the rebellion. The assault took place on March 8: the main striking force was led by Pavel Dybenko, at whose disposal were the 187th, 167th and 32nd brigades of the Red Army. Since the ice breaking in the Gulf of Finland was expected, the operation was carried out in a short time, and therefore it was not possible to think over a strategy and prepare for it properly. The defenders of the fortress repulsed a massive attack, accompanied by air support and, having suffered minor losses, held their positions on the original lines.

The sailors had everything for a long-term defense - except for ready-made fortifications and an impressive number of soldiers, there were supplies of food, ammunition and weapons on the island. In addition, a professional military man Alexander Kozlovsky, a participant in the First World War, who received the rank of major general back in tsarist times, commanded the artillery of Kronstadt.

The defeat in the capture of the rebels came as a surprise to the leadership of the Bolsheviks, since the assault involved units that had early combat experience in battles with the Kolchakites and foreign invaders. However, the command did not take into account the "political and moral state" of the attacking fighters - not all of them were ready to shoot at the sailors who had been their own yesterday. After a failed assault for refusal to participate in further battles, soldiers of two regiments of the Omsk division had to be disarmed. However, this did not prevent preparations for a second, more elaborate assault.

How the Bolsheviks managed to suppress the uprising in Kronstadt and what awaited the rebels

For a repeated attempt to seize the fortress, which was outlined for March 16, 1921, the number of Red Army men was increased to 24,000, armed with 433 machine guns and 159 pieces of artillery, in addition to rifles. Taking into account the mistakes of the previous assault, the attack began at night, which made it possible to approach the target imperceptibly, and at the same time prevent losses from long-range weapons.

This time the resistance of the defenders of the garrison was broken - the attackers captured the fortress with battles and, after fierce street fighting, by the morning of March 18, defeated the Kronstadters. The captured rebels, who had not fled the previous night with their commanders and 8,000 of their comrades to Finland, faced an unenviable fate: almost 6,500 people were sentenced to various sentences, 2,103 more sailors and civilians were sentenced to death.

But the leader of the world proletariat himself almost lost his life at the hands of a simple criminal.