Kronstadt mutiny March 1-18, 1921 - the speech of 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 economic development plans in a more progressive direction: in 1921, Lenin developed the foundations of the New Economic Policy (NEP).

... We were led by youth on a saber campaign, We were thrown by youth on the Kronstadt ice ...

In the relatively recent past, the poem, the lines from which are given above, was included in the compulsory curriculum for Russian literature in high school. Even making an adjustment for revolutionary romance, it must be admitted that the poet clearly exaggerates with regard to the fatal role of "youth". Those who "threw people on the Kronstadt ice" had very specific names and positions. However, first things first.

The opening of access to archival documents kept behind seven seals makes it possible for us to answer questions about the cause of the Kronstadt rebellion, its goals and consequences in a new way.

Prerequisites. Reasons for the rebellion

By the early 1920s, the internal situation Soviet state remained extremely difficult. The lack of workers, agricultural implements, seed stock and, most importantly, the policy of surplus appropriation had extremely negative consequences. Compared with 1916, the sown areas were reduced by 25%, and the gross harvest of agricultural products decreased by 40–45% compared with 1913. All this became one of the main reasons for the famine in 1921, which struck about 20% of the population.

No less difficult was the situation in industry, 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 until March 1, among them such giants as the Putilov 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 issuing bread were reduced, and some types of food rations were canceled. The threat of famine approached the cities. The fuel crisis worsened.

The rebellion in Kronstadt was far from the only one. Armed uprisings against the Bolsheviks swept through Western Siberia, Tambov, Voronezh and Saratov provinces, the North Caucasus, Belarus, Gorny Altai, Central Asia, Don, Ukraine. All of them were suppressed by force of arms.

"Petropavlovsk" and "Sevastopol" 1921

Unrest in Petrograd, speeches in other cities and regions of the state could not go unnoticed by the sailors, soldiers and workers of Kronstadt. 1917, October - Kronstadt sailors were the main force behind the coup. Now those in power were taking 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 informants reached 176 people. Based on their denunciations, 2,554 people were suspected of counter-revolutionary activities.

But this could not prevent an explosion of discontent. February 28 sailors battleships"Petropavlovsk" (after the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion, renamed "Marat") and "Sevastopol" (renamed the "Paris Commune") adopted a resolution in the text of which the sailors designated as their goal the establishment of truly people's power, and not party dictatorship. The resolution called 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 rally was held on one of the Kronstadt squares, which the command of the Kronstadt naval base tried to use in order to change the mood of the sailors and soldiers. Chairman of the Kronstadt Soviet D. Vasiliev, Commissar of the Baltic Fleet N. Kuzmin and head of the Soviet government M. Kalinin went up to the podium. But those gathered supported by an overwhelming majority 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 government did not dare to act aggressively at that time. Kalinin departed for Petrograd in order to begin preparations for repression. At that time, a meeting of delegates from various military units by a majority of votes expressed no confidence in Kuzmin and Vasiliev. To maintain order in Kronstadt, a Provisional Revolutionary Committee (VRC) was created. Power in the city without a single shot passed into his hands.

The members of the VRC sincerely believed in the support of their workers in Petrograd and the whole country. Meanwhile, the attitude of the workers of Petrograd towards the events in Kronstadt was far from unequivocal. 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 a tsarist general was at the head of the "rebels", and that the sailors were only puppets in the hands of the White Guard counter-revolution. Not the last role was played by the fear of "purges" by the Cheka. There were also many who sympathized with the uprising and called for support for it. Such sentiments were characteristic primarily of the workers of the Baltic shipbuilding, cable, pipe factories and other urban enterprises. However, the most numerous group was made up of those who were indifferent to the Kronstadt events.

Who did not remain indifferent to the unrest was the leadership of the Bolsheviks. The delegation of Kronstadters, which arrived in Petrograd to explain the demands of the sailors, soldiers and workers of the fortress, was arrested. On March 2, the Council of Labor and Defense declared the uprising a "mutiny" organized by the French counterintelligence and the former tsarist general Kozlovsky, and the resolution adopted by the Kronstadters was "Black Hundred-Socialist-Revolutionary." Lenin and company were quite effective in using the anti-monarchist sentiments of the masses to discredit the rebels. To prevent the possible solidarity of the Petrograd workers with the Kronstadters, on March 3, a state of siege was introduced in Petrograd and the Petrograd province. In addition, there were repressions against the relatives of the "rebels", who were taken as hostages.

Bolsheviks attack Kronstadt

The course of the uprising

In Kronstadt they insisted on open and public negotiations with the authorities, but the position of the latter from the very beginning of the events was unequivocal: no negotiations or compromises, the rebels must be punished. Parliamentarians sent by the rebels were arrested. On March 4, an ultimatum was presented to Kronstadt. The MRC 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 offered, without waiting for 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, Sestroretsk. But the proposal to be the first to act as the first MRC decisively rejected.

Meanwhile, those in power were actively preparing to suppress the "rebellion". First of all, Kronstadt was isolated from the outside world. 300 delegates of the Congress began to prepare for a punitive campaign against the rebellious island. In order not to walk on the ice alone, they set about recreating 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 rebellion in Kronstadt as soon as possible." The assault on the fortress was scheduled for March 8. The date was not chosen by chance. It was on this day that, after several postponements, the 10th Congress of the RCP (b) was to open. Lenin understood the need for reforms, including the replacement of surplus appropriation with a tax in kind, allowing trade. On the eve of the congress, relevant documents were prepared in order to submit them for discussion.

Meanwhile, just these questions were among the main ones in the demands of the Kronstadters. Thus, 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 government, so that others would be disrespectful. That is why it was precisely on the opening day of the congress, when Lenin was to announce a turn in economic policy, it was supposed to deliver a merciless blow to Kronstadt. Many of the historians believe that since that time the Communist Party began its tragic path to dictatorship through mass repression.

Shelling of the Kronstadt forts

First assault

It was not possible to take the fortress immediately. 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 which showed open defiance 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 the 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 sailors of the Baltic crews were sent to the Black Sea in one week, which, according to the command, was an “undesirable element”. To prevent a possible rebellion of sailors along the route, the Red government strengthened the protection of railways and stations.

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 across the ice. There was no artillery preparation, it was more problems than good, polynyas were formed that did not freeze, but were only covered with a thin crust of ice, immediately covered with snow. So the offensive proceeded in silence. The attackers covered a 10-kilometer distance by the predawn hour, after which their presence was discovered. A battle began that lasted almost a day.

1921, March 18 - the headquarters of the rebels decided to destroy the battleships (together 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 pounds of explosives under the gun turrets, but this order caused indignation (because the leaders of the rebellion had already crossed into Finland). On the Sevastopol, the "old" sailors disarmed and arrested the rebels, after which they released the communists from the holds and radioed that Soviet power had been restored on the ship. After some time, after the start of the artillery shelling, Petropavlovsk also surrendered (which most of the rebels had already left.)

Forts of Kronstadt 1855

Results 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 is still unknown. The only guide can be the data contained in the book "Secrecy Removed: Losses of the USSR Armed Forces in Wars, Combat Actions and Military Conflicts". According to them, 1912 people were killed, 1208 people were injured. There is no reliable information about the number of victims among the defenders of Kronstadt. Many of those who died on the Baltic ice were not even interred. With the melting of ice, there was a danger of contamination of the waters of the Gulf of Finland. At the end of March in Sestroretsk, at a meeting of representatives of Finland and Soviet Russia, the issue of cleaning up the corpses left in the Gulf of Finland after the battles was decided.

Several dozen open trials were held against those who took part in the "mutiny". The testimonies of witnesses were falsified, and the witnesses themselves were often selected from among former criminals. The performers of the roles of the 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 fault of the majority of those who found themselves in the dock was their presence 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 predilection, the punitive organs persecuted those who had left the RCP(b) during the Kronstadt events. Extremely cruelly dealt with the sailors of the battleships "Sevastopol" and "Petropavlovsk". 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 deal with 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 "kron-rebels" and members of their families, while 388 people were not connected with the fortress.

95 years ago, Trotsky and Tukhachevsky drowned in blood the uprising of the Baltic sailors who stood up for the St. Petersburg workers

March 18, 1921 forever became a black date in the history of Russia. Three and a half years after proletarian revolution, which proclaimed Freedom, Labor, Equality, Brotherhood as the main values ​​of the new state, the Bolsheviks, with cruelty unprecedented under the tsarist regime, dealt with one of the first speeches of workers for their social rights.

Kronstadt, who dared to demand re-elections of the soviets - "due to the fact that real soviets do not express the will of the workers and peasants" - was covered in blood. As a result of a punitive expedition led by Trotsky and Tukhachevsky, more than a thousand military sailors were killed, and 2103 people were shot without trial by special tribunals. What was the fault of the Kronstadters before their "native Soviet government"?

Hatred for snickering bureaucracy

Not so long ago, all archival materials related to the “case of the Kronstadt rebellion” were declassified. And although most of them were collected by the victorious side, an unbiased researcher will easily understand that the protest moods in Kronstadt have aggravated to a large extent due to the outright nobility and rudeness of the party bureaucracy that has been snickering.

In 1921, the economic situation in the country was very difficult. The difficulties are understandable - the national economy has been destroyed by the civil war and Western intervention. But the way the Bolsheviks began to fight them outraged most of the workers and peasants who had given so much for the dream of a welfare state. Instead of "partnerships", the authorities began to create the so-called Labor armies, which became a new form of militarization and enslavement.

The transfer of workers and employees to the position of mobilized was supplemented by the use of the Red Army in the economy, which was forced to participate in the restoration of transport, fuel extraction, loading and unloading and other activities. The policy of war communism culminated in agriculture, when the surplus appropriation discouraged the peasant from the minimum desire to grow a crop, which would still be completely taken away. Villages were dying, cities were emptying.

For example, the population of Petrograd decreased from 2 million 400 thousand people at the end of 1917 to 500 thousand people by 1921. The number of workers at industrial enterprises during the same period decreased from 300 thousand to 80 thousand. Such a phenomenon as labor desertion has gained gigantic proportions. The IX Congress of the RCP (b) in April 1920 was even forced to call for the creation of penal work teams from the captured deserters or to conclude them in concentration camps. But this practice only exacerbated social contradictions. The workers and peasants more and more often had a reason for discontent: what were they fighting for?! If in 1917 a worker received from the "damned" tsarist regime 18 rubles a month, then in 1921 - only 21 kopecks. At the same time, the cost of bread increased several thousand times - up to 2625 rubles per 400 grams by 1921. True, the workers received rations: 400 grams of bread per day for a worker and 50 grams for a member of the intelligentsia. But in 1921, the number of such lucky ones dropped sharply: in St. Petersburg alone, 93 enterprises were closed, 30 thousand workers out of the 80 thousand that were available at that time were unemployed, which means that they were doomed, along with their families, to starvation.

And next to it, the new “red bureaucracy” lived well and cheerfully, having invented special rations and special rations, as modern bureaucrats now call it, awards for effective management. The sailors were especially outraged by the behavior of their "proletarian" Commander of the Baltic Fleet Fyodor Raskolnikov(real name Ilyin) and his young wife Larisa Reisner, who became the head of the cultural enlightenment of the Baltic Fleet. “We are building a new state. People need us,” she declared frankly. “Our activity is creative, and therefore it would be hypocritical to deny yourself what always goes to people in power.”

Poet Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky recalled that when he came to Larisa Reisner in the apartment of the former naval minister Grigorovich, which she occupied, he was amazed by the abundance of objects and utensils - carpets, paintings, exotic fabrics, bronze Buddhas, majolica dishes, English books, French perfume bottles. And the hostess herself was dressed in a dressing gown, stitched with heavy gold threads. The couple did not deny themselves anything - a car from the imperial garage, a wardrobe from the Mariinsky Theater, a whole staff of servants.

The permissiveness of the authorities especially excited the workers and military personnel. At the end of February 1921, the largest plants and factories in Petrograd went on strike. The workers demanded not only bread and firewood, but also free elections to the Soviets. Demonstrations, by order of the then St. Petersburg leader Zinoviev, were immediately dispersed, but rumors about the events reached Kronstadt. The sailors sent delegates to Petrograd, who were amazed by what they saw - factories and plants were surrounded by troops, activists were arrested.

On February 28, 1921, at a meeting of the battleship brigade in Kronstadt, the sailors spoke in defense of the Petrograd workers. The crews demanded freedom of labor and trade, freedom of speech and press, free elections to the Soviets. Instead of the dictatorship of the communists - democracy, instead of appointed commissars - court committees. The terror of the Cheka - stop. Let the communists remember who made the revolution, who gave them power. Now it's time to return power to the people.

"Silent" rebels

To maintain order in Kronstadt and organize the defense of the fortress, a Provisional Revolutionary Committee (VRC) was created, headed by sailor Petrichenko, in addition to which the committee included his deputy Yakovenko, Arkhipov (machinery foreman), Tukin (master of the electromechanical plant) and Oreshin (head of the labor school).

From the appeal of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee (VRK) of Kronstadt: “Comrades and citizens! Our country is going through a difficult moment. Hunger, cold, economic ruin has been holding us in an iron grip for three years now. The Communist Party, ruling the country, broke away from the masses and proved unable to lead it out of the state of general ruin. With the excitement that Lately took place in Petrograd and Moscow, and which pointed quite clearly to the fact that the party had lost the confidence of the working masses, it was not considered. Nor did they take into account the demands made by the workers. She considers them the intrigues of the counter-revolution. She is deeply mistaken. These unrest, these demands are the voice of the whole people, of all working people.

However, the VRC did not go further than this, hoping that the support of "the whole people" would solve all the problems by itself. Kronstadt officers joined the uprising and advised to immediately attack Oranienbaum and Petrograd, capture the Krasnaya Gorka fort and the Sestroretsk area. But neither the members of the Revolutionary Committee nor the ordinary rebels were going to leave Kronstadt, where they felt safe behind the armor of battleships and the concrete of the forts. Their passive position subsequently led to a quick defeat.

"Gift" to the Tenth Congress

At first, the position of Petrograd was almost hopeless. The city is in turmoil. The small garrison is demoralized. There is nothing to storm Kronstadt with. The chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council, Lev Trotsky, and the "winner of Kolchak" Mikhail Tukhachevsky urgently arrived in Petrograd. To storm Kronstadt, the 7th Army, which defeated Yudenich, was immediately restored. Its number is brought up to 45 thousand people. A well-functioning propaganda machine begins to work in full force.

Tukhachevsky, 1927

On March 3, Petrograd and the province were declared under a state of siege. The uprising is announced as a conspiracy of unfinished tsarist generals. Appointed chief rebel General Kozlovsky- chief of artillery of Kronstadt. Hundreds of relatives of the Kronstadters became hostages of the Cheka. Only from the family of General Kozlovsky, 27 people were seized, including his wife, five children, distant relatives and acquaintances. Almost all received camp terms.

General Kozlovsky

The rations were urgently increased for the workers of Petrograd, and the unrest in the city subsided.

On March 5, Mikhail Tukhachevsky is instructed to “suppress the uprising in Kronstadt as soon as possible by the opening of the Tenth Congress of the CPSU (b).” The 7th Army was reinforced with armored trains and air detachments. Not trusting the local regiments, Trotsky called the proven 27th division from Gomel, setting the date for the assault - March 7th.

Exactly on this day, artillery shelling of Kronstadt began, and on March 8, units of the Red Army launched an assault. The advancing Red Army soldiers were driven into the attack by barrage detachments, but they did not help either - having met the fire of the Kronstadt guns, the troops turned back. One battalion immediately went over to the side of the rebels. But in the area of ​​Zavodskaya Harbor, a small detachment of Reds managed to break through. They reached the Petrovsky Gates, but were immediately surrounded and taken prisoner. The first Kronstadt assault failed.

Panic broke out among the partymen. Hatred for them swept the whole country. The uprising is blazing not only in Kronstadt - peasant and Cossack revolts are blowing up the Volga region, Siberia, Ukraine, and the North Caucasus. The rebels smash the food detachments, the hated Bolshevik appointees are expelled or shot. Workers are on strike even in Moscow. At this time, Kronstadt becomes the center of a new Russian revolution.

Bloody Assault

On March 8, Lenin made a closed report at the congress about the failure in Kronstadt, calling the rebellion a threat that in many ways surpassed the actions of both Yudenich and Kornilov combined. The leader suggested that some of the delegates be sent directly to Kronstadt. Of the 1135 people who came to the congress in Moscow, 279 party workers headed by K. Voroshilov and I. Konev left for battle formations on Kotlin Island. Also, a number of provincial committees of Central Russia sent their delegates and volunteers to Kronstadt.

But in the political sense, the action of the Kronstadters had already brought important changes. At the Tenth Congress, Lenin announced the New Economic Policy - free trade and small-scale private production were allowed, the surplus appropriation was replaced by a tax in kind, but the Bolsheviks were not going to share power with anyone.

From all over the country, military echelons were drawn to Petrograd. But two regiments of the Omsk Rifle Division rebelled: “We don’t want to fight against our sailor brothers!” The Red Army soldiers left their positions and rushed along the highway to Peterhof.

Red cadets from 16 Petrograd military universities were sent to suppress the rebellion. The fugitives were surrounded and forced to lay down their arms. To restore order, special departments in the troops were strengthened by Petrograd Chekists. Special departments of the Southern Group of Forces worked tirelessly - unreliable units were disarmed, hundreds of Red Army soldiers were arrested. On March 14, 1921, 40 other Red Army soldiers were shot in front of the line to intimidate them, and on March 15, another 33. The rest were lined up and forced to shout “Give Kronstadt!”

On March 16, the Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks ended in Moscow, Tukhachevsky's artillery began artillery preparation. When it finally got dark, the shelling stopped, and at 2 o'clock in the morning the infantry moved in marching columns across the ice of the bay in complete silence. Following the first echelon, the second echelon followed with a regular interval, then the third, reserve.

The Kronstadt garrison was desperately defending itself - the streets were crossed with barbed wire and barricades. Aimed fire was fired from the attics, and when the chains of the Red Army came close, the machine guns in the basements came to life. Often the rebels launched counterattacks. By five o'clock in the evening on March 17, the attackers were driven out of the city. And then the last reserve of the assault was thrown across the ice - the cavalry, which chopped into cabbage the sailors drunk with the specter of victory. On March 18, the rebellious fortress fell.

The Red troops entered Kronstadt as an enemy city. That same night, without trial, 400 people were shot, and in the morning revolutionary tribunals began to work. The former Baltic sailor Dybenko became the commandant of the fortress. During his "reign" 2103 people were shot, and six and a half thousand were sent to camps. For this, he received his first military award - the Order of the Red Banner. And a few years later he was shot by the same authorities for ties with Trotsky and Tukhachevsky.

Features of the uprising

In fact, only a part of the sailors raised the rebellion; later, the garrisons of several forts and individual inhabitants from the city joined the rebels. There was no unity of sentiment, if the entire garrison had supported the rebels, it would have been much more difficult to suppress the uprising in the most powerful fortress and more blood would have been shed. The sailors of the Revolutionary Committee did not trust the garrisons of the forts, so over 900 people were sent to the Rif fort, 400 to Totleben and Obruchev each. Commandant of the Totleben fort Georgy Langemak, future chief engineer of the RNII and one of the "fathers" "Katyusha", categorically refused to obey the Revolutionary Committee, for which he was arrested and sentenced to death.

The demands of the rebels were pure nonsense and could not be met in the conditions of the just ended Civil War and Intervention. Let's say the slogan "Soviets without Communists": The Communists made up almost the entire State Apparatus, the backbone of the Red Army (400 thousand out of 5.5 million people), the command staff of the Red Army for 66% of the graduates of the courses of painters from workers and peasants, appropriately processed by communist propaganda. Without this corps of managers, Russia would again sink into the abyss of a new Civil War and the Intervention of fragments of the white movement would begin (only in Turkey, the 60,000-strong Russian army of Baron Wrangel was stationed, consisting of experienced fighters who had nothing to lose). The young states, Poland, Finland, Estonia, were located along the borders, which were not averse to chop off the still light brown land. They would have been supported by Russia's "allies" in the Entente.

Who will take power, who will lead the country and how, where to get food, etc. - it is impossible to find answers in the naive and irresponsible resolutions and demands of the rebels.

On the deck of the battleship "Petropavlovsk" after the suppression of the rebellion. In the foreground is a hole from a large-caliber projectile.

The rebels were mediocre commanders, militarily, and did not use all the possibilities for defense (probably, thank God - otherwise much more blood would have been shed). So, Major General Kozlovsky, commander of the Kronstadt artillery, and a number of other military experts immediately suggested that the Revolutionary Committee attack the Red Army units on both sides of the bay, in particular, capture the Krasnaya Gorka fort and the Sestroretsk area. But neither the members of the Revolutionary Committee nor the ordinary rebels were going to leave Kronstadt, where they felt safe behind the armor of battleships and the concrete of the forts. Their passive position led to a quick defeat.

During the fighting, the powerful artillery of the battleships and forts controlled by the rebels was not used to its full potential and did not inflict any special losses on the Bolsheviks.

The military leadership of the Red Army, Tukhachevsky, also did not act satisfactorily. If the rebels were led by experienced commanders, the assault on the Fortress would have failed, and the attackers would have washed themselves in blood.

Both sides did not hesitate to lie. The rebels published the first issue of Izvestia of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee, where the main "news" was that "There is a general uprising in Petrograd." In fact, unrest in the factories in Petrograd subsided, some ships stationed in Petrograd, and part of the garrison hesitated and took a neutral position. The vast majority of soldiers and sailors supported the government.

Zinoviev, on the other hand, lied that White Guard and British agents penetrated Kronstadt, throwing gold left and right, and General Kozlovsky raised a rebellion.

- The "heroic" leadership of the Kronstadt Revolutionary Committee, headed by Petrichenko, realizing that the jokes were over, at 5 o'clock in the morning on March 17, they left by car across the ice of the bay to Finland. Following them rushed a crowd of ordinary sailors and soldiers.

The result was the weakening of the positions of Trotsky-Bronstein: the beginning of the New Economic Policy automatically pushed Trotsky's positions into the background and completely discredited his plans for the militarization of the country's economy. March 1921 marked a turning point in our history. The restoration of statehood and the economy began, an attempt to plunge Russia into a new Time of Troubles was stopped.

Rehabilitation

In 1994, all participants in the Kronstadt uprising were rehabilitated, and a monument was erected to them on the Anchor Square of the fortress city.

On March 18, 1921, the Kronstadt mutiny was pacified - an uprising of sailors that could ignite Russia on new fight. The sailors wanted a "third" revolution, free trade and a better life no communists.

Reasons for the rebellion

Why did the sailors rebel? Did they run out of bread? No, the sailors' rations were twice as large as those of the St. Petersburg workers, they received 1.5 - 2 pounds of bread (1 pound = 400 g.), a quarter of a pound of meat, a quarter of a pound of fish, a quarter of cereals, 60 - 80 gr. Sahara. For comparison: workers received 225 grams per day for the hardest work. bread, 7 gr. meat or fish and 10 gr. Sahara. The reason for the uprising, therefore, was not hunger, but the disagreement of the sailors (most of whom were peasants) with the policy of war communism, which implies expropriation and the prohibition of free trade.

Bolshevik reaction

The reaction of the Bolsheviks was not long in coming. A state of siege was introduced in Petrograd. The rebels were given an ultimatum; those who decided to surrender were promised to save their lives. Already after the presentation of the ultimatum to the city, airplanes began to scatter leaflets with the lapidary text "Surrender! Otherwise, you will be shot like partridges. Trotsky." Such persuasion, of course, did not help change the decision of the rebels, but the propaganda machine worked with no less intensity, the newspaper "Red Baltic Fleet" reported on the past members of the "revolutionary committee", their social origin, occupation, property status before the rebellion.

Confusion

The first shots fired at Kronstadt caused a mixed assessment among various segments of the population. So, at a meeting, the communists of the 2nd district committee of the mine-artillery part of the Kronstadt port stated that they consider such an “act a crime against the people, that power, which is called the Workers 'and Peasants' Government, which lost the trust of the workers and peasants and sought to keep the deceived communist detachments on bayonets and cadets”, so they decided to leave the Communist Party. The resolution of the assembly of communists was signed by 15 people. The order to advance was also ambiguously received in the Red Army units. The 561st regiment refused to go on the offensive. The commander of the 561st regiment took "repressive measures against his Red Army soldiers in order to further force them to go on the offensive." In other words, he shot the retreating.

Tukhachevsky

The suppression of the Kronstadt uprising became Tukhachevsky's "high point". He led the 7th Army. He acted decisively and very cruelly, after the Polish failure he could not show weakness. The orders were ultimatum: "The attack should be carried out swiftly and boldly, having prepared it with a hurricane of artillery fire." It was here that Tukhachevsky first came up with the idea of ​​using poisonous gases to destroy the enemy. He ordered to bombard the fortress and battleships with chemical shells. Only unsuitable weather conditions (fog) and the proximity of the Finnish border stopped the commander. Tukhachevsky took from the suppression of Kronstadt not only glory, but also the wife of the Baltic Fleet Commissioner Nikolai Kuzmin, who became his mistress.

Fed from the spear of the revolution

The suppression of the Kronstadt uprising went down in history as one of the bloodiest operations of the Red Army. The first assault on the fortress did not bring success, the frontal attack "choked" in machine-gun and artillery fire. The defenders of Kronstadt showed that they were ready to fight to the end, they were united and well organized. It is interesting that Lenin was absolutely sure of an early victory over the rebels and deliberately underestimated his role. In an interview with an American journalist given in March 1921, he emphatically stated that "the uprising in Kronstadt is indeed a completely insignificant incident." But it wasn't. The final assault on March 17-18 was a real bloodbath, dozens of Red Army soldiers fell through the ice, which was red with blood. It was impossible to retreat, the soldiers understood this very well. Reiter's brigade, the first to break into the fortress, thinned by a third. The Nevelsky regiment, having lost one of the battalions, was saved at the cost of the death of the cadets of the brigade school. When the defenders were forced out of the fortress, the cavalry went into action. By the end of the day, having learned that the "leaders" had gone to Finland, the rebels began to surrender ...

Mutiny and emigration

The white emigration raised the rebels to the shield at the very beginning of the rebellion, then they actively formed public opinion, using even newspaper "ducks" for propaganda. So, in the emigre press, a note appeared that a steamer sent by the American Red Cross had arrived in Kronstadt. "Subversive brigades" also worked: on the night of March 9-10 in Reval (Tallinn), "unknown persons stole a flag" from the Soviet embassy house, and "a poster with an anti-Semitic inscription" was hung on the wall of the house. Colonel Ryan, representative of the American Red Cross, in Tallinn. It must be said that accepting help from the West was an ideological blunder of the rebels. Even in the event of a hypothetical "victory", they would definitely not have won the support of the masses.

Results

Retribution for the rebellion was "in the spirit of the times": 2103 people were shot, 6459 were sent to Solovki. It is significant that the Bolsheviks did not want to recognize the rebellion as an uprising of sailors, so it was attributed to the Petrograd military organization, which was discovered by the Cheka in the summer of 1921, for participation in which 96 people were shot, including the poet Nikolai Gumilyov. The families of many participants in the uprising were repressed, about half of the civilian inhabitants of Kronstadt - about 10 thousand people - were evicted as unreliable. The term "crown rebels" appeared in official documents. About eight thousand people went across the ice to Finland. Stalin remembered everything: in 1944, when making peace with Finland, he demanded their extradition.

On the basis of universal equal suffrage. Workers protested in the cities. Discontent spread to the armed forces.

The beginning of the uprising on March 1-2

Comrades and citizens! Our country is going through a difficult moment. Hunger, cold, economic ruin have been holding us in an iron grip for three years now. The Communist Party, ruling the country, broke away from the masses and was unable to bring it out of a state of general devastation. It did not take into account the unrest that had recently taken place in Petrograd and Moscow, and which showed quite clearly that the Party had lost the confidence of the working masses. Nor did they take into account the demands made by the workers. She considers them the intrigues of the counter-revolution. She is deeply mistaken. These unrest, these demands are the voice of the entire people, of all working people.

The siege of the fortress March 3-6

Storm March 7-18

The results of the uprising

Most of the defenders of the fortress died in battle, the other - went to Finland (8 thousand), the rest surrendered (of which 2103 people were shot according to the verdicts of revolutionary tribunals).

The surviving participants in the Kronstadt events were repeatedly repressed later. They were rehabilitated in the 1990s.

The memory of the uprising

Literature

• Semanov S. N. Kronstadt rebellion /S. N. Semanov. - M.: EKSMO: Algorithm, 2003. - 254 p.
• Novikov A.P. Socialist-Revolutionary leaders and the Kronstadt rebellion of 1921 / A.P. Novikov // National history. - 2007. - No. 4. - P.57 - 64.
• Evrich P. Uprising in Kronstadt. 1921 / P.Evrich; Per. Igorevsky L. A. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2007. - 237 p.

see also

Links

• L. Trotsky. The mutiny of the former General Kozlovsky and the ship "Petropavlovsk" (Government message) March 2, 1921

• Cayo Brendel Kronstadt - the proletarian offspring of the Russian Revolution

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See what the "Kronstadt rebellion" is in other dictionaries:

Kronstadt rebellion- (Kronstadt Mutiny) (1921), the performance of the sailors of the Kronstadt garrison against the Bolshevik government of Russia. The sailors of Kronstadt enthusiastically supported the Bolsheviks in 1917, but in March 1921 they rebelled against the order, which they considered to be a comm. ... ... The World History

Kronstadt rebellion- Kronsht hellish mint hedgehog (1921) ... Russian spelling dictionary

Armed action of the Kronstadt garrison and the crews of some ships of the Baltic Fleet on March 18, 1921, directed against the policy of Soviet power; manifestation of the political crisis of the spring of 1921. Dissatisfaction was reflected in the K. m. ... ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)

Kronstadt revolt of 1921- The Kronstadt mutiny of 1921, an armed action by the Kronstadt garrison and the crews of some ships of the Baltic Fleet on March 1-18, 1921, directed against the policy of Soviet power; manifestation of the political crisis of the spring of 1921. In ... ... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"

REBELLION, rebellion, husband. An armed uprising that arose as a result of a conspiracy against state power. Kronstadt rebellion of 1921 Fascist rebellion of General Frank in Spain in 1936 "The beginning of Peter's glorious deeds was darkened by rebellions and executions." Pushkin ... Dictionary Ushakov

Rebellion is a group (mass) armed uprising against the current government, often reflecting the interests of conservative, and even reactionary circles of society (for example, the Franco rebellion). Contents 1 Use of the term 2 Revolts ancient world... Wikipedia

Counter-revolutionary action by the Kronstadt garrison and the crews of some ships of the Baltic Fleet in March 1921, organized by the Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, anarchists and White Guards with the support of foreign imperialists. Appeared as one of… Great Soviet Encyclopedia

City of Kronstadt Coat of arms ... Wikipedia

Counterrevolutionary. performance of part of the Kronstadt garrison and the crews of the Balt ships. fleet in the spring of 1921, organized by the Social Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, anarchists and White Guards with the support of foreign. imperialists. By the end of 1920, in conditions of extremely difficult ... Soviet historical encyclopedia

Left Socialist-Revolutionary rebellion in Moscow events in Moscow in July 1918, connected with the assassination of the German ambassador Mirbach, and the armed uprising of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries against the Bolsheviks. Revolution of 1917 in Russia Public ... Wikipedia

Books

• Rebellious Kronstadt. 1905-1917-1921, Krestyaninov Vladimir Yakovlevich, "We were led by youth / On a saber campaign, / We were thrown by youth / On the Kronstadt ice…" The Kronstadt uprising of 1921 became one of the most dramatic episodes of the Great Russian… Category:

In Smolensk in February, Dokuchaev, adjutant to the commander of the Western Front, was looking for M. N. Tukhachevsky. They called from Moscow. Mikhail Nikolaevich was urgently summoned by the Chief of the General Staff. He was found, after a long search, leaving the local orphanage, to which the military leader helped as best he could.

Riot in the stronghold of the revolution

The reason for the call was unrest in one of the strongholds October revolution 1917, the city-fortress on Kronstadt. By that time, completely different people served there. To the fronts civil war over 40 thousand sailors of the Baltic Fleet left in three years. These were the people most devoted to the "cause of the revolution." Many died. Of the most significant figures can be called Anatoly Zheleznyakov. Since 1918, the fleet began to recruit on a voluntary basis. Most of the people who replenished the crews were peasants. The village has already managed to lose faith in the slogans that attracted the villagers to the side of the Bolsheviks. The country was in a difficult situation. “Demanding bread, you give nothing in return,” the peasants said, and they were right. Replenished parts of the Balflot and even more unreliable people. These were the so-called "zhorzhiks" from Petrograd, members of various semi-criminal groups. Discipline fell, desertions became more frequent. The grounds for dissatisfaction were: interruptions in food, fuel, uniforms. All this facilitated the agitation of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and agents of foreign powers. Under the guise of an employee of the American Red Cross, Vilken, the former commander of the battleship Sevastopol, arrived in Kronstadt. He organized the delivery of equipment and food to the fortress from Finland. It was this dreadnought, along with the "Peter and Paul" and "Andrew the First-Called", that became the stronghold of the rebellion.

The beginning of the Kronstadt uprising

Closer to the spring of 1921, V.P. was appointed head of the political department of the naval base. Gromov, an active participant in the October events of 1917. But it was already too late. Moreover, he did not feel support from the fleet commander F.F. Raskolnikov, who was more occupied with the unfolding controversy between V. I. Lenin and L. D. Trotsky, in which he took the side of the latter. The situation complicated the introduction of a curfew in Petrograd on February 25. Two days later, a delegation returned from the city, consisting of part of the sailors of two battleships. On the twenty-eighth, the Kronstadters adopted a resolution. It was handed over to all servicemen of the garrison and ships. This day in 1921 can be considered the beginning of the uprising in Kronstadt.

Uprising in Kronstadt: slogan, rally

On the eve of the head of the Political Department of the fleet, Battis assured that the discontent was caused by hitches in the supply of food and the refusal to grant holidays. The demands, meanwhile, were mostly political. Re-elections of Soviets, elimination of commissars and political departments, freedom of activity of socialist parties, abolition of detachments. The influence of the peasant replenishment was expressed in the points of granting freedom of trade and the abolition of surplus appropriation. The uprising of the sailors of Kronstadt took place under the slogan: "All power to the Soviets, not to the parties!" All attempts to prove that the political demands were inspired by the Socialist-Revolutionaries and agents of the imperialist powers were unsuccessful. The rally on Anchor Square was not in favor of the Bolsheviks. The uprising in Kronstadt took place in March 1921.

Expectation

The suppression of the uprising of sailors and workers in Kronstadt was necessary not only for internal political reasons. The rebels, if they succeeded in their plan, could open the passage to Kotlin for the squadrons of hostile states. And this was the sea gate to Petrograd. The Defense Headquarters was headed by former Major General A.N. Kozlovsky and Captain E.V. Solovyanov, who served in the imperial army. They were subordinated to three battleships with twelve-inch guns, the Narva mine layer, the Lovat minesweeper, artillery, rifle and engineering units of the garrison. It was an impressive force: almost 29 thousand people, 134 heavy and 62 light guns, 24 anti-aircraft guns, and 126 machine guns. The uprising of the sailors of Kronstadt in March 1921 was not supported only by the southern forts. It should be borne in mind that no one could take the sea fortress for two hundred years of history. Perhaps the excessive self-confidence of the rebels in Kronstadt let them down. Initially, there were not enough troops devoted to Soviet power in Petrograd. If desired, the Kronstadters could seize a bridgehead near Oranienbaum on March 1-2. But they waited, hoping to hold out until the ice broke. Then the fortress would become truly impregnable.

Under siege

The uprising of the sailors in Kronstadt (1921) came as a surprise to the authorities of the capital, although they were repeatedly informed about the unfavorable situation in the city. On the first day, the leaders of the Kronstadt Soviet were arrested and a Provisional Revolutionary Committee headed by the Socialist-Revolutionary Petrichenko was organized. Of the 2,680 Communists, 900 left the RCP(b). One hundred and fifty political workers left the city without hindrance, but arrests still took place. Hundreds of Bolsheviks ended up in prisons. Only then did Petrograd react. Kozlovsky and the entire staff of the “Defence Headquarters” were outlawed, and Petrograd and the entire province were transferred to a state of siege. The Baltic Fleet was headed by I. K. Kozhanov, who was more loyal to the authorities. On the sixth of March, the shelling of the island from heavy guns began. But it was possible to liquidate the uprising in Kronstadt (1921) only by storm. There was a 10-kilometer march on the ice under the fire of guns and machine guns.

hasty assault

Who commanded the suppression of the uprising in Kronstadt? In the capital, the 7th Army of the Petrograd Military District was hastily recreated. To command it, he was called from Smolensk, who was to suppress the uprising in Kronstadt in 1921. For reinforcement, he asked for the 27th division, well known from the battles of the civil war. But she had not yet arrived, and the troops at the disposal of the commander were almost unfit for combat. Nevertheless, the order had to be carried out, that is, to suppress the uprising of the sailors in Kronstadt as soon as possible. He arrived on the 5th, and already on the night of March 7-8, the attack began. There was fog, then a blizzard. It was impossible to use aviation and correct the shooting. And what could field guns do against powerful, concreted fortifications? The Northern and Southern groups of troops advanced under the command of E.S. Kazansky and A.I. Sedyakin. Although the cadets of military schools managed to break into one of the forts, and special forces even penetrated the city, the morale of the soldiers was very low. Some of them went over to the side of the rebels. The first assault ended in failure. It is significant that part of the soldiers of the 7th Army, as it turned out, sympathized with the uprising of the sailors in Kronstadt.

Communists on the rise

The anti-Bolshevik uprising in Kronstadt took place after the victory over Wrangel in the Crimea. The Baltic countries and Finland signed peace treaties with the country of the Soviets. The war was considered won. That's why it came as such a surprise. But the success of the rebels could completely change the balance of power. Therefore, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin considered him a greater danger than "Kolchak, Denikin and Yudenich combined." It was necessary at all costs to put an end to the rebellion, and before the opening of the ice cover of the Baltic. The leadership of the suppression of the rebellion was taken over by the Central Committee of the RCP (b). The division devoted to Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky arrived. In addition, more than 300 delegates from the Tenth Party Congress, which was held in Moscow, arrived in Petrograd. A group of students from the Academy also arrived. Among them were Voroshilov, Dybenko, Fabricius. The troops were reinforced by more than 2,000 proven communists. Tukhachevsky appointed a decisive assault on March 14. The term was corrected by the thaw. The ice was still holding, but the roads had been swept away, making it difficult to transport ammunition. The attack was postponed to the 16th. Soviet troops on the Petrograd coast by that time reached 45 thousand people. They had 153 guns, 433 machine guns and 3 armored trains at their disposal. The advancing units were provided with uniforms, camouflage robes, scissors for cutting barbed wire. To transport ammunition, machine guns and the wounded across the ice, sleds and sleds of the most diverse designs were brought from all over the area.

The fall of the fortress

On the morning of March 16, 1921, artillery preparation began. The fortress and planes were bombed. From Kronstadt they responded by shelling the shores of the Gulf of Finland and Oranienbaum. Soldiers of the 7th Army set foot on the ice on the night of March 17th. It was difficult to walk on loose ice, besides, the darkness was illuminated by the searchlights of the rebels. Every now and then I had to fall and cling to the ice. Nevertheless, the attacking units were discovered only at 5 o'clock in the morning, when they were already almost in the "dead zone", where the shells did not reach. But there were enough machine guns in the city. Multi-meter polynyas, formed after the explosion of shells, had to be crossed. It was especially hard on the way to Fort No. 6, where land mines were blown up. But the Red Army still took possession of the so-called Petrograd Gates and broke into Kronstadt. The fierce battle continued for a whole day. The forces of the attackers and defenders were running out, as was the ammunition. By 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the Red Guards were pressed to the edge of the ice. The outcome of the case was decided by the 27th detachment of the St. Petersburg communist activists who came to the rescue. On the morning of October 18, 1921, the final suppression of the uprising in Kronstadt took place. Many organizers of the uprising took advantage of the time while the fighting was going on near the coast. Almost all members of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee fled across the ice to Finland. In total, almost 8 thousand rebels managed to escape.

Repression

The first issue of the Krasny Kronstadt newspaper came out in less than a day. A journalist who also did not escape repression in the 1930s, Mikhail Koltsov glorified the winners and promised grief to "traitors and traitors." Almost 2,000 Red Army soldiers died during the assault. The rebels during the suppression of the uprising in Kronstadt lost over 1 thousand people. In addition, 2,100 people were sentenced to death, not counting those who were shot without any sentence. In Sestroretsk and Oranienbaum, many civilians died from bullets and shells. More than 6,000 people were sentenced to prison. Many of those who did not participate in the leadership of the conspiracy were amnestied for the 5th anniversary of the October Revolution. There could have been more victims, but the uprising in Kronstadt (1921) did not support the Mine Detachment. If the ice around the forts was stuffed with mines, everything would have turned out differently. The workers of the Steamship Plant and some other enterprises also remained loyal to the Petrograd Soviet.

Kronstadt: the results of the sailors' uprising in March 1921

Despite the defeat, the rebels achieved some of their demands. The Central Committee of the Party drew conclusions from the bloody revolt in the stronghold of the revolution. Lenin called this tragedy the reverse side of the plight of the country, especially the peasants. This can be called one of the most important results of the uprising in Kronstadt (1921). The need to achieve a stronger unity of workers and peasants was recognized. To do this, it was necessary to improve the situation of the wealthy sections of the population of the villages. The middle peasantry suffered the most tangible losses from the surplus appropriation. Soon it was replaced by a tax in kind. A sharp turn from war communism to a new economic policy began. It also meant some freedom of trade. V. I. Lenin himself called this one of the most important lessons of Kronstadt. The "dictatorship of the proletariat" was over, a new era was dawning.

You can talk about the cruelty of the era of "war communism" and many who implemented this policy. But it cannot be denied that the mutiny in the sea fortress would have been used not only to change the political course in Russia. The squadrons of many countries were ready to go to sea at the first news of the success of the rebellion. After the surrender of Kronstadt, Petrograd would become defenseless. The heroism of the Red Army during the assault is undeniable. There was no cover on the ice. Protecting their heads, the fighters placed machine-gun boxes and sleds in front of them. If powerful searchlights were used as they should, the Gulf of Finland would become the grave of thousands of soldiers of the Red Army. From the memoirs it is known how he behaved during the attack. Before the start of the decisive throw, everyone saw a man walking forward in a black Caucasian cloak. With a Mauser, defenseless against hundreds of powerful guns, he, by his example, raised the infantry chains lying on the ice in a decisive attack. The 19-year-old secretary of the Ivanovo-Voznesensk provincial committee of the Komsomol Feigin died in much the same way. The opposite can be said about the rebels. Not everyone was sure that their cause was right. No more than a quarter of the sailors and soldiers joined the uprising. The garrisons of the southern forts supported the advancing 7th Army with fire. All the naval units of Petrograd and the crews of the ships that wintered on the Neva remained loyal to Soviet power. The leadership of the uprising acted indecisively, waiting for help after the disappearance of the ice. The composition of the "provisional revolutionary committee" was heterogeneous in composition. Socialist-Revolutionary Petrichenko, who was once a Petliurite, at the head, and in the composition - a former officer of the gendarmerie, a large landlord and the Mensheviks. These people were unable to make any clear decisions.

The experience of the underground work of many communists arrested on the island played a role. In conclusion, they managed to publish their own handwritten newspaper, and in it they refuted the allegations about the collapse of the Bolsheviks, which filled the newspaper published on behalf of the Kronstadt "revolutionary committee". During the first assault, V.P. Gromov, who commanded special-purpose battalions, managed to get into the city in the confusion and agreed with the underground on further actions. The Kronstadt garrison was isolated and did not receive support from other military units. And this despite the fact that their leaders did not oppose Soviet power. They wanted to use the form of the Soviets to overthrow the government. Then, perhaps, the Soviets themselves would have been liquidated. The indecision of the authorities of Petrograd in the first days was caused not only by confusion. Rebellions against the authorities were not uncommon. Tambov province, Western Siberia, the North Caucasus - these are just some of the regions where peasants met food detachments with weapons in their hands. But they still failed to feed the cities, dooming the peasants to starvation. The largest ration in the capital was 800 grams of bread. The detachments blocked the roads and caught the speculators, but the city still flourished under the counter trade. Rallies and demonstrations of workers took place in the city until March 1921. Then there were no bloodshed and arrests, but discontent grew. And in the Petrograd Soviet there was a struggle for control of the fleet, already infected with a rebellious spirit. Powers could not be divided between Trotsky and Zinoviev.

The Kronstadt uprising of the sailors in March 1921 was the last and most powerful argument in favor of revising the policy of "war communism". Already on March 14, the surplus appraisal was canceled. Instead of 70% of the grain from the peasants, they began to take only 30% in the form of a tax in kind. Private entrepreneurship, market relations, foreign capital in the Soviet economy - all this was a forced, largely improvisational measure. It was March of the first year of the second decade of the 20th century that became the time when the transition to the New Economic Policy was proclaimed. This was one of the most successful economic reforms in the history of the country. And the sailors of the main sea fortress of the country played their important role in this.