The Kronstadt Rebellion
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~15,200 words · 72 passages
Cite this work
- APAAlexander Berkman. (n.d.). The Kronstadt Rebellion. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/alexander-berkman/the-kronstadt-rebellion
- MLAAlexander Berkman. "The Kronstadt Rebellion." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/alexander-berkman/the-kronstadt-rebellion.
- ChicagoAlexander Berkman. The Kronstadt Rebellion. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/alexander-berkman/the-kronstadt-rebellion.
What it is about
The pamphlet Berkman published in 1922 on the rising of the Kronstadt sailors and its suppression.
Context and history
In March 1921 the garrison of the naval base that had been the vanguard of October rose demanding free elections to the soviets, freedom of the press for socialists and anarchists, and an end to requisitioning. The army took the fortress across the ice of the gulf, and the survivors were shot or deported. Berkman was in Petrograd and lived through it at close quarters; here he collects the proclamations and the dates in order to answer the official version, which held that this was a revolt of White guards paid from abroad. It is a partisan text, written at once and in haste, and it is also one of the first-hand documents that kept the argument over Kronstadt from ever being closed. The same author's diary, 'The Bolshevik Myth', gives the whole context.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
It was early in 1921. Long years of war, revolution, and civil struggle had bled Russia to exhaustion and brought her people to the brink of despair. But at last civil war was at cHi end: the numerous fronts were liquidated, and Wr angel — the last hope of Entente intervention and Russian counter ^^ revoliition — was defeated and his military activities within Russia terminated. The people now confidently looked fervv^ard' to the mitigation of the severe Bolshevik regime. it was expected that with the end of civil war the Com^^ munists would lighten the burdens, abolish war ^ time restrictions, introduce some fundamental liberties, and begin the organisation of a more normal life. Though far from being popular, the Bolshevik Government had the support of the workers in its oft announced plan of taking up the economic reconstruction of the country as soon as military operations should cease. The people were eager to cooperate, to put their initiative and creative efforts to the upbuilding of the ruined land. Most unfortunately, these expectations were doomed to disappointment. The Communist State showed no intention of loosening the yoke. The same policies continued, with labor militarisation still further enslaving the people, embittering them with added oppression and tyranny, and in consequence paralising every possibility of industrial revival. The last hope of the proletariat was perishing: the con^ viction grew that the Communist Party was more interested in retaining political power than in saving the Revolution. The most revolutionary elements of Russia, the workers of Petrograd, were the first to speak out. They charged that, aside from other causes, Bolshevik centralisation,