The Kronstadt Rising
History: AQA GCSE Russia, 1894-1945, topic 2.3.2
The Kronstadt Rising
The Bolsheviks moved quickly to crush their opposition and to restrict political freedoms. This period was known as The Red Terror.
The Kronstadt Rising
- Sailors of the Kronstadt naval base, who had traditionally supported and aided the Bolsheviks, rebelled in March 1921.
- 'War communism’ had taken its toll on sailors and soldiers, who were increasingly exploited by the Bolsheviks.
The sailors rebel
- The rebellion showed how much support the Bolsheviks had lost as a result of the strict regime they imposed during the war.
- The sailors felt that the Bolsheviks had abandoned the Russian worker.
- The sailors called for:
- New elections.
- Freedom for left-wing parties.
- Free trade-unions.
- An end to grain requisitioning from peasants.
Response to the mutiny
- The soldiers were denounced as ‘Whites’ and ‘counter-revolutionaries’ by Lenin.
- This was not an accurate description. Most sailors supported leftist parties.
- The soldiers were not trying to overthrow the revolution. They were just asking for changes.
- But the Red Army still attacked the sailors at their base across the sea ice outside Petrograd.
Result
- The sailors fought back but were defeated. Hundreds were killed.
- The episode influenced and changed Lenin’s way of thinking and ruling Russia.
Test yourself on The Kronstadt Rising
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