Stepan petrichenko the truth about the Kronstadt events. Biography. Soviet Republic of sailors and builders

Plan
Introduction
1 early years
2 Soviet republic sailors and builders
3 "Party week"
4 Kronstadt uprising
4.1 Secret agent of the Cheka

5 Emigrant
6 Agent
7 End
8 Memoirs
Bibliography
Petrichenko, Stepan Maksimovich

Introduction

Stepan Maksimovich Petrichenko (1892, village Nikitenka, Zhizdrinsky district, Kaluga province - June 2, 1947), senior clerk of the battleship "Petropavlovsk", head of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Kronstadt uprising. During the Revolution in Russia, he leaned towards anarcho-communism, like other sailors of the Baltic Fleet (see also Dybenko, Pavel Efimovich).

1. Early years

Born into the family of a land-poor peasant. Two years after his birth, the family moved to Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporozhye), where Stepan graduated from a two-year city school and went to work at a local metallurgical plant as a metal worker. In 1913, Petrichenko was called up to military service on the battleship "Petropavlovsk", which was part of the Baltic Fleet.

2. Soviet Republic of sailors and builders

During February revolution in Russia, was with the fleet on the Estonian island of Nargen (now Naissaar). In December 1917, the "Soviet Republic of Sailors and Builders" was proclaimed here.

Eighty sailors and about two hundred indigenous islanders organized local government, which existed until the capture of Tallinn by the troops of imperial Germany on February 26, 1918.

The red and black flag of the "anarcho-communists" was lowered, and her "government" embarked on ships of the Baltic Fleet, heading for Helsinki, and from there - for Kronstadt. Three years later, the red-black banner soared over Kronstadt - the former head of the Nargen "republic" Stepan Maksimovich Petrichenko led the Kronstadt uprising.

3. "Party week"

In the "party week" of 1919, he joined the RCP (b), but dropped out of the party during the "re-registration" (veiled purge). In the summer of 1920, he visited his homeland, and upon his return spoke approvingly of the movement of Father Makhno, but he did not become an anarchist by conviction.

4. Kronstadt uprising

In March 1921, with the outbreak of unrest in Kronstadt, he headed the body of leadership of the uprising - the Provisional Revolutionary Committee, but did not show political talent. The Kronstadters demanded the elimination of the "autocracy of the communists."

After suppressing the rebellion with thousands of its participants, he left for Finland. He worked in sawmills, became a carpenter.

4.1. Secret agent of the Cheka

In the publication of the magazine "Vlast", No. 5 dated 02/07/2011, it is reported that "Petrichenko is a secret agent of the Extraordinary Commission of the Petrograd province"

5. Emigrant

In emigration, Petrichenko's authority among the former participants in the uprising was high. He blocked the intention of the White emigration to Helsinki to send Kronstadt "volunteers" to Soviet Karelia to organize an uprising. He urged not to obey the order of General Wrangel to include a detachment of former Kronstadters in the army in Turkey. When, at the beginning of 1922, by a resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, ordinary participants in the uprising were granted amnesty, he did not obstruct those wishing to return to their homeland and decided to ask permission to return, about which he held advice with other former members of the Revolutionary Committee. Soon the police chief of Vyborg received a denunciation of Petrichenko's "vile plan", as a result of which he was arrested on May 21, 1922 and spent several months in prison.

In 1922, Petrichenko went to Riga and visited the RSFSR embassy. There he was recruited into agents of the GPU and he became an agent of the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army in Finland.

In August 1927, Petrichenko again came to Riga and at the Soviet embassy applied to Kalinin with a request to return Soviet citizenship and allow him to leave for the USSR. In 1927, Petrichenko traveled through Latvia to the USSR. Returning to Finland, he got a job at a pulp mill in Ken (Kemi?), Where he worked until 1931. He was fired from a downsizing factory and moved to Helsinki. In 1937 he announced his refusal to cooperate with Soviet intelligence, but then again agreed to continue working. With the outbreak of World War II, Petrichenko's activities were reoriented to highlight the military preparations of Germany and its allies. Several important messages were received from Petrichenko about Germany's preparations for a war against the USSR.

In 1941, Petrichenko was arrested by the Finnish authorities.

On September 25, 1944, on the basis of an armistice agreement between the USSR, Great Britain and Finland, Petrichenko was released, and on April 21, 1945, he was arrested again and transferred to the counterintelligence agencies of the Red Army. The investigation of the Petrichenko case was conducted by the senior investigator of the SMERSH counterintelligence service, Captain Novoselov. At the direction of the chief military prosecutor Lozinsky, the case was transferred to a Special meeting of the NKVD of the USSR, where it was considered without the presence of the prosecution and defense. The verdict, delivered on November 17, 1945, read:

Petrichenko Stepan Maksimovich for his participation in a counter-revolutionary terrorist organization and belonging to the Finnish intelligence service should be imprisoned in a forced labor camp for a period of 10 years, counting the term from April 24, 1945.

Stepan Petrichenko died on June 2, 1947 during his transfer from the Solikamsk camp to the Vladimir prison.

8. Memoirs

· Stepan Petrichenko The truth about the Kronstadt events. - Prague: 1921.

Bibliography:

1. Prokhorov, Dmitry The tragedy of the Kronstadt "rebel".

2.S. N. Semanov, Kronstadt mutiny, M., 2003 ISBN 5-699-02084-5

3. Stepan Maksimovich Petrichenko

4. Naissaar. Republic of the Soviets

5. Semanov S. N. Black days of Kronstadt

6.Events in Kronstadt

7. Kommersant-Vlast - "The Cheka received an order to organize the Kronstadt mutiny"

8.M. Khosta, O. Lapchinsky, S. Kosher DEATH OF A SPY

9. Used material of the document in Finnish. Early 1940

Plan
Introduction
1 Early years

2 Soviet Republic of sailors and builders

3 "Party week"

4 Kronstadt uprising
4.1 Secret agent of the Cheka

5 Emigrant

6 Agent

7 End

8 Memoirs

Bibliography

Petrichenko, Stepan Maksimovich

Introduction

1. Early years

Born into the family of a land-poor peasant. Two years after his birth, the family moved to Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporozhye), where Stepan graduated from a two-year city school and went to work at a local metallurgical plant as a metal worker. In 1913, Petrichenko was called up for military service on the battleship "Petropavlovsk", which was part of the Baltic Fleet.

2. Soviet Republic of sailors and builders

During the February Revolution in Russia, he was with the fleet on the Estonian island of Nargen (now Naissaar). In December 1917, the "Soviet Republic of Sailors and Builders" was proclaimed here.

Eighty naval sailors and about two hundred indigenous islanders organized local self-government, which existed until the capture of Tallinn by the troops of imperial Germany on February 26, 1918.

3. "Party week"

4. Kronstadt uprising

After suppressing the rebellion with thousands of its participants, he left for Finland. He worked in sawmills, became a carpenter.

4.1. Secret agent of the Cheka

In the publication of the magazine "Vlast", No. 5 dated 02/07/2011, it is reported that "Petrichenko is a secret agent of the Extraordinary Commission of the Petrograd province"

5. Emigrant

In 1922, Petrichenko went to Riga and visited the RSFSR embassy. There he was recruited into agents of the GPU and he became an agent of the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army in Finland.

In August 1927, Petrichenko again came to Riga and at the Soviet embassy applied to Kalinin with a request to return Soviet citizenship and allow him to leave for the USSR. In 1927, Petrichenko traveled through Latvia to the USSR. Returning to Finland, he got a job at a pulp mill in Ken (Kemi?), Where he worked until 1931. He was fired from a downsizing factory and moved to Helsinki. In 1937, he announced his refusal to cooperate with Soviet intelligence, but then again agreed to continue work. With the outbreak of World War II, Petrichenko's activities were reoriented to highlight the military preparations of Germany and its allies. Several important messages were received from Petrichenko about Germany's preparations for a war against the USSR.

In 1941, Petrichenko was arrested by the Finnish authorities.

Stepan Petrichenko died on June 2, 1947 during his transfer from the Solikamsk camp to the Vladimir prison.

8. Memoirs

· Stepan Petrichenko
The truth about the Kronstadt events. - Prague: 1921.

Bibliography:

1. Prokhorov, Dmitry
The tragedy of the Kronstadt "rebel".

2.S. N. Semanov, Kronstadt mutiny
, M., 2003 ISBN 5-699-02084-5

3. Stepan Maksimovich Petrichenko

4. Naissaar. Republic of the Soviets

5. Semanov S. N. Black days of Kronstadt

6.Events in Kronstadt

7. Kommersant-Vlast - "The Cheka received an order to organize the Kronstadt mutiny"

8.M. Khosta, O. Lapchinsky, S. Kosher DEATH OF A SPY

9. Used material of the document in Finnish. Early 1940

Plan
Introduction
1 Early years
2 Soviet Republic of sailors and builders
3 "Party week"
4 Kronstadt uprising
4.1 Secret agent of the Cheka

5 Emigrant
6 Agent
7 End
8 Memoirs
Bibliography
Petrichenko, Stepan Maksimovich

Introduction

1. Early years

Born into the family of a land-poor peasant. Two years after his birth, the family moved to Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporozhye), where Stepan graduated from a two-year city school and went to work at a local metallurgical plant as a metal worker. In 1913, Petrichenko was called up for military service on the battleship "Petropavlovsk", which was part of the Baltic Fleet.

2. Soviet Republic of sailors and builders

During the February Revolution in Russia, he was with the fleet on the Estonian island of Nargen (now Naissaar). In December 1917, the "Soviet Republic of Sailors and Builders" was proclaimed here.

Eighty naval sailors and about two hundred indigenous islanders organized local self-government, which existed until the capture of Tallinn by the troops of imperial Germany on February 26, 1918.

3. "Party week"

4. Kronstadt uprising

After suppressing the rebellion with thousands of its participants, he left for Finland. He worked in sawmills, became a carpenter.

4.1. Secret agent of the Cheka

In the publication of the magazine "Vlast", No. 5 dated 02/07/2011, it is reported that "Petrichenko is a secret agent of the Extraordinary Commission of the Petrograd province"

5. Emigrant

In 1922, Petrichenko went to Riga and visited the RSFSR embassy. There he was recruited into agents of the GPU and he became an agent of the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army in Finland.

In August 1927, Petrichenko again came to Riga and at the Soviet embassy applied to Kalinin with a request to return Soviet citizenship and allow him to leave for the USSR. In 1927, Petrichenko traveled through Latvia to the USSR. Returning to Finland, he got a job at a pulp mill in Ken (Kemi?), Where he worked until 1931. He was fired from a downsizing factory and moved to Helsinki. In 1937, he announced his refusal to cooperate with Soviet intelligence, but then again agreed to continue work. With the outbreak of World War II, Petrichenko's activities were reoriented to highlight the military preparations of Germany and its allies. Several important messages were received from Petrichenko about Germany's preparations for a war against the USSR.

In 1941, Petrichenko was arrested by the Finnish authorities.

Stepan Petrichenko died on June 2, 1947 during his transfer from the Solikamsk camp to the Vladimir prison.

8. Memoirs

· Stepan Petrichenko The truth about the Kronstadt events. - Prague: 1921.

Bibliography:

1. Prokhorov, Dmitry The tragedy of the Kronstadt "rebel".

2.S. N. Semanov, Kronstadt mutiny, M., 2003 ISBN 5-699-02084-5

3. Stepan Maksimovich Petrichenko

4. Naissaar. Republic of the Soviets

5. Semanov S. N. Black days of Kronstadt

6.Events in Kronstadt

7. Kommersant-Vlast - "The Cheka received an order to organize the Kronstadt mutiny"

8.M. Khosta, O. Lapchinsky, S. Kosher DEATH OF A SPY

9. Used material of the document in Finnish. Early 1940

Introduction
1 Early years
2 Soviet Republic of sailors and builders
3 "Party week"
4 Kronstadt uprising
4.1 Secret agent of the Cheka

5 Emigrant
6 Agent
7 End
8 Memoirs
Bibliography
Petrichenko, Stepan Maksimovich

Introduction

1. Early years

Born into the family of a land-poor peasant. Two years after his birth, the family moved to Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporozhye), where Stepan graduated from a two-year city school and went to work at a local metallurgical plant as a metal worker. In 1913, Petrichenko was called up for military service on the battleship "Petropavlovsk", which was part of the Baltic Fleet.

2. Soviet Republic of sailors and builders

During the February Revolution in Russia, he was with the fleet on the Estonian island of Nargen (now Naissaar). In December 1917, the "Soviet Republic of Sailors and Builders" was proclaimed here.

Eighty naval sailors and about two hundred indigenous islanders organized local self-government, which existed until the capture of Tallinn by the troops of imperial Germany on February 26, 1918.

3. "Party week"

4. Kronstadt uprising

After suppressing the rebellion with thousands of its participants, he left for Finland. He worked in sawmills, became a carpenter.

4.1. Secret agent of the Cheka

In the publication of the magazine "Vlast", No. 5 dated 02/07/2011, it is reported that "Petrichenko is a secret agent of the Extraordinary Commission of the Petrograd province"

5. Emigrant

6. Agent

In 1922, Petrichenko went to Riga and visited the RSFSR embassy. There he was recruited into agents of the GPU and he became an agent of the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army in Finland.

In August 1927, Petrichenko again came to Riga and at the Soviet embassy applied to Kalinin with a request to return Soviet citizenship and allow him to leave for the USSR. In 1927, Petrichenko traveled through Latvia to the USSR. Returning to Finland, he got a job at a pulp mill in Ken (Kemi?), Where he worked until 1931. He was fired from a downsizing factory and moved to Helsinki. In 1937, he announced his refusal to cooperate with Soviet intelligence, but then again agreed to continue work. With the outbreak of World War II, Petrichenko's activities were reoriented to highlight the military preparations of Germany and its allies. Several important messages were received from Petrichenko about Germany's preparations for a war against the USSR.

In 1941, Petrichenko was arrested by the Finnish authorities.

7. End

Stepan Petrichenko died on June 2, 1947 during his transfer from the Solikamsk camp to the Vladimir prison.

8. Memoirs

Stepan Petrichenko The truth about the Kronstadt events. - Prague: 1921.

Bibliography:

Prokhorov, Dmitry The tragedy of the Kronstadt "rebel".

S. N. Semanov, Kronstadt mutiny, M., 2003 ISBN 5-699-02084-5

Stepan Maksimovich Petrichenko

Naissaar. Republic of the Soviets

Semanov S. N. Black days of Kronstadt

events in Kronstadt

Kommersant-Vlast - "The Cheka received an order to organize the Kronstadt mutiny"

M. Khosta, O. Lapchinsky, S. Kosher DEATH OF A SPY

The material used in the document is in Finnish. Early 1940

From school you know about the "evil Socialist-Revolutionaries and anarchists who have raised a vile counter-revolutionary rebellion" and about the heroes of the Komsomol Congress who stormed the thin ice Kronstadt forts.

Is this so?

In 1921, that is, in the same year, after the events in Kronstadt, the newspaper Volia Rossii published a book in Prague based on documents from that time.

Check it out. This is OUR history. Before that, you did not know the truth about these events, being satisfied with myths created by official propaganda, woven in lies.

The truth about Kronstadt

FOREWORD

Publishing this book, "The Will of Russia" pursued one goal: to tell the whole truth about Kronstadt and only the truth.
The material for the book was mainly the issues of Izvestia of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee of sailors, Red Army men and workers of the city of Kronstadt, which are an exact mirror of the Kronstadt movement.

THE START OF WORKING WAVES IN PETROGRAD

At the end of February 1921, serious labor unrest broke out in Petrograd. The fuel crisis, the railway crisis, the food crisis have escalated to the last extreme.

The situation was so difficult that the Soviet press itself, being fully aware of what was happening, did not consider it necessary to hide the truth and directly declared to the population:
"The country will not be saved either by the Constituent Assembly, or even by God, and not only by free trade"
and prepared her readers for the worst possible future.
It was obvious that it could not continue this way and that radical changes were needed. However, the Bolsheviks, recognizing the hopelessness of the situation, did not want to make any concessions at the same time.

Meanwhile, the situation was getting worse. A number of factories and factories stopped. The workers, left without work, gathered for meetings. The mood, vividly hostile to the Soviet regime, poured out in the speeches of the orators and the resolutions adopted by the meetings. In many factories, political resolutions were passed that demanded a transition to democracy. And soon the demand for the introduction of "free trade" - which was one of the main slogans at the beginning of the Petrograd movement - faded into the background.

The obstinacy of the ruthless and cynical authorities, incapable of regulating the country's economic life, provoked a political resistance from the working masses. The workers' organizations demanded a radical change in power: some in the form of freely elected councils, others in the form of convening a Constituent Assembly.

„The point here is not in individual hiccups and interruptions, but in some common big defect in our state machine, which cannot be corrected by darning and patches, which must be cured for real,"said the resolution of the Petrograd Committee of Social-Democratic Mensheviks.
The Socialist-Revolutionaries and Social-Democratic Mensheviks were severely persecuted.

On February 22nd, rallies began everywhere in factories
On the 24th the following factories went on strike: Trubochny, Laferm, Cartridge and Baltic.
On February 25, in Petrograd, the Bolsheviks formed a "Defense Committee" under the chairmanship of Zinoviev to fight the movement that had begun.

The ferment of the workers soon turned into open riots. Part of the Petrograd garrison declared that it would not pacify the workers and was disarmed. At a meeting of the Petrograd Soviet on February 26, a member of the "Defense Committee" and a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Soviet Republic, a prominent communist Lashevich made a report on the situation in which he stated that the Pipe Plant on Vasilyevsky Island was the vanguard in an open speech against "" Soviet power. whose workers adopted a harsh resolution against the Soviet regime.

According to the decree of the executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet, this plant was closed.
On the morning of February 24th, when the re-registration of the workers at the Pipe Plant was undertaken, approximately 200-300 workers went to the Laferm plant and then to the Cable and Baltic plants to take workers out of work. A crowd of workers from 2000 to 2500 people gathered on Vasilievsky Island. Cadets were sent there. Clashes broke out between the unarmed crowd and the troops.
Workers rallies were dispersed in military units.

On February 25th, fermentation spread throughout the city. Workers from Vasilievsky Island went to the admiralty workshops and to Galernaya Gavan and removed the workers from the factories.
Crowds of workers gathered everywhere, scattered by the troops. The mood was on the rise. Major performances could be expected.

A large part of the garrison was in fermentation. At the same meeting of the Petrograd Soviet, the Commissioner of the Baltic Fleet Kuzmin also spoke, pointing out alarming signs in the mood of the crews of the warships of the Baltic Fleet. The behavior of the authorities pushed the workers to more and more vivid political actions.

„It is necessary to radically change the entire policy of power and, first of all, the workers and peasants need freedom. They do not want to live according to the Bolshevik orders, they want to decide their own fate. Comrades, maintain a revolutionary order. Organized and persistent

Demand:

The release of all arrested socialists and non-party workers.
Abolition of martial law, freedom of speech, press and assembly for all workers.
Free re-elections of factory committees, trade unions and councils.
Call meetings, pass resolutions, send delegates to the authorities, get your demands fulfilled

The Bolsheviks responded to these resolutions and proclamations by arresting and routing workers' organizations.
On the 28th, a proclamation of the workers' socialists of the Nevsky District was pasted up, ending with the words:
“We know who is afraid of the Constituent Assembly. These are those who will not be allowed to rob, but will still have to answer to the people's representatives for deception, robbery, for all crimes. Down with the hated communists! Down with Soviet power! Long live the National Constituent Assembly. "

At this time, Petrograd was already inundated with selected communist units brought from the provinces and from the fronts. The labor movement in Petrograd was suppressed with extreme cruelty and was soon crushed.

START OF MOVEMENT IN KRONSTADT

Kuzmin, reporting to the Petrograd Soviet about the uneasy mood of the sailors, was not mistaken. The Petrograd events, the suppression of the workers by the cadets, made a huge impression on the revolutionary-minded sailors. They, like the Petrograd workers, understood perfectly well that the point was not at all about free trade or other individual corrections of the Soviet mechanism, but about the communists, in the uncontrolled, irresponsible dictatorship of the communist party. Many of them, having visited the villages themselves, were convinced on the spot how cruelly the Bolshevik government treats the peasants, how hostile it is to the countryside. At home, in their native villages and villages, the sailors saw that the Bolsheviks were taking away their last bread and cattle from the peasants by force and mercilessly cracking down on everyone who did not obey them unquestioningly. They are straightened out with the help of executions, arrests, extraordinary accidents ...

On his own experience and from the experience of their relatives, the Kronstadt sailors were convinced that the Bolsheviks, who in words call themselves the peasant power, are in fact the most evil enemies for the peasants. Enemies - for the peasants and for the workers.

A movement of sympathy and sympathy for the Petrograd workers began among the sailors on the battleships "Petropavlovsk" and "Sevastopol" stationed in Kronstadt, "which in 1917, together with the" Republic ", were the main centers of Bolshevism.

This movement quickly engulfed the entire fleet, and the crews of the military courts began to pass resolutions of a political nature, in which, however, they did not go against the councils, but demanded their reform, insisting mainly on the need for freedom to vote in elections.
Soon the movement shifted from the ship's teams to the Red Army units of Kronstadt.

On February 28, at Petropavlovsk, which Sevastopol joined, "a general resolution was adopted. The main requirement of this resolution was re-election to the soviets.
"If the soviets are re-elected, said one of the leaders of the movement, a simple sailor, on the basis of the (Soviet) constitution, that is, by secret ballot, then, we thought, the communists will not pass and the gains of the October revolution will triumph."...
The movement of the sailors was thus of a completely peaceful nature and did not result in any sharp forms.

On March 1, the chairman of the All-Russian Executive Committee Kalinin and the Commissioner of the Baltic Fleet Kuzmin arrived in Kronstadt. Kalinin was greeted with military honors, music and banners. Then a meeting was held in advance at the anchor square. The announcement of this meeting was published in the official newspaper of the Kronstadt council. This meeting brought together about 16 thousand sailors, Red Army men and residents of the city.

The meeting was chaired by the chairman of the Kronstadt executive committee, the communist Vasiliev. Upon hearing the report of the representatives of the teams sent to Petrograd to clarify the Petrograd situation, the resolution adopted by "Petropavlovsk" on February 28 was read, against which Kalinin and Kuzmin made speeches. Their speeches were not successful. and the 2nd brigade of battleships. ”After the speeches of Kuzmin and Kalinin, the resolution" Petropavlovsk "was put to a vote by the sailor Petrichenko, which was adopted by the whole huge assembly unanimously.

The resolution was adopted by the overwhelming majority of the Kronstadt garrison. The resolution was read out at. a citywide rally on March 1 in the presence of about 16,000 citizens and passed unanimously.

The chairman of the Kronstadt executive committee, Vasiliev, together with comrade Kalinin, is voting against the resolution - this is how the Fleet Commissioner Kuzmin noted in his entry the results of the vote.

The text of this historical document is as follows:

RESOLUTION OF THE GENERAL MEETING OF THE COMMANDS OF THE 1st AND 2nd BRIGADS OF LINEAR SHIPS,
held on March 1, 1921.
After hearing the report of the representatives of the teams sent by the General Assembly of commands from ships to Petrograd to clarify matters in Petrograd, they decided:

1. In view of the fact that the present Soviets do not express the will of the workers and peasants, to immediately re-elect the Soviets by secret ballot, and before the elections to conduct a free preliminary agitation of all workers and peasants.

2. Freedom of speech and press for workers and peasants, anarchists and left-wing socialist parties.

3. Freedom of assembly and trade unions and peasant associations.

4. To convene, no later than March 10, 1921, a non-partisan Conference of workers, Red Army men and sailors of the city of Petrograd, Kronstadt and the Petrograd province.

5 To release all political prisoners of the socialist parties, as well as all workers and peasants, Red Army men and sailors imprisoned in connection with the workers 'and peasants' movements.

6. Select a Commission to review the cases of prisoners in prisons and concentration camps.

7. Abolish any Political Departments, since no party can use the privileges to promote its ideas and receive funds from the state for these purposes. Instead of them should be established: from the localities elected cultural and educational commissions, for which funds should be allocated by the state.

8. Immediately remove all barrage units.

9. To equalize the ration for all workers, with the exception of hazardous workshops.

10. To abolish communist militant detachments in all military units, as well as in factories and factories, different shifts on the part of the communists, and if such shifts or detachments are needed, then they can be appointed in military units, from companies, and in factories and plants at the discretion of the workers.

11. Writing full right actions for the peasants over all the land, as they wish, and also have livestock, which must maintain and manage on their own, that is, without using hired labor.

12. We ask all military units, as well as comrades of military cadets, to join our resolution.

13. We demand that all resolutions be widely published in the press.

14. Appoint a traveling bureau for control.

15. Allow free handicraft production by own labor.

The resolutions were adopted by the brigade meeting unanimously with two abstentions.
Brigadier Chairman collection - Petrichenko.

Secretary - Perepelkin.

Upon the adoption of the resolution by the general meeting, the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Kalinin, not disturbed by anyone, went back to Petrograd.

At the meeting, at the same time, it was decided to send deputies to Petrograd. The Kronstadt representatives, in the number of thirty people, were to go to the capital in order to "explain to the Red Army units and workers in the factories what the Kronstadters want and demand that the Petrograd citizens send non-party delegates to Kronstadt in order to familiarize themselves on the spot with the mood and demands of the sailors and the garrison. ...

The delegation left, in Petrograd they arrested it and Kronstadt knew nothing about its further fate.

Since the term of office of the Kronstadt council was already expiring, it was decided at the rally to convene a delegate meeting on March 2, at which it would be discussed in what ways to hold elections to the Kronstadt council.

The delegate meeting was to consist of representatives from ships, units, institutions, workshops and trade unions.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE KRONSTADT INTERIM REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE

On March 2, delegates from all of the listed institutions gathered in the House of Enlightenment in Kronstadt (formerly the Engineering School). The elections to the delegates' meeting took place on the basis of the official information about the "phenomenon, placed in the official" Izvestia "

Moreover, the speakers on the tasks and goals of the delegates' meeting were in accordance with the established custom ... the communists. Communists were also elected among the delegates, but at the meeting they were in the minority, the majority was made up of non-party

The meeting was opened by Matrs Petrichenko. Then, elections to the presidium of the meeting were held by open voting.

The meeting consisted, said one of the members of this presidium, exclusively of sailors, Red Army men, workers and employees in Soviet institutions. There were no generals, colonels or officers in general. The "Soviet" character of the meeting was striking ...

The first speakers at this delegate meeting were again the chairman of the Kronstadt executive committee Vasiliev and the Baltic fleet commissar Kuzmin.

The main topic of the day was the question of re-elections to the Kronstadt council on fairer grounds. Moreover, the powers of the old council, which consisted almost entirely of communists, had already expired.

The speeches of Kuzmin and Vasiliev not only did not calm the meeting, but on the contrary added fuel to the fire.
Kuzmin began to assure the delegates that in Petrograd he was calmly threatening the danger from Poland, spoke of dual power, etc., etc. forces. Vasiliev's speech was in the same spirit and tone. These speeches showed the meeting that it was impossible to trust Kuzmin and Vasiliev, and that they needed to be detained by removing them from the meeting, especially since no orders had yet been made to take away weapons from the Communists, that the Red Army men were intimidated by the commissars, and so far they were at the disposal of the latter. phones.

Kuzmin and Vasiliev were removed from the meeting. But all the other communists, participants in the meeting, were allowed to stay and continue to work in it. They were recognized as the same plenipotentiary representatives of units and organizations as the rest of the delegates.

Following this, at the suggestion of Petrichenko, the resolution adopted the day before at the garrison rally was read out, which was adopted by the meeting with an overwhelming majority of votes.

Following this, the meeting intended to move to business work, on the basis of the adopted resolution, mainly to the development of conditions for correct and free elections to the council, for even the communists themselves pointed out that the powers of the Kronstadt council had ended.
But at this time, information of an alarming nature was obtained. It was reported that armed communists in significant numbers and with machine guns were occupying buildings and heading for the meeting place.

In fact, according to the testimony of one of the authoritative leaders of the Kronstadt movement, at that very time the cadets of the Higher Political School were leaving Kronstadt and headed for the Krasnaya Gorka fort, led by the Chekist Dulkis.

Thanks to the rumors that arose, a very alarming mood was created and the delegate meeting, remembering the threats of Kalinin, Kuzmin and Vasiliev, decided to create a Provisional Revolutionary Committee, and in view of the lack of time for the formation of the Committee, it was determined that the presidium and the chairman of the delegate meetings.

This decision was taken unanimously, and the presidium headed by Petrichenko turned into the Provisional Revolutionary Committee, which was entrusted with taking care of the production of elections to the Soviet.

The committee chose the battleship "Petropavlovsk" as its temporary location, on which the detained Kuzmin and Vasiliev were placed.

It should be noted that already after the rally on March 1, the Kronstadt communists began to prepare for hostilities and actively arm themselves, demanding from the artillery warehouse to issue rifles, cartridges and machine guns to the cells. These requirements, certified by the commissar of the fortress Novikov, were unquestioningly fulfilled. And therefore the precaution of Times. Revol. Comit. was quite understandable.

True, of the two thousand communists in Kronstadt, the majority was, according to one of the members of the Provisional Rev. Kom., "Paper communists" who signed up for the party for profit.
“When the first events took place,” says the same member of Rev. Committee, then the main mass recoiled from the leaders of the communists and joined us. The leaders with a small number of cadets could no longer hope to get the better of us. Therefore, they abandoned the thought of an armed struggle with us and moved to the forts. They moved from one fort to another, but did not meet with sympathy. The cadets who ended up in Kronstadt, together with the communists, also first went to the forts, and then to Krasnaya Gorka. Some of the communist leaders simply fled, and with them the commandant of the Kronstadt fortress. "

KRONSTADT TAKES SELF-DEFENSE

The peaceful character of the Kronstadt movement was beyond any doubt.
Kronstadt put forward demands in the spirit of the Soviet constitution. In the fortress itself, power without a single shot was passed into the hands of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee by a unanimous decision and vote of representatives of sailors, Red Army men, workers and Soviet employees.

And nevertheless, the Bolshevik government has already issued against Kronstadt a clearly provocative order signed by Lenin and Trotsky.

This order of March 2 called the Kronstadt movement “the rebellion of the former general Kozlovsky.” The order began with a statement that the rebellion was the work of the “French counterintelligence”. “On February 28,” said this shameless document, “a Black Hundred-Socialist-Revolutionary resolution was adopted (on the ship“ Petropavlovsk ”).”
"On March 2, - Lenin and Trotsky stated in an amazingly cynical message - in the morning, a group of ex. General Kozlovsky (chief of artillery). Former General Kozlovsky, with three officers, whose names have not yet been established, openly acted as rebels. Thus, - said Lenin and Trotsky - the meaning of the latest events about "was completely clear. Behind the Socialist-Revolutionaries, too, this time stood the tsarist general. In view of all this, the council of labor and defense" shows:
1) Outlaw the former General Kozlovsky and his associates.
2) Declare the city of Petrograd and the Petrograd province in a state of siege.
3) Transfer all power in the Petrograd fortified area to the Petrograd Defense Committee."

In turn, the Defense Committee issued an order for the Petrograd province, ending with the words:
"in the event of a congestion on the streets - the troops to act with weapons. In case of resistance, they were shot on the spot. "

Lenin and Trotskago were very little embarrassed by the fact that the former general Kozlovsky, like all the other generals, was in the service of the Bolsheviks. While he was with them, they did not notice that he was a tsarist general. But as soon as Kronstadt rebelled, the Bolsheviks discovered in their own "specialist" the tsarist general.

There were very few specialists in Kronstadt, no one listened to their opinions, according to Kozlovsky himself, they did not play any role, and the Bolsheviks needed all this lie only to discredit the Kronstadt movement in the eyes of the workers, as allegedly "counter-revolutionary" ...

When later, after the fall of Kronstadt, a correspondent for a Russian socialist newspaper asked the members of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee:
"What role did General Kozlovsky play with you?"
Several people almost unanimously answered:
“You saw him,” and everyone laughed.
General Kozlovsky himself told the following about his rolis:
“The communists used my last name to present the uprising in Kronstadt in the light of the White Guard conspiracy only because I was the only“ general ”who was in the fortress. Together with me they mentioned my own assistant in the artillery defense of Kronstadt, officer Burxer and my other assistants, like Kostromitinov and Shirmanovsky, and one of them was a simple draftsman. They could not play any role in the movement according to their individual qualities. "

It is not superfluous to add to this that when the Times were formed. Revolutionary. Komit., Commandant of the fortress, Bolshevik, fled. According to the existing rules, his duties were to be performed by the chief of artillery, that is, General Kozlovsky, in view of the fact that he refused, believing that the previous rules were no longer valid, since the Revolutionary Committee was now operating, then, having considered the case, the Revolutionary Committee appointed commandant fortress from among the officers of Solovyanov, and Kozlovsky was instructed to manage only the technical work of artillery, as a specialist.
That was the role of Kozlovsky, whom the Bolsheviks, who had sent to Kronstadt all the specialists they inherited from the tsarist system, tried to present them as "the leader of the rebellion ..."

Especially good was the mention of Lenin and Trotskago about "three officers," whose names they could not even give ...
Following this order, about "the outlawing of the Kronstadters, threats of Trotskago and the" Defense Committee "rained down." shoot like partridges"etc., etc.

Kronstadt had to take self-defense measures. Before the presence of threats to the Bolshevik power of the Times. Revol Komit. I invited military specialists to "Petropavlovsk" on March 3 at 4 pm to discuss the measures necessary for the defense of the fortress.

At this meeting, it was decided that the Time. Revol. The committee will move to the "house of councils", and the defense headquarters - to the headquarters of the fortress. the last days there were several more joint meetings of Vrem. Roar. Comit. with military specialists, a military defense council was elected and a plan for the defense of the fortress was established.

On all proposals of military specialists to go on the offensive, open hostilities, use the convenient moment of the initial confusion of the Bolsheviks, Vremya.Rev. The committee responded with an emphatic refusal.

“Our rebellion was based on the fact that we did not want blood. Why blood, when everyone already understands that our cause is right. No matter how the Bolsheviks deceive the people, now everyone will know: since Kronstadt has risen, it means for the people's cause, that means against the communists. Everyone knows that it could not be otherwise, because the communists have rights only for them, and not for the people. "

This is what the members of Vrem. Roar. Committee. All this extraordinary uprising rested on the deep faith of the sailors that they would be supported by the whole of Russia and, above all, Petrograd.

The movement broke out spontaneously. If it had been the result of a premeditated plan, it certainly would not have started in early March.

As soon as the Kronstadters had to wait a little longer, Kronstadt, freed from the ice surrounding it, would have turned into an impregnable fortress, which, moreover, had a powerful fleet - a terrible threat to Petrograd.

There was no uprising, as everyone is used to understanding this word. There was a spontaneous movement of a peaceful nature that broke out, engulfing the entire city, the garrison and the navy.

Kronstadt responded with a refusal to the Bolshevik ultimatum "to hand over the instigators", to renounce their demands, etc. Then the Bolsheviks "made the Kronstadters outlawed and began to concentrate troops.

Kronstadt was forced to either submit or defend. He chose the latter.
And then what is called the "Kronstadt uprising" began.

Trotsky and the Defense Committee were actively pulling up the most loyal cadet schools and communist regiments from all sides.

Command of all forces intended to act against Kronstadt is given to the commander of the 7th Army, Tukhachevsky. All the "specialists", all the celebrities of the tsarist system, who are in the service of the Bolsheviks, are feverishly taken to drawing up a plan for the siege and attack of Kronstadt.

The Kronstadters, slandered by their cynical enemy, have at their disposal an insignificant Kozlovsky who does not play any role and several tertiary, invisible specialists.

KRONSTADTS AND BOLSHEVIKS

Meanwhile, in besieged Kronstadt, genuine revolutionary enthusiasm reigns.
Simultaneously with the formation of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee, its organ, Izvestia, began to appear.
Kronstadt lives an intense, hectic life. The order is established in it complete. Power is in the hands of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee.

On March 4, at 6 pm, in the Garrison Club, a meeting of delegates from the military units of the garrison and trade unions takes place for the by-election of the composition of Vrem. Revol. Committee.
The meeting was attended by 202 deputies, most of them came straight from work.

Of the twenty candidates proposed for the by-election, the meeting elects ten people: Vershinin, Perepelkina, Kupolova, Ososova, Valka, Romanenko, Pavlova, Boykov, Patrushev and Kilgast.

Petrichenko's report on the produced Times. Revol. Comit. work was met with stormy approval from the meeting.

“On the issue of arming the workers, a meeting with the noisy approval of the workers themselves, says Izvestiya Vremeni. Revol. Kom. ", And with exclamations" We shall win or die "decides: the general arming of the working masses, who will be entrusted with the internal security of the city, since the sailors and Red Army men are rushing to active work in combat units. "

Then it was decided to re-elect the boards of all unions within three days, as well as the council of unions, which will be the governing body of the workers and will be in constant contact with the Time. Revol. By the Committee.

All forts are going over to the side of Kronstadt, with the exception of Krasnoflotsky (formerly Krasnaya Gorka), where the Kronstadt Chekists managed to escape on March 2 and seized it.

The Kronstadters, as mentioned above, left almost all the Communists at large in the first days. Only those who tried to escape from Kronstadt or were intercepted by patrols, and even the Commissioner of the Baltic Fleet Kuzmin, Chairman of the Executive Committee Vasilyev, the head of the political department of the Baltic Fleet Batis, and several other people were detained.

Despite this noble behavior of the Kronstadts, the Petrograd "Defense Committee" arrested a lot of people in Petrograd as hostages, among whom there were many who were completely innocent of the movement. And besides, Kronstadt families were arrested in Petrograd.
The "Defense Committee" brought all this to the attention of Kronstadt by means of leaflets dropped from airplanes.

The "Defense Committee", says these leaflets, "is showing all these arrested hostages for those comrades who were detained by the rebels in Kronstadt, especially for the commissar of the Baltic Fleet NN Kuzmin, for the chairman of the Kronstadt council, comrade Vasiliev and other communists.
"If even one hair falls from the head of the detained comrades," the Bolshevik Defense Committee said in Petrograd, "the named hostages will answer with their heads."

To this outrageous in its cruelty declaration Izvestia Vrem. Roar. Kom. "Make the following explanation:
“This is the anger of the powerless. Mockery of innocent families will not add new laurels to the communist comrades, and in any case, they will not retain the power that was snatched from their hands by the workers, sailors and Red Army men of Kronstadt. "

“We are, reckoning with various reasons; why a man became a communist, - said a prominent member of Vrem, Russia later. The committees - in the vast majority, left them in charge. We even gave them the opportunity to organize their own group of communists, let them act in an organized way and let them get acquainted with how they eat and how their comrades are kept in prison.

“We spoke and put our slogan - equality of all citizens, regardless of their political convictions. Whoever is a communist or of other convictions, he should have the right to vote. And we did it. "
“Not a single communist was shot here,” the Kronstadters proudly declared.

COMPOSITION OF THE KRONSTADT INTERIM REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE

Meanwhile, in Kronstadt itself, the mood was rising more and more.
The main demand that passed through all the articles of the governing body, through all resolutions passed by individual units and forts, remained the same: "the restoration of the true power of freely elected councils" and liberation from the "yoke of the communists".

In Izvestia Vrem. Roar. Kom. "Letters of individual communists and entire groups of penitential nature were printed daily in a multitude, admitting their mistakes and declaring their resignation from the Communist Party.

At the same time, the besieged did not want to believe that the Bolshevik government could open military action against them. And the numerous letters of rank-and-file communists leaving the party speak with horror and trepidation about this opportunity, which they hardly present.

Times. Roar. These days, the committee addressed an appeal on the radio exclusively to the workers, Red Army men and sailors of Russia.

In them, refuting the lies spread by the Bolsheviks about Kronstadt, he told them:
"In Kronstadt, all power is in the hands of only revolutionary sailors, Red Army men and workers, and not White Guards headed by some general Kozlovsky, as the slanderous radio from Moscow assures you."

"Do not hesitate, comrades, join us, enter into a strong connection with us, demand that your non-party representatives pass to Kronstadt, only they will tell you the whole truth and dispel provocative rumors about Finnish bread and the intrigues of the Entente."

"Long live the revolutionary proletariat and the peasantry!"

"Long live the rule of freely elected councils"

At the same time, Izvestia Vrem, Rev. Kom. "Print all the declarations, appeals, radio of the Soviet power, full of lies and slander about the Kronstadt movement.
These radios, ultimatums and proclamations of Izvestia Vrem. Roar. Kom. "Is cited as an example of how the Bolsheviks deceive not only the Red Army men and sailors, but also members of the Petrograd Soviet.
The Bolsheviks lied especially stubbornly, assuring in their radio that some generals and Black Hundreds were leading the uprising. The Kronstadters counter this lie with the following appeal to the workers, Red Army men and sailors:

“We, the Kronstadters, cast off the accursed yoke of the communists on March 2 and raised the red banner of the third revolution of the working people.
Red Army men, sailors and workers, the revolutionary Kronstadt is calling to you.
We know that you are being misled and are not being told the truth about what is happening in our country, where we are all ready to give our lives for the holy cause of liberating the workers and peasants.
They are trying to assure you that we have white generals and priests.
To end this once and for all, we bring to your
information that the Provisional Revolutionary Committee consists of the following fifteen members:
1. Petrncheyako - Senior. clerk of the battleship "Petropavlovsk",
2. Yakovenko - telephone operator of the Kronstadt region of the communication service,
3. Ososov - driver of the battleship Sevastopol,
4. Arkhipov - machine, headman,
5. Perepelkin - galvaner of the battleship "Sevastopol",
6. Parushev - senior galvaner of the battleship "Petropavlovsk"
7. Kupolov - senior medical assistant,
8. Vershinin - combatant of the battleship "Sevastopol",
9. Tukin - a foreman of an electro-mechanical plant,
10. Romanenko - contain. emergency docks,
11. Oreshin - head of the third labor school,
12. Valk - a workman of a sawmill,
13. Pavlov - a worker in a mine workshop,
14. Boykov - head wagon train Fortress Builder,
15. Kilgacm - sea navigator.
Here are our generals: "Brusilov, Kamenev pr." and the gendarmes Trotsky and Zinoviev are hiding the truth from you. Comrades, look closely at what they have done to you, what they are doing to your wives, brothers and children. Will you really endure and die under the yoke of rapists? "

BOLSHEVIK ATTACK ON KRONSTADT

So the Kronstadters did not want the transition to military operations. They left the communists free.
They vehemently rejected any help from the "non-wicked socialist parties."
They elected a Provisional Revolution. Com. for the production of free re-elections to the Kronstadt “Council of Workers, Sailors and Red Army Men,” whose mandate, moreover, had already expired.
They demanded the dispatch from Petrograd to Kronstadt of a delegation elected by the workers, sailors and Red Army men, so that it could be convinced of the true aims of the Kronstadt movement and of the lies that the Petrograd Bolshevik "Committee of Defense" was erecting on the Kronstadters.

In response to these demands, the Bolsheviks "announced a blockade of Kronstadt and concentrated a large number of troops in Petrograd, its environs, as well as in Oranienbaum, Krasnaya Gorka and other coastal areas.

The 7th of March informs the Times. Roar. Committee:
“At 0645 pm the batteries of the communists from Sestroretsk and Lisyago Nos were the first to open fire on the Kronstadt forts.
The forts took up the challenge and quickly silenced the batteries.
Then Krasnaya Gorka opened fire, which received a worthy response from the battleship "Sevastopol ..."

On this terrible day of the opening of hostilities, besieged Kronstadt and its leaders did not forget that the day of its first bombing is at the same time the day of the workers' holiday!
“Today is a world holiday - the day of working women,” says the radio of the besieged Kronstadt to the working women of the world. We, Kronstadters, to the thunder of guns, to the sound of exploding shells sent to us by the enemies of the working people - the communists, send our fraternal greetings to you, women workers of the world. "
“Helmet, greetings from the rebellious Red Kronstadt, from the kingdom of freedom. Let our enemies try to break us. We are strong, we are invincible. "
"We wish you to quickly conquer liberation from all oppression and violence."
"Long live the free revolutionary workers."
"Long live the World Social Revolution."

This appeal-hello from the bombarded Kronstadt is unusually characteristic of the insurgents.
No less characteristic is the following appeal of Vremya. Revol. Committee, published in No. 6 Izvestiya Vrem. Revol. Kom. "Under the title:
"Let the whole world know!"
"So the first shot rang out.
Standing up to the waist in the brotherly blood of the working people, the bloody Field Marshal Trotsky was the first to open fire on the revolutionary Kronstadt, which had rebelled against the communist government in order to restore the true power of the Soviets. "

“Without a single shot, without a drop of blood, we, the Red Army men, sailors and workers of Kronstadt, overthrew the rule of the communists and even spared their lives. Under the threat of guns, they again want to impose their power on us. "

“Not wanting bloodshed, we proposed to send non-party delegates of the Petrograd proletariat to us so that they could see that a struggle for power was going on in Kronstadt. But the communists hid it from the workers of Petrograd and opened fire - the usual response of the imaginary workers 'and peasants' government to the working people to its demands. "

"Let the whole world of working people know that we, the defenders of the power of the soviets, stand guard over the conquest of the social revolution."

"We will win or die under the ruins of Kronstadt, fighting for the vital cause of the working people."
“The working people of the whole world will judge, and the blood of the innocent will fall on the heads of the“ fanatics, the communists, who are intoxicated by the power. ”
Long live the power of the Soviets! "

Leading "Izvestia Time. roar. Kom. "Of March 8 responds as follows to this fatal" First shot ":
“They started shelling Kronstadt. Well, well, we're ready. Let's measure our strength. "
"They are in a hurry to act, and they have to hurry: the working people of Russia, despite all the lies of the communists, understand what a great deed of liberation from three years of slavery is going on in revolutionary Kronstadt."
, The executioners are worried. The victim of their insolent fanaticism, Soviet Russia, escapes from their dungeon, and with it the dominion over the working people finally escapes from the criminal hands.
“The communist government is sending a distress signal. The week-long existence of free Kronstadt is proof of their impotence. "
“Another moment and a worthy response from our glorious revolutionary ships and forts will sink the ship of Soviet pirates forced to take battles with the revolutionary Kronstadt, which raised the banner:“ Power to councils, not parties."

It is necessary to dwell as long as possible on identifying the psychology of the Kronstadt garrison and its elected leaders in these first moments, in these first days of the war that began between the Bolshevik government and Kronstadt.

„Known. Times. Roar. Kom. "Devote almost entirely their columns to the presentation of the goals for which Kronstadt is fighting.
There is almost no news in the newspaper about the struggle that had already begun very sharply; on the day of the shelling, there was almost no chronicle in it.

Everything is dedicated to the burning topic "We and they" - that is, "we" are Kronstadt and "they" are Bolsheviks.

Kronstadt these days seems to be in a hurry to reveal its true face, as if in a hurry to clearly outline the pure, unadulterated movement of the people that has risen in it.

In the articles and proclamations one can feel the sailor's speech, sailor turns, sailor comparisons.
And over all this feverish revolutionary mood is hovering the great forgiving spirit of the age-old Russian liberation movement.

Kronstadt is generous. He is proud that there are no executions, no violence, that he relies on the freely expressed will of the entire working population.

Amid the thunder of the guns firing at him, he sends his greetings to the working people and calls the entire proletariat and all the peasantry to solidarity.

And the Bolshevik authorities tried to portray these people as "servants of capital", "Entente lackeys", etc., etc.

And only when the Kronstadters have to polemicize with absolutely incredible lies and slander, the enemy who has decided to wipe them off the face of the earth, they speak sharply and do not regret full-fledged and juicy definitions for the hated Bolshevik government.

In this exciting polemic between the victim and the executioner, Kronstadt jealously tries to reveal his true will, his true cherished aspirations.

"THIRD REVOLUTION"

The Kronstadters these days define their struggle against the communists as a struggle for the third revolution.
Word found. From now on, it will enter the consciousness of those masses who still followed the Bolsheviks, believing that the October coup was "the second revolution."

“Here,” they declared in the article “What We Fight For,” a great new revolutionary shift has taken place. Here the banner of uprising has been raised to liberate one from three years of violence and oppression of the rule of the communists, which eclipsed the three hundred year yoke of monarchism. "

"Here, in Kronstadt, the first stone of the third revolution was laid, knocking off the last shackles from the working masses and opening a new broad path for socialist creativity .."

“This new revolution will stir up the laboring masses of the East and West, showing an example of a new socialist construction, opposed to the official: communist“ creativity ”, convincing the foreign labor masses with their own eyes that everything that has been happening in our country until now“ by the will of the workers and peasants ”was not socialism . "

The Kronstadters did not develop the program of this new socialist "construction".
But they wanted to lay the first cornerstone of it. They emancipated the people, revealed their will. And they went to this emancipation in the ways most familiar to them during the three years of Soviet power: through freely elected councils.

“A real revolution gives the working people the opportunity to finally have their own freely elected councils, working without any violent party pressure, to re-create state-owned trade unions into free associations of workers, peasants and working intelligentsia. The police stick of the communist autocracy is finally broken. "
This is the immediate program, these are the goals for which, at 6 hours 45 minutes in the evening on March 5, 1921, the Bolshevik authorities began shelling Kronstadt ...

STORM OF KRONSTADT

Following the bombing of the Bolsheviks, which was opened on March 7 from the batteries of Sestroretsk and Fox Nose, an attempt was made to storm the forts of the fortress.
The offensive came from both the north and south.
The chief of the northern group of troops, Kazansky, in an interview with a Bolshevik correspondent, said that “the first offensive of the troops took place as early as March 8th. The group consisted exclusively of cadets. Fort No. 7 was occupied with battle, but our losses were so significant, and the group itself was so small that the enemy managed to knock us out of the fort. "

And in No. 8 Izvestiya Vrem. Roar. Komit. "These first terrible attempts of the Bolsheviks to throw communists dressed in white shroud-robes (protective color on the snow) on the ice of the Finnish Zalin to storm Kronstadt were described as follows:
“We didn’t want to shed brotherly blood, but we didn’t fire a single shot until we were forced to do so. We were forced to defend the just cause of the working people and shoot. To shoot at their own brothers, who were sent to a certain death from "the communists who ate at the expense of the people. And at this time, their leaders, Trotsky, Zinoviev and others, sitting in warm, lighted rooms, on soft armchairs, in the royal palaces, discussed , as soon as possible and better to pour blood on the insurgent Kronstadt. A blizzard has risen on your mountain, an impenetrable night has come, and nevertheless, without reckoning with anything, the communist executioners drove you across the ice, urging you on from behind with detachments of communists with machine guns. "
“Many of you died that night on the vast icy expanse of the Gulf of Finland, and at dawn, when the blizzard subsided, barely moving your feet, only the pitiful remnants of the hungry and tired, dressed in white shrouds, reached us.”
“Already early in the morning there were about a thousand of you, and in the afternoon without counting. You paid dearly with your blood for this adventure, and after your failure, Trotsky drove back to Petrograd to again drive new sufferers to slaughter, since our workers 'and peasants' blood goes to him cheaply ...! "

KRONSTADT'S HOPES

Trotsky continued to gather more and more forces. Selective units - cadets, security officers, foreign regiments were brought in from all directions.

The garrison of the fortress did not increase. In total, there were 12-14 thousand people in the fortress and on the forts of the garrison. Of these, there are about 10 thousand sailors. This garrison had to defend a huge front, a mass of forts and batteries located on the vast ice field of the Gulf of Finland.
The batteries of Kronstadt were adapted to fight against the enemy coming from the sea, and not from the Russian shores.
According to the calculation of military specialists, there were about five fathoms of the front for one soldier of the Kronstadt ... From the total mass of the garrison, no more than three thousand bayonets could be selected for conducting active operations.

Repeated attacks by the Communists, bringing in more and more new troops, lack of provisions, constant insomnia in the cold, permanent guard service, undermined the forces of the garrison.
Nevertheless, the Kronstadters not only did not lose hope of victory, they believed in it.
They believed in her because they believed in the help of Petrograd and all of Russia. It seemed to them impossible that Petrograd, for whose defense they had revolted, would not support them, so that Russia would not respond to their call.

“We,” said one of the members of Vrem. Roar. Comit., Did not act on their behalf. We are from the people, from the working people. When they say: "yes" - and we say: yes, and "no" - so no.
“We didn’t say:“ Down with the communists, ”but the working people, and not only Kronstadt, but all of Russia. But only in Russia, the Chekists, bought with gold, interfere with the people, but, after all, the gold will not last long, it’s impossible to endure any longer. I have been a lot across Russia. I saw a lot of people in cities and villages. Everywhere the working people hate the communists. "

And did they not have before their eyes the workers' unrest in Petrograd, did they not know from the same Soviet press about the peasant uprisings in Siberia, in the Tambov and central provinces, in the Ukraine?

They believed that this movement would grow, that the Kronstadt uprising would flare up all over Russia with a bright fire, encourage the masses, push them onto the path of action, organize the entire discontented people ...

And wasn’t there any hope for them to hold out at least until the ice breaks c. Gulf of Finland?

All these considerations were not alien to the Soviet regime. She, continuing to bring more and more echelons of troops and at the same time understood that the battle was taking place not only on the ice of the Gulf of Finland, on the tragic approaches to Kronstadt, but also on the streets and factories of Petrograd and Moscow.
And, bombarding Kronstadt, dropping bombs from airplanes on the civilian population of the besieged city, the Bolsheviks tried to discredit, defame their generous enemy, undermine the confidence of the masses in him, intimidate the masses with the Kronstadt movement.
For the calls of Kronstadt had a powerful force ...

“In Kronstadt, not Kolchak, not Denikin, not Yudenich. In Kronstadt, working people say "An appeal to comrades workers and peasants" in No. 9 "Izvestia Temporal. Rev. Kom."

And, refuting the lie and slander of the Bolsheviks, the appeal ends with an appeal:
"Comrades, the Kronstadters raised the banner of insurrection and are confident that tens of millions of workers and peasants will respond to their call."
"It cannot be that the dawn that has dawned on us does not become clear for the whole of Russia."
"It cannot be that the explosion of Kronstadt did not make the whole of Russia and, above all, Petrograd, shudder and rouse."
“Our enemies have filled the prisons with workers, but there are still many brave and honest people at large.
Rise up, comrades, to fight the autocracy of the Communists "...

And there was a response to this Kronstadt explosion. The Kronstadters learned about him first of all from the confused radio Bolsheviks, where, along the way, with lies and slander, uprisings in all parts of Russia were reported, the Red Army units fleeing to them spoke about him, they knew about him from stories who escaped death on ice Gulf of Finland prisoners of war communists ...

Every extra hour of Kronstadt's existence, every shot from its batteries, raised new enemies against the Bolsheviks.

The communists were left alone. Trotsky had to recruit detachments of cadets, security officers, minelayers, and let down the Chinese and Bashkir units.

That is why, with such stubbornness, with such fury, the Bolshevik government drove more and more regiments across the ice of the bay to certain death. She needed to destroy Kronstadt at all costs and as soon as possible. Otherwise, Kronstadt blew it up.

That is why all means were good for the Soviet regime.
That is why she spared no expense and effort to defame and slander Kronstadt.

BOLSHEVIK'S LIES AND SLAVERY

It was already indicated above how the Bolsheviks used the name of the harmless Kozlovsky, who served them faithfully and truthfully for three years, how, having made up the entire headquarters for nine-tenths of the generals and colonels of the tsarist system, shooting the revolutionary city with their help, they also spread a brazen lie about “ tsarist generals, "who were allegedly in Kronstadt.

True, in this matter the Bolsheviks were not a little helped by the Russian foreign, as well as the foreign press, especially the reactionary press. The Krasnaya Gazeta Izvestia Pravda Kommuna, etc., etc., eagerly reprinted all kinds of nonsense from the reactionary Russian and foreign newspapers. All the nonsense of the crazy Burtsev, who sent his uninvited greetings to the Kronstadters, all the "donations" of the financial aces in Paris, all the Guchkovs' dreams, the ridiculous rumors of the foreign press - everything was used by the Bolsheviks in order to expose the Kronstadters, cut off from the whole world by ice in the form of puppets, to to whom, through the inevitable "Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries", "allegedly Cadets, then monarchists and, finally, the greedy and tenacious Entente" are selected ...
The Bolsheviks, in their lies, even reached the ridiculous assertion that the former Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, a pretender to the throne, was going to Kronstadt!

And if the Kronstadters themselves at the same time were indignant and laughed at all this absurd and obvious lie for them, then this grandiosely staged fabrication of deceit could not but have a corrupting influence on the Red Army and the workers of Russia, could not but undermine the confidence of Kronstadt.
And a thousand times were right "Proceedings of the Provisional. Of the Revolutionary Committee "when they so defined in the article" Gentlemen "or, Comrades" Kronstadt's attitude to the unexpected joy of Russian reactionaries about the outbreak of the movement:
„You, comrades, are now triumphant in a bloodless and great victory over the dictatorship of the Communists, and your enemies are also triumphant with you. But the motives of joy with us and with them are completely opposite. You are inspired by the ardent desire to restore the true power of the Soviets and the noble hope of giving the worker free labor, the peasant the right to dispose of his land and the products of his labor, and they are inspired by the hope of restoring the tsarist whip and general privileges.
Your interests are different, and therefore they are not on your way"

And the article ends with the following appeal: “Be vigilant. Keep wolves in sheep's clothing away from the helm bridge "...

Escape of the Kronstadt Bolsheviks from the ranks of the communist party

The Bolshevik attack on Kronstadt hastened the already very rapidly developing process of the Communists leaving the ranks of the Communist Party.
The Izvestia editorial board was made physically unable, due to lack of space, to publish all statements, both personal and group.
No. 8 alone contains the names of 168 communists who announced their resignation from the party.
There are sailors and ordinary communists of the electrical unit and the Red Army air defense, and the laborers of the artillery workshop and workers.

The letter about the resignation from the party of the teacher Maria Nikolaevna Chatel is unusually characteristic.
“Comrades, my students, labor, Red Army and naval schools!
For almost thirty years I lived with a deep love for the people, brought light and knowledge, as best I could, wherever it was expected, and where it was needed until the present moment.
The 1917 revolution, which gave scope to my work, increased my strength, and I continued to serve my ideal with more energy.
The communist doctrine with its motto: "Everything for the people" captured me with its purity and beauty, and in February 1920 I joined the R.K.P. To beloved children, of whom there are about 6 or 7 thousand in Kronstadt, I shuddered at the thought that I could be considered an accomplice in the spilled blood of innocent victims; with that first shot I stopped considering myself a candidate for R.K.P. "

“Comrades, rank-and-file communists,” a member of the RKP (Bolsheviks) wrote in his “appeal to all honest communards”, a sailor from the Narov minelayer, look around and you will see that we have entered a terrible swamp. We were led into this swamp by that small handful of communist bureaucrats who, under the guise of communists, built warm nests for themselves in our Republic.
As a communist, I urge you: drive away from yourself those false communists who are pushing us to commit fratricide. We, rank-and-file communists, innocent of anything, endure reproaches from our fellow workers and non-party peasants because of them. I look with horror at the situation that has arisen.
Will the blood of our brothers be shed because of the interests of those communist bureaucrats? Comrades, come to your senses and do not succumb to the provocation of these communist bureaucrats who are pushing us into the slaughter, but chase them in the neck, for a true communist should not impose his idea, but go hand in hand with the entire laboring mass. "

But this appeal “to all honest communards with the presentation of a kind of theory about the division of communists into honest and dishonest could, of course, influence the psychology of a significant number of communists in Kronstadt.
And in response they rained down in Time. Revol. The committee and "Izvestia" statements from "honest communards" about their withdrawal from the party.

“We are the undersigned, reads one of such statements-letters, members of the R.K.P., declare that, finding the tactics of the party fundamentally wrong, its complete bureaucracy and absolute isolation from the masses, we leave its ranks and stigmatize the criminals and the killers of those who remain in its ranks, before the entire working people. "
“We, the undersigned, call on all honest members. RKP to full adherence to the Provisional Revolutionary Committee, as the only body currently expressing the will of the working people. "
"Follow us into an honest battle against mad fanatics and tell yourself: win or die for the glory of the working people."

This typical letter bore the signatures of thirteen Red Army soldiers of the air defense of the fortress.
Such letters to Izvestiya Vremeni. Roar. Committee. "And the Revolutionary Committee received a great many.
They contained the most murderous, the most terrible! the truth about Bolshevism.
Under the blows of this impartial repentant criticism, the building of Russian communism, built on lies and slander, collapsed in the minds of ordinary communists.

And the more the Bolsheviks bombarded the revolutionary city, the stronger and stronger becomes the flight from the ranks of the Communist Party. "Izvestia Time. Roar. Kom. "And the Temporary Rev. Committee itself are overwhelmed by them.
Izvestia says that there are so many of these statements that due to the lack of space in the newspaper, they have to be printed in small bundles in the order of receipt.

“The sailors, the Red Army men, the deceived workers and that part of the intelligentsia that had the imprudence to believe in loud slogans and incendiary speeches are leaving the party.
“What does this flight mean?
Fear of revenge on the part of the working people, who wrested power from the Bolsheviks? ...
"No! A thousand times no.
“When a woman worker who appeared today with a statement about her resignation from the party was noticed that there were many such runaways, like she was, she replied with indignation:
"The eyes are open, but we are not running."
"The scarlet blood of the working people, which stained the ice cover of the Gulf of Finland for the sake of the madmen defending their power, opened the eyes of the people."

True, the communists "thanked" the gullible rebels. The Provisional Revolutionary Committee later had to admit that many of the "repentant" different signs on beach. When the Chekists got into the fortress, the communists destroyed part of the communications and turned against us .. "

But there were, of course, not a few who sincerely departed from Bolshevism.

Peace-loving pitying his opponents, often driven by Bolshevik machine guns into attacks, appealing to the detachments sent against him to death on the ice of the Gulf of Finland with words of forgiveness, sympathy and love, Kronstadt could not do otherwise, could not be otherwise.
For between him and his cruel enemy - the "Defense Committee" lay not only the ice of the Gulf of Finland, colored with crimson brotherly blood.
They were separated, not only by the difference of beliefs. A moral chasm lay between them.
These were two completely different worlds, irreconcilable in their very essence. In history civil war The Kronstadt movement will take its special place, fanned by the highest humanity.

True, Kronstadt these days was a symbol of Russia, tired of the blood and madness of recent years.
And this purity of him, this his wholeness, this his highest humanity could not fail to attract all sympathy to him, and even the socialist parties of Western Europe, intoxicated by the Bolshevik lies and frightened by all kinds of experiences of Russian military adventures, for the first time in all three years of the civil war, began to openly and boldly express their sympathy for the city that rebelled against the Bolsheviks.

Kronstadt conquered Bolshevism in the International as well.

And the Soviet government, which lied and slandered Kronstadt, these days turned for sympathy not to the world proletariat, but to ... the governments of the imperialist and capitalist countries. Its representatives abroad made all the concessions to England and Poland, made all the compromises with them, just to have their hands free to deal with the insurgent city.
This moral purity, this striving of Russia, awakened again to humanity, was the most remarkable feature of Kronstadt.

KRONSTADT SLIDERS

The slogans of Kronstadt were straightforward.
They led to the realization of democracy. True, the Kronstadters envisioned the achievement of this ideal of democracy by the people gradually, through re-elections to the soviets, and thus liberating Russia from the yoke of the communists. And when, after the fall of Kronstadt, an employee of a socialist newspaper asked the members of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee why the Constituent slogan was not among the Kronstadt slogans. Meetings:
- „Ha, ha, ha, - ... answered almost all those present. -So, if there are elections to the Constituent Assembly, then it means - "lists", otherwise it is impossible.
- “And since the lists - it means:“ communists ”.
If there are lists, then the communists will certainly cheat theirs.
-So you can do it by secret ballot, I said.
“Ha, ha, ha ...” my interlocutors laughed again.
“For three and a half years we have not seen a white roll and a secret ballot. All this was only promised to us. But in reality they gave nothing.
“We want to overthrow the communists, we want to achieve secret elections to the soviets from every constituency, there, in the localities they know very well who can be elected and who not. With the help of councils, in the localities it is possible to avoid those machinations that the Bolsheviks usually do with elections at the present time. "
This is how the Bolsheviks managed to distort the very idea of free elections according to "lists" in three years.

The method of open voting under the threat of bayonets for the lists of official candidates of the ruling communist party unknown even to the voters, involuntarily led the workers and sailors to the idea that the re-elections to the soviets carried out everywhere, starting from the villages, the conquest of the soviets from the communists, are the first expedient stage of the struggle for complete democracy.
Otherwise, under the rule of the communists in the soviets, they feared that even the Constituent Assembly, elected according to the communist method, would not be the Constituent Assembly, but a new kind of commissar power.

The main slogan was the demand for freely elected councils.
However, the best thing about the Kronstadt slogans can be judged by the ones printed during those days of war in Izvestia of the Provisional Revolution. Committee "sold out.

"Trotsky's first shot is a distress signal for the communists" - printed in large letters across the entire width of the sheet on the front page No. 6 of Izvestia Tem. Rev. Kom., And on the reverse side - "The power of the Soviets will free the working peasantry from the yoke of the communists.
“The bomb dropped in Kronstadt is a signal for an uprising in the communist camp,” “The throne of the communists has shaken,” read the bulletin board No. 8 Izvestiya Vrem. Roar. Com. "
"All power to the Soviets, not to the parties", "Down with the counter-revolution on the left and right" and "Long live Red Kronstadt with the rule of free soviets" - these are the next cries of Izvestia No. 9.

BLOOD FIGHT

While the generous, heroic Kronstadt, kindled by the enthusiasm of the struggle for the whole of Russia, for the entire working people, sending its calls and radio to women workers all over the world, now to the socialist parties, amid the thunder of cannonade, rejoicing in the anniversary Of the great revolution, close-knit, into a single friendly family, worked the great miracle of the reincarnation of human souls, Trotsky's troops, driven from behind by the machine guns of the Chekists, continued to march and go in their white shroud-robes to attack the city, demanding the true power of the Soviets.

“Throughout the night of March 10th, according to the operational report, the communist artillery bombarded the fortress and forts from the southern and northern coasts with intensive artillery fire, meeting with energetic resistance from our side.

From the southern coast at about 4 o'clock in the morning, the communist infantry led the first offensive, but was repulsed!
"The attempts of the communists to attack continued until 8 o'clock in the morning, but all were repulsed by artillery and rifle fire from our batteries and garrison units."

These short lines restore before our eyes a terrible picture of the night and morning attacks of the units driven by the communists to slaughter on the ice of the Gulf of Finland.

The day of the 11th March passed calmly.
“Thick fog interfered with the shooting,” says the 11th report.
Nevertheless, in the artillery skirmish opened that day, the advantage remained on the side of Kronstadt.
On this day, the Provisional Revolutionary Committee published a touching order “to all comrades, sailors, Red Army men and workers who took part in repelling the attacks of the communists from March 8 to 12.
“Prove, said this order, to the world of working people, dear fighters, no matter how. the great feat of the struggle for freely elected councils was hard, that Kronstadt always stood and is a vigilant sentry on guard of the interests of the working people. "

Saturday 12th March is the day of the celebration of the Great Revolution of 1917.
"Izvestia of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee" came out with a full house:
"Today is the anniversary of the overthrow of the autocracy and the eve of the fall of the Commissar."
And in the excellent article "Stages of the Revolution" - the Kronstadters carried out their favorite idea - about the third revolution.
Having given a vivid picture of the disintegration of the Soviet system, Izvestia of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee ended as follows:
“It got stuffy. Soviet Russia turned to all-Russian penal servitude.
“The unrest of the workers and the peasant uprisings showed that patience had come to an end.
“The uprising of toilers was approaching. The time has come to overthrow the commissar power. The sharp-sighted sentry of the social revolution - Kronstadt, did not oversleep.
“He was at the forefront of February and October.
"He was the first to raise the banner of uprising for the third revolution of the working people."
The third revolution of the working people — that is the slogan of Kronstadt. And the people whom the Bolsheviks accused at that time of having relations with the reactionaries and the Entente, said:
“The autocracy has fallen. The Constituent Assembly fell into the realm of legends. The commissar power is also crumbling.
The time has come for the real power of the working people, the power of the owl
tov ... "

The Kronstadters had a clear idea of the nature of their uprising.
They were not embarrassed by the fact that in the same Petrograd the workers demanded a Constituent Assembly, that around Moscow and St. Petersburg a glow of uprisings arose with the slogan of a new Constituent Assembly, that in distant Siberia this slogan had already been implemented ...

In their walled-up fortress surrounded by ice, they defended the right of the people to self-government and initiative in their own way.

They wanted to go and were already going to this people's self-government in special ways, but their goal was the same: the emancipation of the people.
Therefore, regardless of the form in which their demand was clothed: "the rule of the people", the entire Kronstadt movement has a tremendous attractive force.
It is, moreover, selflessly pure ...

This is how the pages of Izvestia of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee portray him ...

On the night of 12th to 13th, the communists attacked from the south. Again night attacks, again white robes, again the savage assault of all arriving and arriving fresh units, provincial cadet schools, communist regiments, selected foreign detachments, was repulsed.

On the 14th, Kronstadt is still vigorous, strong and confident, despite the sleepless terrible nights in which it was necessary to repulse the attacks of enemy detachments, walking like ghosts in white shrouds on the snow-covered ice surrounding the fortress and forts.
Watchdog service on ice. Patrols, patrols, outposts on the ice. In a blizzard and blizzard, with a terrible frost. What a terrible picture ...

And there, on the coast, the "bloody field marshal" Trotsky and the army commander Tukhachevsky are gathering more and more units.

There, on the coast, dense networks of lies and deceit are woven, which are supposed to separate Kronstadt from the whole world.

In the foreign centers in Riga, London, Rome and Warsaw, Soviet agents make all the humiliations, all the concessions, so that, with the help of the governments of the very Entente, in relations with which the Bolshevik government accuses Kronstadt, to block the free city, to prevent bring him food ...

Kronstadt, a handful of heroes, a city lost in the ice in the middle of the sea, was at that time both strong and cheerful.
He believed in his righteousness and in the inevitability of a huge all-Russian explosion.
“We are the shock workers of the revolution,” he said.
And I felt like from him at all ends, like a huge one; the electrical discharge was a wave of energy and vivacity.

END OF KRONSTADT

Trotsky finally amassed a mass of troops.
Unreliable parts removed, replaced with correct ones. The rebellious Red Army soldiers (as it happened in Oranienbaum) are pacified.

The people of Kronstadt, cheerful in spirit, were brought to the last degree of physical fatigue. Scattered around forts and batteries, they must defend the huge Kronstadt ice, which is spread out on all sides, along which a formidable enemy can attack from the South, from the North and from the East.

And there is not even an icebreaker to break the ice around the island ...

Here it is necessary to point to another legend invented by the Bolsheviks.
The communist press intimidated the population of Petrograd with the fact that allegedly Kronstadt, a peaceful and generous city, decided to bombard ... the former capital. Having opened fire from all sides on the forts and Kronstadt, the Bolsheviks did not hesitate to send airplanes to bombard the besieged city. At the same time, they slandered and lied to him.

As already indicated above, the very system of defense of the fortress was unprofitable for the Kronstadters and beneficial for the Bolsheviks.

In fact, after all, the purpose of Kronstadt is to be the defender of Petrograd against a foreign league attacking from the sea.

Moreover, in view of the possibility of the fortress falling into the hands of an external enemy, the coastal batteries and forts of Krasnaya Gorka were designed to fight in this case with Kronstadt, the rear of which was deliberately not strengthened in anticipation of such a possibility.

Quote: On March 8, 1921, on the day of the opening of the X Congress of the RCP (b), units of the Red Army went to the assault on Kronstadt. But the assault was repulsed, suffering heavy losses, the punitive troops retreated to their original lines. Sharing the demands of the insurgents, many Red Army men and army units refused to participate in the suppression of the uprising. Mass shootings began. For the second assault, the most loyal units were drawn to Kronstadt, even the delegates of the party congress were thrown into battle. On the night of March 16, after an intensive shelling of the fortress, a new assault began. Thanks to the advantage in forces and means, Tukhachevsky's troops broke into the fortress, fierce street battles began, and only by the morning of March 18, the resistance of the Kronstadters was broken. A brutal reprisal began not only against those who held weapons in their hands, but also against the population, since all residents of the rebellious city were considered guilty. The commander of the communist shock battalion was the future commissar of the fortress V.P. Gromov. He, the chairman of the Revolutionary Tribunal of the Baltic Fleet, V. D. Trefolev, and other punishers were buried in the Anchor Square of Kronstadt. An eternal flame burns over their grave.
Eternal flame at the mass grave of participants in the suppression of the uprising (punitive memorial)

Who would ever have thought that. it is not enemy squadrons from the West that will move against the workers 'and sailors' Kronstadt, but the troops, allegedly formed by the Russian workers 'and peasants' power! ..
By virtue of these considerations alone, the rumors spread by the Bolsheviks were an obvious lie.
And to the question posed to the "specialist" artilleryman in charge of the artillery defense of Kronstadt:
- Why didn't you manage to silence Krasnaya Gorka?
-Because, -he replied, -that we were closer to them, and they are further from us. They are on the mountain, and we are below. We had to shoot "at the mountain", at a distance of the distance it mattered. You know that even their shells only reached the Spit in Kronstadt, which means that we could not properly hit them. In addition, we could only shoot at clear weather, and all the time there was fog. They also had calculations of the shooting left over from the time of the struggle during the Yudenichev offensive. We had nothing.

These were the results of the battle with the forward, to the south-west, Krasnaya Gorka, which was still under fire from the Kronstadt forts. The distance between Petrograd and Kronstadt was a factor of two more than between Krasnaya Gorka and Kronstadt.

It is enough to look at the map of the Gulf of Finland to understand the complete impossibility of shelling Petrograd by Kronstadt.

And nevertheless, the Bolsheviks lied and with this lie intimidated the population of Petrograd, -
The attack of Kronstadt from the rear was carried out by the Bolsheviks in strict accordance with the developed plan. And the battle plan, said in an interview with representatives of the Soviet press, appointed by the dictator of Kronstadt, the former Bolshevik commissar for naval affairs Dybenko, was developed in great detail, according to the instructions of the commander of the army Tukhachevsky and in the field headquarters of the southern group. The brigade commanders took part in the development of the plan, and then all the military commanders were familiarized with it in detail, starting with the regimental commanders. "

In a word, all that tsarist generals, which the Kronstadt sailors did not have, were here, as here and helped the Dybenks to destroy their former comrades sailors.

On the 16th, artillery preparation for battle began, said another executioner of Kronstadt, the city of Kazansky. The shooting from our side was carried out with the calculation and, as it turned out later, the hit percentage was good. At nightfall, we attacked the numbered forts. White robes, which made us almost invisible in the shroud of snow, and the courage of the cadets allowed us to march in columns. "

From all sides - from the North, from the South, from the East - cadets' detachments marched against the few handfuls of Kronstadters scattered in the darkness of a winter night across separate forts lost in the ice.
By morning, a number of forts were taken. Across weakness Kronstadt-Petrogradskie Vorota-cadets burst into the city.

The local communists, spared by the Kronstadters, now betrayed them, armed themselves and acted in the rear. Kuzmin and Vasiliev, released from prison by the Chekists who broke into Kronstadt, took part in the "liquidation" of the "rebellion."

But even before the late night of the 18th there was a desperate resistance from the insurgents, a merciless slaughter was going on.
The enemy outnumbered the Kronstadters many, many times in strength. And those who could retreated to Finland, and the flag of violence was raised over the revolutionary fortress again, and the merciless Dybenko, who had been appointed commandant of the free city yesterday, was taken for reprisals.

The city, where not a single drop of human blood was shed during the fifteen days of the uprising, became the center of executions, lynching, and murder.

And in Petrograd, for whose freedom Kronstadt had risen, a "court" was hastily sat and, choosing from among the executed 13 heroes, "judged" them by his unrighteous court, who had pardoned hundreds and hundreds of communists.
And taking into account all the "circumstances" of their "guilt", he decided:

Assistant commander of the battleship "Sevastopol" Denier 24 y.p. ex. midshipman from b. hereditary noblemen of Petrograd province;
artillerymen of the same ship: Mazurov, 28 years old, a former lieutenant from the hereditary nobles of Petrograd province;
navigator Beckman, 23 years old, a former midshipman from the hereditary nobility of Perm province;
tower commander Levitsky 35 years old, former. piece-captain from hereditary nobles;
plutong commander Sofronov 27 y., ex. midshipman from the hereditary nobles of Tver province;
supply manager Timonov 37 y., ex. a priest from the bourgeoisie of the Sevsky district, Oryol province;
combat sailors, members of the ship committee Sugankov 25 years old, from the peasants of the Gomel province. Chernigov district, Stavino volost, village of Staraya Kamenka;
Stepanova 33 years old from the peasants of Novgorod province., Starorussky district, Vysotsky volost, village. Pestovo;
Efremova, 29 years old, from the peasants of the Petrograd province. Yamburgsky district, Narovskaya volost, der. Eagle;
Vorobiev, 29 years old, from the peasants of the Tula province. Krapivinsky district of Moscow Sloboda;
Steshich is 30 years old from the peasants of the Bryansk province. Karbachsvsky uyezd Dragunskoy parish. artel "Brotherhood"
the commander of the military plant Chernousov 23 years old from the peasants of the Minsk province. Igumensky district, Ust'denskoy volost, village. Swamp

- shoot.

The verdict passed in the final form without such appeal, is subject, - due to the situation created in the city of Kronstadt to restore the revolutionary order - to immediate execution "

Naval Cathedral. Kronstadt

May the memory of these martyr-heroes, generous and pure, remain sacred forever for the mournful, suffering, and fighting for freedom and a better future for humanity.
They, and Kronstadt, and unknown heroes who died in the struggle - Glory ...

Soviet historians, as usual, brazenly and shamelessly lied about those events, the documents were classified.

The so-called "rebels" came out under the red flag and put forward slogans: "Soviets without communists!", "Power to the Soviets, not parties!" They demanded an immediate fair and fair re-election of the Soviets, freedom of speech for all socialist parties, the granting of the right to dispose of land to the peasants, freedom of trade, permission to engage in handicrafts, and the abolition of food appropriation and political departments. That is, they demanded what the Bolsheviks promised, but again they deceived. And the uprising was not against Soviet power, but against the brazen dictatorship of the occupiers - the top of the Bolshevik clique.
According to Lenin, the performance in Kronstadt was "worse than Kolchak, Denikin and Yudenich combined." I was afraid, dreamer, that the people's eyes would open!
The Kronstadt tragedy served as a testing ground for Lenin's ruling group to form its absolute power based on criminal and repressive practices, falsely disguised with slogans of justice.

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

The survivors of the Kronstadt events were later repressed again and again. They were rehabilitated in the 1990s.

Quote: By the morning of March 18, the fortress was in the hands of the Bolsheviks. The exact number of those killed, missing and injured on both sides is still not known. The massacre of the Kronstadt garrison began. The very stay in the fortress during the uprising was considered a crime. Several dozen open trials took place. The seamen of the battleships "Sevastopol" and "Petropavlovsk" were especially cruelly dealt with. One of the largest open trials over the sailors of the rebel battleships took place on 1–2 April. 64 people appeared before the Revolutionary Tribunal. 23 of them were sentenced to death, the rest - to fifteen and twenty years in prison. By the summer of 1921, only the Presidium of the Petrograd Gubernia Cheka, the Collegium of the Special Department for the Protection of the Finnish Border of the Republic, the extraordinary troika of the Kronstadt Special Department for the Protection of the Finnish Border and the Revolutionary Military Tribunal of the Petrograd Military District sentenced 2,103 people to capital punishment and 6,459 people to various terms of punishment. In addition, in the spring of 1922, a mass eviction of the inhabitants of Kronstadt began. The Soviet leadership was informed about the nature of the Kronstadt movement, its goals, leaders, that neither the Socialist-Revolutionaries, nor the Mensheviks, nor foreign forces took part in it. However, objective information was carefully hidden from the population, and instead a falsified version was proposed that the Kronstadt events were allegedly the work of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, White Guards and international imperialism. The authorities expected to confirm the official version with facts during a large-scale public trial of the "rebels". It was assumed that along with the leaders of the uprising, testimony would be given by persons associated with Western intelligence services and representatives of opposition parties. The main defendants were supposed to be the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Petrichenko and General Kozlovsky. However, the main figures of the process were not arrested, and the process never took place. The survivors of the Kronstadt events were later repressed again and again. In the 1990s, their conviction was declared unfounded, and they were rehabilitated.

Few facts about the participants in those events

Quote: Kozlovsky Alexander Nikolaevich (1860? -1940), chief of artillery of Kronstadt on the eve of the mutiny. Until October 1917, he was an artillery general. Took part in the mutiny: organized a meeting of the personnel of the Office of the serf artillery; removed the management commissioner from the meeting, telling him at the same time: "Your time has passed, I will do what I need myself." But he did not hold any leading positions in the Revolutionary Committee. Kozlovsky was at that time over 60 years old (Kornilov and Kolchak who had died by that time were significantly younger than him). On the eve of February 1917, he had the rank of colonel. During the revolutionary events, he was involved in the work of the commission on the Kornilov case (as a member of the commission), who had raised an unsuccessful rebellion against the Provisional Government. After this work, the elderly colonel was promoted to general. In 1918 he served at the headquarters of the former General D.P. Parsky, who joined the Red Army in February 1918. Then he went to serve in Kronstadt. Bolshevik propaganda actively used the name of "General Kozlovsky" as an alleged "tsarist general" to discredit the rebellion. Relatives and acquaintances of Kozlovsky (28 people) were taken hostage by the Cheka, and after the suppression of the rebellion, they were sent to prison. Together with thousands of participants in the mutiny, Kozlovsky left for Finland. Lived there quietly, no political activities did not study, taught, lived on meager allowances. Died in 1940 at the age of almost 80

Quote: Petrichenko Stepan Maksimovich (1892-1945?), Senior clerk of the battleship "Petropavlovsk", chief leader of the rebellion. He was a career sailor since 1914. Originally from the Poltava region. He was a member of the RCP (b) since 1919, but dropped out of the party during the "re-registration" (veiled purge). In the summer of 1920, he visited his homeland, and upon his return spoke approvingly of the movement of Father Makhno, but he did not become an anarchist out of conviction. He was listed as "the leader of the uprising", but did not show any political talents. After suppressing the rebellion with thousands of its participants, he left for Finland. He worked in sawmills, became a carpenter. I went to Riga and visited the Soviet embassy there. There he was recruited into the agents of the GPU. I reported on the situation in Finland. In 1927 he traveled through Latvia to the USSR. Returning to Finland, he got a job at a pulp mill in Ken, where he worked until 1931. He was fired from a downsizing factory and moved to Helsinki. In 1937, he announced his refusal to cooperate with Soviet intelligence, but then again agreed to continue work. Several important messages were received from Petrichenko about the preparation of Nazi Germany for the war against the USSR. In 1941, Petrichenko was arrested by the Finnish authorities. On September 25, 1944, on the basis of an armistice agreement between the USSR, Great Britain and Finland, Petrichenko was released, and on April 21, 1945, he was arrested again and transferred to the counterintelligence agencies of the Red Army. November 17, 1945 by a special meeting at People's Commissar Internal Affairs of the USSR Petrichenko S.M. "For participation in a counter-revolutionary terrorist organization and belonging to the Finnish intelligence" was sentenced to ten years in the camps. He died on June 2, 1947 while being transported from the Solikamsk camp to the Vladimir prison. "