Sailors had been an integral part of the Russian Revolution, and indeed they'd been an integral part of revolutions in Russia, and in Europe in general. Revolutionary left wing sailors had revolted in Russia in 1904, 1905, 1906 and most importantly, in 1917. Indeed, in some ways the rebellion of Russian sailors in 1917 had heralded the onset of the Russian Revolution.
All of which made the uprising that started on this day in 1921 a momentous one. On this day, Russian sailors, taking the view that the Bolsheviks had betrayed the Russian Revolution, rose up against the Communist government on the port island of Kronstadt, just off of St. Petersburg.
Communism was proving to be a disaster. Indeed, it was such a disaster that even though the Reds had only defeated the Whites, as we now recognize that defeat, a couple of months prior, the unworkable oppressive nature of the Communist dictatorship was already apparent. The sailors rebellion at Kronstadt was in reaction to that.
The sailors were not "White", but rather left wing revolutionaries themselves. They were heavily influenced by a concept of localism that some regard as anarchistic, but which might be most analogous to the views of the Greens, who sought to allow individuals the greatest possible freedom in the economy and in their personal lives. They expressed their goals in the form of fifteen published points.
These read:
Having heard the report of
the representatives of the crews dispatched by the General Meeting of the crews
from the ships to Petrograd in order to learn the state of affairs in
Petrograd, we decided:
1. In view of the fact that the
present soviets do not represent the will of the workers and peasants, to
re-elect the soviets immediately by secret voting, with free canvassing among
all workers and peasants before the elections.
2. Freedom of speech and press
for workers, peasants, Anarchists and Left Socialist Parties.
3. Freedom of meetings, trade
unions and peasant associations.
4. To convene, not later than 1
March 1921, a non-party conference of workers, soldiers and sailors of
Petrograd City, Kronstadt and Petrograd Province.
5. To liberate all political
prisoners of Socialist Parties, and also all workers, peasants, soldiers and
sailors who have been imprisoned in connection with working-class and peasant
movements.
6. To elect a commission to
review the cases of those who are imprisoned in jails and concentration camps.
7. To abolish all Political
Departments, because no single party may enjoy privileges in the propagation of
its ideas and receive funds from the state for this purpose. Instead of these
Departments, locally elected cultural-educational commissions must be
established and supported by the state. This is the reason for the inclusion of
this document in a collection otherwise devoted entirely to official
publications.
8. All ‘cordon detachments” are
to be abolished immediately.
9. To equalize rations for all
workers, harmful sectors being excepted.
10. To abolish all Communist
fighting detachments in all military units, and also the various Communist
guards at factories. If such detachments and guards are needed they may be
chosen from the companies in military units and in the factories according to
the judgment of the workers.
11. To grant the peasant full
right to do what he sees fit with his land and also to possess cattle, which he
must maintain and manage with his own strength, but without employing hired
labor.
12. To ask all military units and
also our comrades, the military cadets, to associate themselves with our
resolutions.
13. We demand that all
resolutions be widely published in the press.
14. To appoint a traveling bureau
for control.
15. To permit free artisan
production with individual labor.
The resolutions were adopted by
the meeting unanimously, with two abstentions.
President of the Meeting, PETRICHENKO.
Secretary, PEREPELKIN.
Suffice it to say, their rebellion would not be a success. Some have noted that it hastened the implementation of Lenin's New Economic Order, but that program itself was only intended to be temporary and indeed, given Lenin's death, it certainly proved to be.
Some regard the Kronstadt Rebellion as the final practical act of the Russian Civil War. By this point in time the Whites had been defeated in western Russia and, to a large degree, their defeat in the East was a foregone conclusion. The rebellion, however, represented a dangerous internal threat from the left. Had it succeeded, which it always had very little chance of doing, it would have created a more democratic left wing Russian regime, although one that was still likely to be a radical one.
On the same day, Panamanian troops halted an advance by Costa Rica in a border war that had developed between the two nations. U.S. troops landed in Panama City to protect U.S. interest in that nation, which obviously were centered on the Canal.
France mustered troops, including colonial troops, on the German border in anticipating of occupying the Ruhr due to the failure of Germany to provide timely reparation payments.
