Kronstadt uprising (March 1921)

Question 1

What were the causes?

Answer 1

• Economic Crisis: War Communism led to famine, fuel shortages, and industrial collapse.
• Worker/Peasant Unrest: Strikes in Petrograd (February 1921) over food rations.
• Political Betrayal: Sailors (once Bolshevik allies) demanded: “Soviets without Communists!”, as well as free elections, end to grain requisitioning, and abolition of Cheka terror.

Question 2

What were the key events?

Answer 2

February 28: Kronstadt sailors (15,000+) issued the Petropavlovsk Resolution, listing demands.

March 1–7: Bolsheviks sent negotiators (e.g., Kalinin), but talks failed.

March 8–18: Red Army (50,000+ troops under Tukhachevsky) stormed Kronstadt fortress:

Brutal Suppression: 10,000+ rebels killed; survivors fled to Finland or were executed.

Question 3

What was the Bolshevik response?

Answer 3

Denounced rebels as “White traitors” and “anarchist bandits.” Kronstadt’s surviving sailors later purged in Stalin’s Great Terror.

Question 4

What was the significance of the rebellion?

Answer 4

• Final Nail for War Communism: Rebellion forced Lenin to announce the NEP (March 1921).
• Exposed Bolshevik hypocrisy—revolutionaries now crushing worker dissent.
• Foreshadowed Stalin’s use of extreme force against opposition

Question 5

How did Lenin describe the uprising?

Answer 5

“The Kronstadt revolt was the flash that lit up reality better than anything else.”