THE KRONSTADT REBELLION BY ALEXANDER BERKMAN WITH MAP OF KRONSTADT AND A FACSIMILE PAGE OF THE KRONSTADT IZVESTIA I. LABOR DISTURBANCES IN PETROGRAD It was early in 1921. Long years of war, revolution, and civil struggle had bled Russia to exhaustion and brought her people to the brink of despair. But at last civil war was at cHi end: the numerous fronts were liquidated, and Wr angel — the last hope of Entente intervention and Russian counter ^^ revoliition — was defeated and his military activities within Russia terminated. The people now confidently looked fervv^ard' to the mitigation of the severe Bolshevik regime. it was expected that with the end of civil war the Com^^ munists would lighten the burdens, abolish war ^ time restrictions, introduce some fundamental liberties, and begin the organisation of a more normal life. Though far from being popular, the Bolshevik Government had the support of the workers in its oft announced plan of taking up the economic reconstruction of the country as soon as military operations should cease. The people were eager to cooperate, to put their initiative and creative efforts to the upbuilding of the ruined land.
Most unfortunately, these expectations were doomed to disappointment. The Communist State showed no intention of loosening the yoke. The same policies continued, with labor militarisation still further enslaving the people, embittering them with added oppression and tyranny, and in consequence paralising every possibility of industrial revival. The last hope of the proletariat was perishing: the con^ viction grew that the Communist Party was more interested in retaining political power than in saving the Revolution.
The most revolutionary elements of Russia, the workers of Petrograd, were the first to speak out. They charged that, aside from other causes, Bolshevik centralisation, bureaucracy, and autocratic attitude toward the peasants and workers were directly responsible for much of the misery and suffering of the people. Many factories and mills of Petrograd had been closed, and the workers were literally starving. They called meetings to consider the situation. The meetings v^ere suppressed by the Government. The Petrograd proletariat, who had borne the brunt of the revolutionary struggles and whose great sacrifices and heroism alone had saved the city from Yudenitch, resented the action of the Government. Keeling against the methods employed by the Bolsheviki continued to grow, More meetings were called, with the same result. The Communists would make no concessions to the proletariat, while at the same time they were offering to compromise with the capi^ talists of Europe and America. The workers wxre indignant — they became aroused. To compel the Government to consider their demands, strikes were called in the Patronny munition works, the Trubotchny and Baltiyski mills, and in the Laferm factory. Instead of talking matters over with the dissatisfied workers, the** Workers' and Peasants' GoYern:= ment" created a v/ar=:time Komitet Oborony (Committee of Defense) with Zinoviev, the most hated man in Petrograd, as Chairman. The avowed purpose of that Committee was to suppress the strike movement.
It was on February 24 that the strikes were declared. The same day the Bolsheviki sent the kursanti, the Communist students of the military academy (training officers for the Army and Navy), to disperse the workers who had gathered on Vassilevsky Ostrov, the labor district of Petrograd. The next day, February 25, the indignant strikers of Vassilevsky Ostrov visited the Admiralty shops and the Galernaya docks, and induced the workers there to join their protest against the autocratic attitude of the Government. The attempted street demonstration of the strikers w^as dispersed by armed soldiery.
On February 26 the Petrograd Soviet held a session at which the prominent Communist Lashevitch, member of the Committee of Defense and of the Revolutionary Military Soviet of the Republic, denounced the strike movement in sharpest terms. He charged the workers of the Trubotchny factory with inciting dissatisfaction, accused them of being "self:?seeking Ikbor skinners (shkurniki) and counter?revo^ lutionists", and proposed that the Trubotchny factory be closed. The Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet (Zinoviev, Chairman) accepted the suggestion. The Trubotchny strikers were locked out and thus automatically deprived of their rations.
These methods of the Bolshevik Government served still further to embitter and antagonise the workers.
Strikers' proclamations now began to appear on the streets of Petrograd. Some of them assumed a distinctly political character, the most significant of them, posted on the walls of the city February 27, reading: A complete change is necessary in the policies of the Govern:; ment. First of all, the workers and peasants need freedom. They don't want to live by the decrees of the Bolsheviki: they want to control their own destinies.
Comrades, preserve revolutionary order! Determinedly and in an organised manner demand: Liberation of all arrested socialists and nonpartisan workingmen; Abolition of martial law; freedom of speeeh, press and assembly for all who labor; Free election of shop and factory committees (zahvkomi), of hibor union and soviet representatives.
Call meetings, pass resolutions, send your delegates to the authorities and work for the realisation of your demands.
The Government repHed to the demands of the strikers by making numerous arrests and suppressing several labor organisations. The action resulted in popular temper growing more anti^Bolshevik; reactionary slogans began to be heard. Thus on February 28 there appeared a proclamation of the "SociaHst Workers of the Nevsky District", which concluded with a call for the Constituent As'sembly: We know who is afraid of the Constituent Assembly, It is they who will no longer be able to rob the people. Instead they will have to answer before the representatives of the people for their deceit, their robberies, and all their crimes.
Down vvith the hated Communists!
Down with the Soviet Government!
Long live the Constituent Assembly!
Meanwhile the Bolslieviki concentrated in Petrograd large military forces from the provinces and also ordered to the city its most trusted Commmiist regiments from the front. Petrograd was put under "extraordinary martial law". The strikers were overawed, and the labor irnresf crushed with an iron hand.
IL THE KRONSTADT MOVEMENT The Kronstadt sailors were much disturbed by v/hat vvas happening in Petrograd. They did not look with friendly eyes upon the Government's drastic treatment of the strikers. They knew what the revolutionary proletariat of the capital had had to bear since the first days of the Revolution, how heroically they had fought against Yudenitch, and how patiently they were suffering privation and misery. But Kronstadt was far from favoring the Constituent Assembly or the demand for free trade which made itself heard in Petrograd. The sailors were thoroughly revolutionary in spirit and action. They were the staunch^ est supporters of the Soviet system, but they were opposed to the dictatorship of any political party.
The sympathetic movement with the Petrograd strikers first began am.ong the sailors of the warships Peiropavlovsk and Sevastopol — the ships that in 1917 had been the m^ain support of the Bolslieviki. The movement spread to the whole fleet of Kronstadt, then to the Red Armiy regiments stationed there. On February 28 the men of Peiropavlovsk passed a resolution which was also concurred in by the S sailors of Sevastopol The resolution demanded, among other things, free reflections to the Kronstadt Soviet, as the tenure of office of the latter was about to expire. At the Siame time a committee of sailors was sent to Petrograd to learn the situation there.
On March 1 a public meeting was held on the Yakomy Square in Kronstadt, which was officially called by the crews of the First and Second Squadrons of the Baltic Fleet. 16,000 sailors, Red Army men, and workers attended the gathering. It was presided over by the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Kronstadt Soviet, the Com^ inunist Vassiliev. The President of the Russian Socialist Federated Republic, Kalinin, and the Commissar of the Baltic Fleet, Kuzmin, were present and addressed the audience. It may be mentioned, as indicative of the friendly attitude of the sailors to the Bolshevik Government, that Kalinin was met on his arrival in Kronstadt with military honors, music, and banners.
At this meeting the Sailors' Committee that had been sent to Petrograd on February 28 made its report. It corroborated the worst fears of Kronstadt. The audience was outspoken in its indignation at the methods used by the Communists to crush the modest demands of the Petrc=: L;rad workers. The resolution which had been passed by Petropavlovsk on February 28 was then submitted to the meeting. President Kalinin and Commissar Kuzmin bitterly attacked the resolution and denounced the Petrograd strikers as well as the Kronstadt sailors. But their arguments failed to impress the audience, and the Petropavlovsk resolution was passed unanimously. The historic document read: RESOLUTION OF THE GENERAL MEETING OF THE CREWS OF THE FIRST AND SECOND SQUADRONS OF THE BALTIC FLEET HELD MARCH I, 1921 linking heard the Report of the Representatives sent by the General Meeting of Ship Crews to Petrograd to investigate the situation there, Resolved: (1) In view of the fact that the present Soviets do not express Ike will of the v/orkers and peasants, immediately to hold new electii/ns by secret ballot, the pre-election campaign to have full freedom of agitation among the workers and peasants; ^ (2) To establish freedom of speech and press for workers aad peasants, for Anarchists and left Socialist parties; (3) To secure freedom of assembly for labor unions and peasant organisations; (4) To call a nonpartisan Conference of the workers, Red Army soldiers and sailors of Petrograd, Kronstadt, and of Petrograd Province, no later than iVlarch 10, 1921; (5) To liberate all political prisoners of Socialist parties, as well as all workers, peasants, soldiers, and sailors imprisoned in connection v/ith the labor and peasant movements; (6) To elect a Commission to review the cases of those held in prisons and concentration camps; (7) To aboHsh all pGlifotdeli (political bureaus) because no party should be given special privileges in the propagation of its ideas or receive the financial support of the Government for such purposes. Instead there should be estabhshed educational and cultural commissions, locally elected and financed by the Government; (8) To abolish immediately all zagryadiielniye otryadir (9) To equalise the rations of all who work, with the exception of those employed in trades detrimental to health; (10) To abolish the Communist fighting detachments in all branches of the Army, as well as the Communist guards kept on duty in mills and factories. Should such guards or military detachments be found necessary, they are to be appointed in the x\rmy from the ranks, and in the factories according to the judgment of the workers; (11) To give the peasants full freedom of action in regard to their land, and also the right to keep cattle, on condition that the peasants manage v/ith their own means; that is, without employing hired labor; (12) To request all branches of the Army, as well as cut comrades the military kursanti, to concur in our resolutions; *) Armed units organised by the Bolsheviki for the purpose of s«jp=: pressing traffic and confiscating foodstuffs and other products. The irresponsibihty and arbitrariness of their methods Y\^cre proverbial through== out the countiy. The Government abolished them in the Petrograd Pro=: vincc on the eve of its attack against Kronstadt — a bribe to the Petrograd proletariat. A.- B'.
70 (13) To demand that the press give the fullest publicity to our resolutions; (14) To appoint a Travelling Commission of Control; (15) To permit free kustarnoye (individual small scale) produc^^ tion by one's own efforts.
Resolution passed unanimously by Brigade Meeting, two per? sotis refraining from voting.
PETRICHENKO Chairman Brigade Meeting PEREPELKIN Secretary Resolution passed by an overwhelming majority of the Rronstadt garrison.
VASSILIEV Chairman Together with comrade Kalinin Vassiliev votes against the Resolution.
This Resolution, strenuously opposed — as already men^ tioned — by Kalinin and Kuzmin, was passed over their protest. After the meeting Kalinin was permitted to return to Petrograd unmolested.
At the same Brigade Meeting it w^as also decided to send a Committee to Petrograd to explain to the workers and the garrison there the demands of Kronstadt and to request that nonpartisan delegates be sent by the Petrograd proletariat to Kronstadt to learn the actual state of affairs and the demands of the sailors. This Committee, which consisted of thirty members, was arrested by the Boisheviki in Petrograd. It was the first blow struck by the Communist Government against Kronstadt. The fate of the Committee remained a mystery.
As the term of office of the members of the Kronstadt Soviet was about to expire, the Brigade Meeting also decided to call a Conference of delegates on March 2, to discuss the manner in which the new elections were to be held. The Conference was to consist of representatives of the ships, the garrison, the various Soviet institutions, the labor unions and factories, each organisation to be represented by two delegates.
11 11 The Conference of March 2 took place in the House of Education (the former Kronstadt School of Engineering) and was attended by over 300 delegates, among whom were also Communists. The meeting was opened by the sailor Petrichenko, and a Presidium (Executive Committee) of five members was elected viva voce. The main question before the delegates was the approaching new elections to the Kron stadt Soviet to be based on more equitable principles than heretofore. The meeting was also to take action on the Resolutions of March 1, and to consider ways and means of helping the country out of the desperate condition created by famine and fuel shortage.
The spirit of the Conference was thoroughly Sovietist: Kronstadt demanded Soviets free from interference by any political party; it wanted nonpartisan Soviets that should truly reflect the needs and express the will of the workers and peasants. The attitude of the delegates was antagonistic to the arbitrary rule of bureaucratic commissars, but friendly to the Communist Party as such. They were staunch adherents of the Soviet system and they were earnestly seeking to find, by means friendly and peaceful, a solution of the pressing problems.
Kuzmin, Commissar of the Baltic Fleet, was the first to address the Conference. A man of more energy than judgment, he entirely failed to grasp the great significance of the moment. He was not equal to the situation: he did not know how to reach the hearts and minds of those simple men, the sailors and workers who had sacrificed so much for the Revolution and who were now exhausted to the point of desperation. The delegates had gathered to take counsel with the representatives of the Government. Instead, Kuz* min's speech proved a firebrand thrown into gunpowder He incensed the Conference by his arrogance and insolence. He denied the labor disorders in Petrograd^ declaring that the city was quiet and the workers satisfied. He praised the work of the Commissars, questioned the re^ volutionary motives of Kronstadt, and warned against danger 12 from Poland. He stooped to unworthy insinuations and thuiidered threats. "If you want open warfare", Kuzmin concluded, "you shall have it, for the Communists will not give up the reins of government. We will fight to the bitter end."
This tactless and provoking speech of the Commissar of the Baltic Fleet served to insult and outrage the delegates. The address of the Chairman of the Kronstadt Soviet, the Comriiunist Vassiliev, who was the next speaker, made no iiSpression on the audience: the man was colorless and mdefinite. As the meeting progressed, the general attitude fe#came more clearly anti^^Bolshevik. Still the delegates were hoping to reach some friendly understanding with the rep^ reSentatives of the Government. But presently it became apparent, states the official report,* that "we could not trust mmxrades Kuzmin and Vassiliev any more, and that it was necessary to detain them temporarily, especially because tlhe Communists were in possession of arms, and we had no access to the telephones. The soldiers stood in fear of the Commissars, as proved by the letter read at the meeting, and the Communists did not permit gatherings of the garrison to take place."
Kuzmin and Vassiliev were therefore removed from the meeting and placed under arrest. It is characteristic of the spirit of the Conference that the motion to detain the other Communists present was voted down by an overwhelming majority. The delegates held that the Communists must be <?onsidered on equal footing with the representatives of other organisations and accorded the same rights and treatment. Kronstadt still was determined to find some bond of agreement with the Communist Party and the Bolshevik Government.
The Resolutions of March 1 v/ere read and enthusiastically passed. At that moment the Conference was thrown into i>reat excitement by the declaration of a delegate that the . ') Izvcstici of the Provisional Rcvolutionarv (Committee of Kron- ^mixt. No. 9, March 11, 1921.
13 Bolslieviki were about to attack the meeting and that fifteen carloads of soldiers and Communists, armed with rifles.and machine guns, had been dispatched for that purpose. "TMs information", the Izvestia report continues, "produced pas? sionate resentment among the delcgcites. Investigation soon proved the report groundless, but rumors persisted that a regiment of kursanfl, headed by the notorious Tchekist Duikiss, was already marching in the direction of the forf ■Krasnaia Gorka". In vievv of these new developments, and remembering the threats of Kuzmin and Kalinin, the Coit^ lerence at once took up the question of organising the defense of Kronstadt against Bolshevik attack. Time pressing, it was decided to turn the Presidium of the Conference into a Provisional Revolutionary Committee, which was charged with the duty of preserving the order and safety of the city ITiat Committee was also to make the necessary preparations mi: holding the new elections to the Kronstadt Soviet.
HI. BOLSHEVIK CAMPAIGN AGAINST KRONSTADT Petrograd was in a state of high nervous tension. New strikes had broken out and there were persistent rumors of labor disorders in Moscow, of peasant uprisings in the East and in Siberia. For lack of a reliable public press the people gave credence to the most exaggerated and even to obviously false reports. All eyes were on Kronstadt in expectation of momentous developments.
The Bolsheviki lost no time in organising their attack fgainst Kronstadt. Already on Marc'^i 2 the Government^ issued a prikaz (order) signed by Lenin and Trotsky, which denounced the Kronstadt movement as a rnyatezh^ a mutiny against the Communist authorities. In that documient the sailors were charged v-ith being "the tools of former Tsarist generals who together with Socialist?Revoiutionist traitors staged a counter-revolutionary conspiracy against the prokf tarian Reiiublic". The Kronstadt movement for free Soviets was characterised by Lenin and Trotsky as "the work of Entente interventionists and French spies". "On February 28", the prikaz read, "there were passed by the men of the Peiropavlovsk resolutions breathing the spirit the Black Hundreds. Then there appeared on the scene tJie group of the former general, Kozlovsky. He and three of his officers, whose names we have not yet ascertained, have openly assumed the role of rebellion. l"jius the meaning of recent events has become evident. Bcaind the Socialist^Revolutionists again stands a Tsarist general. In view of all this the Council of Labor and Defense orders: (1) To declare the former general Kozlovsky and his aides outlawed; (2) to put the City of Petrograd and the Petrograd Province under martial law; (3) to place supreme pov/er over the whole Petrograd District into the hands of the Petrograd Committee of Defense."
There was indeed a former general, Kozlovsky, in Kron- stadt. It was Trotsky who had placed him there as an artillery specialist. He played no role vfhatever in the Krons= Stadt events, but the Bolsheviki cleverly exploited his name to denounce the sailors as enemies of the Soviet Republic and their movement as counter-revolutionary. The official Bolshevik press now began its campaign of calumny and defamation of Kronstadt as a hotbed of "White conspiracy Iieaded by General Kozlovsky", and Communist agitators were sent among the workers in the mills and factories of Petrograd and Moscow to call upon the proletariat "to rally ft) the support and defense of the Workers' and Peasants' Government against the countcr^^revolutionary uprising in Kronstadt".
Far from having anything to do with generals and Counter^^revolutionists, the Kronstadt sailors refused to accept aid even from the Socialist^Revolutionist Party. Its leader, Victor Tchernov, then in Reval, attempted to influence the sailors in favor of his Party and its demands, but received no encouragement from the Provisional 15 Revolutionary Committee. Tchernov sent to Kronstadt the following radio:* The Chairman of the Constituent Assembly, Victor Tchernov, sends his fraternal greetings to the heroic comrades^sailors, the Red Army men and workers, who for the third time since 1905 ax-e. throwing off the yoke of tyranny. He offers to aid with mef and to provision Kronstadt through the Russian cooperatives abroad. Inform what and how much is needed. Am prepared to come in person and give my energies and authority to the service of the people's revolution. I have faith in the final victory of the laboring masses. *** Hail to the first to raise the banner of the people's liberation! Down with despotism from the left and right!
At the same time the Socialist^Revolutionist Party sent the following message to Kronstadt: The Socialist^Revolutionist delegation abroad *** now that the cup of the people's wrath is overflowing, offers to help with all means in its power in the struggle for liberty and popular govern? ment. Inform in what ways help is desired. Long live the people's revolution! Long live free Soviets and the Constituent Assembly!
The Kronstadt Revolutionary Committee declined the Socialist^Revolutionist offers. It sent the following reply to Victor Tchernov: The Provisional Revolutionary Committee of Kronstadt ex? presses to all our brothers abroad its deep gratitude for their sympathy. The Provisional Revolutionary Committee is thankful for the offer of Comrade Tchernov, but it refrains for the present: that is, till further developments become clarified. Meantime everything will be taken into consideration.
PETRICHENKO Chairman Provisional Revolutionary Committee^ Moscow, however, continued its campaign of misrepr^^^ sentation. On March 3 the Bolshevik radio station sent out the following message to the world (certain parts undecipherable owing to interference from another station): *** That the armed uprising of the former general Kozlovsky has been organised by the spies of the Entente, like many similar previous plots, is evident from the bourgeois French newspaper 16 Maf zn, which two weeks prior to the Kozlovsky rebellion published the following telegram from Helsingfors: ''As a result of the recent Kronstadt uprising the Bolshevik military authorities have taken steps to isolate Kronstadt and to prevent the sailors and soldiers of Kronstadt from entering Petrograd." *** It is clear that the Kron^^ stadt uprising was made in Paris and organised by the French secret service. *** The Socialist^Revolutionists, also controlled and directed from Paris, have been preparing rebeUions against the Soviet Government, and no sooner were their preparations made than there appeared the real master, the Tsarist general.
The character of the numerous other messages sent by Moscow can be judged by the following radio: Petrograd is orderly and quiet, and even the few factories where accusations against the Soviet Government were recently voiced now understand that it is the work of provocators. They realise where the agents of the Entente and of counter^^r evolution are leading them to.
*** Just at this moment, when in America a new republican regime is assuming the reins of government and showing inclination to take up business relations with Soviet Russia, the spreading of lying rumors and the organisation of disturbances in Kronstadt have the sole purpose of influencing the new American President and changing his policy toward Russia. At the same time the London Conference is holding its sessions, and the spreading of similar rumors must influence also the Turkish delegation and make it more submissive to the demands of the Entente. The rebellion of the Petropavlovsk crew is undoubtedly part of a great conspiracy to create trouble within Soviet Russia and to injure our international position. *** This plan is being carried out within Russia by a Tsarist general and former officers, and their activities are supported by the Mensheviki and Socialist^Revolutionists.
The Petrograd Committee of Defense, directed by Zinoviev, its Chairman, assumed full control of the City and Province of Petrograd. The whole Northern District was put under martial law and all meetings prohibited. Extraordinary precautions were taken to protect the Govern? ment institutions and machine guns were placed in the A^storia, the hotel occupied by Zinoviev and other high Bolshevik functionaries. The proclamations posted on the street bulletin boards ordered the immediate return of all strikers to the factories, prohibited suspension of work, and 17 warned the people against congregating on the streets. ''In such cases", the order read, "the soldiery will resort to arms in case of resistance, shooting on the spot".
The Committee of Defense took up the systematic ''cleaning of the city". Numerous workers, soldiers and sailors, suspected of sympathising with Kronstadt, were placed under arrest. All Petrograd sailors and several Army regiments thought to be "politically untrustworthy" were ordered to distant points, while the families of Kronstadt sailorg living in Petrograd weiQ taken into custody as hostages. The Committee of Defense notified Kronstadt of its action by a proclamation scattered over the city from an aeroplane on March 4, which stated: "The Committee of Defense declares that the arrested are held as hostages for the Commissar of the Baltic Fleet, N. N. Kuzmin, the Chairman of the Kronstadt Soviet, T. Vassiliev, and other Communists. If the least harm be suffered by our detained comrades, the hostages will pay with their lives".
"We do not want bloodshed. Not a single Communist has been shot by us", was Kronstadt's reply.
IV. THE AIMS OF KRONSTADT Kronstadt revived with new life. Revolutionary enthusiasm rose to the level of the October days when the heroism and devotion of the sailors played such a decisive role. Now, for the first time since the Communist Party assumed exclusive control of the Revolution and the fate of Russia, Kronstadt felt itself free. A new spirit of solidarity and brotherhood brought the sailors, the soldiers of the garrison, the factory workers, and the nonpartisan elements together in united effort for their common cause. Even Communists were infected by the fraternisation of the whole city and joined in the work preparatory to the approaching elections to the Kronstadt Soviet.
Among the first steps taken by the Provisional Revolutionary Committee was the preservation of revolu? tionary order in Kronstadt and the publication of the Com^ 18 mittee's official organ, the daily Izvestia. Its first appeal to the people of Kronstadt (issue No. 1, March 3, 1921) was thoroughly characteristic of the attitude and temper of the sailors. "The Revolutionary Committee", it read, 'Is most concerned that no blood be shed. It has exerted its best efforts to organise revolutionary order in the city, the fortress and the forts. Comrades and citizens, do not suspend work! Workers, remain at your machines; sailors and soldiers, be On your posts. All Soviet employees and institutions should continue their labors. The Provisional Revolutionary Com^ mittee calls upon you all, comrades and citizens, to give it your support and aid. Its mission is to organise, in fraternal cooperation with you, the conditions necessary for honest ind just elections to the new Soviet".
The pages of the Izvestia bear abundant witness to the deep faith of the Revolutionary Committee in the people of Kronstadt and their aspirations toward free Soviets as the true road of liberation from the oppression of Communist bureaucracy. In its daily organ and radio messages the Revolutionary Committee indignantly resented the Bolshevik campaign of calumny and repeatedly appealed to the proletariat of Russia and of the world for understanding, sympathy, and help. The radio of March 6 sounds the keynote of Kronstadt's call: Our cause is just: we stand for the power of Soviets, not parties. We stand for freely elected representatives of the laboring masses. The substitute Soviets manipulated by the Communist Party have always been deaf to our needs and demands; the only reply we have ever received was shooting. *** Comrades! They not only deceive you: they deliberately pervert the truth and resort to most despicable defamation. *** In Kronstadt the whole power is exclusively in the hands of the revolutionary sailors, soldiers and workers — not with counter^revolutionists led by some Kozlovsk3^ as the lying Moscow radio tries to make you believe, *** Do not delay, comrades! Join us, get in touch with us: demand admission to Kronstadt for your delegates. Only they will tell you the whole truth and will expose the fiendish calumny about Finnish bread and Entente offers.
Long live the revolutionary proletariat and the peasantry!
Long live the power of freely elected Soviets!
19 The Provisional Revolutionary Committee first had its headquarters on the flagship Petropavlovsk, but within a few days it removed to the "People's Home", in the center of Kronstadt, in order to be, as the Izvestia states, "in closer touch with the people and make access to the Committee easier than on the ship". Although the Communist press continued its virulent denunciation of Kronstadt as "the counter-revolutionary rebellion of General Kozlovsky", the truth of the matter was that the Revolutionary Committee was exclusively proletarian, consisting for the most part of workers of known revolutionary record. The Committee comprised the following 15 members: 1. PETRICHENKO, senior clerk, flagship Petropavlovsk; 2. YAKOVENKO, telephone operator, Kronstadt District; 3. OSSOSSOV, machinist, Sevastopol; 4. ARKHIPOV, engineer; 5. PEREPELKIN, mechanic, Sevastopol; 6. PATRUSHEV, head mechanic, Petropavlovsk; 7. KUPOLOV, senior medical assistant; 8. VERSHININ, sailor, Sevastopol; 9. TUKIN, electrical mechanic; 10. ROMANENKO, caretaker of aviation docks; 11. ORESHIN, manager of the Third Industrial School; 12. VALK, lumber mill worker; 13. PAVLOV, naval mining worker; 14. BAIKOV, carter; 15. KILGAST, deep sea sailor.
Not without a sense of humor did the Kronstadt Izvestia remark in this connection: "These are our generals, Messrs. Trotsky and Zinoviev, while the Brussilovs, the Kamenevs, the Tukhachevskis, and the other celebrities of the Tsarist regime are on your side."
The Provisional Revolutionary Committee enjoyed the confidence' of the whole population of Kronstadt. It won general respect by establishing and firmly adhering to the 20 principle of ''equal rights for all, privileges to none". The pahyok (food ration) was equalised. The sailors, who under Bolshevik rule always received rations far in excess of those allotted to the workers, themselves voted to accept no more than the average citizen and toiler. Special rations and delicacies were given only to hospitals and children's homes.