Kronstadt

[dksu]

I've heard a lot about this, but nothing decisive. Why were the sailors rebelling and why did Lenin repress them? A justified or unjustified reaction?

[The Feral Underclass]

It's a massively contended issue, with evidence being presented from both sides. Bolsheviks claim that the sailors and workers who formed the Kronstadt collective were about to assist the Finnish white army in using Kronstadt as a point of invasion. Allegedly there are documents that show that the Finnish army supplied finances to the Kronstadt collective, but I have never read these documents. Essentially, the argument against the workers of Kronstadt was that they were counter-revolutionaries.

The problem is, the the word "counter-revolutionary" took on a meaning in Russia that could be applied to anyone who disagreed with the Soviet government. It was a convenient way of justifying political repression against anyone. Call them counter-revolutionary and what other justification does a revolutionary government need to exact as much force as necessary?

Despite the fact that the Kronstadt collective were accused of being whites, there is, contrary to that opinion, a set of demands that the workers and sailors put onto the Soviet government as, in their opinion, logical safeguards and conditions for a revolutionary workers society.

Those demands were:



1. Immediate new elections to the Soviets. The present Soviets no longer express the wishes of the workers and peasants. The new elections should be by secret ballot, and should be preceded by free electoral propaganda.

2. Freedom of speech and of the press for workers and peasants, for the Anarchists, and for the Left Socialist parties.

3. The right of assembly, and freedom for trade union and peasant organisations.

4. The organisation, at the latest on 10th March 1921, of a Conference of non-Party workers, solders and sailors of Petrograd, Kronstadt and the Petrograd District.

5. The liberation of all political prisoners of the Socialist parties, and of all imprisoned workers and peasants, soldiers and sailors belonging to working class and peasant organisations.

6. The election of a commission to look into the dossiers of all those detained in prisons and concentration camps.

7. The abolition of all political sections in the armed forces. No political party should have privileges for the propagation of its ideas, or receive State subsidies to this end. In the place of the political sections various cultural groups should be set up, deriving resources from the State.

8. The immediate abolition of the militia detachments set up between towns and countryside.

9. The equalisation of rations for all workers, except those engaged in dangerous or unhealthy jobs.

10. The abolition of Party combat detachments in all military groups. The abolition of Party guards in factories and enterprises. If guards are required, they should be nominated, taking into account the views of the workers.

11. The granting to the peasants of freedom of action on their own soil, and of the right to own cattle, provided they look after them themselves and do not employ hired labour.

12. We request that all military units and officer trainee groups associate themselves with this resolution.

13. We demand that the Press give proper publicity to this resolution.

14. We demand the institution of mobile workers' control groups.

15. We demand that handicraft production be authorised provided it does not utilise wage labour."

[quoted by Ida Mett, The Kronstadt Revolt, pp. 37-8]Do those demands look like the demands of counter-revolutionaries? Nevertheless, Trotsky and Lenin saw these demands and the democracy practiced in determining them as a threat to their authority and subsequently bombarded the shit out of the town.

I guess you have to make your own mind up.

[Tower of Bebel]

In a recent hthread some links to useful websites were posted:
http://www.revleft.com/vb/kronstadt-rebellion-help-t68189/index.html


Do those demands look like the demands of counter-revolutionaries? Nevertheless, Trotsky and Lenin saw these demands and the democracy practiced in determining them as a threat to their authority and subsequently bombarded the shit out of the town.

You compared Kronstadt to the Commune of Paris?

[The Feral Underclass]

You compared Kronstadt to the Commune of Paris?

That makes no sense to me.

[Herman]

I've heard a lot about this, but nothing decisive. Why were the sailors rebelling and why did Lenin repress them? A justified or unjustified reaction?

To me, it was justified, but unfortunate. The Kronstadt sailors were among the people who most fervently supported the Bolsheviks, especially during the October days of 1917, when the armed insurrection happened. Though the Kronstadt sailors were right in making such demands, it was necessary to "put them down" for the present pro-worker's regime to survive.

In such instances, it is difficult to make these decisions and Lenin probably felt bad about what happened. This was one of the reasons why the NEP was later introduced.

[LSD]

This question has been debated to death, many many times, and you're unlikely to get a single answer on it. I'd advise you to look through some of the previous threads on the subject.

The last big Kronstadt thread (http://www.revleft.com/vb/showthread.php?t=44497).

[Tower of Bebel]

That makes no sense to me.

During the siege of Paris both the Communards and the reactionaries shouted "vive la republique". Yet, both had a different opinion on what the republique should be like (socialist republicanism (classless society) vs. bourgeois republicanism (capitalism)). So the bourgeoisie bombarded the shit of them.
You write:
Trotsky and Lenin saw these demands and the democracy practiced in determining them as a threat to their authority and subsequently bombarded the shit out of the town.

[Devrim]

In such instances, it is difficult to make these decisions and Lenin probably felt bad about what happened. This was one of the reasons why the NEP was later introduced.

The NEP was introduced two days after the Kronstadt uprising was crushed. Trotsky had been arguing for it for over a year.

If we compare the programme of the Kronstadt Soviet to the NEP although it did include some concessions to the poor peasantry, it did not include the concessions to the kulaks that the NEP did. It is very clear which of them was a socialist programme.

Devrim