My Disillusionment in Russia · Chapter
XXVII: Kronstadt explained
The chapter details the Kronstadt uprising of March 1921, in which sailors and workers protested Bolshevik policies.
What happens
The chapter details the Kronstadt uprising of March 1921, in which sailors and workers protested Bolshevik policies. The author describes the brutal suppression by Trotsky and Zinoviev, the futile attempts by anarchists including Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman to mediate, and the profound disillusionment that led the author to break with the Bolsheviks.
Themes in this chapter
Disillusionment with Revolution
The author's final break with the Bolsheviks is cemented by the Kronstadt massacre, described as 'the last thread that held me to the Bolsheviki.'
State Power vs. Individual Freedom
The Bolshevik government's violent suppression of the sailors' demands for free elections and free speech exemplifies the conflict between centralized state power and popular sovereignty.
Betrayal of Revolutionary Ideals
The Kronstadt sailors, once hailed as the 'pride and glory of the Revolution,' are now slaughtered by the same party they helped bring to power, revealing the betrayal of revolutionary principles.
Suffering of the People
The chapter highlights the physical and mental agony of wounded soldiers, the cold and hunger driving workers to strike, and the 'terrific human sacrifice' of the assault.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
Visits a wounded kursant in the hospital, speaks with him, and experiences the final break with the Bolsheviks over Kronstadt.
- Alexander Berkman
Co-signs the anarchist letter to the Petrograd Soviet of Defence proposing a peaceful commission to resolve the Kronstadt conflict.
- Emma Goldman
Co-signs the anarchist letter to the Petrograd Soviet of Defence proposing a peaceful commission to resolve the Kronstadt conflict.
- Trotsky
Orders the bombardment of Kronstadt on March 7, 1921, and is condemned for the brutal suppression.
- Zinoviev
Chairs the Petrograd Soviet meeting, dismisses the Kozlovsky story, and pushes through the resolution demanding Kronstadt's surrender.
- Kalinin
Speaks at the Petrograd Soviet meeting, denouncing the sailors as counterrevolutionaries and calling for their subjugation.
- Lenin
Quoted at the Tenth Congress: 'The sailors did not want the counterrevolutionists, but they did not want us, either.'
- Maxim Gorky
Considered as a possible leader of a protest committee but believed to be too aligned with the Bolsheviks to act.
Key passages
“Kronstadt broke the last thread that held me to the Bolsheviki. The wanton slaughter they had instigated spoke more eloquently against them than aught else.”
The Kronstadt massacre destroyed the author's remaining loyalty to the Bolsheviks, as the deliberate killing proved their true nature beyond any words.
The author's definitive break with the Bolsheviks is expressed here.
“In the annals of the Russian Revolution the names of Trotsky, Zinoviev, and Dibenko will be added to those of Thiers and Gallifet.”
History will remember Trotsky, Zinoviev, and Dibenko as the new Thiers and Gallifet, the butchers of the Paris Commune.
The author compares the Bolshevik leaders to the French generals who suppressed the Paris Commune.
“The 'conquest' of the city was characterized by ruthless savagery, although not a single one of the Communists arrested by the Kronstadt sailors had been injured or killed by them.”
The Bolsheviks captured Kronstadt with extreme brutality, even though the sailors had not harmed any of the Communists they had detained.
Highlights the disproportionate violence of the Bolshevik response.
