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Kronstadt 1921
Février 1921 : alors que le régime communiste sort vainqueur de la guerre civile qui s'achève et à laquelle va succéder une effroyable famine, il doit faire face au mécontentement de la population ouvrière et paysanne, plongée dans le plus grand dénuement et privée de toute liberté d'expression et d'association. C'est pour soutenir les ouvriers de Petrograd qui se sont mis en grève tout au long de ce mois de février pour protester contre la pénurie extrême à laquelle ils doivent faire face que les marins, les soldats et les ouvriers de l'île de Kronstadt se sont réunis et ont dressé une liste de revendications. Au premier rang de celles-ci, ils placent le rétablissement des libertés fondamentales pourtant inscrites dans la constitution de 1918 : les droits d'expression, d'association, de réunion ; le vote à bulletin secret ; l'élection dans ces conditions de nouveaux soviets ; les libertés de changer d'emploi et de se déplacer ; la fin des privilèges du parti communiste et la suppression de la police politique. Alexandre Skirda ne fait pas que décrire cette éphémère tentative de rétablir la démocratie soviétique et la répression féroce qui s'abattra sur elle, il la replace dans la lignée des affrontements qui ont opposé depuis 1918 ouvriers et paysans au pouvoir communiste et il retrace la façon dont les historiens, aussi bien soviétiques qu'occidentaux, ont rendu compte de cet épisode au plus haut point représentatif de la nature de ce pouvoir. Mars 1921 : une Commune pour la renaissance des soviets. Cette révolte des marins, soldats et ouvriers de l'île de Kronstadt ne dura guère plus de deux semaines et fut noyée non seulement dans le sang, mais aussi sous un flot de calomnies. Mais par ses causes, son déroulement et sa répression, elle permet, replacée dans son contexte, de comprendre très précisément la nature et les instruments du régime mis en place par les bolcheviks après Octobre 1917.
271 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
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385 people want to read
About the author
Paul Avrich
47 books60 followers"He was a noted historian and professor who authored many books on anarchist history, including books on the Haymarket Riot, the Modern School Movement, the Russian Revolution and a collection of oral interviews with American anarchists titled Anarchist Voices. Avrich was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize several times and in 1984 he won the Philip Taft Labor History Award."
From Infoshop News obituary http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?...
From Infoshop News obituary http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?...
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 17, 2018
This may be the definitive historical study of the 1921 Kronstadt Rebellion and subsequent suppression for some time to come. I say this whilst acknowledging that Israel Getzler's Kronstadt 1917–1921 (which I have not read) postdates the publication of Avrich's book by 13 years and is another 50 pages longer but also expands the study of the rebellion by covering the revolutionary years leading up to that fateful March in 1921. Regardless, if one is interested in a non-partisan accounting of the so-called "third revolution" Kronstadt, 1921 is a superb place to start.
For many on the Left – from libertarian socialists to anarcho-syndicalists, recalcitrant Marxist-Leninists to old-school Trotskyites, and everything in-between – Kronstadt was a watershed event. Depending upon one’s political perspective it either was a) a tragic event that sealed the fate of the grand Russian social experiment by crushing the last-gasp of a non-party-centric democratic socialist revolution – the true spirit of February 1917 (but not October 1917) – under the boot heel of Bolshevik dictatorial repression or it was b) a tragic event that was necessary to secure the Russian proletariat’s victory and forestall a resurgence of civil war led by waiting-in-the-wings Whites and foreign imperialist-capitalists. In support of the second, Bolshevik viewpoint, one can find a number of articles and works by Trotsky, Lenin and later the Stalinist ‘official’ chronicler of the rebellion, Poukhov. Several contemporary anarchists – Goldman, Berkman, and Mett, to name three -- wrote with great dismay after the suppression and as a result lost ‘faith’ in the Soviet Union and the direction of the Communist movement. In addition to those sources, the proclamations and daily newssheets of the Kronstadt revolutionaries are still extant. Avrich references these and more writings as he tells this compelling and yes, tragic, story.
A signature trait of a well-written objective history is that one can’t readily tell the biases of the author. Avrich does a superb job of laying out the background, detailing the events, explaining the politics, and summarizing the results, all without writing a condescending, patronizing, or unnecessarily judgmental sentence. In the end, whilst I may sympathize emotionally and politically with the stated intentions and aspirations of the Kronstadters, I also intellectually understand why Lenin felt he had to do what he did. Even the lies he and his supporters spun become comprehensible, though detestable. [Trotsky’s defensive of the Bolshevik actions some 17 years later – given the transition from Leninism to Stalinism – is more problematic and less understandable, frankly.]
Highly recommended if one wants to understand more deeply the early Soviet days, the revolutionary promises made, but unfulfilled, and the tragic arc of suppression and repression that became Kronstadt’s epilogue.
For many on the Left – from libertarian socialists to anarcho-syndicalists, recalcitrant Marxist-Leninists to old-school Trotskyites, and everything in-between – Kronstadt was a watershed event. Depending upon one’s political perspective it either was a) a tragic event that sealed the fate of the grand Russian social experiment by crushing the last-gasp of a non-party-centric democratic socialist revolution – the true spirit of February 1917 (but not October 1917) – under the boot heel of Bolshevik dictatorial repression or it was b) a tragic event that was necessary to secure the Russian proletariat’s victory and forestall a resurgence of civil war led by waiting-in-the-wings Whites and foreign imperialist-capitalists. In support of the second, Bolshevik viewpoint, one can find a number of articles and works by Trotsky, Lenin and later the Stalinist ‘official’ chronicler of the rebellion, Poukhov. Several contemporary anarchists – Goldman, Berkman, and Mett, to name three -- wrote with great dismay after the suppression and as a result lost ‘faith’ in the Soviet Union and the direction of the Communist movement. In addition to those sources, the proclamations and daily newssheets of the Kronstadt revolutionaries are still extant. Avrich references these and more writings as he tells this compelling and yes, tragic, story.
A signature trait of a well-written objective history is that one can’t readily tell the biases of the author. Avrich does a superb job of laying out the background, detailing the events, explaining the politics, and summarizing the results, all without writing a condescending, patronizing, or unnecessarily judgmental sentence. In the end, whilst I may sympathize emotionally and politically with the stated intentions and aspirations of the Kronstadters, I also intellectually understand why Lenin felt he had to do what he did. Even the lies he and his supporters spun become comprehensible, though detestable. [Trotsky’s defensive of the Bolshevik actions some 17 years later – given the transition from Leninism to Stalinism – is more problematic and less understandable, frankly.]
Highly recommended if one wants to understand more deeply the early Soviet days, the revolutionary promises made, but unfulfilled, and the tragic arc of suppression and repression that became Kronstadt’s epilogue.
January 12, 2022
Libro che parla sotto tutti i punti di vista della rivolta a Kronstadt, nonché della sua comune ispirata a quella di Parigi di cinquant'anni prima. L'autore ripropone tutte quelle tematiche storiche, culturali e politiche che hanno portato alla rivolta dai diversi punti di vista dell'epoca (soviet, anarchici, comunisti ed europei).
Il libro scorre molto bene tra i vari eventi storici. Ottimo libro che consiglio vivamente (anche solo per farsi un'idea degli anni post rivoluzione russa).
Il libro scorre molto bene tra i vari eventi storici. Ottimo libro che consiglio vivamente (anche solo per farsi un'idea degli anni post rivoluzione russa).
December 21, 2020
This was great, if totally depressing. The story of the Kronstadt commune's defiance of the Bolshevik comissarocracy, its efforts to actually realize soviet (or, arguably, anarchist) communism, and its brutal suppression by Trotsky and Lenin is a tale whose importance is not limited solely to historical inquiry.
January 2, 2018
The uprising of the Kronstadt sailors followed by the Bolshevik governments brutal suppression is one of the definitive moments of the Russian Revolution.
For the Bolsheviks like Lenin and Trotsky, the uprising is seen as a dire challenge to their revolutionary authority. The Bolsheviks having taken power in their October Revolution had formed the Red Army to oppose and fight the White armies that were intent on restoring the old order. The Kronstadt uprising occurs after the Bolsheviks won the civil war and the country is in shambles operating under a policy of ‘war communism’. A challenge to their governmental ability could destroy ability to govern and lead to white restoration; the suppression of the uprising will allow the regime to move on to building communism.
For the Kronstadt sailors, the uprising is seen as a continuation of the revolution leading towards its full realization. The sailors had played an essential role in the revolution at ever stage including the October revolution. Their revolutionary zeal was unquestionable and when strikes broke out in Petrograd the sailors were quick to express their solidarity. Given the end of the civil war, the workers and the sailors sought to actually make manifest the alleged freedom they had fought and suffered for all this time.
Paul Avrich perspective is interesting because he is a historian of anarchism (if not an anarchist himself) and is sympathetic to the sailors. Nonetheless, in his introduction he ultimately takes the side of the Bolsheviks agreeing with the need to subdue the uprising. As an anarchist and someone who has read Avrich’s other works, I found this surprising, but also unsubstantiated within the greater part of the text. In this book, I think Avrich is trying to be an objective historian, which accounts for his overly sympathetic account of the Bolsheviks actions and reasoning. Nonetheless, Avrich account of the uprising goes through the various claims made by the Bolsheviks-during and after-and shows how they are unsubstantiated. So, Avrich’s book is essential for understanding the uprising from an anarchist perspective while also getting a fair sense of the Bolsheviks’ perspectives, too.
For the Bolsheviks like Lenin and Trotsky, the uprising is seen as a dire challenge to their revolutionary authority. The Bolsheviks having taken power in their October Revolution had formed the Red Army to oppose and fight the White armies that were intent on restoring the old order. The Kronstadt uprising occurs after the Bolsheviks won the civil war and the country is in shambles operating under a policy of ‘war communism’. A challenge to their governmental ability could destroy ability to govern and lead to white restoration; the suppression of the uprising will allow the regime to move on to building communism.
For the Kronstadt sailors, the uprising is seen as a continuation of the revolution leading towards its full realization. The sailors had played an essential role in the revolution at ever stage including the October revolution. Their revolutionary zeal was unquestionable and when strikes broke out in Petrograd the sailors were quick to express their solidarity. Given the end of the civil war, the workers and the sailors sought to actually make manifest the alleged freedom they had fought and suffered for all this time.
Paul Avrich perspective is interesting because he is a historian of anarchism (if not an anarchist himself) and is sympathetic to the sailors. Nonetheless, in his introduction he ultimately takes the side of the Bolsheviks agreeing with the need to subdue the uprising. As an anarchist and someone who has read Avrich’s other works, I found this surprising, but also unsubstantiated within the greater part of the text. In this book, I think Avrich is trying to be an objective historian, which accounts for his overly sympathetic account of the Bolsheviks actions and reasoning. Nonetheless, Avrich account of the uprising goes through the various claims made by the Bolsheviks-during and after-and shows how they are unsubstantiated. So, Avrich’s book is essential for understanding the uprising from an anarchist perspective while also getting a fair sense of the Bolsheviks’ perspectives, too.
January 20, 2022
It’s been a half century since Paul Avrich’s definitive history of the Kronstadt mutiny first appeared — and a full century since the revolt itself. Others have written about how “Red Kronstadt”, whose sailors had been hailed as the “pride and joy” of the Bolshevik Revolution by Trotsky himself, turned on the Communists and tried to trigger a nation-wide “third revolution”. But few have been professional historians.
Avrich’s book is strikingly balanced. He does not shy away from acknowledging that the Bolsheviks had little choice but to swiftly crush the rebellion if they intended to stay in power. Nor does he paint the rebels as angels; his references to their anti-Semitism make for painful reading. He does some serious myth-busting, not least the Bolshevik claims — demonstrably false — that White generals and France were behind the rebellion.
He demolishes Trotsky’s later claims that, in spite of being the commander of the Red Army and actually being on the scene when the rebellion was suppressed, he really played a very minor role and bears little responsibility for the events. Zinoviev comes off pretty badly as well, having ruthlessly suppressed not only the Kronstadt sailors but also rebellious workers in the city of Petrograd, which he ruled as a dictator. Both men would fall victim to Stalin’s purges, though Stalin himself played no role in the suppression of this mutiny.
In the end, Avrich paints Kronstadt as a tragedy, which it surely was, but also shows the sailors’ vision of a society of “free soviets” no longer dominated by the Communist Party as a missed opportunity.
Avrich’s book is strikingly balanced. He does not shy away from acknowledging that the Bolsheviks had little choice but to swiftly crush the rebellion if they intended to stay in power. Nor does he paint the rebels as angels; his references to their anti-Semitism make for painful reading. He does some serious myth-busting, not least the Bolshevik claims — demonstrably false — that White generals and France were behind the rebellion.
He demolishes Trotsky’s later claims that, in spite of being the commander of the Red Army and actually being on the scene when the rebellion was suppressed, he really played a very minor role and bears little responsibility for the events. Zinoviev comes off pretty badly as well, having ruthlessly suppressed not only the Kronstadt sailors but also rebellious workers in the city of Petrograd, which he ruled as a dictator. Both men would fall victim to Stalin’s purges, though Stalin himself played no role in the suppression of this mutiny.
In the end, Avrich paints Kronstadt as a tragedy, which it surely was, but also shows the sailors’ vision of a society of “free soviets” no longer dominated by the Communist Party as a missed opportunity.
January 18, 2021
A balanced account of the 1921 Kronstadt rebellion. The author, a historian with anarchist sympathies, explains the reasons for and the details of the tragic conflict between the rebels, with their SR Maximalist agenda and their erstwhile comrades the Bolsheviks who proclaimed the dictatorship of the proletariat. These events set against a background of mistrust, paranoia and extreme physical deprivation after 7 years of war would harden the resolve of the Communists to preserve the gains of the revolution, as they saw them, at any cost and brook no interference from left or right
December 29, 2024
Excellent, balanced history of Kronstadt. A tragedy: workers and peasants chafing under dictatorial rule revolt without a plan and without understanding both their material conditions and reasons for why everything had gone to shit.
Lenin and the Bolsheviks could have avoided the rebellion if they'd been a bit faster in repealing War Communism. Once the die was cast however, the rebellion could only have acted as a breakup of central power and a foothold for Wrangel to return to Russia.
Lenin and the Bolsheviks could have avoided the rebellion if they'd been a bit faster in repealing War Communism. Once the die was cast however, the rebellion could only have acted as a breakup of central power and a foothold for Wrangel to return to Russia.
October 15, 2022
This book reveals how Lenin and Trotsky reacted to a revolutionary libertarian communist commune with full of tyranical rage and totalitarian mindset.
There are a lot of quotes from organic workers who lived under Bolshevik leadership reflecting the actual feelings towards the Bolshevik government.
Some idealistic dogmatic Leninists might disagree these information. But facts matter.
There are a lot of quotes from organic workers who lived under Bolshevik leadership reflecting the actual feelings towards the Bolshevik government.
Some idealistic dogmatic Leninists might disagree these information. But facts matter.
July 8, 2024
Quite possibly the singular, best account of the events which transpired in the fortress town of Kronstadt. Cuts through all of the BS that is hounded by the yesmen and apologists of the Bolshevik government.
June 19, 2018
Great read. Spectacular if a bit depressing. Helpful for understanding the Russian Revolution...
June 6, 2022
Well written summary of the Kronstadt rebellion, both its underlying causes as well as long term implications.
August 2, 2011
The best account in English (that I'm aware of) of this significant event in the early history of the Soviet Union, an event that accelerated Lenin's decision to end War Communism and to establish a New Economic Policy (NEP) but that also provided the pretext for liquidating every variety of political dissent, for assuring single-party rule once and for all (unitl 1990, that is), and establishing the prerequisite conditions for the Stalinist state.
Paul Avrich writes clearly, precisely and fluently. His prose, in which he captures a truly thrilling story, makes for a page-turner.
Paul Avrich writes clearly, precisely and fluently. His prose, in which he captures a truly thrilling story, makes for a page-turner.
December 26, 2015
A classic history of the libertarian (anarchist) revolt against the Bolsheviks, lead by the sailors. A thorough and engaging book. One quibble is that the writer spends a bit too much time giving us the Bolshevik/government perspective and partially validating their side's (faulty) perspective on the revolt.
June 14, 2013
Interesting book on a military uprising against the Bolsheviks aiming to return "all power to the soviets" and bring about free speech, free trade unions, and a free peasantry in the USSR.
April 18, 2017
Seminal work on Kronstadt-remarkably sympathetic to the Bolsheviks given the author's obvious libertarian leanings ( referring to October as a coup is a litmus test )
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews