The revolutionary sailors were one of the most active participants in the February revolution, were involved in most events of 1917, as well as the ensuing Civil War. At the very beginning, they had extremely left-wing political views. Some of them supported the Bolsheviks, and the rest supported the Left Socialist Revolutionaries or Anarchists. After some time, they realized that they strongly disagree with the red dictatorship and terror. All this led to the Kronstadt uprising of 1921. The uprising was brutally crushed, after which the sailors virtually ceased to exist as a political force.
The killing of Baltic Fleet officers
For the first time, everyone learned about the revolutionary sailors after the assassination of officers of the Baltic Fleet, which took place during the February Revolution. It happened on March 3 in Helsingfors, now it is the city of Helsinki, and then it was part of the Russian Empire.
On the eve of that fateful day for many, Nicholas II abdicated the throne in Petrograd. To this he was forced by the unrest, which continued in the capital for more than a day. Among the revolutionary sailors, this caused such a revival that they went against their officers.
The very first victim was Lieutenant Bubnov, who stood on guard. He refused the Baltic sailors to fulfill their demand to change the St. Andrew flag on a red revolutionary banner. The incident occurred on the battleship "Andrew the First-Called." The angry revolutionary sailors simply lifted Bubnov to bayonets.
This was a signal for everyone to the upcoming reprisals against officers. The next on the battleship ramp was shot dead Admiral Arkady Nebolsin. After that, several more tsarist officers were killed. Altogether, by March 15, 120 officers were killed in the Baltic Fleet, most in Helsingfors, the rest in Kronstadt, Revel, two people in Petrograd. Also in Kronstadt, they dealt with another 12 officers of the land garrison. Four people committed suicide in those days. Only about six hundred people were attacked.
To understand the magnitude of these losses, it should be noted that in the entire First World War, Russia lost only 245 officers.
July days
The next time they talked about revolutionary sailors in 1917 during the July uprising, also known as the July crisis. This was an anti-government protest that began in Petrograd on July 3, 1917.
It became a kind of reaction to a military defeat at the front and a crisis in the government. The pre-existing balance between the Petrosoviet and the Provisional Government, which ultimately led to dual power, was disrupted. In fact, the crisis began with the spontaneous actions of the revolutionary sailors of Kronstadt, which were supported by workers in the factories and soldiers of the First Machine Gun Regiment. They demanded the immediate resignation of the Provisional Government and the transfer of all power to the Petrosoviet. At this stage, the revolutionary sailors and the anarchist movement united, along with them were the Bolsheviks.
The left in those days acted on the verge of extremism, which caused a fierce rebuff of the right forces. The demonstration, which lasted two days, ended in bloodshed. The Bolsheviks began a real persecution by the authorities, who began to claim that Lenin was a German spy. Many party leaders were forced to go into an illegal position.
Uprising in Petrograd
With the direct participation of the revolutionary sailors in Petrograd, an armed uprising took place in November 1917. On October 24, the leaders of the Bolshevik party stood at the head of the soldiers of the Petrograd garrison, the sailors of the Baltic Fleet.
On October 25, sailors and soldiers entered the Mariinsky Palace, where the Pre-Parliament was sitting at that time. After lunch, minebenders, the Zarnitsa yacht, the battleship Dawn of Freedom, which, although it was already obsolete, came up from Kronstadt, but it still posed a real threat. In total, about three thousand revolutionary sailors of the Baltic Fleet took part in the uprising.
The symbol of the Bolshevik victory in the October Revolution was the assault on the Winter Palace. Representatives of the Bolsheviks more than once sent to the palace, in which there were ministers of the Provisional Government, parliamentarians who suggested they surrender, but all the proposals were categorically rejected. By then, the government leader Kerensky had left Petrograd. According to the official version, he went to meet the army, which was supposed to crush the Bolshevik uprising, although many still believe that he simply fled.
Shortly before midnight, shelling of the Winter Palace with live shells from the Peter and Paul Fortress began. By one o’clock in the morning, advance detachments entered the palace, and the cadets defending it began to surrender.
As a result of this uprising, the Provisional Government was succeeded in overthrowing, the power of the Soviets was established in Petrograd, sailors became symbols of the Russian revolution.
Commander-in-Chief Bet Control
The next step was to establish control over the headquarters of the Supreme Commander. She was in Mogilev at that time, and from there it was easier to lead the army in the First World War.
On November 17, the echelon of the Baltic sailors advanced to Mogilev. Two days after this, the uprising began in the Mogilev garrison, General Dukhonin, who at that time held the post of Supreme Commander, was arrested. Instead, Nikolai Krylenko was appointed commander in chief of the Russian army.
When he arrived at the headquarters, he lost the ability to control the soldiers who staged lynching over Dukhonin. Having taken the headquarters, the Bolsheviks liquidated a large center, which could potentially seriously resist their power.
Civil war on the Don
The sailors did not stand aside when the Civil War began in Russia. The most effective they were in the Don. There, the Bolsheviks fought with representatives of the Don Cossacks. Military operations actually continued from the end of 1917 to the spring of 1920.
There was a difficult political situation in the Don. On the one hand, the proletariat and the peasantry were strong here, which, before the Bolsheviks came to power, was essentially powerless. On the other side were wealthy landowners and Cossacks, who enjoyed various privileges. Due to the fact that both warring parties had support in the village, the war turned out to be large-scale and very long.
It was on the Don that counter-revolutionary armies began to form. This is due to its national and class characteristics. By 1920, everything ended with the final victory of the Red Army, Soviet power was established throughout the Don.
Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly
It was to the Constituent Assembly that many had high hopes, hoping that it would be able to restore order in the country. He was elected in November 1917, and two months later it began to sit.
His merits include the fact that the assembly nationalized the land that had previously belonged to the landlords, proclaimed Russia a republic, calling for a peace treaty. At the same time, the assembly opposed the consideration of the Declaration of the Rights of Workers, which could give the advice of peasants and workers real state power.
After that, the Bolsheviks decided to paralyze the work of the Constituent Assembly. But Lenin immediately ordered his members not to disperse, but to wait until the meeting is over. As a result, the meeting dragged on until almost morning. It all ended when at about 5 o’clock in the morning the Socialist Revolutionary Chernov, the chairman, was given the phrase spoken by the sailors Zheleznyakov. He was the chief of security, said that the guard was tired, and demanded that everyone leave the room.
The delegates obeyed, agreeing to meet again in the evening. Lenin ordered everyone to be let out, but not to let anyone back in. When the deputies returned to the Tauride Palace, it turned out that he was locked, and at the entrance there was a guard with light artillery and machine guns.
Killing Cadets
During the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, the Bolsheviks committed the assassination of two members of the Cadet Party - Andrei Shingarev and Fedor Kokoshkin. Most historians are inclined to believe that this was the country's first act of "red terror." The tragedy occurred on January 7, 1918.
Shortly before this, a decree was issued that actually declared the Cadets enemies of the people and ordered the arrest of their leaders. Kokoshkin and Shingarev were arrested when they just arrived in Petrograd on the opening day of the Constituent Assembly. Both by the end of the year asked to be transferred to the hospital from the Peter and Paul Fortress, but they were refused. At first, the prisoners were tolerated, but after the attempt on Lenin at the very beginning of 1918 they were immediately transferred to a prison hospital, and on the night of January 7 both revolutionary sailors and Red Guards killed both of them.
Hero of the revolution
In the October Revolution there were many heroes who were then extolled by the Communists and Bolsheviks. One of the most famous is the sailor Zheleznyak. In fact, his name was Anatoly G. Zheleznyakov. He was an anarchist and commander of a horse battery.
Zheleznyakov was born in 1895, but was born in the village of Fedoskino in the suburbs. He studied at the military paramedic school, but when he went to the parade in honor of the empress’s name day, he provoked his expulsion back in 1912. After that, he could not enter the Kronstadt Naval College. He worked as a port worker and fireman, locksmith. At the Liszt factory, which produced shells, began to conduct campaigning.
In the summer of 1916 he deserted from the army, working until the February Revolution under an assumed name.
Participation in the October Revolution
At the beginning of the revolution, the sailor Zheleznyak ended up in Kronstadt, it was he who led the detachment that occupied the Admiralty. Taking a direct part in the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, in March, Zheleznyakov led a detachment of 1,500 soldiers and officers.
Returning to Petrograd, he got a place in the Naval General Staff, but was soon forced to return to the front. He commanded an infantry regiment, participated in battles against the chieftain Krasnov. At the end of 1918, he had a conflict with the specialists of the supply department. As a result, he was removed from the command of the regiment, ordered to arrest.
Having escaped, he took the name Victorsky and began to work underground in Odessa. Again proceeded to clandestine agitation. After the Red Army entered Odessa, he was made chairman of the union of sailors.
Since the Civil War was still ongoing, he soon found himself at the front again. He fought against the rebellion of ataman Grigoriev, fought on the Denikin front.
Hero's death
In July 1919, a detachment under the command of Zheleznyakov was ambushed. This happened near the station Verkhovtsevo.
When the armored train rode back, Zheleznyakov seized the moment, escaped from an ambush, but was mortally wounded by several shots in the chest. The very next day he passed away.
Kronstadt uprising
The Baltic sailors dispersed after the Kronstadt rebellion or rebellion, which happened in 1921. In March, the garrison, based in the Kronstadt fortress, opposed the dictatorship led by the Bolsheviks. Especially fiercely they criticized the need for "war communism."
Serious problems that have already emerged in the young Soviet state led to this. This is the collapse of industry, and the surplus appraisal, and political differences within the Bolshevik party itself. In February 1921, the commanders of two battleships, called Petropavlovsk and Sevastopol, adopted a resolution calling for the power to be taken from the party and returned to the soviets.
When rumors spread that the Bolsheviks wanted to harshly suppress the uprising by force, an Interim Revolutionary Committee was created, which established its authority throughout the city. The authorities demanded that the rebels surrender, and when the refusal followed, the units of the Red Army, which remained loyal to the Bolsheviks, went on to storm the island. The first attempt failed, but the second time they captured the fortress and staged real repressions in the city.