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. ( )

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 ) ( )

Excellent History of Important Event: Many years after its first publication, Paul Avrich's "Kronstadt, 1921" remains one of the best books written about one of the most important events of the Russian Revolution. The book is a detailed history of the Kronstadt 'mutiny' of March 1921, in which many see the seeds of Stalin's future dictatorship.

Basically, what happened is this: following a wave of strikes and discontent in Russia caused by the repressive methods of "War Communism," the sailors at the Kronstadt naval base in the Baltic Sea published a document proposing the deconstruction of the Bolshevik Party's single-Party Dictatorship (if not necessarily the Party itself). The Bolsheviks responded by attacking the base and executing those behind this 'mutiny.' Since 1921, there has been a continuing debate between Leninists and anarchists/libertarian socialists as to whether this constituted a betrayal of the principles of socialism and the ideals of the Russian Revolution.

The Leninists claim that the Kronstadters were mutineers who needed to be "crushed by the iron hand of the proletariat." The anarchists and libertarian socialists hold that it was the Bolshevik Party itself that betrayed the Revolution and laid the base of Stalin's purges, gulags, and authoritarian dictatorship by attacking the base Leon Trotsky had once called "the Pride and Glory of the Russian Revolution."

As a result of this lasting antagonism, most histories of the uprising tend to be slanted in favor of one side or the other - but Paul Avrich here makes an attempt to cut through the partisan wrangling and establish the factual history of the base once and for all. He reaches the conclusion that the Bolsheviks reacted to Kronstadt's challenge to their authority with unnecessary intransigence and brutality, but does mention the pressures of the Russian Civil War of 1918 - 1920 to help explain their actions. Mr. Avrich also rips apart much of the official propaganda surrounding the myth of Kronstadt (for example, that the mutiny was organized and lead by a Tsarist General).

"Kronstadt, 1921" is a well-written account of one of the most important and interesting events in the history of the Russian Revolution and the formation of the Stalinist Soviet Union. Recommended reading for anyone interested in Russia or its history. Five stars. ( )

1/25/23