March 1, 1921 · Kronstadt Naval Fortress, Gulf of Finland Theater
March 1, 1921
The sailors of Kronstadt — the Baltic Fleet fortress island near Petrograd, the same sailors whose revolutionary zeal had helped the Bolsheviks seize power in 1917 — revolted against Bolshevik rule in March 1921, demanding free soviets, freedom of speech, and an end to grain requisitioning. Trotsky branded them 'tools of White generals' and Tukhachevsky led Red Army forces across the frozen Gulf of Finland. After brutal fighting on the ice, the fortress was stormed on March 17. The surviving rebels escaped to Finland. The uprising exposed the Bolsheviks' loss of working-class support and directly prompted Lenin to introduce the New Economic Policy.
Commanders