Kronstadt, 1921 (Princeton Legacy Library, 854) - Tapa dura

In March 1921 the sailors of Kronstadt, the naval fortress in the Gulf of Finland, rose in revolt against the Bolshevik government, which they themselves had helped into power. Under the slogan of Òfree soviets,'' they established a revolutionary commune that survived for sixteen days, until an army came across the ice to crush it. After a savage struggle, the rebels were subdued. Paul Avrich vividly describes the uprising and examines it in the context of the development of the Soviet state.

Originally published in 1970.

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"Mr. Avrich has written the first reliable, full-scale account of the rise, course, and suppression of the Kronstadt insurrection. It is a remarkably good book, at once scholarly and readable, indispensable to the specialist and appropriate for anyone interested in the twin specters of our age, revolution and repression." -Stephen F. Cohen, The New York Times Book Review "Paul Avrich's excellent and magisterial book is a work of nonpartisan scholarship that illustrates how partisan in the best possible way nonpartisan scholarship can be. He gives us the closest examination of all the available evidence that we are likely to have for some time, and he uses his evidence to construct a narrative that, in its most brilliant passages, matches the power of Deutscher's The Prophet Armed and Moshe Lewin's Lenin's Last Struggle." -Alasdair MacIntyre, The New York Review of Books "... Paul Avrich's excellent Kronstadt 1921 [is a] judicious reconstruction, from original sources, of what really happened and why." -Dwight MacDonald, in his book Discriminations "Professor Paul Avrich's reconstruction of the events has all the ingredients of excellent historical writing: background information, sparingly but cogently presented; a mass of sources well sifted and thoroughly checked, including some newly discovered items; patient and sympathetic treatment of the arguments and counter-arguments of the protagonists; a vivid account of the events; quick portrayal of self-styled and ephemeral leaders (always a difficult thing to do); and the capacity to convey to the reader the atmosphere, flavour, and spirit of the unfolding drama." -Moshe Lewin, Soviet Studies Paul Avrich is Distinguished Professor of History, Queens College and the Graduate School, the City University of New York, and the author of many works on anarchism, including Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background, The Haymarket Tragedy, and Anarchist Portraits, all available from Princeton University Press.