> >From: http://iww.org/~jah/russia-rev-anar.html
> >============================================================================
> >
> >REPRESSION
> >
> >During 1920, peasant revolts against the Bolsheviks occurred in 22 provinces
> >and there were 118 centres of resistance. In Tambov province the Peasant
> >Workers' Union held their region for a year until defeated by massive
> >military intervention in 1921.
> >
> >The Bolshevik's policy of enforced 'War Communism', put into practice by the
> >Red Army, created conditions far worse then had existed before the
> >revolution; grain was seized, and there were whippings and mass executions
> >of peasants. Popular hatred of his new system, in both village and factory,
> >became focussed upon one man: Leon Trotsky, the leader of the Red Army.
> >
> >During his years as military boss Trotsky developed some startling new
> >marxist ideas which placed him on the far right of the Bolsheviks. In his
> >view, the new socialist state should become the 'most ruthless form of
> >government imaginable'. Socialism itself he defined as the 'organisation of
> >workers along new lines, their adaption to these, and their re-education,
> >with a view to a constant increase in productivity'. He excused this return
> >to serfdom by claiming that: 'under certain conditions, slavery represented
> >progress,' because it, 'led to a rise in production'. The Red Army was the
> >way to ensure this much desired rise. Workers would be 'militarised'.
> >Nonworkers - 'deserters from the work-front' - should be 'assembled in
> >disciplinary battalions or else relegated to the concentration camps'. For
> >reasons beyond Trotsky's understanding these ideas were not given a
> >rapturous welcome by the industrial workers of Russia.
> >
> >KRONSTADT
> >
> >Chronic famine now swept a Russia dominated by a ruthless one-party State.
> >Factory committees and village assemblies were silenced and workers' control
> >denounced. The Cheka herded thousands of revolutionaries into camps, or
> >simply shot them on the spot.
> >
> >In February 1921, Petrograd workers took to the streets in protest. The
> >Bolsheviks imposed a curfew and martial law. The naval base at nearby
> >Kronstadt sent delegates to join the strikers. In March, its sailors
> >mutinied. 'In view of the fact that the present Soviets do not express the
> >will of the workers and peasants', they issued a 15-point-programme to
> >revitalise the revolution:
> >
> > [KRONSTADT RESOLUTION]
> >
> > 1. New elections to the Soviets by secret ballot, with freedom to carry on
> > agitation beforehand for all workers and peasants.
> >
> > 2. Freedom of speech and of the press for workers and peasants, for
> > anarchists and left-socialist parties.
> >
> > 3. Freedom of assembly for trade unions and peasant organisations.
> >
> > 4. A non-party conference of the workers, Red Army soldiers and sailors of
> > Petrograd, Kronstadt and Petrograd province.
> >
> > 5. Liberation of all political prisoners of socialist parties, as well as
> > all workers, peasants, soldiers and sailors imprisoned in connection
> > with the labour and peasant movements.
> >
> > 6. Election of a commission to review the case of those being held in
> > prison and concentration camps.
> >
> > 7. Abolition of all political sections in the armed forces. No party
> > should be given special privileges in the propagation of its ideas or
> > receive the financial support of the state for such purposes. Instead
> > cultural and educational commissions should be established, locally
> > elected and financed by the state.
> >
> > 8. Removal of road-blocks between town and country.
> >
> > 9. Equal rations for all working people, with the exception of those
> > employed in trades detrimental to health.
> >
> > 10. An end to Party detachments in all branches of the army, as well as the
> > Party guards kept on duty in factories and mills. Should such guards or
> > detachments be found necessary, they are to be appointed in the army
> > from the ranks and in the factories and mills at the discretion of the
> > workers.
> >
> > 11. Full freedom of action for peasants: in regard to the land, and the
> > right to keep cattle, on condition that the peasants manage with their
> > own means and do not hire labour.
> >
> > 12. A request to all branches of the army, including officer trainees, to
> > endorse this programme.
> >
> > 13. The press to give the programme wide publicity.
> >
> > 14. Appointment of mobile workers' control groups.
> >
> > 15. Authorisation of handicraft production, provided no wage labour is
> > involved.
> >
> >Trotsky's reply was swift: an air raid followed by days of savage
> >artillery fire and more bombs. The Krondstadt garrison and civllians
> >furiously returned the fire while preparing to meet the forthcoming Red Army
> >onslaught.
> >
> >It began on March 8th. Two battalions of the 561st Regiment advanced across
> >the ice, but on reaching the rebel lines they surrendered, leaving their
> >officers to return alone. Next, the Orchane Regiment refused to attack. And
> >when two more regiments mutinied rather than proceed, they were disarmed by
> >force. Meanwhile Trotsky's artillery continued to pound Kronstadt.
> >
> >Although 'reorganised', the 561st again refused to fight 'against our
> >brothers'. Some Red Army units lost half of their men to their own bullets-
> >machine gunned in the back 'to prevent them surrendering to the rebels.'
> >machine gunned in the back 'to prevent them surrendering to the rebels.'
> >
> >Faced with mutiny the Bolsheviks sent for 'reliable' troops from
> >far-off Kirghiz and Bashkir before their commander, Toukhatchevsky, was
> >ready for his final assault on the beleaguered, exhausted rebels.
> >
> >On March 16th, a massive 4-hour artillery barrage opened the attack,
> >followed by assault from the air. At midnight, the Red Army advanced. It
> >followed by assault from the air. At midnight, the Red Army advanced. It
> >took them five hours to gain entry to the town, and 24 hours of
> >bitter and terrible street fighting before they could overwhelm the
> >sailors' and workers' militia.
> >
> >Official figures speak of at least 5,000 killed and wounded on the
> >Government side. The rebel losses will never be known. Thousands died or
> >disappeared in the 'revolutionary tribunals' that followed. 8,000
> >disappeared in the 'revolutionary tribunals' that followed. 8,000
> >Kronstadters fled over the ice to Finland, and 15,000 sailers were
> >kicked out of the fleet. A new wave of arrests swept the country and
> >on September 21st the anarchist poet Lev Chernyi was shot by the Cheka. The
> >anarchists were scattered to the prison camps, where they died of illness,
> >hard labour or Cheka executioners. Those who evaded the net fled their
> >homeland to a life of exile. Among them were Emma Goldman and Alex Berkman,
> >who wrote:
> >
> > 'Grey are the passing days. One by one the embers of hope have
> > died out. Terror and despotism have crushed the life born on
> > October. The slogans of the revolution are foresworn, its ideals
> > stifled in the blood of the people. The breath of yesterday is
> > dooming millions to death; the shadow of today hangs like a black
> > pall over the country. Dictatorship is trampling the masses
> > underfoot. The revolutaon is dead; its spirit cries in the
> > wilderness . . . I have decided to leave Russia.'
> >