Petrograd Sailor Revolutionaries

The Russian Revolution started in the spring of 1917 while Lenin was in exile and the sailors in Petrograd were one of the key movers. Afterwards they provided reliable regular soldiers for the Red Revolution.

Three years later they revolted again in the Kronstadt Rebellion, against the Bolsheviks and in support of democratic socialism. They were crushed by Trotsky's Red Army. Some of the sailors managed to escape across the ice to Finland but many died or were massacred after surrendering.

Apologists for the Soviet Union like to suggest that Stalin was the problem and that if Lenin had lived longer or Trotsky had succeeded then the Russian Revolution might have produced a workable socialist state. The Petrograd sailors show this as nonsense. The pattern of repression and brutality was integral to the Bolshevik philosophy. If not Stalin then someone similar would have replaced him.

The sailors were crushed by Trotsky on Lenin's orders for - demanding socialism.