1921 - Kronstadt and Tambov revolts

Question 1

The Kronstadt Revolt

Answer 1

Food Crisis in 1921 and a reduction of a third in the bread ration in several cities bought further strikes. Workers protested and against a lack of union representation in factories and expressed their support for other socialist parties.

Soldiers refused to help when martial law was declared and the Cheka was forced to step-in. 3000 sailors stationed in the Kronstadt naval base rebelled demanding an end to the one-party communist rule.

Question 2

Response to the Kronstadt Revolt

Answer 2

The Red Army under Soviet Military Commander Mikhail Tukhachevsky was sent by Trotsky (supported by an on-land military force + Cheka) to crush the rebels.

The ringleaders were shot whilst 15,000 rebels were taken prisoner and most sent to a labour camp on the White Sea.

Question 3

Tambov Revolt 1920-21

Answer 3

The famine of 1921 caused an outbreak of peasants revolts- against Bolshevik grain requisitioning during the Russian Civil War.
Autumn 1920 peasant in Tambov led by Alexander Antonov rebelled against grain requisitioning and Cheka Brutality.
The Cheka reported 155 risings in Feb 1921.
Most serious in Tambov Provence war villages 300 miles SE of Moscow.
Revolt lasted until 1921.

Question 4

Response to the Tambov Revolt

Answer 4

100,000 Red Army soldiers put down the revolt brutally destroying was villages.

Question 5

Why was the Tambov Revolt so significant?

Answer 5

Mass Movements exacerbated pressure on the Bolshevik Regime.
Near key industrial centres
Bolsheviks were reliant on military - no power without
Bolsheviks reliant on peasants - no peasants, no food, no army.