"100 Years Since the Kronstadt Uprising" Topic

"Let the workers of the whole world know that we, the defenders of the power of the soviets, will watch over the gains of the social revolution. We will conquer or perish beneath the ruins of Kronstadt, fighting the righteous cause of the working masses. The toilers the world over will sit in judgement of us. The blood of innocents will be upon the heads of the Communists, savage madmen drunk on power. Long live the power of the soviets!"
– The Provisional Revolutionary Committee of Kronstadt

On 1 March, 1921, the Kronstadt Soviet rose in revolt against the regime of the Russian "Communist" Party. The Civil War was effectively over, with the last of the White armies in European Russia defeated in November, 1920. The remaining battles in Siberia and Central Asia were over the territorial extent of what would become the USSR the following year. Economic conditions, though, remained dire. In response, strikes broke out across Petrograd in February, 1921. The sailors of Kronstadt sent a delegation to investigate the strikes.

Background
The city of Kronstadt is on the island of Kotlin, which dominates the approaches to Petrograd. It was the home of the largest Russian naval base and was a bastion of revolutionary politics since 1905. It played a distinguished role in the revolutions of 1905 and 1917. The Kronstadt Soviet was established in May, 1917, not long after the Petrograd one.
Throughout 1917, soviets had multiplied and strengthened across the Russian Empire. In October, they had overthrown the Provisional Government. The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets took power in its own hands. The All-Russian Congress, however, agreed to a Bolshevik proposal to appoint a Council of People's Commissars to act as an executive cabinet over the Soviet. The Bolsheviks lost no time in setting up a State apparatus with coercive powers. Crucially, they subordinated the local and regional soviets to the central one.

As early as April, 1918, the Bolsheviks began repression against the anarchists and started purges of the soviets. The October Revolution had established freedom of the press and the right of soldiers to elect their officers, but the Bolsheviks reversed these and many other vital social changes in the course of the Civil War.

The repression of all opposition, war communism and forced requisitions imposed by firing squads, together with the spread of poverty and hunger, alienated many of the sympathies that workers and peasants had placed in Bolshevism. Protests of workers and peasants against authoritarian Bolshevik measures were frequent through 1918 to 1921, including several waves of workers' strikes.

full article here: anarkismo.net/article/32189

No surprise the Revolution devoured its most ardent adherents.

Well, in fact, military and civil rebellions were not at all uncommon, both for whites and for reds, during the Civil War in Russia.

when I finish up my current project in the Mexican Revolution and turn to Russian, I definitely plan to make some units of these sailors. I've got plastic minis waiting to be painted and to fly that flag Mike O posted.

Sailors of the battleship "Petropavlovsk" in Helsingfors (Finland) in June 1917. There are still four months before the Bolshevik revolution.

Yes Cuprum and the flag is often shown as red rather than black – in fact I think you posted one on the Lead Adventure forum:

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But hey, it's a cool flag! :) One thing we 1/72 scale fans need are RCW Naval Infantry as nothing currently out there is really close for conversion…

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I don't know what color this flag really was. In fact, anarchists have used both of these colors in their symbolism.
Anyway, many rebels fought against the Bolsheviks under the red flag and with the slogan: "For the Soviets (Soviet power) without communists."

I have an image of a real Red Naval infantry flag and I'm preparing it for printing. I usually don't make banners in 1/72 scale, but printing a ready-made banner in any scale is not a problem.

That's true about the colour of the flags – even the Makhnovists sometimes used red flags especially when they were allied to the Bolsheviks. Two infantry regiments were even awarded Honorary Red Banners:

"Also deserving of attention is the awarding of two regiments of Makhno's brigade with Honorary Revolutionary Red Banners. In his report of April 9, 1919, to the commander of the Kharkov Army Group about the taking of the city of Mariupol, P. E. Dybenko wrote: "For supremely heroic behaviour in battle I petition for the awarding of Red Banners to the 8th and 9th regiments."

Russian language pdf:
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English translation:
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yes Anarchists had no problem with the red flag before the Bolsheviks…

To follow up the above article, for those interested in this topic, here's a digital conference on the 100th anniversary of Kronstadt:

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One thing we 1/72 scale fans need are RCW Naval Infantry as nothing currently out there is really close for conversion…

Do you distinguish between 1/72 and 20mm? Because RCW sailors in the latter size are available from B&B Miniatures and IT Figures. Just sayin'…