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The Russian Revolution and the Baltic Fleet: War and Politics, February 1917–April 1918 PDF

234 Pages·1978·23.32 MB·English
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THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND THE BALTIC FLEET STUDIES IN RUSSIAN AND EAST EUROPEAN HISTORY Phyllis Auty and Richard Clogg (editors) British Policy towards Wartime Resistance in Yugoslavia and Greece Elisabeth Barker British Policy in South-East Europe in the Second World War Richard Clogg (editor) The Movement for Greek Independence J770-1821 Olga Crisp Studies in the Russian Economy before 1914 D. G. Kirby (editor) Finland and Russia 18o8-1920: Documents Martin McCauley The Russian Revolution and the Soviet State 1917-1921: Documents (editor) Khrushchev and the Development of Soviet Agriculture Communist Power in Europe 1944-1949 (editor) Evan Mawdsley The Russian Revolution and the Baltic Fleet Further titles in preparation THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND THE BALTIC FLEET War and Politics, February 1917-April 1918 EVAN MAWDSLEY in association with the Palgrave Macmillan © Evan Mawdsley 1978 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1978 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission First published 1978 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Associated companies in Delhi Dublin Hong Kong Johannesburg Lagos Melbourne New rork Singapore Tokyo Rejll'inted 1993 by Antony Rowe Ltd CltijJjJenltam, Wiltshire British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Mawdsley, Evan The Russian Revolution and the Baltic fleet. (Studies in Russian and East European history). I. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Voenno-morskol ftot-History 2. Russia-History Revolution, 1917-1921 3· Russia-Politics and government- I 9 I 7-I 936 I. Title II. Series 947.084'1 DK265.3 ISBN 978-1-349-03761-2 ISBN 978-1-349-03759-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-03759-9 This book is sold subject to the standard conditions of the Net Book Agreement For my Father and Mother Contents List of Illustrations IX Priface XI List of Abbreviatio11s Xlll 1 THE FEBRUARY REVOLUTION 3 The Baltic Fleet 3 Petrograd and Kronstadt 12 The Active Fleet 24 2 POLITICISATION 22 The Political Setting 22 The Socialist-Revolutionaries 24 The Social Democrats 28 3 NAVAL DEMOCRACY: MARCH-JUNE 1917 24 Reform from Above 24 Revolution from Below 24 Admiral Verderevsky 24 4 THE GOVERNMENT CHALLENGED: MAY-JULY 1917 24 The Kronstadt Republic 24 The July Days and Kronstadt 24 The July Days in the Active Fleet 24 5 EBB AND FLOW: JULY -SEPTEMBER 1917 24 Reaction 24 Kornilov 24 Resurgence 24 6 NAVAL OPERATIONS 24 Preparations 24 Revolutionaries at War 24 The Battle of Moon Sound 24 Contents viii 7 THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION 97 Attack 97 Motivation 100 Organisation 106 Assessment 112 8 CIVIL \V AR: POLITICS AFTER OCTOBER 116 The Centre 116 The Periphery 119 Political Mood 122 9 THE RED FLEET: ORGANISATION AFTER OCTOBER 141 Naval Revolution 141 Sovietisation 141 Sovkombalt 141 10 THE ICE CROSSING: OPERATIONS AFTER OCTOBER 141 Invasion 141 Exodus 141 CONCLUSION 153 APPENDICES 1 Baltic Fleet Personnel 141 2 Baltic Fleet Order of Battle 141 3 Democratic Organisations 141 Bibliography 171 Index 207 List of Illustrations I Dreadnoughts frozen into Helsingfors North Harbour, March I9I 7 2 A meeting on the ice of Helsingfors Harbour, 4 March I g I 7 3 Kadet F. I. Rodichev speaks to Helsingfors sailors, March I 9 I 7 4 Executive Committee of Helsingfors Soviet, spring I 9 I 7 5 S. G. Roshal', a leading Bolshevik agitator at Kronstadt 6 P. E. Dybenko, first chairman of Tsentrobalt 7 A. G. Zhelezniakov, the anarchist sailor who closed the Constituent Assembly 8 Rear-Admiral A. V. Razvozov, C.-in-C., Baltic Fleet, I917-18 9 Demonstration in Railway Station Square, Helsingfors, 18june I9I7 IO The crew of Kronstadt training ship Okean I I The dreadnought Sevastopol' at Reval I 2 The battleship S/ava after Moon Sound battle I 3 Pohedite/ ', a 'Novik' type destroyer I4 The minelayer Amur 15 Revolutionary sailors at Gatchina I6 HQships in Helsingfors South Harbour, winter 19I7-I8 I 7 Helsingfors North Harbour from a German reconnaissance plane, 3 I March 1918 18 A ship of the 5th Destroyer Flotilla leaving Helsingfors Preface Sixty thousand Baltic sailors had an importance in 1917 out of all proportion to their numbers. The most violent episodes of the whole February Revolution were at the Kronstadt and Helsingfors naval bases. In the eight-month life of the Provisional Government the sailors, especially those at Kronstadt, occupied the extreme left flank of the popular movement. The shot from the cruiser Avrora is part of the legend of October-and it highlighted the fleet's prominent role in the uprising. And after 25 October the sailors were again conspicuous, this time in the campaign to spread Soviet power throughout Russia. Any assessment of Bolshevik success in seizing and keeping power should take into account the actions of the Baltic ratings. There are other reasons why the Baltic Fleet is so interesting. One shortcoming of Western research on the revolution until recently has been an emphasis on the centre, on the leadership of the government and of the political parties, on the mechanics of the power struggle in the capital. Little attention has been paid to the 'grass roots', and the revolution will only be properly understood when local studies are available. This book, then, looks at developments not only at the centre, but also in a 'provincial' area. The Baltic Fleet cannot serve as a microcosm of the Russian Revolution; no area of Russian life could be taken as typical, and in some respects the fleet was quite atypical. But some insights may be provided here into the revolutionary process as a whole. Part of this process was a general politicisation, and here the book is concerned with all the parties which were active locally, not just with the Bolshevik victors. It also studies another neglected area, the attempted democratisation of life, the transfer of administrative power from the ex tsarist authorities to-for want of a better term-the masses; in the fleet this transfer took the form of the replacement of the officer corps by elected committees. Finally, to assess the effect of this transfer, there is an examination of the 'conventional' military operations of the fleet. This last point is of more than incidental importance, as the ships, mines, and shore batteries of the Baltic Fleet were vital to the defence of the Russian capital. The book ends not in October 1917 but in April 1918. This is partly because the real end of the 'pre-Soviet' Baltic Fleet came only at the later date, when the fleet was evacuated from its Finnish bases and almost completely demobilised. In addition, the Bolshevik Revolution created, in

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