Kronstadt: Soviet Ultimatums. March 5, 1921

As prospects for negotiating an end to the Kronstadt affair collapsed, Bolshevik leaders branded the movement a counterrevolution directed by White generals. Two ultimatums follow—from Trotsky as commissar of war and from Zinoviev's Petrograd Defense Committee—demanding unconditional submission rather than talks. Kozlovskii, a former tsarist officer at Kronstadt, was portrayed as mastermind; his role was technical, not political.

Original Source: Pravda, 8 March 1921.

A LAST WARNING To the garrison and inhabitants of Kronstadt and the Mutinous Forts The Workers' and Peasants' Government has decreed that Kronstadt and the rebellious ships must immediately submit to the authority of the Soviet Republic. Therefore, I command all who have raised their hands against the socialist fatherland to lay down their arms at once. The obdurate will he disarmed and turned over to the Soviet authorities. The arrested commissars and other representatives of the government must be liberated at once. Only those who surrender unconditionally may count on the mercy of the Soviet Republic. At the same time, I am issuing orders to prepare to quell the mutiny and subdue the mutineers by force of arms. Responsibility for the harm that may be suffered by the peaceful population will fall entirely upon the heads of the counterrevolutionary mutineers. This warning is final. [signed] Trotsky, Kamenev, Tukhachevskii, Lebedev

TO THE DECEIVED PEOPLE OF KRONSTADT. Do you see where the rascals have led you? Here is your position. The greedy fangs of former Tsarist generals are already showing themselves behind the Social-Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks. All these Petrichenkos and Tukins are manipulated like puppets by the Tsarist general Kozlovskii, Captain Borkser, Kostromitinov, Chirmanovskii and other proved White guards. They are duping you! They tell you that you are struggling for democracy, but two days have hardly passed and you see that you are not really fighting for democracy but for Tsarist generals. You have permitted a new warden to put a rope around your necks. They lie to you that Petrograd is with you, that Siberia and the Ukraine support you. All these are only cynical lies. The last sailor in Petrograd turned his back on you when he learned that Tsarist generals like Kozlovskii were among you. Siberia and the Ukraine Firmly defend the Soviet power. Petrograd, the Red city, sneers at the pitiful pretensions of a handful of Social-Revolutionaries and White Guardists. You are completely surrounded. In a few more hours you will have to surrender. Kronstadt has neither bread nor fuel. If you persist you will be shot like partridges. Naturally, all these generals Kozlovskii and Borkser-all the wretches like Petrichenko and Tukin, will flee at the last moment to the White Guardists in Finland. But you others, simple deceived sailors and Red soldiers, where will you go? If they are promising to Provide for you in Finland, they are fooling you again. Don't you know that the soldiers of General Vrangel, led away to Constantinople, died like flies of hunger and disease? The same fate awaits you if you don't come to your senses immediately. Surrender right away, without losing a moment! Lay down your arms and come over to us! Disarm and arrest the criminal leaders, especially the Tsarist generals! The errors of anyone who surrenders immediately will be forgiven. Surrender immediately! Petrograd Defense Committee.

Source: Voline, The Unknown Revolution (Kronstadt 1921. Ukraine 1918-1921) (London: Freedom Press, 1955), pp. 233-234.