1921 turning point?
Mike Macnair spoke to Online Communist Forum on March 7 about the related centenaries of the 1921 Kronstadt rebellion, the adoption of the NEP and the ban on factions in the Russian Communist Party
This talk was titled ‘NEP, the banning of factions and Kronstadt - the turning point in the Russian Revolution?’ I began by emphasising the question mark, and giving the preliminary answer to the question: ‘No’. But we have to start with the centenary.
By spring 1921, it looked as though the civil war was won, while the war with Poland was over for practical purposes. In this context, at the beginning of March the Kronstadt garrison held fresh elections to the local soviet and raised a whole series of demands - including, notably, the right to free speech, the right of opposition parties to organise and the right to free elections - and those Bolsheviks who did not leave the fortress were arrested.