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PARTISAN REVIEW
estration of Masryk in 1948 or the Prague Spring of 1968), the Gu–
lag, Cambodia, Poland (and there will be more to come). My Kron–
stadt was Kronstadt.
Alexander Berkman was a Russian-born Anarchist who had
served fourteen years in prison for shooting Henry Clay Frick, the
manager of the Carnegie Steel Works, during the bloody strike at
Homestead in 1892, and had written the beautiful and eloquent
book,
Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist.
In 1917, he and his companion
Emma Goldman were arrested after the outbreak of the war, served
time in prison and, in 1919, were deported to Russia. Emma Gold–
man , in fact , had written a pamphlet just before going to prison for
two years , entitled
The Truth About the Boylsheviki (sic!)
in which she
hailed the "libertarian plans" and the "incorruptible integrity" of
Lenin and Trotsky, "these great figures of the Revolution."
I wish it were possible to reprint in full the twelve pages of Berk–
man's diary in Petrograd, from the end of February through mid–
March 1921, for no bare summary can convey the immediacy,
tension, and drama as the sailors from the First and Second
squadrons of the Baltic Fleet at Kronstadt, the men from the naval
base at Petrograd who had catalyzed the October days in 1917, now
appealed, following the spontaneous strikes of workers in Petrograd
and Moscow, for the establishment of freedom of speech and press
"for workers and peasants, for Anarchist and left Socialist parties,"
for the liberation of "all political prisoners of Socialist parties," to
"equalize the rations of all who work," etc.
For Trotsky, who was Chairman of the Revolutionary Military
Soviet, this was
mvatezh,
or mutiny. He demanded that the sailors
surrender or "I'll shoot you like pheasants ." The last three entries of
Berkman's diaries tell of the sorry end:
March 7. - Distant rumbling reaches my ears as I cross the Nevsky.
It
sounds again , stronger and nearer, as if rolling towards
me. All at once I realize that artillery is being fired .
It
is 6
P .M . Kronstadt has been attacked! ...
March 17 . - Kronstadt has fallen today. Thousands of sailors and
workers lie dead in its streets. Summary execution of
prisoners and hostages continues.
March 18. -The victors are celebrating the anniversary of the Com–
mune of 1871. Trotsky and Zinoviev denounce Thiers
and Gallifet for the slaughter of the Paris rebels ... .
I remained a Socialist and moved to the right wing of the party.
