Kronshtadt (Russian: Кроншта́дт), also spelled Kronstadt, Cronstadt (German: Krone for «crown» and Stadt for «city»; Finnish: Retusaari), is a municipal town in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located on Kotlin Island, 30 kilometers (19 mi) west of Saint Petersburg proper near the head of the Gulf of Finland. Population: 42,999 (2010 Census preliminary results);[1] 43,385 (2002 Census).[2]
It is also St. Petersburg’s main seaport. In March 1921 it was the site of the Kronstadt rebellion.
Traditionally, the seat of the Russian admiralty and the base of the Russian Baltic Fleet were located in Kronstadt guarding the approaches to Saint Petersburg. The historic centre of the city and its fortifications are part of the World Heritage Site Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments.
Kronstadt has been a place of pilgrimage for Orthodox Christians for many years due to the holy memory of Saint John of Kronstadt. Bus and water tours to Kronstadt are taken daily from Saint Petersburg[5]
Kronstadt was founded by Peter the Great, who took the island of Kotlin from the Swedes in 1703. Pushkin’s great-grandfather, Abram Petrovich Gannibal, oversaw its construction.[6][dubious – discuss] The first fortifications were inaugurated on 18 May 1704.
These fortifications, known as Kronstadt’s Forts, were constructed very quickly. During the winter the Gulf of Finland freezes completely. Workers used thousands of frames made of oak logs filled with stones. These were carried by horses across the frozen sea, and placed in cuttings made in the ice. Thus, several new small islands were created, and forts were erected on them, closing all access to Saint-Petersburg by the sea. Only two narrow navigable channels remained, and the strongest forts guarded them.
Kronstadt was thoroughly refortified in the 19th century. The old three-decker forts, five in number, which formerly constituted the principal defences of the place, and defied the Anglo-French fleets during the Crimean War, became of secondary importance. From the plans of Eduard Totleben a new fort, Constantine, and four batteries were constructed (1856–1871) to defend the principal approach, and seven batteries to cover the shallower northern channel. All these fortifications were low and thickly-armored earthworks, powerfully armed with heavy Krupp guns in turrets. The town itself is surrounded with an enceinte.
In summer 1891, the French fleet was officially — and triumphantly — received in Kronstadt. It was a first step towards the coming Franco-Russian Alliance.
Civil War
During the Petrograd riots of the February revolution, the sailors of Petrograd joined the revolution and executed their officers, thus gaining a reputation as dedicated revolutionaries. During the civil war, the sailors participated on the red side, until 1921, when they rebelled against the Bolshevik rule.
Kronstadt and the supporting forts and minefields were the key to the protection of Petrograd from foreign forces. Despite this, the cruiser Oleg was torpedoed and sunk by a small motor boat after participating in a bombardment of Krasnaya Gorka fort that had revolted against the Bolsheviks.[7] This was followed on 18 August 1919 by a raid of seven Royal Navy Coastal Motor Boats into the harbor of Kronstadt itself, damaging the Soviet battleships Petropavlovsk and Andrei Pervozvanny sinking a submarine supply ship, the Pamiat Azova.
In 1921, a group of navy officers and sailors, soldiers as well as their civilian supporters rebelled against the Bolshevik government in Soviet Kronstadt. The garrison had previously been a centre of major support for the Bolsheviks, and throughout the Civil War of 1917–1921, the navy of Kronstadt had been at the vanguard of the main Bolshevik attacks. Their demands included «freedom of speech», a stop to the deportation to work camps, a change in Soviet war politics, and liberation of the soviets (workers’ councils) from «party control» [1]. After brief negotiations, Leon Trotsky (then the Minister of War in the Soviet Government, and the leader of the Red Army) responded by sending the army to Kronstadt, along with the Cheka. The uprising was thus suppressed.
World War II
In the late 1930s Kronstadt lived the life of the fortified city and was the base of the Baltic Fleet. That time Kronstadt was an important training center of the USSR’s Navy. The Kronstadt Shiprepairing Plant (Navy Plant) produced overhaul and repair of surface ships and submarines of the Baltic Fleet. All forts and batteries of the city were under reconstruction.
At 23:37 June 21-st 1941, the operational readiness of fleet number 1 was announced by Baltic Fleet Commander Vice Admiral V. Tributs according to the order of the People’s Commissar of the Navy. Several hours later the first German aircrafts began mining the fairway near Kronstadt. The duty officer (first lieutenant S. Kushnerev) ordered to open fire on the enemy planes and several aircraft were shot down or damaged. 27 Nazi planes took part at the first attack, 3 of them were destroyed by the anti-aircraft guns of the 1st Air Defence Regiment of the Baltic Fleet. This Regiment was situated on the southern forts.
During World War II, Kronstadt was bombed several times by Nazi Germany’s air force, the Luftwaffe. In August 1941 the Luftwaffe began bombing Kronstadt regularly. The most notable bombing was Stuka ace Hans-Ulrich Rudel’s sinking of the Soviet battleship Marat.
To prevent the enemy landing, 13 artillery batteries in Kronstadt and 9 batteries beyond the city, (but on the island Kotlin,) were organized. The main lookout was located in Naval Cathedral. Visual range reached 45 km (28 mi). The coastal defense of Kronstadt included two infantry regiments.
In late August The Red army in the Baltic States was in a critical situation. Tallinn — the main base of the fleet was in danger and a decree to relocate the fleet from Tallinn to Kronstadt was given. By the time the Soviets had decided on a maritime evacuation of Tallinn, over 200 Soviet civilian and military vessels had been assembled in the harbor of Tallinn.
After the evacuation of Tallinn, the submarine subdivision had been organized in Kronstadt. By the end of 1941, 82 naval operations were made.. Hitler was enraged, because Soviet submarines disrupted many of military supplies of strategic materials from Sweden to Germany. The Germans tried to block completely the exit from the Gulf of Finland by antisubmarine nets and mines. Despite of all efforts of the enemy, the Baltic submariners continued to attack the enemy ships. In 1942, 29 German vessels were sunk. Submarines cooperated with reconnaissance aircrafts in searching for military ends. But the Soviet submarines had broken through the mine barrages in the Gulf of Finland too easily in 1942. To keep Soviet submarine force away from the Baltic shipping stronger efforts were planned. The barrages would be larger and in addition a double submarine net would be laid from Porkkala to Naissaari, operation «Walross». The blocking of the Gulf of Finland had been a 100% effective anti-submarine operation.But in 1944, when Finland was defeated and provided several bases to the Soviet Navy, the submarine warfare in the Baltic Sea reached a new and final stage.
The Baltic Fleet sent to the land front of more than 125 thousand people. 83 thousand people fought directly on the Leningrad front. For the protection of Leningrad 10 brigades of marines, 4 regiments, more than 40 separate battalions and companies were formed in Kronstadt.
The Luftwaffe and hard artillery brought down thousands of bombs and shells to the Naval plant and the Arsenal factory. The German air raids in September 1941, damaged the Baltic Fleet ships and infrastructure of the Plant. Several sections of the plant were destroyed, the docks were showered with falling bombs, and dozens of workers and engineers were killed. Nevertheless the plant continued its work. In the difficult conditions of the Siege, the workers persevered with their work. Often the working day lasted for 18–20 hours.
It was thanks to the power of the Kronstadt Fortress that the destruction of Leningrad (the main industrial and cultural center of the Soviet Union) was successfully prevented.[8] Kronstadt was conferred the status of “City of Military Glory” by the President of the Russian Federation Dmitriy Medvedev on April 27, 2009, for “courage, endurance and mass heroism, exhibited by defenders of the city in the struggle for the freedom and independence of the Motherland”.