Russian anarcho-syndicalist revolutionary (1892?1947)
Stepan Maximovich Petrichenko
(Russian:
Степа?н Макси?мович Петриче?нко
; 1892 ? June 2, 1947) was a Russian
revolutionary
, an
anarcho-syndicalist
politician, the head of the self-styled "
Soviet Republic of Soldiers and Fortress-Builders of Nargen
" and in 1921,
de facto
leader of the
Kronstadt Commune
, and the leader of the revolutionary committee which led the
Kronstadt rebellion
of 1921.
Life
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]
Early years
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]
Stepan Maximovich Petrichenko was born in 1892 in the village of Nikitenka in the
Zhizdrinsky Uyezd
of
Kaluga Governorate
to a family of peasants. Two years after his birth, his family moved to
Alexandrovsk
(
Yekaterinoslav Governorate
), where Stepan graduated from city school and joined the local ironworks as a metalworker.
In 1913 Petrichenko was called up for military service with the Russian navy, where he was assigned to the Russian battleship
Petropavlovsk
, part of the
Baltic Fleet
.
[1]
Soviet republic of sailors and builders
[
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]
During the 1917
February Revolution
in Russia, Petrichenko had been based with a unit of Russian fleet at the small Estonian island of
Naissaar
(Nargen) in the
Tallinn Bay
. In December 1917, Petrichenko and 81 Russian sailors proclaimed the "
Soviet Republic of Soldiers and Fortress-Builders of Nargen
" on the island. They organized a local military mini-government which, without much resistance from the island's two hundred indigenous civilian residents, ruled over the island for about two months, until the capture of the nearby Estonian capital city
Tallinn
(Reval) by the forces of the
German Empire
on February 26, 1918. The red and black flag of the
anarcho-communists
was lowered, and its "government" retreated onto the ships of the Soviet Baltic Fleet, heading for
Helsinki
(Helsingfors), and from there to
Kronstadt
. Three years later, Petrichenko led the
Kronstadt uprising
against the new
Bolshevik
government of
Soviet Russia
.
[2]
Kronstadt rebellion
[
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]
After the rebellion was exterminated by
Trotsky
, he fled over the ice to
Finland
, where he continued his agitation against the Bolsheviks.
[3]
Petrichenko had attempted to join the
White Army
but was turned away due to his previous Bolshevik membership.
[4]
Emigrant
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]
Petrichenko remained in exile in Finland for almost 25 years,
where his regard from fellow rebels remained high.
He blocked further emigration to Helsinki, instead sending Kronstadt "volunteers" to
Soviet Karelia
to organize an uprising. He called on Kronstadters to not obey the order of
General Wrangel
, and refuse inclusion in the
White Army
. When an amnesty was declared for the ordinary participants in the uprising, by the decree of the
All-Russian Central Executive Committee
, Petrichenko did not put obstacles in the way of those who wanted to return to their homeland and decided to ask for permission to return himself. Soon, the police chief of
Vyborg
received a denunciation of the "vile plot" of Petrichenko, as a result of which, on May 21, 1922, he was arrested and spent several months in prison.
[1]
Agent
[
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]
In 1922, Petrichenko went to
Riga
and visited the embassy of the
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
. There he was recruited by the
State Political Directorate
and became an agent of the
Red Army Intelligence Agency
in Finland.
[7]
In August 1927, Petrichenko again arrived in Riga and at the Soviet embassy filed an application addressed to
Mikhail Kalinin
with a request to return to Soviet citizenship.
[1]
In 1927, Petrichenko traveled through
Latvia
to the
USSR
. Returning to Finland, he got a job at a pulp mill in
Kemi
, where he worked until 1931. He was eventually fired from the factory and moved to live in Helsinki. In 1937, he announced his refusal to cooperate with Soviet intelligence, but then again agreed to continue working with them. He stayed in Finland for years, until he came into conflict with the Finnish government over his support of Soviet groups during the
Winter War
between the
Soviet Union
and Finland in 1940. In 1941, Petrichenko was arrested by the Finnish authorities.
[8]
Arrest and death
[
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]
On September 25, 1944, on the basis of an armistice agreement between the USSR, Great Britain and Finland, Petrichenko was released, and on April 21, 1945, he was again arrested and sent to the USSR, as part of a group of persons known as the "
Prisoners of Leino
[
ru
;
fi
]
", a list of political enemies and alleged military collaborators compiled by Soviet members of
Allied Commission
.
[9]
The investigation into Petrichenko was transferred from the police to the
NKVD
where it was examined without the presence of the prosecution or the defense. The verdict passed on November 17, 1945, read:
[1]
Petrichenko, Stepan Maximovich, for participation in a counter-revolutionary terrorist organization and belonging to Finnish intelligence, is to be imprisoned in a forced labor camp for a period of 10 years, counting the period from April 24, 1945.
Stepan Petrichenko died on June 2, 1947, during his transfer from the
Solikamsk
labor camp to the
Vladimir Central Prison
.
Work
[
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]
- Petrichenko, Stepan (1921).
Pravda o kronshtadtskikh sobytiiakh
.
(Russian:
Правда о кронштадтских событиях
) (bibrec); English:
The truth about the Kronstadt events
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
Prokhorov D.
"The tragedy of the Kronstadt "rebel"
"
(in Russian). Archived from
the original
on March 4, 2016
. Retrieved
November 29,
2008
.
- ^
"Naissaar. Republic of Soviets"
. Archived from
the original
on September 28, 2007
. Retrieved
January 15,
2020
.
- ^
"Events in Kronstadt"
. Archived from
the original
on September 29, 2007
. Retrieved
January 15,
2020
.
- ^
Avrich, Paul (July 14, 2014).
Kronstadt, 1921
. Princeton University Press. p. 95.
ISBN
978-1-4008-5908-5
.
- ^
M. Hosta, O. Lapchinsky, S. Kosher
SPY DEATH
- ^
The beginning of 1940
(in Finnish).
- ^
Bjorkelund B.V.
Travel to the land of all kinds of impossibilities / Prep. text for publication, scientific. ed., entry Art. and comm. S. A. Mankova. ? SPb .: International Association of "Russian Culture", 2014.
External links
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Bibliography
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