Kronstadt
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Kronstadt is also the historical German name for the city of Braşov, Romania. |
1888 map of the Kronstadt bay |
Kronstadt (), or
Kronshtadt,
Cronstadt (
German: [Krone] for
Crown and [Stadt] for
City) is a strongly
fortified Russian
seaport town, located on
Kotlin Island, near the head of the
Gulf of Finland. It lies thirty kilometers west of
Saint Petersburg, of which it is the chief port. It was the site of the
Kronstadt rebellion of March
1921.
Administratively, it is a municipal town under jurisdiction of the
federal city of Saint Petersburg.
Traditionally, it has served as the base of the Russian
Baltic Fleet and the seat of the Russian admiralty, and to guard the approaches to the city of 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.
 |
The destroyed Cathedral of St. Andrew (1817-1932). It was dedicated to the patron saint of the Russian Navy. |
Kronstadt was founded in
1710 by
Peter the Great, who took the island of Kotlin from the
Swedes in
1703, when the first fortifications were constructed.This fortifications, known as Kronstadt's Forts, were constructed very quickly. The Gulf of Finland is not very deep, so during the winter it completely freezes through. Workers used thousands of frames 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 the 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 armoured earthworks, powerfully armed with heavy
Krupp guns in
turrets. The town itself is surrounded with an enceinte.
In
1921 around 16,000
anarchist-inspired sailors and soldiers and their civilian supporters
rebelled against the
Bolshevik regime in Soviet Kronstadt. Their
demands included freedom of speech, a stop to the deportation to concentration camps, a change of the Soviet war politics, the liberation of the soviets (
workers' councils) from Party control, and the right to have more private property. After brief negotiations
Leon Trotsky, then the Minister for War in the Soviet Government and the leader of the
Red Army, answered by sending the army to Kronstadt, and the uprising was ruthlessly suppressed. This was the last major revolt against
Leninist or
Stalinist rule within Russia-proper until the fall of communism in 1989, encapsulated in the fall of the
Berlin Wall. (see the article
Kronstadt Rebellion for more details).
During
World War II, Kronstadt was bombed several times by
Nazi Germany's air force, the
Luftwaffe. The most famous bombing was
Stuka ace
Hans-Ulrich Rudel's sinking of the Soviet
battleship Marat.
The town of Kronstadt is built on level ground and is thus exposed to inundations, the most famous being in 1824. On the south side of the town there are three harbours: the large western or merchant harbour, the western flank of which is formed by a great mole joining the fortifications which traverse the breadth of the island on this side; the middle harbour, used chiefly for fitting out and repairing vessels; and the eastern or war harbour for vessels of the Russian navy. The Peter and Catherine
canals, communicating with the merchant and middle harbours, traverse the town. Between them stood the old
Italian palace of
Prince Menshikov, the site of which was later occupied by a pilot school.
The modern town's most striking landmark is the enormous
Naval Cathedral, built from
1908 to
1913 and considered to represent a culmination of the Russian
Neo-Byzantism. The older St Andrew Cathedral (1817), formerly Kronstadt's pride and beauty, was barbarously destroyed by the Communists in
1932. St
Ioann of Kronstadt, one of the most venerated Russian saints, served there as a priest from
1855 to 1908.
Among other public buildings are the naval hospital, the British seamans hospital (established in
1867), the civic hospital, admiralty (founded
1785), arsenal, dockyards and foundries, school of marine engineering, and the English church. The port is ice-bound for 140 to 160 days in the year, from the beginning of December till April. A very large proportion of the inhabitants are sailors.
The Kronstadt Sea Fortress used to be considered the most fortified sea-side in the world. It has never been taken by an outside force. Kronstadt still retains some of the "forts", viz., fortified artificial islands of small size. Formerly there were 42 such forts, situated in line between the southern and northern shores of the Gulf of Finland. Also some
fortifications were located inside the city itself and one was on the western shore of the Kronslot Island (on the other side of the main navigational channel).
Nowadays, the construction of the
Saint Petersburg Dam led to some of the forts being demolished. The dam also permitted Kronstadt and some of the forts to be reached without using a boat. Among the most important surviving forts are the
Fort Konstantin, the biggest in the Gulf of Finland; the
Fort Rif on the western shore of the island; and the particularly well-preserved
Chumnoy Fort (lit., Plague Fort). The largest and the newest of the forts, constructed in the beginning of the 20th century, is
Fort Totleben, named after
Eduard Totleben.
*
Kronstadt web site *
Map of Kronstadt*
Kronstadt: Virtual Excursion*
International Kronstadt Development Fund
