The Kronstadt Rebellion was an uprising of sailors from the Russian Baltic fleet stationed at Krontstadt in the Gulf of Finland. They were protesting against the dictatorial Bolshevik policy of 'war-communism'. The mutineers demanded political and economic reforms under the banner of 'free Soviets', and established a revolutionary commune on the orders of Lenin. The uprising was brutally crushed by Red Army units led by Leon Trotsky after fierce fighting and heavy losses on both sides. At the 10th Communist Party Congress in the same month, Lenin was forced to introduce his 'New Economic Policy', which marginally improved the material conditions of the Soviet people.
The rebellion was led by anarcho-syndicalist Stepan Maximovich Petrichenko.