I will clarify for 1917. In fact, Kronstadt was central to the events of 1917. In 1917, the Bolsheviks had only one citadel - Kronstadt. The sailors of Kronstadt enjoyed absolute support throughout the Baltic region, starting from Finland, its capital was then called Helsingfors and along the entire coast. Unlike the Baltic Fleet, the Black Sea Fleet, which was ruled by Admiral Kolchak, remained loyal to the tsar. Here I clarify that the Baltic Fleet was a stronghold of the revolution in 1905, the sailors hated the tsarist officers. Earlier, the Narodnik
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narodniks Vera Figner wrote that Zhelyabov, the leader of the Narodnik party, was also campaigning there. They were supported by some young officers there. But what was going on in the Baltic Fleet between the 1880s and 1905s I still have a gap, while I do not have enough knowledge.
Zhelyabov and his wife Perovskaya were hanged after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, but they acquired the appearance of martyrs of the people. The Social Revolutionaries became the followers of the Narodnik party.
In February 1917, after the news of the events in Petrograd, sailors revolted, they began to kill the tsarist officers. A few days later, these executions were stopped by the arrived members of the Bolsheviks, Roshal and Raskolnikov.
Let me remind you how the February Revolution began. In February 1917, there was a mass demonstration of women who were offended by the lack of grain provision. The demonstrations soon engulfed crowds. The soldiers first shot over their heads. Then one soldier in the barracks persuaded others not to suppress the people anymore, his comrades supported him, they dealt with the tsarist officer. This soldier's name was Timofey Kirpichnikov
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timofey_Kirpichnikov. He was named the first soldier of the revolution. The revolutionary parties never expected such events. Lenin had previously said that in the coming years it would be impossible to cope with the military-police machine of a huge state. Although I met a statement that this was previously planned by the Freemasons.
Kerensky's government tried to negotiate with the sailors of the Baltic Fleet. But the SRs did not enjoy the support of the Baltic Fleet sailors. In the absence of Lenin, the Bolshevik Party initially wanted to cooperate with the Provisional Government. But Lenin, who arrived in April 1917, forbade them to cooperate with the Provisional Government.
Kerensky tried to negotiate with the sailors to preserve United Russia, but he was ridiculed. When he spoke, he cried, fainted, but this did not change the conviction of the sailors. In addition to him, the grandmother of the Russian revolution, Breshko-Breshkovskaya, went to Kronstadt, whom Raskolnikov called a stupid old woman, because she supported the party of Right Social Revolutionaries, and therefore the Provisional Government.
Kerensky and Breshko-Breshkovskaya. Grandmother and grandson of the Russian revolution on August 27 (14), 1917.
In July 1917, after the expulsion of the office of the anarchist party in Petrograd, representatives of this party appeared in Kronstadt, demanding help. Raskolnikov, as the leader of the Bolsheviks, wanted to refuse them, but the sailors refused to obey the Bolsheviks. Until that time, the RSDLP (b) party and the Аnarchist party acted almost jointly, so the anarchist party was the second largest popular party in Kronstadt. Lenin was told by telephone that the question of the military demonstration would be with or without the Bolsheviks, with the Аnarchist party.
