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9 Continuing Crises On top of the mounting unrest among workers, throughout the spring and early summer of 1918 Petrograd remained threatened by German occupation .The military danger was heightened by German troops who had come ashore at the southwestern tip of Finland on 3 March and joined Finnish White forces that had been sweeping eastward, scoring decisive victories over the Reds. The enemy advance soon jeopardized ships of the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Helsingfors harbor and threatened Petrograd from the northwest. Seizure of the Baltic Fleet was of particular concern to the British. In late January and February Captain Francis Cromie, the British naval attaché in Petrograd, had been engaged in preparations to sink his own flotilla of submarines stranded in the Gulf of Finland; in efforts to prevent the Russian Baltic Fleet from falling into German hands; and in coordinating the evacuation from Petrograd of precious metals and allied military stores (which was his initial charge). At the end of January he participated in discussions with the Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet about the possibility of Britain’s financing the fleet as a means of securing allied control over it.1 The subsequent negotiation of the Brest treaty made these discussions moot. During the second half of February, when German seizure of Petrograd appeared inevitable , Cromie hoped to organize the destruction of the fleet with the aid of its commander-in-chief, Admiral Aleksandr Rozvozov.2 In March, however , Rozvozov, who insisted on complete autonomy in fleet operations,3 was removed for refusing to pledge loyalty to Soviet power. Ultimately, the fleet was saved from the Germans by the heroism of Captain First Rank Aleksei Shchastny, Rozvozov’s successor. Elsewhere, I have described in detail Shchastny’s heroic action and tragic fate.4 Shchastny first captured national attention at the end of February 1918, when he directed the transfer of sixty-two ships from Revel (Tallinn) across the frozen waters of the Gulf of Finland to the Baltic Fleet’s main base 238 / Soviet Power on the Brink in Helsingfors to prevent their seizure by German forces sweeping through Estonia. This achievement was dwarfed, however, by what he did in mid March and April, when the occupation of Helsingfors by German and Finnish White forces threatened the bulk of the Baltic Fleet with capture. Article VI of the Brest treaty specifically obligated the Soviet government to clear Finland and the Aaland Islands of Russian troops and Red Guards, and to remove Russian naval ships and forces from Finnish ports.5 On 20 March, the Naval General Staff issued instructions to move the ships from Helsingfors to Kronstadt—as many ships as could make it through the thick ice—and to prepare the entire fleet for demolition. However distasteful to Shchastny, the latter directive was duly implemented.6 Three weeks later, the German government gave the Sovnarkom until 12 April to comply with its obligations regarding the Baltic Fleet. Shchastny was now instructed by the Commissariat for Naval Affairs headed by Trotsky to disarm all ships of the fleet still in Helsingfors on 11 April. At the same time, he was authorized to continue moving as many of them as possible to Kronstadt.7 Meanwhile, with no hope now of saving his cherished flotilla of British submarines trapped off the Finnish coast from the Germans, Captain Cromie had them sunk.8 Between 12 March and 11 April, when German and Finnish White forces entered Helsingfors, Shchastny superintended the transfer to Kronstadt of three naval convoys, including the biggest dreadnoughts in the fleet. The ships could move only during daylight, and each morning ice breakers had to work them free. This unprecedented journey, the celebrated “Ice March of the Baltic Fleet,” was further hampered as transfers and demobilization had sharply reduced ships’ crews, and as the ships had to maneuver through narrow channels close to the shoreline while facing fire from Finnish coastal batteries. Nonetheless, by the end of April, the core of the fleet, more than two hundred vessels, had made it safely to Kronstadt.9 Most of the ships dropped anchor there, although some were deployed at the mouth of the Neva, off Petrograd. WithTrotsky’s permission, others, including a large division of minelayers, were moved slowly through the Neva bridges into the heart of the former capital, in the expectation that they would soon steam upriver to Lake Ladoga.10 Following this feat, the Russian public dubbed Shchastny “Admiral,” although he was still a captain...

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