Kronshtadt , also spelled Kronstadt, Cronstadt (German: Krone for “crown” and Stadt for “city”; Finnish: Retusaari), is a municipal town in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located on Kotlin Island, 30 kilometers (19 mi) west of St. Petersburg proper near the head of the Gulf of Finland. Population: 43,005 (2010 Census); 43,385 (2002 Census).
At the founding of the city of Kronstadt, the great reformer of Russia, Tsar Peter was referring to only one strategic importance of the island of Kotlin, and therefore decided to do a brilliant mind, his strength to be here, forced to serve as a bulwark against the invading enemies into the capital from the sea. It is therefore understandable that the ruling class in the newly arisen island town, were the sailors and gunners, and then settled here were captured Swedes, townspeople and peasants were driven to produce the port and fortress works from, different provinces. Then, the permanent contingent in subsequent reigns gradually replenished exiled criminals. Thus, the population of Kronstadt was of a mixed nature.
It is also St. Petersburg’s main seaport. In March 1921, it was the site of the Kronstadt rebellion.
Traditionally, the seat of the Russian admiralty and the base of the Russian Baltic Fleet were located in Kronstadt guarding the approaches to 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.
Kronstadt has been a place of pilgrimage for Orthodox Christians for many years due to the holy memory of Saint John of Kronstadt. Bus and water tours to Kronstadt are taken daily from Saint Petersburg[4]
Kronstadt was the birthplace of Pyotr Kapitsa, co-recipient of the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Public, in a sense, as we now understand it, was not between citizens and could not be due to a strong hatred between the classes. The only public places to please the leisure and leisure activities were numerous taverns. Drunkenness, fights and scandals that reach the bloodshed were commonplace at the time, so that more civilians at dusk tried to shut in their homes, afraid to seem pas street.
Fortunately, Kronstadt was not destined to remain in perpetual stagnation and isolation. Foreigners coming on board their ships to St. Petersburg, could not help but notice the way of comfortable, sheltered from the sea winds Kronstadt harbor where their ships often had to take shelter from the storms and bad weather. And Kronstadt gradually gains importance as a commercial port. Its harbor filled with foreign commercial ships in the roads and pestreyut flags of all nations. Commercial life of the city begins to bubble, helping to increase the well-being of citizens. One after the other, as it were, with a wave of magic, grow huge public buildings, forests are chopped, drained swamps, bombarded with unnecessary expanses of water, increasing the area of ​​the city, and finally, to crown all the benefits set though not entirely comfortable, but still a regular Message to the “fiery monsters” steamers Byrd with stone chimneys.
During the Petrograd riots of the February revolution, the sailors of Petrograd joined the revolution and executed their officers, thus gaining a reputation as dedicated revolutionaries. During the civil war, the sailors participated on the red side, until 1921, when they rebelled against the Bolshevik rule.
Kronstadt and the supporting forts and minefields were the key to the protection of Petrograd from foreign forces. Despite this, the cruiser Oleg was torpedoed and sunk by a small motor boat after participating in a bombardment of Krasnaya Gorka fort that had revolted against the Bolsheviks.[6] This was followed on August 18, 1919 by a raid of seven Royal Navy Coastal Motor Boats into the harbor of Kronstadt itself, damaging the Soviet battleships Petropavlovsk and Andrei Pervozvanny sinking a submarine supply ship, the Pamiat Azova.