Stepan Maximovich Petrichenko (; 1892 – June 2, 1947) was a Russian

revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...

, an

anarcho-syndicalist Anarcho-syndicalism is an anarchist organisational model that centres trade unions as a vehicle for class conflict. Drawing from the theory of libertarian socialism and the practice of syndicalism, anarcho-syndicalism sees trade unions as both ...

politician, the head of the self-styled "

Soviet Republic of Soldiers and Fortress-Builders of Nargen Naissaar (; ) is an island in Estonia. It is located in the Gulf of Finland, northwest of the capital city Tallinn, and is administratively part of Viimsi Parish. The island has an area of . It is long and wide, and lies about from the mainl ...

" and in 1921, ''de facto'' leader of the Kronstadt Commune, and the leader of the revolutionary committee which led the

Kronstadt rebellion The Kronstadt rebellion () was a 1921 insurrection of Soviet sailors, Marines, naval infantry, and civilians against the Bolsheviks, Bolshevik government in the Russian port city of Kronstadt. Located on Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland, ...

of 1921.

Life

Early years

Stepan Maximovich Petrichenko was born in 1892 in the village of Nikitenka in the Zhizdrinsky Uyezd of Kaluga Governorate to a family of peasants. Two years after his birth, his family moved to Alexandrovsk (

Yekaterinoslav Governorate Yekaterinoslav Governorate} was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Yekaterinoslav. Covering an area of , and being composed of a inhabitant of 2,113,674 by the census of 1897, it bordere ...

), where Stepan graduated from city school and joined the local ironworks as a metalworker. In 1913 Petrichenko was called up for military service with the Russian navy, where he was assigned to the Russian battleship ''Petropavlovsk'', part of the

Baltic Fleet The Baltic Fleet () is the Naval fleet, fleet of the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea. Established 18 May 1703, under Tsar Peter the Great as part of the Imperial Russian Navy, the Baltic Fleet is the oldest Russian fleet. In 1918, the fleet w ...

Soviet republic of sailors and builders

During the 1917

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

in Russia, Petrichenko had been based with a unit of Russian fleet at the small Estonian island of Naissaar (Nargen) in the

Tallinn Bay Tallinn Bay () is a bay in Estonia on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. The Estonian capital city Tallinn is located on the southern coast of the bay. Tallinn Bay itself is divided into several parts: Tallinn Roadstead (), Kopli Bay, K ...

. In December 1917, Petrichenko and 81 Russian sailors proclaimed the "

" on the island. They organized a local military mini-government which, without much resistance from the island's two hundred indigenous civilian residents, ruled over the island for about two months, until the capture of the nearby Estonian capital city

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

(Reval) by the forces of the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

on February 26, 1918. The red and black flag of the

anarcho-communists Anarchist communism is a Far-left politics, far-left political ideology and Anarchist schools of thought, anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private property, private real property but retention ...

was lowered, and its "government" retreated onto the ships of the Soviet Baltic Fleet, heading for

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

(Helsingfors), and from there to

Kronstadt Kronstadt (, ) is a Russian administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg, port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Saint Petersburg, located on Kotlin Island, west of Saint Petersburg, near the head ...

. Three years later, Petrichenko led the Kronstadt uprising against the new

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

government of

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

Kronstadt rebellion

After the rebellion was put down by

Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

, Petrichenko fled over the ice to

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, where he continued his agitation against the Bolsheviks. Petrichenko had attempted to join the

White Army The White Army, also known as the White Guard, the White Guardsmen, or simply the Whites, was a common collective name for the armed formations of the White movement and Anti-Sovietism, anti-Bolshevik governments during the Russian Civil War. T ...

but was turned away due to his previous Bolshevik membership.

Emigrant

Petrichenko remained in exile in Finland for almost 25 years, where his regard from fellow rebels remained high. He blocked further emigration to Helsinki, instead sending Kronstadt "volunteers" to Soviet Karelia to organize an uprising. He called on Kronstadters to not obey the order of General Wrangel, and refuse inclusion in the

. When an amnesty was declared for the ordinary participants in the uprising, by the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Petrichenko did not put obstacles in the way of those who wanted to return to their homeland and decided to ask for permission to return himself. Soon, the police chief of

Vyborg Vyborg (; , ; , ; , ) is a town and the administrative center of Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of Vyborg Bay, northwest of St. Petersburg, east of the Finnish capital H ...

received a denunciation of the "vile plot" of Petrichenko, as a result of which, on May 21, 1922, he was arrested and spent several months in prison.

Agent

In 1922, Petrichenko went to

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

and visited the embassy of the

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

. There he was recruited by the

State Political Directorate The State Political Directorate (), abbreviated as GPU (), was the secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from February 1922 to November 1923. It was the immediate successor of the Cheka, and was replaced by the Joint ...

and became an agent of the Red Army Intelligence Agency in Finland.M. Hosta, O. Lapchinsky, S. Koshe
SPY DEATH
/ref> In August 1927, Petrichenko again arrived in Riga and at the Soviet embassy filed an application addressed to

Mikhail Kalinin Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (, ; 3 June 1946) was a Soviet politician and Russian Old Bolshevik revolutionary who served as the first chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (head of state) from 1938 until his resignation in 1946. From ...

with a request to return to Soviet citizenship. In 1927, Petrichenko traveled through

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

to the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. Returning to Finland, he got a job at a pulp mill in

Kemi Kemi (; ; ; ) is a cities of Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is located approximately from the city of Tornio and the Finland–Sweden border, Swedish border. The distance to Oulu is to the south and t ...

, where he worked until 1931. He was eventually fired from the factory and moved to live in Helsinki. In 1937, he announced his refusal to cooperate with Soviet intelligence, but then again agreed to continue working with them. He stayed in Finland for years, until he came into conflict with the Finnish government over his support of Soviet groups during the

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

between the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and Finland in 1940. In 1941, Petrichenko was arrested by the Finnish authorities.

Arrest and death

On September 25, 1944, on the basis of an armistice agreement between the USSR, Great Britain and Finland, Petrichenko was released, and on April 21, 1945, he was again arrested and sent to the USSR, as part of a group of persons known as the "", a list of political enemies and alleged military collaborators compiled by Soviet members of

Allied Commission Following the termination of hostilities in World War II, the Allies were in control of the defeated Axis countries. Anticipating the defeat of Germany, Italy and Japan, they had already set up the European Advisory Commission and a proposed Far ...

.'' Björkelund B.V. '' Travel to the land of all kinds of impossibilities / Prep. text for publication, scientific. ed., entry Art. and comm. S. A. Mankova. – SPb .: International Association of "Russian Culture", 2014. The investigation into Petrichenko was transferred from the police to the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

where it was examined without the presence of the prosecution or the defense. The verdict passed on November 17, 1945, read: Stepan Petrichenko died on June 2, 1947, during his transfer from the Solikamsk labor camp to the Vladimir Central Prison.

Work

* () (bibrec); English: ''The truth about the Kronstadt events''

References

External links

''The Truth about Kronstadt''

Kronstadt: Mentiras anarquistas

Kronstadt rebellion

Kronstadt Uprising

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Petrichenko, Stepan 1892 births 1947 deaths Anarcho-syndicalists People extradited from Finland People extradited to the Soviet Union People from Zhizdrinsky Uyezd People of the Russian Revolution Prisoners who died in Soviet detention Russian anarchists Russian emigrants to Finland Russian revolutionaries Soviet anarchists Soviet dissidents Soviet people who died in prison custody