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Kronstadt - Dreams of Something Bigger by Max Sher
Kronstadt – a Russian town with a German name – was founded in 1704 by the westernising Russian tsar Peter I on an island in the Gulf of Finland off shore St. Petersburg. It was designed by Peter and his engineers as a naval fortress to defend the maritime approach to St. Petersburg and has served as such for most of its history. Many important expeditions have set sail from Kronstadt, including the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe and the discovery of Antarctica in early 19th century. The town’s free-thinking and open-minded naval character has forged the town identity which, in many ways, has been preserved to these days. During the revolutionary years of early 20th century, Kronstadt seamen were one of the driving forces but already in 1921 they staged an uprising against the newly installed Communist regime. During Soviet times, Kronstadt was a closed garrison town but, paradoxically, many of its residents have traveled a lot as navy officers and seen the world and, thus, understood very well the real nature of the Soviet regime. Unlike other Russian cities with German names (St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Peterhof, etc.), Kronstadt has never changed its “foreign” name, even in the most turbulent times of WWI and WWII, so deeply it was rooted and associated with the most glorious events in the Russian naval history. Today, when its days of glory are past, Kronstadt gives an impression of being asleep and dreaming of real sea adventures, of something “bigger” than the life of a small suburban town. Plans exist to move the command of the St. Petersburg Naval Base here but also to develop tourism, yachting sports, and a commercial port. Although administratively it has long been part of St. Petersburg, locals still say they are from Kronstadt and not from St. Petersburg.
