KRONSTADT
UPRISING -
UNKNOWN REVOLUTION
Through the Stop The City
action, Punk had for the time being redeemed itself but how it stood
in the Autumn of 1983 was as a very different beast from that of the
summer of 1977. A telling sign of just how much it had changed coming
with the announcement in September that Mick Jones had been thrown
out of The Clash. Even though Joe Strummer was going to continue with
a Mark 2 version of the band, to all intent and purpose it meant that
The Clash had split up but the real point was that it didn't actually
matter.
Without any doubt, The
Clash were one of the most iconic Punk bands of all time but by late
'83 they were of little relevance, least of all to Punk. As
proto-Oi!/Punk band Cock Sparrer had asked on their 1983-released
Shock Troops début album in regard to Strummer, Rotten, Jimmy
Pursey, Julie Burchill et al: Where are they now?
The true worth of Punk
was now only to be found far outside the mainstream where the
possibility of commercial success was not even a consideration. Punk
was once again and probably further beyond the dictates of the media
and any other Establishment-sided or would-be authority than ever
before, explaining perhaps why so many (Anarcho) Punk rockers had
connected so readily with Stop The City.
Punk's core had hardened
and in many ways had returned to it's roots, or rather, it was
becoming what it had always promised to be.
For the music industry,
Punk was of no value and had long ago moved on in search of the next
big thing but for those not in thrall to the music press and its
attempt to foist the likes of Aztec Camera, Echo And The Bunnymen,
and Sade upon 'the market', Punk was still the most honest, immediate
and up-for-it culture around. Populated by drunkards and
ne'er-do-wells it may have been but when it kicked in with a certain
record, gig or fanzine there was nothing else to compare.
Out in the sticks and in
backwater towns in particular, when a local group formed and released
a record the buzz, hope and inspiration to others that it often gave
was incalculable. Such was the case with Kronstadt Uprising and
their Spiderleg Records début release, Unknown Revolution.
Taken from an event in
Russia in 1921, the name of the band in itself was even a pointer to
an education. Kronstadt was the name of a Russian naval base, the
sailors there being some of the most loyal and resolute supporters of
the Bolshevik revolution who twice already had rescued the revolution
by helping to defeat and see off counter-revolutionary forces both
internal and external. They were, as described by Trotsky, the "pride
and flower of the revolution".
Having helped make their
homeland safe after years of conflict and civil war, the Kronstadt
sailors could see no reason to not return to the original 1917
program and carry the revolution through to its ultimate conclusion.
All they were met with, however, was a new political and social elite
holding sway over a starving population being kept in check by State
terror.
"What has
happened to 'Power to the people'?", they asked. "What
has happened to 'equality'? To all the promises of destroying
privilege?"
By turning such slogans
against the Bolsheviks and calling for free elections and freedom of
speech, the Kronstadt sailors immediately marked themselves out as a
threat to the new ruling Party. Trotsky commanded the rebellious
crews to lay down their weapons and submit to the orders of his
government or face being shot "like partridges", an
ultimatum the proud sailors could only refuse. Trotsky kept his word
and after launching huge forces of his Red Army against the city of
Kronstadt, the sailors were slaughtered.
To this very day, there
are many on the Far Left who argue that the quelling of the
Kronstadt rebellion was a necessity to safe-guard the greater
Bolshevik revolution but for others - particularly Anarchists - it
was the nail in the coffin of the Russian Revolution; the proof that
the revolution had failed and had thrown up instead just another set
of rulers. Or as Crass put it: "Just another set of bigots
with their rifle sights on me."
In terms of Punk, the
Kronstadt rebellion could be applied metaphorically to the Anarcho
Punk movement and its desire to carry through and make good the
original promises of the Punk 'revolution'. Kronstadt Uprising,
then, was a brilliant name for an Anarcho Punk band.
Based in Southend-on-Sea,
in Essex, they had first appeared on the Bullshit Detector 2 LP with
the song Receiver Deceiver but by the time of their Unknown
Revolution release, not only had their guitarist taken over lead
vocal duties - in itself precipitating a huge change in their sound -
but they had also somehow transformed into a burning bright ball of
coiled intensity.
With the assistance of
Flux Of Pink Indians and Jon Loder at Southern Studios, Kronstadt
Uprising had harnessed their natural energy and delivered it to the
world in the form of four perfectly crafted songs of raw ferocity.
Southend-on-Sea should have been proud to have bred such sons capable
of creating such a record able to vent such anger.
The light that burns
twice as bright burns for half as long, however, and before many
people actually realised how good their record was, Kronstadt
Uprising tripped and fell forwards into playing a more traditional
Johnny Thunders-style of rock'n'roll that sadly never touched the
same heights as the Anarcho Punk displayed on their début release.
Not that this was of too
much importance because what they had already done with Unknown
Revolution was to create something that would forever stand as being
inspirational in a variety of ways: From getting kids to form bands,
write fanzines, put on gigs or even to pick up and read a book on the
history of the Russian Revolution. Which was a lot more than what
Aztec Camera, Echo And The Bunnymen, or Sade ever did...
