Kronstadt Uprising - Unknown Revolution

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...