Krasnaia Gorka and Seraia Loshad

Krasnaia Gorka and Seraia Loshad’ 

forts on the south bank of the Gulf of Finland, which were very important for the defense of Petrograd and Kronstadt.

In the Civil War of 1918–20 during the offensive by General N. N. Yudenich’s White Guard Forces against Petrograd, a counterrevolutionary rebellion fomented by White Guards, Socialist Revolutionaries, and Mensheviks, with active participation by foreign intelligence agencies, broke out at the forts of Krasnaia Gorka, Seraia Loshad’, and Obruchev and on the minesweeper Kitoboi. The revolutionary military council of the Baltic Fleet delivered an ultimatum to the rebels to stop the rebellion immediately. The garrison at Fort Obruchev arrested the conspirators and proclaimed their allegiance to Soviet power; Fort Krasnaia Gorka (25 guns of calibers between 76 and 305 mm) and Fort Seraia Loshad’ (eight guns of calibers between 120 and 152 mm) refused to meet the demand of the revolutionary military council, figuring on support from the British Navy.

On June 13–14 the guns of the ships of the Baltic Fleet (two battleships, one cruiser, and three destroyers) and Fort Rif fired on the rebel force. On June 15 a shore group (up to 4,500 men) commanded by Sannikov, with the support of two armored trains, two armored vehicles, and two destroyers, went over to the offensive and drove the rebels (500 men) from their positions on the approaches to Fort Krasnaia Gorka. The command of the rebel force, headed by former Lieutenant Nekliudov, commandant of Fort Krasnaia Gorka, fled, and on June 16 the forts surrendered.

L. M. EREMEEV