In March 1921, the Red sailors, the stronghold and fighting vanguard of the revolution, rebelled against the Bolshevik government in a fortress on the Gulf of Finland. This event still causes heated debate. Was it a protest against the ruling dictatorship, or did the opponents of the young Soviet Republic skillfully take advantage of their discontent and prepare this explosion of popular indignation? Paul Avrich, an American historian, specialist in Russian emigration and Russian anarchism, attempts to objectively understand the events on Kotlin Island.