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 warned the people against congregating on the streets. “In such cases,” the order read, "the soldiery will resort to arms in case of resistance, shooting on the spot".

The Committee of Defense took up the systematic “cleaning of the city.” Numerous workers, soldiers and sailors, suspected of sympathising with Kronstadt, were placed under arrest. All Petrograd sailors and several Army regiments thought to be “politically untrustworthy” were ordered to distant points, while the families of Kronstadt sailors living in Petrograd were taken into custody as hostages. The Committee of Defense notified Kronstadt of its action by a proclamation scattered over the city from an aeroplane on March 4, which stated: “The Committee of Defense declares that the arrested are held as hostages for the Commissar of the Baltic Fleet, N. N. Kuzmin, the Chairman of the Kronstadt Soviet, T. Vassiliev, and other Communists. If the least harm be suffered by our detained comrades, the hostages will pay with their lives.”

“We do not want bloodshed. Not a single Communist has been shot by us,” was Kronstadt’s reply.

Kronstadt revived with new life. Revolutionary enthusiasm rose to the level of the October days when the heroism and devotion of the sailors played such a decisive rôle. Now, for the first time since the Communist Party assumed exclusive control of the Revolution and the fate of Russia, Kronstadt felt itself free. A new spirit of solidarity and brotherhood brought the sailors, the soldiers of the garrison, the factory workers, and the nonpartisan elements together in united effort for their common cause. Even Communists were infected by the fraternisation of the whole city and joined in the work preparatory to the approaching elections to the Kronstadt Soviet.

Among the first steps taken by the Provisional Revolutionary Committee was the preservation of revolutionary order in Kronstadt and the publication of the 18