First Published: Pravda No. 301, December 21,1929
Source: J. V. Stalin, Works, Volume 4, page 271. Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1953
Transcription: Hari Kumar for Alliance-ML
HTML: Mike B. for MIA, 2005
Following the capture of Krasnaya Gorka, Seraya Loshad(1) has been taken. Their guns are in perfect order. A rapid check of all the forts and fortresses is under way.
Naval experts assert that the capture of Krasnaya Gorka from the sea runs counter to naval science. I can only deplore such so-called science. The swift capture of Gorka was due to the grossest interference in the operations by me and civilians generally, even to the point of countermanding orders on land and sea and imposing our own.
I consider it my duty to declare that I shall continue to act in this way in future, despite all my reverence for science.
Stalin
June 16, 1919
(1) Succumbing to the counter-revolutionary agitation of white guards connected with the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, the garrisons of Krasnya Gorka and Seraya Loshad, two forts near Petrograd, mutinied against the Soviet Government on June 13 1919. That day, on J.V.Stalin's orders, vessels of the Baltic Fleet put out to sea to take action against the mutineers., At the same time a core, was formed in Oranienbaum. On June 14, J.V. Stalin arrived in Oranienbaum, and conferred with representatives of the naval and army commands and commanders and commissars of units and detachments. The plan he proposed for the capture of Krasnaya Gorka by a simultaneous blow from sea and land was adopted. The attack was launched on June 15 by the Coastal Group and other units, supported by vessels of the Baltic Fleet, the operation being personally directed by J.V.Stalin from the battle lines. The mutineers were overwhelmed at the approaches to Kranaya Gorka, and at 0.30 am on June 16 the fort was captured. Seraya Loshad was taken a few hours later.