In February 1921, strikes erupt in Petrograd when workers take to the streets demanding better food rations and more union autonomy. The unrest spreads to the port town of Kronstadt, where the Baltic Fleet is docked. The sailors of the fleet support the striking Petrograd workers; Lenin and Trotsky proclaim them guilty of mutiny and order a military response. Berkman and Goldman try unsuccessfully to intercede. In the fighting that ensues, thousands of sailors and workers are killed.