Sailors were incredibly crucial to the success of the Russian revolution.

In the case of the Russian Baltic Fleet, the immediate epicenter for its participation in the February Revolution was the cruiser Aurora in Petrograd and the large-scale mutiny at the naval base of Kronstadt. Dockworkers stormed the cruiser while she was refitting and lynched its captain and seriously injured its senior officer nearly a week after the Tsar's abdication.

Simultaneous to this, the naval base at Kronstadt mutinied and murdered its senior officers, notably its commander Admiral Robert Viren. Although the sailors of Petrograd and Kronstadt did not produce any leaders in February, they did provide the Revolution much needed footsoldiers and access to military stores on the bases.