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  From the beginning of December 1917, L. G. Kornilov, who arrived on the Don, joined in the creation of the army. At first, the Volunteer Army was staffed exclusively by volunteers. Up to 50% of those who signed up for the army were chief officers and up to 15% were headquarters officers, there were also cadets, cadets, students, high school students (more than 10%). Cossacks were about 4%, soldiers - 1%. From the end of 1918 and in 1919-1920, due to mobilizations in the territories controlled by the whites, the officer cadre lost its numerical predominance; peasants and captured Red Army soldiers during this period made up the bulk of the military contingent of the Volunteer Army.

  By the end of December 1917, 3 thousand people signed up for the army as volunteers. By mid-January 1918, there were already 5 thousand of them, by the beginning of February - about 6 thousand. At the same time, the combat element of the Dobroarmiya did not exceed 4½ thousand people.

  The supreme leader of the army was General Staff General of Infantry M. V. Alekseev, Commander-in-Chief - General Staff General of Infantry Lavr Kornilov, Chief of Staff - A. S. Lukomsky, Chief of the 1st Division - General Staff Lieutenant General A. I. Denikin. If Generals Alekseev, Kornilov and Denikin were the organizers and ideological inspirers young army, the person remembered by the pioneers as a commander capable of leading the first volunteers into battle directly on the battlefield was the “sword of General Kornilov” of the General Staff, Lieutenant General S. L. Markov, who first served as chief of staff of the Commander-in-Chief, then chief of staff 1st Division and commander of the 1st Officer Regiment, formed by him and given his personal patronage after Markov's death.

  The leadership of the army initially focused on Russia's allies in the Entente.

  Immediately after the creation of the Volunteer Army, numbering about 4 thousand people, entered into hostilities against the Red Army. In early January 1918, she acted on the Don together with units under the command of General A. M. Kaledin.

  Before the start of the Kuban campaign, the losses of the Dobroarmiya amounted to 1½ thousand people, including at least a third of those killed.

  On February 22, 1918, under the onslaught of the Red troops, the Dobrarmia units left Rostov and moved to the Kuban. The famous "Ice March" (1st Kuban) of the Volunteer Army (3200 bayonets and sabers) began from Rostov-on-Don to Yekaterinodar with heavy fighting, surrounded by a 20,000-strong group of red troops under whom. Sorokin.

  General M. Alekseev said before the campaign:

  We are leaving for the steppes. We can return if only there is the grace of God. But you need to light a torch so that at least one point of light is among the darkness that has engulfed Russia ...

  In the village of Shenzhiy, on March 26, 1918, a 3,000-strong detachment of the Kuban Rada under the command of General V. L. Pokrovsky joined the Volunteer Army. The total strength of the Volunteer Army increased to 6,000 soldiers.

  On March 27-31 (April 9-13), the Volunteer Army made an unsuccessful attempt to take the capital of the Kuban - Ekaterinodar, during which the Commander-in-Chief General Kornilov was killed by a random grenade on March 31 (April 13), and the command of the army units in the most difficult conditions of complete encirclement by many times superior forces the enemy was received by General Denikin, who, in the conditions of incessant fighting on all sides, was able to withdraw the army from flank attacks and safely exit the encirclement on the Don. This was largely due to the energetic actions of the one who distinguished himself in battle on the night of April 2 (15) to April 3 (16), 1918, when crossing railway Tsaritsyn - Tikhoretskaya commander of the Officer Regiment of the General Staff, Lieutenant General S. L. Markov.

  According to the memoirs of contemporaries, events developed as follows:

  At about 4 o'clock in the morning parts of Markov began to cross the railroad tracks. Markov, having captured the railway gatehouse at the crossing, deployed infantry units, sent scouts to the village to attack the enemy, hastily began crossing the wounded, the convoy and artillery. Suddenly, the armored train of the Reds separated from the station and went to the crossing, where the headquarters was already located along with Generals Alekseev and Denikin. There were a few meters left before the crossing - and then Markov, showering the armored train with merciless words, remaining true to himself: “Stop! Such-rasta! Bastard! You will suppress your own!”, rushed on the way. When he really stopped, Markov jumped back (according to other sources, he immediately threw a grenade), and immediately two three-inch guns fired grenades point-blank at the cylinders and wheels of the locomotive. A heated battle ensued with the crew of the armored train, which was killed as a result, and the armored train itself was burned.

  In May 1918, after completing his campaign from the Romanian Front to the Don, a 3,000-strong detachment of the General Staff of Colonel M. G. Drozdovsky joined the Volunteer Army. About 3000 volunteer fighters came with Drozdovsky, perfectly armed, equipped and uniformed, with significant artillery (six light guns, four mountain guns, two 48-line guns, one 6-inch and 14 charging boxes), machine guns (about 70 pieces of various systems) , the Verny armored car, airplanes, cars, with a telegraph, an orchestra, significant stocks of artillery shells (about 800), rifle and machine-gun cartridges (200 thousand), spare rifles (more than a thousand). The detachment had an equipped sanitary unit and a convoy in excellent condition. The detachment consisted of 70% front-line officers.

  On the night of June 22-23, 1918, the Volunteer Army (numbering 8-9 thousand), with the assistance of the Don Army under the command of ataman P. N. Krasnov, began the Second Kuban campaign, which ended in the defeat of almost 100,000 Kuban group of red troops and the capture on August 17 Ekaterinodar.

  On August 15, 1918, the first mobilization was announced in part of the Volunteer Army, which was the first step towards turning it into regular army. According to the Kornilov officer Alexander Trushnovich, the first mobilized - Stavropol peasants were poured into the Kornilov shock regiment in June 1918 during the battles near the village of Medvezhye.

  The state of the material part of the Army during this period was evidenced by the Markov artillery officer E. N. Giatsintov:

  It's funny for me to watch films in which the White Army is depicted - having fun, ladies in ball gowns, officers in uniforms with epaulettes, with aiguillettes, brilliant! In fact, the Volunteer Army at that time was a rather sad, but heroic phenomenon. We were dressed in any way. For example, I was in trousers, in boots, instead of an overcoat I was wearing a jacket of a railway engineer, which the owner of the house where my mother lived, Mr. Lanko, gave me in view of the late autumn. He was in the past the head of the section between Ekaterinodar and some other station.
  

  This is how we flaunted. Soon the sole of the boot on my right foot fell off, and I had to tie it with a rope. These are the "balls" and what "epaulettes" we had at that time! Instead of balls, there were constant battles. All the time we were pressed by the Red Army, very numerous. I think we were one against a hundred! And we somehow fired back, fought back, and even at times went over to the offensive and pushed the enemy back.

  On January 23, 1919, the army was renamed the Caucasian Volunteer Army. On May 22, 1919, the Caucasian Volunteer Army was divided into 2 armies: the Caucasian, advancing on Tsaritsyn - Saratov, and the Volunteer Army itself, advancing on Kursk - Orel.

  In the summer - autumn of 1919, the Volunteer Army (40 thousand people) under the command of General V. Z. Mai-Maevsky became the main force in Denikin's campaign against Moscow (for more details, see Denikin's campaign against Moscow). The main unit of the Volunteer Army in 1919 was invariably the 1st Army Corps of Gen. A. P. Kutepov, consisting of selected "colored regiments" - Kornilovsky, Markovsky, Drozdovsky and Alekseevsky, subsequently deployed during the attack on Moscow in the summer - autumn of 1919 in the division.

  In combat terms, some units and formations of the Volunteer Army had high fighting qualities, since it included a large number of officers who had significant combat experience and sincerely devoted to the idea of ​​the White movement, but since the summer of 1919 its combat effectiveness has decreased due to heavy losses and the inclusion of mobilized peasants and captured Red Army soldiers in its composition.

  Commanders of the Volunteer Army

  • General Staff General of Infantry L. G. Kornilov (December 1917 - March 31 (April 13), 1918)
  • General Staff Lieutenant General A. I. Denikin (April 1918 - January 1919)
  • General Staff Lieutenant General Baron P. N. Wrangel (January - May 1919, December 1919 - January 1920)
  • General Staff Lieutenant General V. Z. Mai-Maevsky (May - November 1919).

  Composition of the Volunteer Army

  I AM A VOLUNTEER

  1) I AM A VOLUNTEER, because I gave my youth and shed my blood for the power of the United Indivisible Russia.
  2) I AM A VOLUNTEER I stand for the convocation of the National Assembly, elected by the whole people, because I believe that it will give happiness, peace and freedom to everyone: both left and right, and the Cossack, and the peasant, and the worker.
  3) I AM A VOLUNTEER I give land to all peasants - real workers, and in such a way that each peasant will be the complete and eternal owner of his piece and therefore will work it with great love.
  4) I AM A VOLUNTEER I stand for the restoration of factories and factories, for the workers to come to an agreement with their masters and organize labor, so that no master can offend the worker, so that the worker can have his own unions to protect his interests. And whoever is an enemy to the worker and will do him harm, than will interfere with the restoration of industry, that enemy is also me, a volunteer. Where I am, there is fresh meat, and bread costs 1-2 rubles. lb.
  5) I AM A VOLUNTEER, I leave it to everyone to believe in their God and pray as they wish, and most of all, as a Russian, I love my Orthodox faith.
  6) I AM A VOLUNTEER, I love even those with whom I am now at war - I, on the orders of my leader, General Denikin, do not shoot, but take prisoner and bring justice, which is terrible only for enemies of the people - commissars, communists.
  7) I AM A VOLUNTEER and so I say:
  May peace be restored in desecrated and tormented Russia!
  No domination of one class over another!
  Free and quiet work for everyone!
  No violence against civilians, no murders, no extrajudicial executions!
  Down with the predators who oppress Russia! Down with the commune!
  Long live the United Great Indivisible Russia!
  Leaflet

  By the beginning of the 1st Kuban campaign

  • Consolidated officer regiment (gen. Markov) - from 3 officer battalions, the Caucasian division and the naval company.
  • Kornilov shock regiment (regiment Nezhentsev) - parts of b. George Regiment and partisan detachment regiment. Simanovsky.
  • Partisan regiment (gen. A. P. Bogaevsky)
  • Junker battalion (gen. Borovsky) - from the former Junker battalion and the Rostov regiment.
  • Artillery battalion (regiment Ikishev) - out of four batteries, two guns each. Battery commanders: Mionchinsky, Schmidt, Erogin, Tretyakov.
  • Czech-Slovak Engineering Battalion - under the control of a civilian engineer Kral and under the command of Captain Nemetchik.
  • Mounted units
    • regiment. Glazenapa - from the Don partisan detachments
    • officer's squadron (colonel Gerschelman) - regular
    • lieutenant colonel Kornilov - from former units Chernetsova.

  Total: 3200 fighters and 148 medical staff, 8 guns, 600 shells, 200 rounds of ammunition per person.

  By the beginning of the 2nd Kuban campaign

  Volunteer army at the end of 1918

  In November 1918, the tactical and strategic deployment of the army began - the 1st, 2nd and 3rd army corps and the 1st cavalry corps were formed. In December, the Caucasian group, Donetsk, Crimean and Tuapse detachments were created as part of the army. In the Crimea, from the end of 1918, the 4th Infantry Division was also formed. In December 1918, the army consisted of three army corps (1-3), the Crimean-Azov and the 1st cavalry corps. In February 1919, the 2nd Kuban Corps was created. and the 1st and 2nd army corps included units of the former Astrakhan and Southern armies transferred by the Don ataman. On January 10, 1919, with the formation of the Crimean-Azov Volunteer Army on the basis of the Crimean-Azov Corps, it received the name of the Caucasian Volunteer Army, and on May 2, 1919, it was divided into the Volunteer (as part of the All-Russian Union of Youth Union) and the Caucasian Army.

  Army strength

  The army (having lost several thousand people during the period from November 1917 to February 1918) entered the 1st Kuban campaign in the number (according to various sources) of 2.5-4 thousand, the Kuban units that joined it numbered 2-3 thousand ., about 5 thousand returned from the campaign, the Drozdovsky detachment at the time of connection with the army numbered up to 3 thousand. As a result, in the spring of 1918 the army numbered about 8 thousand people. In early June, it grew by another thousand people. By September 1918, there were 35-40 thousand units in the army. and sab., in December there were 32-34 thousand in the active troops and 13-14 thousand in reserve, emerging units and garrisons of cities, that is, about 48 thousand people in total. By the beginning of 1919, it numbered up to 40 thousand units. and sab., 60% of whom were Kuban Cossacks.

  Losses in personnel

  The army suffered the heaviest (relative to its size) losses during 1918, that is, precisely when the officers made up a particularly significant part of it. From the beginning of formation, more than 6000 people entered the army, and when leaving Rostov, the number of fighters did not exceed 2500, we can assume that she lost at least 3,500 people. About 400 people died in the 1st Kuban campaign. and taken out about 1500 wounded. After leaving Yekaterinodar to the north, about 300 people. was left in Art. Elizavetinskaya (all finished off by the pursuers) and another 200 - in Dyadkovskaya. The army suffered no less heavy losses in the 2nd Kuban campaign (in some battles, for example, during the capture of Tikhoretskaya, losses reached 25% of the composition), and in battles near Stavropol. In individual battles, losses amounted to hundreds and sometimes even thousands of dead.

  Volunteer army in the composition of V. S. S. R. "Campaign to Moscow"

  It was formed on May 8, 1919 as a result of the division of the Caucasian Volunteer Army. By mid-June 1919 it included the 1st Army and 3rd Kuban Corps, the 2nd Kuban Plastun Brigade. At the end of July, the Group of Gen. Promtov and the newly formed 5th Cavalry Corps. By September 15, 1919, the 2nd Army Corps was formed from the 5th and 7th Infantry Divisions. On October 14, 1919, another 1st separate infantry brigade was formed.

  However, during the “camp on Moscow”, the army included only two corps - the 1st Army from the “colored units”: the 1st and 3rd infantry divisions deployed in mid-October into four divisions - Kornilovskaya, Markovskaya, Drozdovskaya and Alekseevskaya and the 5th cavalry corps of two non-Cossack regular cavalry divisions: the 1st and 2nd cavalry. In addition, the army included: Consolidated regiment of the 1st separate cavalry brigade, 2nd and 3rd separate heavy howitzer divisions, Separate heavy cannon tractor division, 2nd radio-telegraph division, 2nd, 5th , the 6th separate telegraph company, the 1st and 2nd tank divisions and the 5th automobile battalion. The army was also attached to the 1st aviation division (2nd and 6th air detachments and the 1st air base), armored vehicles: the 1st division, 1st, 3rd and 4th detachments.

  The 2nd Army Corps (commander M.N. Promtov) as part of the Troops of the Kiev Region of the All-Union Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia advanced in the Kiev-Chernigov region, and the reserve units, from which the 3rd Army Corps, originally intended to strengthen the Moscow direction, were to be re-formed, were thrown against Makhno, who broke through the front of the Whites at the end of September.

  Having reached its maximum strength due to mobilizations in the occupied provinces of southern Russia and the enlistment of surrendered Red Army soldiers, by mid-October 1919 the Volunteer Army occupied a vast area along the line Chernigov-Khutor Mikhailovsky-Sevsk-Dmitrovsk-Kromy-Naryshkino-Orel-Novosil-Borki- Kostornoe. During the Oryol-Kromsky battle of October 11-November 18, 1919, she suffered a strategic defeat and was forced to leave all previously occupied areas, retreating to the Don by December 1919. - 5000 people at the time of the Novorossiysk evacuation). However, the Volunteer Corps survived as a combat unit and was not destroyed. With continuous fighting, the corps retreated in March 1920 to the port of Novorossiysk. There, the Volunteer Corps is a priority, thanks to the order of the Commander-in-Chief of the All-Union Socialist League, General Lieutenant. A. I. Denikin and the iron restraint of his commander, Lieutenant General A. P. Kutepov, embarked on ships and arrived in the Crimea, which remained white thanks to the successfully organized defense of its isthmuses by the troops of Major General Ya. A. Slashchev. The Volunteer Corps in the Crimea formed the powerful backbone of the Russian Army, General Denikin's successor as White Commander-in-Chief, Baron Wrangel.

  Army strength

  By mid-June 1919, the army numbered 20 thousand units. and 5.5 thousand sab., at the end of July - 33 thousand pieces. and 6.5 thousand sab., as of October 5 - 17791 pcs. and 2664 sub. at 451 pools. and 65 op. At the beginning of December 1919, there were 3,600 units in the Volunteer Army. and 4700 sub. In total, the army, including rear and emerging units, by July 5, 1919, there were 57,725 people. (including 3884 officers, 40963 combatants, 6270 auxiliary and 6608 non-combatant lower ranks).

  Notes

  1. , T. II. - Ch. XIV. .
  2. , With. 54.
  3. , With. 53.
  4. , With. 35.
  5. Markov and Markovites. M.: NP "Posev", 2001
  6. Calendar "Holy Rus" 22.02.1918 − Beginning heroic Ice campaign Volunteer army gen. Kornilova // Website publishing house Russian Idea  (www.rusidea.org) (Retrieved 2 February 2013)
  7. Drozdovsky M. G. Diary . - Berlin: Otto Kirchner and Co., 1923. - 190 p.
  8. Drozdovsky and the Drozdovites. - M.: NP "Posev", 2006. - 692 p. - ISBN 5-85824-165-4, p.79, 383
  9. Hyacinths Erast Notes white officer / Enter. article, preparation of the text and comments. V. G. Bortnevsky. - pp.66-67
  10. , T. V. - Ch. II. .
  11. Baylo Andriy. Timchasy union UGA z Dobrarmієyu ta yogo naslіdki (Ukrainian) // Ukraine: cultural recession, national svіdomіst, statehood: Collection of scientific practices. - Lviv: Institute of Ukrainian Studies im. I. Krip'yakevich NAS of Ukraine, 2009. - Issue. 18 . - S. 353-362.
  12. Tomuk I. M. The reasons for the vice of the Vimus about "єdnannia of the Ukrainian Army, voluntary Armyu, URAYA A. I. Denikina (Listopad - Great 1919) // Vikonnik of the National District to the UNIVIVIT" LVIVSKA Half -TECHNIKA ": The thematic vibrant" Power - 2008. 612. - pp. 86-91. - ISSN 0321-0499.
  13. Soldatenko V. F. The tragic side of the history of the "one Ukrainian front: the agreement of the UGA with the Belarusians// Conciliarity as official Ukrainian soviet creation  (until 90-Richch Aktu zluki) / For red. R. Ya. Piroga. - Kiev, 2009. - S. 53-63. - 229 p.
  14. Abinyakin R. M. The officer corps of the Volunteer army: social composition, outlook, 1917-1920. Monograph. - Orel: Publisher A. Vorobiev, 2005. - 204 p. - ISBN 5-900901-57-2.
  15. Volunteer army//White movement in Russia: organizational structure. Alphabetical index // Site historian Sergei Vladimirovich Volkov (swolkov.ru) (Retrieved 2 February 2013)

  The history of the Russian Volunteer Army, better known as the White Army, is the history of the military disgrace of some and military glory other people.

  Why shame? Contemporaries and participants in the events almost unanimously admit that in the cities where the officer Volunteer Army was originally formed (Rostov, Novocherkassk, Taganrog) at that time there were tens of thousands of military officers tsarist army, and the strength of the Dobroarmiya at the time of its departure from the Don was 3.5 thousand bayonets and sabers. Moreover, it cannot be said that all this was entirely officers - there were quite a few (over 1000 people) cadets, students, even cadet boys and high school students ... It reached the point of absurdity: according to many testimonies, the first volunteers, including the leadership, went to in civilian clothes (so as not to tease the "left public" on the Don), and regular officers, who walked without turning their heads past the recruiting centers of the Good Army, flaunted, as expected, in military uniform with gold shoulder straps! It should be noted that in the Region of the Don Cossacks, which was not subordinate to the Bolsheviks, there were officially operating military institutions of the old army (not to mention the structures of the Cossack army), rear, economic, mobilization, etc., which had funds. But they did not take any part in organizing an armed rebuff to the Bolsheviks.

  Who is more to blame here: the evading officers or the leadership of the Good Army, which chose the “democratic”, contractual way of recruiting, is now difficult to say. The organizers of the Dobroarmiya, Generals Alekseev and Kornilov, not without reason, were known in the old army as “core workers”, “Febralists”, and most of the officers did not feel much desire to fight under their leadership for “one and indivisible Russia”. They thought something like this: “Yeah, you made this mess, and now you are offering us to clear it up! No, when you overthrew the tsar-father, you didn’t ask our consent, so you can sort it out yourself.”

  We can say that the Volunteer Army, like the Red Army, was a product of the revolution. Of course, unlike the Red Army, its uniform, symbols, patriotic slogans, loyalty to Orthodoxy evoked in many people associations with old Russia. However, it can hardly be called a counter-revolutionary force in the classical sense. In essence, the civil war in Russia was the war of the February and October revolutions. In fact, there was no war between the revolution and the monarchist counter-revolution. However, there is a paradox: those officers who nevertheless went to the Good Army were, for the most part, monarchists. But they were not allowed to express their views openly. There were cases when counterintelligence even shot members of monarchist organizations in the White Army (by order of the notorious General Slashchev).

  By February 1918, a dramatic situation had developed in the Don region, close to farcical. The Cossack units, not listening to the persuasions of Ataman Kaledin, began to leave en masse for their villages. Only hundreds of poorly armed and even worse dressed volunteers fought at the stations and railway junctions (the war then went mainly along the lines of the railways) against the mass of thousands of Red Guards who were pressing from the north. And the boulevards, cafes, entertainment establishments of Rostov, Novocherkassk, Taganrog were still filled with thousands of idle officers! Unfired boys, cadets and cadets, defended veterans who had seen the sights and did not want to fight with anyone else!

  But then another page opens - the page of Russian military glory. Not being able to defend a significant Don region without the support of the Cossack units, Generals Alekseev and Kornilov decide to march on the Kuban. It is difficult to say whether it was an offensive or, on the contrary, a retreat. The Bolsheviks were everywhere - front and back. We had to move forward, leading continuous battles with superior forces of the Reds. A handful of volunteers crossed fast, non-freezing rivers, furiously took village after village, replenished with Kuban Cossacks (still not numerous). Subsequently, this legendary campaign will be called Ice.

  Inspired by success, General Kornilov decided to take Yekaterinodar by storm on the move, Big City with 20,000 Bolshevik garrison. In the suburbs, railway station fierce fighting ensued. But at the height of the assault, Lavr Georgievich Kornilov was killed by a shell explosion. The new commander, General Anton Ivanovich Denikin, and the political leader of the army, General Mikhail Vasilyevich Alekseev, decided to lift the siege of Ekaterinodar and return back. The once taken Kuban villages again had to be taken with a fight. It is not known how it would all end, but in April the Don rebelled against the Reds. From the west, the rebels were helped by the brigade of Colonel Drozdovsky, who made his way from the Romanian front, from the east, from the Salsky steppes, the Cossack detachment of the marching ataman Popov hit, volunteers approached from the south. The Bolsheviks were defeated everywhere. The Cossacks quickly formed the Don Army, which significantly outnumbered the volunteers (up to one hundred thousand sabers and bayonets).

  But friction immediately began between Alekseev, Denikin and the newly elected Don ataman Krasnov. General Pyotr Nikolaevich Krasnov advocated allied relations with the Germans, and the command of the Good Army considered itself to be at war with them. Krasnov and the Cossack elite declared the Region of the Don Cossacks independent state as part of Russia, while Alekseev and Denikin did not recognize any "sovereignty". All this led to the fact that the Don and volunteers fought completely autonomously, turning their backs on each other: the Don army went to Tsaritsyn and Voronezh, and the Volunteer army went to Yekaterinodar and Stavropol.

  The finest hour of the volunteers came in 1919, when Denikin still managed to subjugate the Donets and Kuban. The volunteer army was now only a part of Denikin's army, which was called the Armed Forces of the South of Russia and was replenished through mobilizations. The total number of VSYUR reached 152 thousand bayonets and sabers. In May 1919, the general offensive of the whites began. Under their unstoppable onslaught, the Bolsheviks left Yuzovka, Lugansk, Yekaterinoslav, Poltava, Kharkov, Kiev, Belgorod, Kursk, Voronezh, Orel, Mtsensk. Moscow was only 250 miles away.

  But we must remember that the forces of the Red Army in 1919 already numbered about 3 million people. Trotsky had practically unlimited reserves and freely transferred them either to the Volga, when Kolchak approached it, then to Petrograd, where Yudenich was advancing from Pskov, then back to Moscow, to which Denikin was approaching. But the white armies had no reserves. Their front was greatly stretched. Only 59 thousand bayonets and sabers were concentrated in the direction of the main attack.

  The hitch with the decision to gather a fist near Tula from all combat-ready units turned out to be fatal. At first slowly, with heavy fighting, and then faster and faster, Denikin's armies rolled back south. But they did not manage to hold out even in the North Caucasus. At the end of March 1920, the remnants of the whites in the atmosphere total chaos evacuated from Novorossiysk to the Crimea. The command of the VSYUR passed from Anton Ivanovich Denikin to Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel.

  Denikin's attack on Moscow was the last major operation of the civil war, which could lead to the overthrow of the Bolsheviks. But this did not happen. Until now, disputes about whether this is bad or good have not ceased. The Whites, even being "Februaryists", still represented the Russian national strength. Their defeat seriously affected the position of the Russian majority not only in the USSR, but also in the current "erefiya". Lenin said bluntly that the Russians should pay for everything, and Putin and Medvedev still follow this doctrine. But Denikin and Kolchak were too dependent on the West to revive a great power. "White Russia" would have the future of Chiang Kai-shek China - and this is even in the best case. And, of course, there can be no question of "White Russia" being able to stop the German "onslaught on the East." If the commanders of the White Army could not defeat Trotsky, then they would not have defeated Hitler for nothing. Thinking that Hitler would not have gone to "white Russia" is ridiculous - he did go to "white Poland." Only Stalin's Red Army could defeat Hitler, and therefore, Stalin and the Red Army were more necessary for history than white army.

  Andrey Vorontsov
  

  The civil war in Russia is a confrontation between two forces in the struggle for power. On the one hand, the White Army came out, and on the other, as you know, the Red Army. The southern troops acted as an opponent of the "Reds", hoping to finally overthrow them and settle in the country's administrative apparatus. The worst thing is that both of them propagandized dictatorship in their political activity, Besides, ideological struggle behind better life turned into a confrontation between the two camps "us" and "them". The actions of those years can rightly be called fratricidal.

  The Bolsheviks dreamed of regaining their importance, privileges and reasserting themselves as an organ of power and supremacy. Their representatives were the bourgeoisie, the landlords, and the intelligentsia. All those who were tired of the Bolshevik policy voluntarily joined the ranks of the rebels. The civil war in Russia lasted from 1918 to 1922 and affected neighboring states. The Civil War was preceded by the October Revolution of 1917, and created social, economic and political inequality in the country. The causes of the Civil War also include:

  • signing between Russia and Germany of the Brest peace treaty;
  • worsening relations between Bolsheviks and peasants;
  • nationalization of production;
  • SR policy.

  The intervention of foreign states in the country's conflicts only strengthened and incited the rebels to aggressive methods of fighting the "Reds" in the hope of splitting Russia.

  The main military force of the "whites" in southern Russia in years of the Civil War was Volunteer army. According to the new style, it appeared in January 1918. Its founders are General Alekseev and the military detachment he led. Absolutely everyone who opposed the Bolshevik government joined it voluntarily: fugitive officers, high school students, cadets. Their allies initially were the Don Cossacks. The strategic association was located in Novocherkassk and rather quickly, in less than a year, the number of troops increased from two to three thousand people. It included:

  • shock regiment of Kornilov;
  • artillery batteries;
  • battalions;
  • squadrons and batteries, and other detachments.

  The volunteers wanted to increase the number of the military to 10 thousand and built a grandiose plan, but in 1918 the Red Army forced them to leave the territory of the Don region.

  Interesting! The civil war in Russia is considered one of the bloodiest in the world, because all the participants in the conflict were ready to carry out cruel reprisals and violence against each other!

  
  

  Representatives of the Southern Regiment went to Yekaterinodar (in the Kuban), which later became known as the First Kuban Campaign. There is another name for this movement - the Ice Campaign. The actions took place in February, the army failed to capture Yekaterinodar due to terrible weather conditions and the unpreparedness of the soldiers to resist them. As a result, many people died from cold and disease.

  After Kornilov dies on April 13, General Denikin takes his place. He led the troops of the Volunteer Army to the south of the Don region, where he received support from the Don Cossacks and Ataman Krasnov. It was Krasnov who gave the "whites" military equipment and weapons from the Germans.

  In June 1918, volunteers go to the Second Kuban campaign and still capture Yekaterinodar. By September, the Volunteer Army subjugates the main part of the Kuban and the Black Sea province.

  Autumn. The southern troops began to receive large supplies of weapons from the Entente. The number of troops is growing rapidly. In 1919, during the Civil War, the Volunteer Army inflicted a strong counterattack on the Red Army. And in February 1919, volunteers captured the territory of the entire North Caucasus. After high-profile victories and the split of the Red Army into parts, the “whites” form a special detachment of the best military men and send it to the territory of Crimea.

  On January 8, 1918, Wrangel led the volunteers and the army became the representative of the Armed Forces on southern regions Russia.

  April 1919 - the army of the "whites" forces its enemy to retreat from the territory of the Don, Kharkov regions and Donbass.

  July 1919 - The Volunteer Army plans to capture the following cities:

  • Tulu;
  • Kursk;
  • Eagle.

  The number of troops consisted of about 50 thousand volunteers and Cossacks. The capture of the city of Orel is considered the pinnacle of white successes. But during this battle, the military suffered great losses in numbers. And by December 1919, the Red Army managed to defeat the bulk of the soldiers of the Volunteer Army.

  Defeat of the Southern troops

  In the winter of 1920, a fierce battle took place between the "Reds" and the "Whites" near Odessa and in the lands of the North Caucasus, where the Volunteer Army was defeated. Those soldiers who managed to survive managed to move to the Crimea and join the Russian army under the command of Wrangel.

  Interesting! Denikin in his "Essays on Russian Troubles" described how the Volunteer uprising fell morally, turning its activities into vandalism and robbery! (described the "white terror").

  The defeat of the Volunteer Army was due to cruelty, which is described in textbooks as " white terror". The troops carried out lynching, robbed and intimidated the population. Of course, today many supporters of the "white" guard rewrite historical information and describe the irrefutable facts of the dictatorial power of the "reds". But if we take into account the fact that ordinary peasants made up the majority of the population in those years, then at the beginning of the Civil War they supported the “whites”, since the power of those times did not suit the working population. During the war, people realized that the policy dictated by Denikin and other generals was, in fact, even tougher than the "Red Terror", and gradually began to move from volunteers to Red Army soldiers.

  Important! When the Red Terror was declared, more than 2,500 people were killed in Petrograd in one night. As a result of the Civil War, an agreement was signed on the creation of the USSR. After the collapse of the Volunteer Army and the retreat of the Whites, the confrontation between the two forces did not subside, but continued the war between the special services: the People's Labor Union and the State Security Committee.

  (White Guard) - the main striking force of the counter-revolution in the South of Russia in 1918 - early. 1920.

  Formed from 2(15) Nov. 1917 in Novocherkassk M. V. Alekseev under the name. "Alekseevskaya organization" on the principle of volunteerism from counter-revolutionary-minded officers, cadets, senior cadets, students, high school students, who fled to the Don, etc.

  Dec 25 1917 (January 7, 1918) L. G. Kornilov took command of the formation, which became officially known as D. A. [in the press, this was announced on December 27. (Jan 9)]; top. leader - Alekseev. To solve the financial-economic. questions at D. and. was created. "Economic meeting."

  D.'s guide and. focused on the powers of the Entente. In con. Jan. 1918 Kornilov, not agreeing with the Don ataman Kaledin about general plans fight against the Soviets. power, translated by D. a. (up to 2 thousand people) from Novocherkassk to Rostov n / a, where she became Ch. counter-revolutionary force in the district of Rostov n / a - Taganrog.

  The collapse of Kaliningrad and the onset of the Russian Revolution. troops forced the leadership of D. a. Feb 22 leave Rostov n / a and retreat beyond the Don.

  In the village of Olginskaya D. a. was reorganized into 3 infantry. regiment (Consolidated officer, commander S. L. Markov, Kornilovsky shock, commander - colonel M. O. Nezhentsov and Partizansky, commander - general A. P. Bogaevsky), cadet battalion, 2 cav. division and art. division (total 3000 bayonets, 400 sabers, 8 guns).

  March 27 D. a. approached the district of Yekaterinodar and connected with the detachment of V. L. Pokrovsky; under an agreement with the top Kuban. Cossacks of their "governments. detachments "completely obeyed the top. the power of Kornilov.

  3 brigades are formed:

• 1st (Officer and Kuban joint venture, 1st battery) gene. Markov,
• 2nd (Kornilov shock and Partisan regiments, plastun battalion, 2nd battery) gene. Bogaevsky
• Cavalry (Horse regiment, Circassian command post, Kuban cavalry division, artillery battery) gene. Erdeli
(total about 6 thousand bayonets and sabers, 16 guns).

D.'s attempts and. 10 - 13 Apr. they were not successful in capturing Yekaterinodar. Having suffered heavy losses (up to 400 killed, including Kornilov, and 1,500 wounded), D. a. (Denikin took command) retreated by May 13 in district of villages Mechetinskaya, Yegorlykskaya, Gulyai-Borisovka (southern part of the Don Host Region).

In connection with the capture of the German troops of Ukraine, the overthrow of the Soviet. authorities on the Don, where the German Military Prospect was formed. protege of Ataman Krasnov, and the growth of counter-revolutionaries. mood among the Cubans. Cossacks Denikin managed to replenish D. a. and receive weapons and ammunition from Krasnov. June 8 in Novocherkassk to D. a. the detachment of M. G. Drozdovsky joined.

In June, D. a. included:

• 1st Infantry Division Markov (since June 25, General B. I. Kazanovich),
• 2nd pd gene. A. A. Borovsky,
• 3rd Infantry Regiment Drozdovsky,
• 1st con. div. gene. Erdeli (then Wrangel),
• 1st Kuban. con. brigade, later div. gene. Pokrovsky,
• two scout battalions;
• in July, the 2nd Kuban was formed. Cossack div. gene. S. G. Ulagaya and Kuban. Cossack brigade Shkuro.

June 23 D. a. (10 - 12 thousand bayonets and sabers) of the beginning of the so-called. 2nd Kuban. hike attack on the village of Torgovaya, then on the village of Tikhoretskaya and Yekaterinodar. She succeeded in July - Sept. to defeat the troops of the North Caucasus. owls. rep. and capture the part of Sev. Caucasus. By the Cubans. Cossacks and force. mobilized number of D. and. increased to 30-35 thousand bayonets and sabers.

From Nov. 1918 The Entente established the technical materials. D.'s supply and. through Novorossiysk, which allowed Denikin to deploy large forces (up to 100 thousand people, including 40 thousand bayonets and sabers).

In con. Nov. were formed:

• 1st (Kazanovich, from January - Gen. A.P. Kutepov),
• 2nd (Borovsky),
• 3rd (gen. V. N. Lyakhova, from March - general. N. N. Schilling)
army corps,
• 1st Con. Wrangel Corps,
• as well as dep. divisions and brigades.

Jan 8 1919 established « armed forces South of Russia", one of constituent parts to-rykh became D. a., rename. Jan 23 V Caucasian D. a.(as opposed to the emerging Crimean-Azov D. a.).

Dec. 1918 - Feb. 1919 ch. D.'s forces and. (1st and 3rd army corps, cavalry corps, Circassian cd, etc.) inflicted a heavy defeat on the owls of the 11th A and captured the entire North Caucasus.

Group of troops Gen. V. 3 May-Maevsky, consisting of the best regiments (Kornilovsky, Markovsky, etc.), in January. was transferred to the Donbass to help the Don White Cossacks.

The 2nd Army Corps operated in the Crimea. March - Apr. D. a., which included the formed 1st and 2nd Kuban. con. corps, deployed in two cores. groups - in the Donbass and Manych, and in May went on the offensive against the owls. troops of the South. fr.

Its composition has changed, but mainly it included:

• 1st Army Corps Kutepov,
• 2nd Army Corps Gen. M. N. Promtova (then General Ya. A. Slashchev),
• 5th con. Corps of Gen. Ya. D. Yuzefovich,
• 3rd Kuban. con. Corps Shkuro,
• from sept. Kyiv group of gene. N. E. Bredova.

D. a., which included many officers, had a high combat capability and acted in the direction of Ch. hit. Its troops, in which notorious counter-revolutionaries prevailed, were distinguished by cruelty, robbed the population (therefore, the Dobrarmia was called the “robber army”). D.'s core and. was the 1st Army Corps, which included the so-called. registered regiments * Kornilov shock, Markovsky (former 1st Officer), Drozdovsky (former 2nd Officer), Alekseevsky (former Partisan).

In July 1919, the formation of the second and third "nominal" regiments began, and in August. - Oct. they were deployed in divisions of 3-4 regiments. Besides, in D. and. included divisions and regiments formed on the basis of the cadre of regiments of the old army (13th, 15th, 34th infantry regiments, 80th Kabardian, 83rd Samursky, 13th Belozersky points, etc.).

The combat composition of D. a. in sept. 1919 included St. 50 thousand bayonets and sabers. Large losses and the need to deploy D. a. forced to replenish it with mobilized and even prisoners, as a result of which its combat effectiveness began to decline from the autumn of 1919.

Oct. - Dec. 1919 ch. forces of D. a. advancing on Moscow. direction, were defeated by Kr. Army in a number of battles. Remains of D. a. Jan 3 1920 were brought together in the district of Rostov n / a in otd. Volunteer frame gene. Kutepov (about 10 thousand bayonets and sabers). After the defeat of Denikin's troops in the North. Caucasus in con. March 1920, the remnants of the corps were evacuated to the Crimea, where they became part of the Wrangel "Russian Army".

Commanders: gene. from infantry L. G. Kornilov, general lieutenant. A. I. Denikin (April 13, 1918 - January 8, 1919), lieutenant general. P. N. Wrangel (January 8 - May 22, 1919, December 5, 1919 - January 3, 1920), lieutenant general. V. 3. May-Maevsky (May 22 - November 27, 1919).

Chief of Staff: gen.-leit. A. S. Lukomsky, Major General I. P. Romanovsky (February 1918 - January 8, 1919), Major General P. N. Shatilov (January 8 - May 22, 1919, December 13, 1919 - 3 Jan. 1920), gene. Efimov (May 22 - December 13, 1920).

Source - "Civil War and Military Intervention in the USSR", M., "Soviet Encyclopedia", 1983.

VOLUNTEER ARMY

In the autumn of 1917, Russia was slipping into a nationwide crisis: a peasant war broke out, the Russian army was decomposing. At this time, at the top of the military command, concerned about the outcome of the war with Germany, the idea arose to create an army of volunteers in the deep rear, which would support the collapsed front.

October 30, 1917 General Mikhail Vasilievich Alekseev, the former chief of staff of the supreme commander in chief (he was Tsar Nicholas II himself), the recognized leader of the "right non-party" generals, left Petrograd for the Don to form the armed forces to fight simultaneously with the Germans and the Bolsheviks.



general-l-t M.S. Pusovoitenko Nicholas II from infatheria M.V. Dlekseev


One of the first who began to organize the military to fight the Bolsheviks was General Mikhail Vasilievich Alekseev.



He was born on November 3 (15), 1857 in the Tver province in the family of a soldier who rose to the rank of officer. Mikhail Alekseev himself in 1873 entered the 2nd Rostov Grenadier Regiment as a volunteer. After graduating from the Tver Classical Gymnasium and the Moscow Infantry Cadet School in 1876, she was enrolled in the 64th Kazan Infantry Regiment with the rank of ensign. As part of this regiment, he participated in Russian-Turkish war 1877-1878, during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 already served in the rank of quartermaster general of the 3rd Manchurian army. the first world war began as chief of staff of the armies of the Southwestern Front, in 1915 - commander of the Western Front, then chief of staff under the emperor, ended the war - Supreme Commander of the Russian Army (March 11, 1917 - May 21, 1917). It should be noted that Alekseev was among those who played an active role in the abdication of the emperor. He supported the chairman State Duma Mikhail Vladimirovich Rodzianko and actually persuaded the commanders-in-chief of the fronts to support the idea of ​​the tsar's abdication.



Alekseev has come a long way from a soldier to the Supreme Commander. As Supreme Commander, he tried to stop the further collapse of the army, spoke out against the Soviets and the soldiers' committees in the armed forces, tried to save the soldiers from "agitators" and restore the system of one-man command. However, the destructive processes, to the launch of which he himself had a hand, could no longer be stopped. Alekseev was removed from the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief when he sharply spoke out against the "Declaration of the Rights of the Soldier", which he supported Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky.



The Kornilov rebellion took place from 25 to 30 August 1917. Opponents were the supreme commander of the army General Kornilov and Prime Minister Kerensky. The events of those days raise more questions than answers. The official version says that General Kornilov rebelled and tried to seize power. He tried to concentrate power in his hands in order to become the sole ruler of Russia, destroying the fruits of the February Revolution. After the suppression of the rebellion, many generals were arrested and imprisoned in the Bykhov prison.



A group of arrested generals and officers led by Kornilov during the period of Bykhov's confinement. By numbers: 1. L. G. Kornilov; 2. A. I. Denikin; 3. G. M. Vannovsky; 4. I. G. Erdeli; 5. E. F. Elsner; 6. A. S. Lukomsky; 7. V. N. Kislyakov; 8. I. P. Romanovsky; 9. S. L. Markov; 10. M. I. Orlov; 11. A. F. Alad'in; 12. A. P. Bragin; 13. V. M. Pronin; 14. Ensign S. F. Nikitin; 15. Ensign A. V. Ivanov; 16. I. V. Nikanorov (Nikonorov); 17. L. N. Novosiltsev; 18. G. L. Chunikhin; 19. I. A. Rodionov; 20. I. G. Soots; 21. V. V. Kletsanda. Autumn 1917

Leaving, Alekseev knew that the Cossacks themselves would not go to restore order in Russia, but would defend their territory from the Bolsheviks and thus provide a base for the formation of a new army on the Don.

November 2, 1917 M. V. Alekseev arrived in Novocherkassk, and this day was subsequently marked by participants in the white movement, as birthday of the Volunteer Army.

Alexey Maksimovich Kaledin to Alekseev's call to "give shelter to the Russian officers," he expressed "principled sympathy," but, pushed by the left, democratic wing of his associates, he hinted that it would be better to choose Stavropol or Kamyshin as the center of the new "Alekseev organization." Nevertheless, General Alekseev and his entourage remained in Novocherkassk, hiding behind the principle "no extradition from the Don."



The transfer of cadet schools from Kyiv and Odessa began to the Don. The policy of the Soviet Power increased the influx of officers. The order of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee of October 25, 1917, stated that officers who “directly and openly” join the revolution should be immediately arrested “as enemies,” after which many officers from Petrograd and Moscow went singly and in groups to the Don.

The arrivals settled down in Novocherkassk, in the infirmary No. 2 on the corner of Barochnaya and Platovsky prospect. During November it was possible to assemble a detachment of officers and a company of cadets, cadets and midshipmen who arrived from Petrograd and Moscow. The evacuated Konstantinovsky and Mikhailovsky artillery schools were reduced to one battery. In addition, the remnants of the St. George Regiment arrived under the command of Colonel Kiriyenko, who were consolidated into one St. George company.

Infantry company of the Volunteer Army, formed from guards officers. January 1918

When at the end of November 1917 the performance of workers and Red Guards began in Rostov, supported by a landing of Black Sea sailors, the Don ataman A. M. Kaledin could not oppose him with real forces: the Cossack and soldier regiments kept neutrality. The only combat-ready unit turned out to be the "Alekseevskaya organization" - a consolidated officer company (up to 200 people), a cadet battalion (over 150 people), a Mikhailovsko-Konstantinovskaya battery (up to 250 people) and a Georgievskaya company (up to 60 people). Colonel Prince Khovansky led these units and led the guards into battle. From November 26 to December 1, battles went on with varying success, until the Military Circle gathered and forced the Cossack units to suppress the performance in Rostov, which was done on December 2, 1917.

A new stage began when a general arrived on the Don on December 6, 1917 Lavr Georgievich Kornilov, very popular among officers.



The influx of volunteers has increased. General A. I. Denikin later wrote: "Everyone who really sympathized with the idea of ​​​​struggle and was able to endure its hardships went to our peculiar Zaporizhzhya Sich." Nevertheless, the social composition of the "volunteers" had its own characteristics. In 1921, M. Latsis described him: "Junkers, officers of the old time, teachers, students and all young students - after all, this is all, in its vast majority, a petty-bourgeois element, and it was they who made up the combat formations of our opponents, and it was from it that consisted of White Guard regiments. Officers played a particularly important role among these elements.






7. Officer of the Artillery General of the Drozdovsky Brigade
8. Officer of the 2nd Officer Rifle General Drozdovsky Regiment
9. Officer of the 2nd Cavalry General Drozdovsky Regiment
10. Non-commissioned officer of the 1st Cavalry General Drozdovsky Regiment
11. Officer of the Alekseevsky artillery division (1920)
12. Officer of the Partisan General Alekseev Infantry Regiment (1919)



1. Variants of the sleeve insignia of the Kornilov shock regiments and the Artillery General Kornilov brigade
2. Variants of the "national" chevron and the Kornilov "shock" chevron
3. Variants of sleeve insignia of the 2nd Cavalry General Drozdovsky Regiment (1919-1920)

Before the First World War, the Russian officer corps was all-class. There was no caste, but there was isolation. During the war, the officer corps grew about five times. By 1917, career officers occupied posts not lower than the commander of a regiment or battalion, all lower levels were occupied by wartime officers, the vast majority of whom were peasants. A number of contemporaries believed that the quality of officers had improved. "While renegades used to come here high school, - the war sent to schools and a lawyer, and an engineer, and an agronomist, and a student, folk teacher, an official and even a former "lower rank" with St. George distinctions. The war united them all into one family, and the revolution gave breadth and scope to noble skills and sweeping, young energy." of those who rushed to the Don, 80% were monarchists in their political views. In general, by definition Anton Ivanovich Denikin, an independent "military-public movement" has matured and formed.



Formation was still slow. Calling front-line officers to leave the ranks of the old army for the sake of the Volunteer Army meant opening the front to the Germans. We had to rely on the rear, on vacationers, on the recovered wounded.

Meanwhile, in December 1917, the Kornilov shock regiment headed by Colonel M. O. Nezhentsev arrived from Kyiv to the Don. The officers assembled in Novocherkassk were consolidated into the 1st Novocherkassk battalion. In Rostov, General Cherepov created the 2nd Rostov officer battalion from officers; here, Colonel Gerschelman formed a cavalry division.

Officially, the creation of the Volunteer Army and the opening of entry into it was announced on December 24, 1917. On December 25, L. G. Kornilov took command of the army.

Created its own artillery. It consisted of three batteries. One battery was “stolen” from the 39th Infantry Division at the Torgovaya station, 2 guns were taken from a warehouse in Novocherkassk to pay tribute to those who died in the battles for Rostov and lost, and one battery was bought from the Cossacks for 5 thousand rubles.

On January 14, 1918, due to the "left" of the Don government, the center for the formation of the Volunteer Army was moved to Rostov. Here, the formation of the 3rd Rostov officer battalion and the Rostov volunteer regiment, which consisted mainly of Rostov students, was already underway. The regiment was commanded by General Borovsky. In addition, the "death division" of the Caucasian Cavalry Division of Colonel Shiryaev and the cavalry detachment of Colonel Glazenap arrived.

Having not completed the formation, the army (if it could be called that) immediately after crossing into Rostov got involved in battles, covering the city from the west from the revolutionary units sent to suppress the "Kaledinshchina". The battles showed that "in the majority, highly valiant commanders crept up ..." and the rank and file was distinguished by stamina and ruthlessness.



In January-February 1918, it became clear that the Cossacks did not support the "volunteers" and were neutral at best. Local anti-Bolshevik detachments - "partisans" - consisted of Novocherkassk students, realists, high school students, seminarians and cadets. There were few Cossacks in them.

After the suicide of General A. M. Kaledin, the anti-Bolshevik forces on the Don were practically surrounded. Not having specific plan where to go, the command of the army slipped out of the ring and withdrew the army.

In the village of Olginskaya, it was decided to move to the Kuban, where volunteer detachments were also being formed. The volunteer army moved into the legendary 1st Kuban or "Ice" campaign.





Before the start of the Kuban campaign, the losses of the Dobroarmia amounted to 1½ thousand people, including at least a third of those killed.

On February 22, 1918, under the onslaught of the Red troops, the Dobrarmia units left Rostov and moved to the Kuban. The famous "Ice Campaign" (1st Kuban) of the Volunteer Army (3200 bayonets and sabers) began from Rostov-on-Don to Yekaterinodar with heavy fighting, surrounded by a 20,000-strong group of red troops under the command of Ivan Lukich Sorokin.



General M. Alekseev said before the campaign:

In the village of Shenzhiy, on March 26, 1918, a 3,000-strong detachment of the Kuban Rada joined the Volunteer Army under the command of General Viktor Leonidovich Pokrovsky.



The total strength of the Volunteer Army increased to 6,000 soldiers.

March 27-31 (April 9-13) The Volunteer Army made an unsuccessful attempt to take the capital of the Kuban - Yekaterinodar, during which Commander-in-Chief General Kornilov was killed by a random grenade on March 31 (April 13), and the command of the army units in the most difficult conditions of complete encirclement by many times superior enemy forces was taken by General Denikin, who was able, in the conditions of incessant fighting on all sides, to withdraw the army from flank attacks and safely exit the encirclement to the Don.



This was largely due to the energetic actions of Lieutenant General S. L. Markov, commander of the Officer Regiment of the General Staff, who distinguished himself in battle on the night of April 2 (15) to April 3 (16), 1918 when crossing the Tsaritsyn-Tikhoretskaya railway.

The army was never able to deploy at least to the size of a full-blooded division. "The people's militia did not come out ...", wrote A. I. Denikin, lamenting that "the panels and cafes of Rostov and Novocherkassk were full of young and healthy officers who had not entered the army." There were a little more than 3800 bayonets and sabers. Three officer battalions were reduced to an officer regiment under the command of General Sergei Leonidovich Markov, "Georgievites" were poured into the Kornilov regiment, the unformed Rostov regiment - into the cadet battalion.





The Don partisans who joined the army formed a partisan regiment under the command of General A. . P. Bogaevsky.



It was naturally impossible to overthrow the Bolshevik regime with such forces, and the "volunteers" set themselves the task of holding back the pressure of Bolshevism, which was still unorganized, and thereby giving time "to strengthen a healthy public and people's self-consciousness." The insight that the "volunteers" hoped for - alas! - It didn't come...

Small in number, but orderly regiments went to the Zadonsk steppes. Ahead was a campaign, each battle in which was a bet on life or death. Ahead was a desperate and bloody Cossack uprising, which gave the "volunteers" massive support, ahead was a campaign against Moscow, and there was a retreat to the Black Sea.



Novorossiysk, Crimea, Tavria, emigration ... Ahead was the "white legend" and that ordinary march, when the column of the Officers' Regiment fell under the rain, and then under the icy wind and suddenly appeared before the comrades-in-arms clad in ice armor, which dazzlingly shone under the rays unexpectedly peeping sun...






How the Volunteer Army was created

100 years ago, on January 7, 1918, the Volunteer Army was created in Novocherkassk to fight the Bolsheviks. Trouble in Russia was gaining momentum. Reds, whites, nationalists formed their troops, with might and main they were in charge of various gangs. The West was preparing for the dismemberment of the murdered Russian Empire.


The army received official name Volunteer. This decision was made at the suggestion of General Lavr Kornilov, who became its first commander in chief. Political and financial leadership was entrusted to General Mikhail Alekseev. The army headquarters was headed by General Alexander Sergeevich Lukomsky.



The official appeal of the headquarters, published two days later, said: “The first immediate goal of the Volunteer Army is to resist an armed attack on the south and southeast of Russia. Hand in hand with the valiant Cossacks, at the first call of his Circle, his government and military ataman, in alliance with the regions and peoples of Russia who rebelled against the German-Bolshevik yoke - all Russian people who have gathered in the south from all over our Motherland will defend to the last drop of blood, the independence of the regions that gave them shelter and are the last stronghold of Russian independence. At the first stage, about 3 thousand people signed up for the Volunteer Army, more than half of them were officers.



From the history

In the conditions of the complete disintegration of the old army, General Mikhail Alekseev decided to try to form new units outside the composition of the former army on a voluntary basis.

100 years ago, the Volunteer Army was created, which focused on the fight against the Bolsheviks and Russia's allies in the Entente. The demobilization of the Russian army led to the fact that millions of soldiers and about 400 thousand officers were released from service. It is clear that this event could not remain without consequences. There should have been people who would try to organize the military in their own interests. Fortunately, there was no shortage of military leaders with vast organizational and combat experience.



Top: Kornilov, Denikin, Kolchak, Wrangel Bottom: Kappel, Markov, Shkuro, Krasnov



Top: Drozdovsky, Yudenich, Miller Bottom: Dieterix, Keller, Kutepov

One of the first who began to organize the military to fight the Bolsheviks was General Mikhail Vasilyevich Alekseev. He was born on November 3 (15), 1857 in the Tver province in the family of a soldier who rose to the rank of officer. Mikhail Alekseev himself in 1873 entered the 2nd Rostov Grenadier Regiment as a volunteer. After graduating from the Tver Classical Gymnasium and the Moscow Infantry Cadet School in 1876, she was enrolled in the 64th Kazan Infantry Regiment with the rank of ensign. As part of this regiment, he participated in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, during the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905. already served in the rank of quartermaster general of the 3rd Manchurian army. He began the First World War as chief of staff of the armies of the Southwestern Front, in 1915 - commander of the Western Front, then chief of staff under the emperor, ended the war - Supreme Commander of the Russian Army (March 11, 1917 - May 21, 1917). It should be noted that Alekseev was among those who played an active role in the abdication of the emperor. He supported the chairman of the State Duma, M. V. Rodzianko, and in fact persuaded the commanders-in-chief of the fronts to support the idea of ​​the tsar's abdication.
Alekseev has come a long way from a soldier to the Supreme Commander. As Supreme Commander, he tried to stop the further collapse of the army, spoke out against the Soviets and the soldiers' committees in the armed forces, tried to save the soldiers from "agitators" and restore the system of one-man command. However, the destructive processes, to the launch of which he himself had a hand, could no longer be stopped. Alekseev was removed from the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief when he spoke out sharply against the "Declaration of the Rights of the Soldier", which was supported by Kerensky.

Before October revolution Alekseev lived in Petrograd, organizing the core of the new army - the "Alekseevsky organization", which was supposed to resist the "impending anarchy and the German-Bolshevik invasion." After the fall of the Provisional Government, Alekseev, fearing arrest, left for Rostov-on-Don. On the Don, under the cover of the Cossacks, while a neutral force, he planned to organize the core of the army to fight the Bolsheviks. At this time, the government of the Don Army, headed by General A. M. Kaledin, in connection with the news of an armed uprising in Petrograd, introduced martial law on the Don, assumed full power and liquidated all the Soviets in the cities of the Don region.

Alekseev was the largest military figure in Russia: during the Russo-Japanese War - Quartermaster General of the 3rd Manchurian Army; during the First World War - Chief of Staff of the armies of the Southwestern Front, Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the North-Western Front, Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander. During February Revolution In 1917, he advocated the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne and, by his actions, largely contributed to the fall of the autocracy.



That is, he was a prominent February revolutionary, and was responsible for the subsequent collapse of the army, the country and the beginning of unrest and civil war.
The right wing of the Februaryists-Westerners, having destroyed the "old Russia" - hoped to create a "new Russia" - the creation of a "democratic", bourgeois-liberal Russia with the dominance of the class of owners, capitalists, the bourgeoisie and large landowners - that is, development along the Western matrix. They wanted to make Russia a part of an "enlightened Europe", similar to Holland, France or England. However, hopes for this quickly collapsed. The Februaryists themselves opened Pandora's box, destroying all the bonds (the autocracy, the army, the police, the old legislative, judicial and punitive system) that held back the contradictions and rifts that had been building up in Russia for a long time. Events begin to develop according to a poorly predictable scenario of spontaneous rebellion, Russian unrest, with the strengthening of radical left forces demanding a new development project and fundamental changes. Then the Februaryists relied on a "firm hand" - a military dictatorship.



However, the rebellion of General Kornilov failed. And the Kerensky regime finally buried all hopes for stabilization, in fact, doing everything so that the Bolsheviks simply took power, almost without resistance. However, the class of owners, the bourgeoisie, the capitalists, their political parties - the Cadets, the Octobrists, were not going to give up. They began to create their own armed forces in order to return power by force and "calm down" Russia. At the same time, they hoped for the help of the Entente - France, England, the USA, Japan, etc.
Part of the generals who had previously strongly opposed the regime of Nicholas II and the autocracy (Alekseev, Kornilov, Kolchak, etc.), and hoped to take leading positions in " new Russia”, was used to create the so-called. The White Army, which was supposed to return power to the former "masters of life."



As a result, whites, separatist nationalists and interventionists ignited a terrible civil war that claimed millions of lives. Owners, the bourgeoisie, capitalists, landowners, their political superstructure - liberal-democratic, bourgeois parties and movements (only a few percent, together with the environment and servants of the population of Russia) became "white". It is clear that the well-groomed rich, industrialists, bankers, lawyers and politicians themselves did not know how to fight and did not want to. They wanted to return "old Russia", without a tsar, but with their power - a rich and contented caste ("crunch of French rolls") over the poor and illiterate masses of the people.



Professional military officers, who, after the collapse of the old army, wandered around the cities in masses without work, Cossacks, simple-minded young men - cadets, cadets, students, signed to fight. After the expansion of the scale of the war, the forcible mobilization of former soldiers, workers, townspeople, and peasants has already begun.
There were also high hopes that "the West would help." And the masters of the West really "helped" - to kindle a terrible and bloody civil war in which Russians killed Russians. They actively threw "firewood" into the fire of a fratricidal war - made promises to the leaders of the white armies and governments, supplied weapons, ammunition and ammunition, provided advisers, etc.





They themselves had already divided the skin of the “Russian bear” into spheres of influence and colonies, and soon began to divide Russia, simultaneously carrying out its total plunder.

On December 10 (23), 1917, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of War of France, Georges Benjamin Clemenceau, and Deputy Foreign Minister of Great Britain Robert Cecil, at a meeting in Paris, concluded a secret agreement on the division of Russia into spheres of influence. London and Paris agreed that from now on they would consider Russia not as an ally in the Entente, but as a territory for the implementation of their expansionist plans. The areas of alleged military operations were named. The English sphere of influence included the Caucasus, the Cossack regions of the Don and Kuban, and the French - Ukraine, Bessarabia and Crimea. Representatives of the United States did not formally participate in the meeting, but they were kept informed of the negotiations, and in the administration of President Thomas Woodrow Wilson, at the same time, a plan was ripe for expansion into Far East and Eastern Siberia.



The leaders of the West rejoiced - Russia was dead, the "Russian question" was resolved once and for all! The West has got rid of a thousand-year-old enemy that prevents it from establishing full control over the planet. True, our enemies will once again miscalculate, Russia will survive and be able to recover. The Russian communists will win and eventually create a new Russian empire - the USSR. They are implementing an alternative globalization project - the Soviet (Russian), once again challenging the West and giving hope to humanity for a just world order.

Alekseevskaya organization

The right wing of the Western-Febralists (future Whites) and part of the generals decided to create a new army. It was supposed to create such an organization that, as an "organized military force... could resist the impending anarchy and the German-Bolshevik invasion. Initially, they tried to create the core of such an organization in the capital. General Alekseev arrived in Petrograd on October 7, 1917 and began to prepare the creation of an organization in which it was supposed to unite officers of the spare parts, military schools and those who simply found themselves in the capital. At the right moment, the general planned to organize combat units from them.
According to V. V. Shulgin, who happened to be in Petrograd in October, he attended the meeting that took place at the apartment of Prince V. M. Volkonsky. In addition to the host and Shulgin, M. V. Rodzianko, P. B. Struve, D. N. Likhachev, N. N. Lvov, V. N. Kokovtsev, and V. M. Purishkevich were present. That is, prominent Februaryists who previously participated in the overthrow of Nicholas II and the destruction of the autocracy.



The main issue in the business started rested on the complete lack of funds. Alekseev was “morally supported”, they sympathized with his cause, but they were in no hurry to share the money. By the time of the October Revolution, Alekseev's organization was supported by several thousand officers who either lived in Petrograd or ended up in the capital for one reason or another. But almost no one dared to give battle to the Bolsheviks in Petrograd.

Seeing that things were not going well in the capital and that the Bolsheviks could soon cover the organization, Alekseev on October 30 (November 12) ordered the transfer to the Don of "those who wanted to continue the fight", supplying them with fake documents and money for travel. The general appealed to all officers and junkers with a call to stand up for the fight in Novocherkassk, where he arrived on November 2 (15), 1917. Alekseev (and the forces behind him) planned to create statehood and an army on part of the territory of Russia that would be able to resist Soviet power.

General of Infantry M. V. Alekseev

Alekseev went to the Ataman Palace to the hero of Brusilovsky, General A. M. Kaledin. In the summer of 1917, the Large military circle of the Don Cossack army, Alexei Kaledin, was elected Don military ataman. Kaledin became the first elected chieftain of the Don Cossacks after Peter I abolished the election in 1709. Kaledin was in conflict with the Provisional Government, as he opposed the collapse of the army. On September 1, Minister of War Verkhovsky even ordered the arrest of Kaledin, but the Military Government refused to comply with the order. On September 4, Kerensky canceled it on the condition that the Military Government would "guarantee" Kaledin.
The situation on the Don during this period was extremely difficult. The main cities were dominated by the "alien" population, alien to the indigenous Cossack population of the Don, both in terms of their composition, features of life, and political preferences. In Rostov and Taganrog, socialist parties, hostile to the Cossack authorities, dominated. The working population of the Taganrog district supported the Bolsheviks. In the northern part of the Taganrog district there were coal mines and mines of the southern ledge of Donbass. Rostov became the center of resistance to "Cossack dominance".



Red Army enters Rostov

At the same time, the left could count on the support of spare military units. The "out-of-town" peasantry was not satisfied with the concessions made to it (wide admission to the Cossacks, participation in stanitsa self-government, transfer of part of the landowners' lands), demanding a radical land reform. The Cossack front-line soldiers themselves were tired of the war and hated the "old regime". As a result, the Don regiments, which were returning from the front, did not want to go to new war and defend the Don region from the Bolsheviks. The Cossacks went home. Many regiments handed over their weapons without resistance at the request of small red detachments, which stood as barriers on the railway lines leading to the Don region. Masses of ordinary Cossacks supported the first decrees of the Soviet government. Among the Cossacks-front-line soldiers, the idea of ​​\u200b\u200b"neutrality" in relation to the Soviet government was widely adopted.



In turn, the Bolsheviks sought to win the "labor Cossacks" over to their side.

Kaledin called the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks criminal and declared that until the restoration of legitimate power in Russia, the military government assumes full power in the Don region.



Kaledin from Novocherkassk introduced martial law in the coal-mining region of the region, deployed troops in a number of places, began the defeat of the Soviets and established contacts with the Cossacks of Orenburg, Kuban, Astrakhan and Terek. On October 27 (November 9), 1917, Kaledin declared martial law throughout the Region and invited members of the Provisional Government and the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic to Novocherkassk to organize the fight against the Bolsheviks. On October 31 (November 13), the delegates of the Don, who were returning from the Second Congress of Soviets, were arrested. During the following month, the Soviets in the cities of the Don region were liquidated.



Thus, Kaledin opposed the Soviet regime. The Don region became one of the centers of resistance. However, Kaledin, in conditions when the masses of ordinary Cossacks did not want to fight, wanted peace, and at first sympathized with the ideas of the Bolsheviks, could not decisively oppose the Soviet government. Therefore, he warmly received Alekseev as an old comrade-in-arms, but refused the request to “give shelter to the Russian officers”, that is, to take the future anti-Bolshevik army for the maintenance of the Don military government. He even asked Alekseev to remain incognito, “not to stay in Novocherkassk for more than a week” and to transfer the Alekseev formation outside the Don region.



Despite such a cold reception, Alekseev immediately began to take practical steps. Already on November 2 (15), he published an appeal to the officers, urging them to "save the Motherland." On November 4 (17), a whole party of 45 people arrived, headed by staff captain V. D. Parfenov. On this day, General Alekseev laid the foundation for the first military unit - the Consolidated Officer Company. Staff Captain Parfenov became the commander. On November 15 (28), it was deployed to an officer company of 150-200 people under the command of Staff Captain Nekrashevich.
Alekseev, using his old connections with the Stavka generals, contacted the Stavka in Mogilev. He passed Mikhail Kkonstantinovich Diterichs an order to send officers and loyal units to the Don under the guise of their redeployment for further staffing, with the issuance of money for the officers to travel.



He also asked to remove the decomposed "Sovietized" military units from the Don region by disbanding or sending them to the front without weapons. The question was raised about negotiations with the Czechoslovak corps, which, according to Alekseev, should have willingly joined the struggle for the "salvation of Russia." In addition, he asked to send batches of weapons and uniforms to the Don under the guise of creating army stores here, to give orders to the main artillery department to send up to 30 thousand rifles to the Novocherkassk artillery depot, and in general to use every opportunity to transfer military equipment to the Don. However, the imminent fall of the Stavka and the general collapse of the railway transport prevented all these plans. As a result, weapons, ammunition and ammunition were bad at the beginning.
When the organization already had 600 volunteers, there were about a hundred rifles for everyone, and there were no machine guns at all. The military depots on the territory of the Don Army were full of weapons, but the Don authorities refused to issue them to volunteers, fearing the wrath of the front-line Cossacks. Weapons had to be obtained both by cunning and by force. Thus, on the outskirts of Novocherkassk, Khotunok, the 272nd and 373rd reserve regiments were quartered, which had already completely decomposed and were hostile to the Don authorities. Alekseev suggested using the forces of volunteers to disarm them. On the night of November 22, volunteers surrounded the regiments and disarmed them without firing a shot. The selected weapons went to volunteers. Artillery was also mined, as it turned out - one cannon was "borrowed" in the Donskoy reserve artillery division for the solemn funeral of one of the dead junker volunteers, and they "forgot" to return it after the funeral. Two more guns were taken away: completely decomposed units of the 39th Infantry Division arrived in the neighboring Stavropol province from the Caucasian front. Volunteers became aware that an artillery battery was located near the village of Lezhanka. It was decided to capture her guns. Under the command of naval officer E. N. Gerasimov, a detachment of 25 officers and cadets set off for Lezhanka. During the night, the detachment disarmed the sentries and stole two guns and four ammunition boxes. Four more guns and a supply of shells were bought for 5 thousand rubles from Don artillery units that returned from the front. All this shows the highest degree of decomposition of the then Russia, weapons, up to machine guns and guns, can be obtained or “acquired” in one way or another.

By November 15 (28), the Junker company was formed, which included cadets, cadets and students under the command of staff captain V. D. Parfenov. The 1st platoon consisted of cadets from infantry schools (mainly Pavlovsky), the 2nd from artillery, the 3rd from naval, and the 4th from cadets and students. By mid-November, the entire senior year of the Konstantinovsky Artillery School and several dozen cadets of Mikhailovsky, led by staff captain N. A. Shokoli, were able to get through from Petrograd in small groups. On November 19, after the arrival of the first 100 cadets, the 2nd platoon of the Junker company was deployed into a separate unit - the Consolidated Mikhailovsko-Konstantinovskaya battery (which served as the core of the future Markov battery and artillery brigade). The Junker Company itself turned into a battalion (two Junker and "Cadet" companies).
Thus, in the second half of November, the Alekseevskaya organization consisted of three formations: 1) a consolidated officer company (up to 200 people); 2) Junker battalion (over 150 people); 3) Consolidated Mikhailovsko-Konstantinovskaya battery (up to 250 people) under the command of Captain N. A. Shokoli). The Georgievsky company (50-60 people) was in the formation stage, and there was an entry into the student squad. The officers made up a third of the organization and 50% of the cadets (that is, the same element). Cadets, students of secular and religious schools made up 10%.

In November, Kaledin nevertheless decided to give a roof over his head to the officers arriving at Alekseev: in one of the infirmaries of the Don branch of the All-Russian Union of Cities, under the fictitious pretext that a "weak team, recovering, requiring care" would be placed here, volunteers were placed. As a result, a small infirmary No. 2 in house No. 36 on the outskirts of Barochnaya Street, which was a disguised hostel, became the cradle of the future Volunteer Army. Immediately after finding shelter, Alekseev sent conditional telegrams to loyal officers, meaning that the formation on the Don had begun and it was necessary to start sending volunteers here without delay. On November 15 (28), volunteer officers arrived from Mogilev, sent by the Headquarters. IN last days November, the number of generals, officers, cadets and cadets who entered the Alekseevsky organization exceeded 500 people, and the "infirmary" on Barochnaya Street was overcrowded. Volunteers again, with the approval of Kaledin, was rescued by the Union of Cities by transferring Alekseev infirmary No. 23 on Grushevskaya Street. On December 6 (19), General L. G. Kornilov also reached Novocherkassk.

The big problem was the collection of funds for the core of the future army. One of the sources was the personal contribution of the participants in the movement. In particular, the first contribution to the "army cash desk" was 10 thousand rubles, brought by Alekseev with him from Petrograd. Kaledin allocated personal funds. Alekseev counted on the financial assistance of Moscow industrialists and bankers, who promised him support at one time, but they were very reluctant to respond to the requests of the general's couriers, and for all the time 360 ​​thousand rubles were received from Moscow. By agreement with the Don government, in December, a subscription was held in Rostov and Novocherkassk, the funds from which were supposed to be divided equally between the Don and Volunteer armies (DA). About 8.5 million rubles were collected, but, contrary to the agreements, 2 million were transferred to YES. Some volunteers were quite wealthy people. Under their personal guarantees in Rostov branch The Russian-Asian Bank received loans totaling 350 thousand rubles. An informal agreement was concluded with the bank's management that the debt would not be collected, and the loan would be counted as a gratuitous donation to the army (the bankers would later try to return the money). Alekseev hoped for the support of the Entente countries. But during this period, they still had doubts. Only at the beginning of 1918, after the armistice concluded by the Bolsheviks on Eastern Front, from the military representative of France in Kyiv, 305 thousand rubles were received in three steps. In December, the Don government decided to leave 25% of the state fees collected in the region for the needs of the region. Half of the money collected in this way, about 12 million rubles, was placed at the disposal of the newly created DA.