Troubles. 1920 year. 100 years ago, in March 1920, the Red Army carried out the Kuban-Novorossiysk operation. The Soviet troops of the Caucasian Front completed the defeat of Denikin's army, liberated the Kuban, the Black Sea province and part of the Stavropol Territory.
Run
During the Tikhoretsk operation, Denikin's troops suffered a heavy defeat. The Kuban army actually ceased to exist as a single force. Some of the soldiers fled, some surrendered. Small detachments retreated to the Tikhoretskaya, Caucasian and Stavropol regions. The volunteer corps left the Don line, which it had previously defended so stubbornly and successfully, retreated to Kushchevskaya and then began to retreat further in the Novorossiysk direction. The Don army retreated across the Kagalnik River, and then further, towards Tikhoretskaya.
The white cavalry as an organized force was defeated in the Yegorlyk battle and could no longer hold back the advance of the Red Army with strong counterattacks. The white cavalry, which at times outnumbered the enemy twice (in the main Tikhoretsk direction), hung on the flank of the Reds and somewhat hampered their movement. However, as General Denikin recalled, "Struck by a serious mental illness, devoid of will, daring, not believing in her own strength, she avoided a serious battle and eventually merged with the general human wave in the form of armed detachments, unarmed crowds and huge camps of refugees spontaneously striving to the west."
Budenny's group, having defeated Pavlov's equestrian group, did not pursue the Donets and volunteers and again aimed at Tikhoretskaya. The thaw that began, and without fighting, delayed the movement of the Reds. On March 9, Soviet troops occupied Yeisk, on the same day Budyonny's cavalry occupied Tikhoretskaya. Further, the main forces of the Reds aimed at Yekaterinodar and Novorossiysk. On March 2, 1920, the troops of the 11th Soviet Army took Stavropol and entered the Mineralnye Vody area, cutting off the North Caucasian group of General Erdeli from Denikin's troops. The remnants of the White Guard troops in the Terek-Dagestan Territory made their way to Georgia.
In addition, a new front emerged in the rear of the Whites. The army of the Black Sea Republic (insurgents - "green" who received military material support from Georgia), moving from Sochi, took Tuapse on February 25, 1920. Representatives of the 9th Soviet Army showed up here. They teamed up with the "green", former prisoners or fled Red Army soldiers. Armed prisoners and defectors, formed several battalions. The new congress proclaimed the creation of the Black Sea Red Army and elected a revolutionary committee. The army's troops launched an offensive in two directions: through the mountain passes to the Kuban, and in the north, to Gelendzhik and Novorossiysk.
The collapse of the front quickly took the form of a general flight. The commander of the Don Army, General Sidorin, tried to create a new line of defense on the Yeya River, but without success. The White Guards rolled back along the railway lines to Yekaterinodar and Novorossiysk. Volunteers retreated from Yeisk and Timashevskaya to the lower course of the Kuban, the Donets - from Tikhoretskaya to Yekaterinodar, the remnants of the Kuban army - from the Caucasian and Stavropol. As Denikin wrote, “Tens of thousands of armed people walked blindly, walked obediently wherever they were led, without refusing to obey in the usual order of service. They only refused to go into battle."
Evacuation
The population was also in panic. On all the roads, bogged down in the mud, streams of refugees poured in, mixing with the troops, rear services, hospitals and deserters. Back in January 1920, regardless of the results of the battle on the Don, it was decided to start evacuating from Novorossiysk abroad. Britain helped organize the evacuation. By order of Denikin, first of all, the wounded and sick soldiers, their families and the families of civil servants were taken out. All women, children and men of non-military age were also allowed free travel abroad at their own expense.
It is clear that this order was not iron-clad, it was often violated. It was possible to leave for money, bribes, by acquaintance, they simply filled the available places with everyone who wished, etc. On the other hand, many did not dare to leave. They were afraid of the unknown, to leave their homeland, did not want to lose touch with their relatives, did not have the means for a new life. They delayed the departure, waited for good news from the front. As a result, many transports left with a shortage of passengers. The British even temporarily interrupted the evacuation when the Whites won several victories. British transports carried people to Thessaloniki, Cyprus, from ports they were taken to Serbia. This wave of refugees, despite all the problems and hardships, was relatively prosperous. White Russia was still considered in Europe. Refugees received a minimum supply, could settle down, find work.
Thanks to this first wave of evacuation, Novorossiysk was somewhat relieved. About 80 thousand people were taken abroad. The second wave has begun. But now the evacuation was accompanied by panic (commissars and Budenovites would soon come and cut everyone out …). Those who could have left earlier, but did not want to, hoped for the best, rushed to the steamers. Persons of military age, a mass of officers who were evading the front line, sat in the rear and buzzed through restaurants and taverns. When the smell of roast smelled, they began to cluster into "officer organizations", trying to seize places on the steamers by force. Many made their way and left. Others were hired to guard steamers, as loaders, the number of which was twice and three times the norm.
The rear army institutions were also in panic. Showered with reports of dismissal "due to illness" or "disappointment" by the White movement. Others just disappeared, ran away. Civilian officials also fled. That is, the rear control system, which was already bad, finally crumbled. And in place of those taken out to the city, new ones arrived from the Kuban cities and villages.
White command plans
After the failure of the defense line on the Don, the White Army could either hold on to the Kuban line, or flee to the Crimea. It seemed that there were chances for the continuation of the struggle in the Kuban. The spring thaw, impassable mud prevented not only the retreating Denikinites, but also the Reds. Rivers flooded widely. It was possible to try to stop the enemy at the turn of the Kuban and its tributaries, the Laba or Belaya. If the Kuban Cossacks sober up, mobilized, it would be possible to maintain a bridgehead in the Kuban, regroup and replenish the formations, and launch a counteroffensive. If not, evacuate to Crimea. The retreat through the confused Kuban and the North Caucasus into Transcaucasia, hostile to the whites, led to death.
It was necessary to break away from the enemy, save the most combat-ready units, take them to a safe area and then continue the fight. The only bridgehead that could shelter Denikin's army was the Crimea. For the volunteers, this was a natural way out. In general, the Volunteer Corps, despite occasional episodes of instability and desertion, maintained order and discipline. In a hostile environment, their cohesion only increased. Another thing is the Cossacks. The Donets lost their last connection with the Don region and lost hope of returning to the Don. Don Cossacks quickly lost control, discipline and fighting spirit. The rally began. The Cossacks unauthorizedly overthrew the commander of the cavalry group, General Pavlov, and replaced him with General Sekretyov. The commander of the Don Army, Sidorin, could not resist this arbitrariness and was forced to admit the decision of his subordinates.
In addition, under the conditions of the "Kuban turmoil", as noted by the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia Denikin, "the feeling of alienation and discord between the volunteers and the Cossacks." The Cossacks were afraid that the volunteers would leave them and go to Novorossiysk. Therefore, when there was a proposal to transfer the Volunteer Corps to the reserve of the commander-in-chief, this caused great excitement among the Cossacks. The Don generals proposed their own plan: to abandon the Kuban, rear services, communications, bases and lightly break through to the north, to the Don. There they were going to wage a partisan war, to raise the Don region again. Obviously, it was a gamble, a suicide. The Don was already exhausted by the war, and the individual outbreaks of the Reds could easily have been suppressed. Denikin gave a categorical refusal. But the hidden excitement among the bottom continued.
The situation in the Kuban army also gave little hope. The defeated and practically disappeared at the end of February 1920, Shkuro's army, as it retreated, again began to grow before our eyes. Regiments and divisions poured into it, which endlessly "formed" in the rear at the expense of all kinds of security and rear units that did not want to go to the front line, due to the huge number of deserters who overflowed the villages and did not want to fall into the hands of the enemy. True, all these crowds poured into the Kuban army not to fight, but to skitter. In fact, under the command of Shkuro there was no longer an army, but armed crowds, completely decayed and demoralized.
Volunteers, angry with the behavior of the donors, also began to express their dissatisfaction. The core of General Kutepov's Volunteer Corps tried to fight at every convenient line. But because of the withdrawal of the Cossacks, they constantly fell under the flank attacks of the enemy. The volunteers were bypassed and forced to retreat due to the weakness of their neighbors. So, on the night of March 15, the right wing of the Don Army, after an unsuccessful battle at Korenovskaya, rolled back to Plastunovskaya (30 miles from Yekaterinodar). At that time, Kutepov's corps was holding back the enemy in the Timashevskaya area, and red cavalry had already appeared in its rear. This forced the volunteers to start retreating. General Sidorin, in whose operational subordination was the Volunteer Corps, ordered to launch a counterattack and return to the position at Timashevskaya. The volunteer headquarters believed it would lead to encirclement and death. As a result, Denikin reassigned the Volunteer Corps to himself.
On March 12, 1920, the headquarters of the Volunteer Corps sent a sharp telegram to the commander-in-chief. Kutepov noted that it was impossible to count on the Cossacks anymore, so it was necessary to take decisive measures to save the corps. The Timashevskaya - Novorossiysk railroad, several transports ready for the immediate evacuation of the corps and the command of the All-Union Soviet of Yugoslavia were supposed to go under the control of the corps. In the hands of the corps commander, all power in the rear and the watercraft was transferred. Denikin sharply answered Kutepov, reminded that everything that was needed for the evacuation was being done. Order was restored.
Thus, the run continued. All plans, calculations and ideas crashed against the elements. The psychology of the demoralized, decayed masses shattered all the sober and rational calculations of the white command.
Recent attempts at resistance
At first Denikin wanted to stop the enemy at the turn of the river. Baseug. It was necessary to gain time for a systematic ferry of troops through the Kuban, the evacuation of the right bank and Yekaterinodar. General Sidorin was ordered to assemble his corps in the Korenovskaya area and to counter-strike with his right wing. The Soviet command also concentrated large forces in this direction, including the Cavalry Army, which was advancing east of Korenovskaya. Don Cossacks, even under the command of Sidorin personally, did not go into battle. Every time they tried to attack, they turned back. And when the Reds went on the offensive, they retreated. Volunteers at Timashevskaya also had to abandon their positions and break through with a fight. The rearguard (Drozdovites) had to leave the encirclement already.
As a result, by March 16, the Volunteer Corps, the Don Army and part of the Kuban Army were in two transitions from Yekaterinodar. The headquarters and the Denikin government moved to Novorossiysk. The Supreme Cossack circle gathered for the last meeting. The chairman of the Kubanites Tymoshenko said that the Cossacks no longer obey Denikin, especially since the Headquarters no longer exists, as well as connections with it. The Cossacks finally quarreled again. The Cossack circle fell apart. The Kuban delegation went to its army, the Don delegation to its own. In Yekaterinodar there were many refugees, sick and wounded, whom they did not manage to take out. Denikin's government agreed to an agreement with the Bolsheviks who were in prisons, led by Limansky. The communists were released, and they made a promise to save the wounded and sick. Limansky already played this role in 1918.
On March 16, 1920, Denikin told the commanders that the last line of defense was the line of the Kuban-Laba rivers, at the extreme Belaya. The White Guards failed to organize the defense of Yekaterinodar. There were prepared positions around the city, there were enough troops, but there was no fighting spirit at all. As soon as on March 17 the Reds went to storm Yekaterinodar, the Kubans fled. Donets went after them. The 4th Don Corps, formerly the best in the Don army, the basis of the shock cavalry group, became especially unstable. After heavy defeats and losses, he was demoralized. In addition, the flanks of the Don were in contact with the Kubans and were infected with panic from them. When rumors of an uprising in the rear, in a workers' suburb, arose, the troops were seized by a real panic. As Shkuro reported, whole divisions fled, robbing liquor stores and cellars along the way, getting drunk with plundered alcohol and wine:
"Shame and disgrace to the Cossacks, it is incredibly painful and hard …"
Soviet troops, a cavalry corps and two rifle divisions, stood near the city for almost the whole day, firing artillery fire on the outskirts of Yekaterinodar, not believing that the enemy had simply fled. They waited for a dirty trick, a military trick of the whites. In addition, the streets and bridges across the Kuban were forgotten by the fleeing troops and refugees, they had to wait for the crowd to subside. On the same day, March 17, Denikin gave the order to withdraw the army beyond the Kuban and Laba, and to destroy all crossings. In fact, the Kuban and Don units began crossing on the 16th and finished on the 17th. And the crossings, which no one took care of, were immediately occupied by the Reds. Soviet troops easily crossed the Kuban and cut the enemy's front in half. The volunteer corps had to break through with battles with a strong red cavalry, which began to be massively replenished by the rebels and the Kuban people who went over to the side of the Red Army. On March 18, volunteers crossed the Kuban.
