Troubles. 1919 year. September-October 1919 was the time of maximum success for the anti-Soviet forces. The Red Army was defeated on most fronts and directions. The Reds were defeated on the Southern, Western, Northwestern and Northern Fronts. On the Eastern Front, the Kolchakites went into the last attack. The situation was difficult in Turkestan.
Soviet Russia in a ring of fronts
September and October 1919 were the times of maximum success for the anti-Soviet forces. The Red Army was defeated on most fronts and directions. In August, Denikin's army occupied Novorossiya and the Left-Bank Little Russia (Victories of Denikin's army in Novorossiya and Little Russia). Almost all of the Right-Bank Little Russia was conquered by the Petliurists. Polish troops seized Western Russian lands, reached the line of the r. Berezina. In early September, the Lithuanian army went on the offensive.
Miller's White Northern Army launched a successful offensive on the Northern Front in September. In late September - October, Yudenich's northwestern army led an offensive against Petrograd, fought stubborn battles on the Pulkovo Heights (Operation White Sword. Strike at the heart of the revolution; "Don't surrender Petrograd!"). On the Eastern Front in September 1919, even the already defeated Kolchak army went on its last offensive (the Pyrrhic victory of Kolchak's armies on Tobol). The Kolchakites were able to repel the offensive of the 5th and 3rd red armies, to push the enemy back beyond Tobol.
The Ural army under the command of General Tolstov was able in September to organize a successful raid on the rear of the Reds, the White Cossacks destroyed in Lbischensk the entire headquarters of the 25th rifle division, which was at the same time the headquarters of the entire military group of the Red Army of the Turkestan Front, including the division commander Chapaev. As a result, the troops of the Turkestan Front lost control, decomposed and were demoralized. The red units hastily retreated to their original positions, to Uralsk. The Ural Cossacks recaptured almost the entire territory that the Reds occupied for three months. In October, the White Cossacks again surrounded and besieged Uralsk.
Northern front
The British created the northern front. Here, in contrast to the North-Western Front, the British supported the Whites in the most active way. In the Arkhangelsk region, the interventionists stayed longer than in other provinces of Russia. This was due to the presence of huge reserves of military materials in the local ports, created during the World War, for the capture of which the Western troops landed. Some of these reserves were planned to be transferred to Kolchak's army. At the same time, the interventionists focused on the rear, security service. They were in no hurry to go to the front line. On the front line, only foreign volunteers fought, for example, Australians. Their detachment was formed from hunters who have become well accustomed to the Russian forests and swamps. Mixed Slavic-British legions were also formed.
All attempts of offensive operations in the direction of Kotlas - Vyatka, conceived by the commander of the allied forces in the North of Russia, General E. Ironside, did not lead to success. The direction of the offensive to the east, in fact, auxiliary, did not bode well from the very beginning. The terrain here was mostly deserted, there were no material resources to supply troops on the ground. A huge territory, a small number of communications and impassable muddy roads until the end of summer. And the few roads, including railways, were well covered on both sides by strong outposts and fortifications, the breakthrough of which cost great losses. Therefore, the war in the north was mainly positional, without maneuverable breakthroughs as in the south or east of the country.
In January 1919, Lieutenant General E. K. Miller became the Governor-General of the Northern Region, and in May he became the Commander of the Northern Army (before that General V. Marushevsky was the commander). By that time, the size of the Northern Army numbered about 9, 5 thousand people. Its formation proceeded slowly. The officer core was weak and small in number (there were few officers in the North, most of them fled to the South of Russia). In connection with the extremely low influx of volunteers into the army, universal conscription was introduced, but this did little to help. The coercive nature of mobilization led to the fact that discipline in the army was weak, desertion flourished, there was the possibility of mutinies and the transfer of troops to the side of the Reds. This was facilitated by the fact that prisoners of the Red Army were included in the Northern Army. In addition, the British at first did not begin to pursue a tough policy against the captured Bolsheviks and Red Army soldiers. Many volunteers were sent directly from prisons to the newly formed regiments, which strengthened the pro-Soviet sentiments in the troops.
This led to a series of uprisings at the front - in Pinega, the 8th Northern Regiment. In the Dvinsky fortified area, a battalion of the 3rd Northern Regiment rebelled. The Dyer battalion rebelled, where the command was mixed (British and Russian officers), the soldiers killed their officers. The 5th Northern Regiment raised a mutiny on Onega, some of the officers were taken by the soldiers to the Reds. There were other riots, or attempts at them. They were suppressed, but the situation was tense.
It is also worth noting that the inhabitants of the rich villages of the North, with their own fishing industries, as well as cities - Arkhangelsk, Kholmogor, Onega, where the illegal propaganda of the Bolsheviks and legal propaganda of the Socialist-Revolutionaries flourished, did not want to fight and did not support the interventionists and White Guards. The general population was hostile to foreigners. Thus, the social base of whites in the north of Russia was weak.
Despite all the problems, by the summer of 1919 the Northern Army numbered 25 thousand people (most of them were Red Army prisoners). British and Russian military schools were opened to train officers. In August 1919, the infantry units of the Northern Army consisted of six rifle brigades.
Meanwhile, the situation on the Northern Front had changed dramatically. The British press harshly criticized General Ironside, he was accused of the deaths of British officers, of excessive optimism about the mood of the Russian people and the Russian army. Demands appeared in parliament to withdraw troops to their homeland. And the main declared goal, the connection with Kolchak's army in the east, was not achieved. The Kolchakites were rolling back farther and farther to the east. The plan of any connection with Kolchak's army became impracticable. As a result, it was decided to evacuate troops from the North of Russia. In July, General Rawlison arrived in Arkhangelsk to solve this problem.
The British, together with the White Guards, carried out the last successful Dvina operation. And then the Westerners decided to evacuate. Unlike the French in Odessa, the British prepared well and thoroughly. A selection of Scottish riflemen arrived to support the evacuation. The export of troops was provided by the whole fleet. The British also proposed to evacuate the Northern Army, to take it to Murmansk, or to another front - the North-Western or Southern. In August 1919, a military meeting of the Northern Army was held on the topic of evacuation.
There were many reasons for it: there were practically no escape routes; in case of failure at the front, the army was doomed to death; when navigation ended, the sea froze, it was impossible to pass; the Russian ships did not have coal, and the British could not supply it; the rear after the departure of the British remained unsecured, the Northern Army did not even have its own rear service; the commanders had doubts about the reliability of the troops. Therefore, almost all regimental commanders spoke in favor of leaving together with the British. A compromise option was also proposed: to transfer the most reliable part of the army to Murmansk with the help of the British. Take away all ships and supplies, evacuate the loyal part of the population. And then, relying on the rich Murmansk warehouses, to advance on Petrozavodsk, providing assistance to the North-Western army of Yudenich in operations against Red Petrograd. In case of failure, it was possible to retreat from Murmansk - Finland and Norway are nearby, the ice-free sea.
The commander's headquarters offered to stay. They say that the positions are strong, and it would be politically correct to stay in Arkhangelsk. The liquidation of the Northern Front will cause a negative resonance for the White movement. It seemed impossible to retreat without strong enemy pressure and the threat of defeat, with successes at the front (albeit local), with the support of a part of the population. In addition, the command of the Northern Front hoped for the success of the White armies on other fronts. This was the time of maximum success for the White Guards. The army of Denikin was successfully advancing in the South of Russia, Yudenich was preparing a blow to Petrograd, Kolchak had not yet been defeated. Thus, the erroneous decision was made to remain and fight alone.
Instead of evacuating, the white command decided to organize a general offensive. In Arkhangelsk, the formation of the militia units of the Northern region began, for the security service, instead of the leaving British. The offensive of the Northern Army began in early September 1919. Surprisingly initially, it developed successfully. The White Guards again captured Onega and the surrounding area. White advanced in other directions as well. Thousands of Red Army soldiers were taken prisoner. The Red Command in this area did not expect active actions by the Northern Army at the time of the evacuation of the British. It was assumed, on the contrary, that after the departure of the patrons, the whites would go into a defensive position. Therefore, the enemy's offensive was overlooked. In addition, the White Guards were inspired by victories on other fronts, hoping that their offensive would become part of the overall victory.
During this time, the British evacuated and destroyed a huge amount of property and supplies that they could not take out. Airplanes, cars, ammunition, uniforms, provisions were drowned and burned. All this was done in broad daylight, in front of witnesses, causing painful sensations in those who remained. To the surprised requests of the local authorities, the British replied that they were destroying the surplus, that they had supplied the Northern Army in abundance, and that the excess was destroyed so that it would not fall into the hands of the Bolsheviks, since the British did not believe that the White Guards would hold out without them. On the night of September 26-27, 1919, the last military Entente left Arkhangelsk, and on October 12 they also left Murmansk.
Turkestan: Basmachi and peasant rebels against the Reds
The Bolsheviks also had a hard time in Turkestan. At the peak of its activity, the army of the Basmachs of Madamin Bek reached 30 thousand fighters and controlled almost the entire Fergana Valley, with the exception of large cities and railways. The second powerful force in Turkestan was the Peasant Army under the command of Konstantin Monstrov. It was originally formed from Russian peasant settlers, who created self-defense units to fight the predatory attacks of the Basmachi. At first, the Peasant Army was subordinate to the command of the Fergana Front and cooperated with the Soviet government. At this time, the Monster's army received material supplies, weapons and ammunition from the Reds. However, as a result of the anti-peasant land and food policy carried out by the Bolsheviks (grain monopoly, food dictatorship) and attempts to seize the land of Russian settlers in favor of farmers (Central Asian peasants), the attitude of the peasant leaders towards the Reds changed. In addition, the red command, realizing the unreliability of the peasant formation, tried first to interfere in the internal affairs of the army, and then to abolish the headquarters and subordinate the peasant army to itself. This caused a conflict, the headquarters of the Peasant Army refused to obey.
At the same time, one of the leaders of the Fergana Basmachi, Madamin Bek, tried to lure the commanders of the Peasant Army over to his side. He forbade the detachments subordinate to him to attack Russian settlements and began to attack the Basmachi, who were noted in acts of terror against Russian peasants. In the summer of 1919, the leadership of the Peasant Army concluded a non-aggression agreement with Madamin Bek. The Red Command, having learned about these negotiations, twice tried to disarm the Peasant Army by sending several Red detachments to Jalal-Abad (the center of the Peasant Army), but without success.
In June 1919, a grain monopoly was declared in the Turkestan Soviet Republic. In response, the military council of the Peasant Army finally broke with the Bolsheviks and raised an uprising. In August, a meeting of representatives of the Kolchak army, the leaders of the Peasant Army and the leaders of the Basmachi was held in Jalal-Abad. The peasant army concluded an anti-Bolshevik alliance with Madamin Bek. The united army of Madamin Bek and Monstrov was replenished in September by Cossacks who arrived from Semirechye.
In addition, a new front appeared in the western part of Turkestan - in the Khiva Khanate. There one of the leaders of the Basmachi, Dzhunaid Khan (Muhammad Kurban Serdar), overthrew and killed Asfandiyar Khan, in his place put a puppet - Asfandiyar Khan's brother, Said Abdullah Khan (ruled until 1920). Dzhunaid Khan, having received military assistance from Kolchak's army, began a war against Soviet Turkestan.
In early September, the combined anti-Bolshevik forces captured the city of Osh. Some Red detachments went over to the side of the Peasant Army. The commander of the Fergana front Safonov tried to suppress the uprising, but was defeated. After the capture of Osh, the rebels launched an offensive against the cities of Andijan and Skobelev (now Fergana). The siege of Andijan continued until September 24. The Andijan garrison, where there were many internationalists, stubbornly resisted. The rebels were able to take almost the entire city, except for the fortress, where the remnants of the garrison hid.
True, the success of the uprising was short-lived. At this time, the red command transferred reinforcements to Fergana. The Kazan consolidated regiment arrived to help from the Trans-Caspian Front, transferred to Andijan on September 22. Also from Skobelev arrived the combined detachment of Safonov. The Reds scattered the rebels near Andijan. The rebel peasants for the most part begin to flee to their homes. The peasant garrison, which remained in the city of Osh, having heard of the defeat at Andijan, also fled. At the end of September 1919, the Reds occupied Osh and Jalal-Abad without much resistance. At the same time, the rebels still had the advantage in most rural areas, and the red ones - in the cities and the railroad. The remnants of the Peasant Army and the Basmachs of Madamin Bek retreated to the mountainous regions of Fergana, where the Provisional Fergana Government was created in October. It was headed by Madamin Bek, and Monsters was his deputy. In early 1920, after a series of defeats, the Fergana government ceased to exist: Monsters surrendered to the Bolsheviks, Madamin Bek went over to the side of the Reds in March and was killed by the irreconcilable Basmachi.
