On August 18, 1919, the Red front collapsed in Novorossiya, parts of the 12th Soviet army in this area were surrounded. On August 23-24, Denikin's troops took Odessa, on August 31 - Kiev. In many ways, the relatively easy victories of the Denikinites in Novorossiya and Little Russia were associated with the internal problems of the Bolsheviks in the Ukrainian SSR and the activation of other enemies of Soviet Russia.
Denikin's victory in Novorossiya and Little Russia
The offensive of the Volunteer Army in the Kursk direction covered from the east the movement of Denikin's shock groups in Little Russia and Novorossiya. While the 1st Army Corps of General Kutepov was fighting on the approaches to the Kursk fortified area, the 3rd separate corps of General Schilling left the Crimea and in early August 1919, with the support of the White Black Sea Fleet, captured Kherson and Nikolaev. Then the 3rd corps aimed at Odessa.
On August 18, the Red front collapsed in Novorossiya. The forces of the 12th Red Army, stationed on the Kiev-Odessa-Kherson front, were diverted to the east. Odessa was defended by the 47th division, but it had an extremely low combat capability, since it began to be formed in the city only in the summer of 1919 from mobilized local residents who did not have a high fighting spirit. In general, the Reds had 8-10 thousand people for the defense of the city, but most of them had low moral and combat training. And the red command and representatives of the Soviet regime were unable to organize strong resistance. Panic began in Odessa. There were rumors of a huge white landing and an enemy fleet. In addition, the city was in a dangerous situation due to a peasant uprising in the district. On the night of August 23, a white squadron under the command of Captain 1st Rank Osteletsky, together with an auxiliary squadron of the British fleet, suddenly appeared at Sukhoi Liman and landed troops under the command of Colonel Tugan-Mirza-Baranovsky (Consolidated Dragoon Regiment - more than 900 fighters).
The red command could not organize the defense of the coast, so the white troops landed calmly. The movement towards the city also took place with little or no resistance. Batteries and subunits on the way surrendered and went over to the side of the whites. The Russian cruiser "Cahul" ("General Kornilov") and the English "Karradok" followed along the coast together with the advance of the landing and opened fire on the squares at the request of the landing. At the same time, an uprising of underground officers' organizations began in Odessa. At the very beginning of the uprising, the building of the Odessa Cheka, the headquarters of the Defense Council and the headquarters of the military district were captured, and many Red leaders were arrested. There was no particular resistance anywhere.
By noon, having learned about the enemy landing, all the top red leaders fled from the city - the military commissar of the district, the chairman of the Defense Council of the Odessa military district Boris Kraevsky, the chairman of the Odessa provincial committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Yan Gamarnik and the commander of the 45th division Iona Yakir. Only Ivan Klimenko, chairman of the Odessa Provincial Executive Committee of the Council of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies, remained in the city. This led to the failure of defense and evacuation measures. Attempts by individual red units to organize resistance were suppressed by ship fire. The mobilized Red Army men of the 47th division simply fled to their homes at the first sounds of artillery shelling. An attempt to evacuate from the area of the railway station, where large forces of the Reds had accumulated, was thwarted by ship fire.
Thus, a relatively small white landing, with the support of naval artillery and rebellious Odessa officer organizations, captured the huge city by the night of August 23, 1919. By the morning of August 24, all of Odessa was under the control of the White Guards. Denikinites captured rich trophies. On August 25, the Red Army, with the support of an armored train, tried to recapture the city. However, the naval artillery worked well again - its armored train was destroyed by its fire, and the railway track was badly damaged. The Reds finally retreated to the north. Having lost Odessa, the Reds were forced to leave the entire south-west of Little Russia. The southern group of troops of the 12th army under the command of Yakir (45th and 58th rifle divisions, Kotovsky's cavalry brigade) was surrounded, and began a retreat along the Petliura rear to Zhitomir to join the main forces of the 12th army. Parts of the Southern Group fought over 400 km, occupied Zhitomir on September 19 and joined up with the main forces. In September-October 1919, the 12th Army held a defensive position on both banks of the Dnieper north of Kiev.
General Yuzefovich's group (2nd Army and 5th Cavalry Corps) advanced in the direction of Kiev. This offensive continued in August, when the Red Southern Front launched a counteroffensive and created a threat in the Kharkov direction. The 5th Cavalry Corps captured Konotop and Bakhmut, cutting off direct communication between Kiev and Moscow. At the same time, the 2nd Army Corps, moving on both banks of the Dnieper and overturning parts of the 14th Red Army, went to Kiev and Belaya Tserkov. On August 17 (30), General Bredov's troops crossed the Dnieper and entered Kiev almost simultaneously with the Petliurists who were advancing from the south. Even a joint parade of troops was planned. However, after several provocations and shootings, Bredov gave the Petliurites 24 hours to evacuate the city. On August 31, 1919, Kiev remained in the hands of the White Guards.
Subsequently, the white troops of the Kiev region and Novorossia, moving from the north, east and south, gradually occupied the territory between the Dnieper and the Black Sea. The remnants of the right-bank group of the 14th Soviet army retreated beyond the Dnieper.
On the reasons for the easy victory of Denikin's army in Little Russia
It is worth noting that in many ways the relatively easy victories of Denikin's people in Novorossiya and Little Russia were associated with the internal problems of the Bolsheviks in the Ukrainian SSR and the activation of other enemies of Soviet Russia. So, in Ukraine-Little Russia, in parallel with the war between the Whites and the Reds, there was its own peasant and insurrectionary war, a criminal revolution.
The policy of "war communism" in the Ukrainian SSR was superimposed on existing problems and contradictions, and caused new ones. As a result, the Reds had strong positions only in cities, in the locations of military units and along the railways along which troops were transferred. Then there was the power of either local governments and self-defense units, or chieftains and bateks, or a zone of anarchy and chaos. Against the background of the defeats of the Red Army at the front with the Whites, a new wave of atamanism began. The atamans were subordinate to thousands of fighters with artillery, their trains and steamers. They controlled vast rural areas. The Red Army, connected with the struggle with the Whites, could not divert significant forces to suppress them. In addition, as has been noted more than once earlier, the red units created in Little Russia and Novorossia, mainly from former rebels and partisans, had weak combat capability and discipline. At the very first signs of a real threat, such Red Army men quickly "repainted" as Petliurists, White Guards, "greens", etc.
At the same time, the Polish threat intensified. In the spring and early summer of 1919, General Haller's army, formed in France, arrived in Poland. Pilsudski immediately pursued a policy of ardent nationalism. The Poles, taking advantage of the collapse of the neighboring great powers - Russia and Germany, began to create “Greater Poland from sea to sea. Polish troops captured Poznan and Silesia. In June, the Poles entered Grodno and Vilna, despite the protests of Lithuania, which considered these cities to be their own. However, the Lithuanian nationalists did not have large battalions to defend their claims, while the Poles did. The Polish troops moved in Little Russia, captured Novograd-Volynsky. Taking advantage of the fact that the forces of the West Ukrainian People's Republic went to the aid of Petliura and fought with the Red Army, Polish divisions invaded Galicia and captured it. The West Ukrainian People's Republic disappeared, its territory became part of Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania. The Petrunkevich government fled. The Galician army for the most part moved to the territory of the Ukrainian People's Republic (a small part of the "Sich Riflemen" fled to Czechoslovakia).
This is how the Poles began the process of creating Poland "from sea to sea". Their appetites grew as the successful expansion progressed. Having expanded their power at the expense of Germany, Lithuania and Galician Russia, the Poles moved to White Russia. On August 8, 1919, Polish troops captured Minsk. Their offensive also captured the northwestern part of Little Russia - Sarny, Rovno, Novograd-Volynsky.
Meanwhile, the UPR army, including the Galician army (about 35 thousand soldiers in total), launched an offensive on Kiev and Odessa. The Petliurites tried to use the favorable moment - the successful offensive of Denikin's army in Little Russia and the movement of the Polish army to the east, which caused the collapse of the defense of the Red Army in the western direction. Petliura's troops occupied Zhmerinka, intercepting the railway connection between Kiev and Odessa. However, at the same time, a new and rapid degradation of the combat effectiveness of the Petliura troops was taking place. The core of the Galician ideological "Sich Riflemen", who made the main contribution to the development of the offensive, quickly became overgrown with detachments of rebel chieftains and bateks, who quickly "repainted" again. To receive ranks, titles, awards, weapons, equipment and material content from Petliura. These detachments retained their commanders and the partisan organization, poorly controlled and poorly combat-ready (the same problem became one of the main reasons for the defeat of the Red Army in Little Russia and Novorossiya). On the one hand, this led to a drop in the fighting efficiency of Petliura's army. On the other hand, there is a surge of violence, robberies and Jewish pogroms. It is clear that robbers, rapists and marauders did not meet with mass support from the population, and could not resist the ideological White Guards.
On August 30, the Petliurites, together with the Whites, occupied Kiev. But the very next day they were expelled from there by the Denikinites. The White command refused to negotiate with Petliura, and by October 1919, Petliura's men were defeated. At this time, there was a gap between the military-political leadership of the UPR and the ZUNR. The command of the Galician army was against hostilities with the AFSR, since the Entente stood behind Denikin. The Galicians believed that they had one main enemy - the Poles. Therefore, the leadership of the ZUNR, headed by Petrushevich, and the command of the Galician army took a wait-and-see attitude. Galicians were even accused of surrendering Kiev to whites. As a result, the Galicians offered Petliura to start negotiations with Denikin about an alliance, since one cannot fight on two fronts. However, Petliura continued to put pressure on the Galician army, demanding active hostilities against Denikin's troops. In addition, Petliura was inclined to an alliance with Poland against Soviet Russia, it is clear that at the expense of the interests of the ZUNR.
As a result, the Galicians began negotiations with the Whites. The command of the Galician army at the beginning of November 1919 signed an agreement with the leadership of the AFSR. On behalf of the Galician Army, the contract was signed by its commander, General Miron Tarnavsky, on behalf of the White Army, by the commander of the 4th Infantry Division, Major General Yakov Slashchev, and the commander of the forces of the Novorossiysk Region, Lieutenant General Nikolai Shilling. The Galician army in full force went over to the side of the Armed Forces of South Russia. She was taken to the rear of the Volunteer Army for replenishment and rest.
Makhno's actions
At the same time, the ataman Nestor Makhno, who broke off relations with the Reds and was defeated by the Denikinites, retreating along the Right Bank of the Dnieper, in August found himself pressed against the Petliura front. Under his command there were about 20 thousand soldiers of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (RPAU), and a large baggage train with wounded. Makhno did not feel the slightest sympathy for the Ukrainian nationalists and Petliura. But the situation was hopeless: on the one hand, the Makhnovists were pressed in by the Whites, on the other, by the Petliurists. Therefore, Makhno entered into negotiations. At the same time, the Makhnovists hoped that they would be able to seize control and eliminate Petliura. On September 20, 1919, a military alliance was concluded between the Makhnovists and the Petliurists at the Zhmerynka station. The union was directed against the Denikinites. Sick, wounded and refugees of the "army" of Makhno were given the opportunity to receive treatment and settle in the territory of the UPR. RPAU received a bridgehead and base, supplies. The Makhnovists occupied a sector of the front in the Uman region.
True, already on September 26, the Makhnovists began to break through back to the Yekaterinoslav area and in early October 1919 created a powerful threat in the rear of Denikin's army.
