Troubles. 1919 year. On September 20, 1919, Denikin's army took Kursk, on October 1 - Voronezh, on October 13 - Oryol. This was the peak of the White Army's successes. The entire Denikin front ran along the lower part of the Volga from Astrakhan to Tsaritsyn and further along the line Voronezh - Oryol - Chernigov - Kiev - Odessa. The White Guards controlled a huge territory - up to 16-18 provinces with a population of 42 million people.
Development of the offensive
After the unsuccessful August counterattack of the Red Southern Front and the defeat of the Selivachev strike group, Denikin's army developed an offensive in the Moscow direction. The 1st Army Corps of Kutepov, defeating a large group of Reds, took Kursk on September 7 (20), 1919. Stubborn battles went on in the Voronezh direction. Shkuro's Kuban corps, with the support of the Mamontov corps and the left wing of the Don army, who remained in the ranks of the Cossacks, suddenly crossed the Don near the Liski station. The fierce battle lasted three days. Both sides suffered heavy losses. However, the White Guards broke through the red front. Parts of the 8th Red Army were driven back to the east. Shkuro's troops attacked and took Voronezh on October 1, 1919. On the entire front, the Whites captured thousands of prisoners and huge booty.
Kutepov's corps continued to develop the offensive in the Oryol direction. After the capture of Kursk, new units were formed due to the influx of volunteers. On September 24, 1919, the White Guards took Fatezh and Rylsk, on October 11 - Kromy, on October 13 - Oryol and Livny. White's advanced reconnaissance was on the outskirts of Tula. On the right flank, the Kuban Cossacks Shkuro from Voronezh broke through to Usman. On the left flank, General Yuzefovich's 5th Cavalry Corps took Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversky.
Meanwhile, a threat arose on the left flank of the Volunteer Army. The southern group of the 12th red army under the command of Yakir (two rifle divisions and a cavalry brigade of Kotovsky), cut off from their own after the capture of Odessa by the whites, began to break through the Right Bank Little Russia to the north, to their own. These territories were occupied by the Petliurists, but they did not want to fight a powerful group of Reds, so they turned a blind eye to its advance. In response, the Reds did not touch the Petliurists. As a result, Yakir's group went to the rear of the Denikinites. On the night of October 1, 1919, the Reds suddenly appeared for the Whites near Kiev, knocked down weak enemy screens and broke into the southern capital of Rus-Russia. Parts of General Bredov withdrew to the left bank of the Dnieper, but were able to hold onto the bridges and heights of the Pechersky Monastery. Having recovered from the unexpected blow and regrouping the forces, the Denikinites counterattacked. Stubborn fighting continued for three days, volunteers returned Kiev under their control by October 5. The southern group of Yakir moved beyond the river. Irpen, united with the main forces of the 12th Army and recaptured Zhitomir from the Petliurites. Thus, the 12th Red Army restored its integrity and was located on both banks of the Dnieper north of Kiev, dividing into the Right-Bank and Left-Bank groups of troops.
The volunteers also repulsed the counter-attack of the Reds and won a victory on the right flank. In October, Klyuev's 10th Red Army, replenished by units of the Eastern Front, launched a second offensive against Tsaritsyn. Wrangel's Caucasian army, weakened by the diversion of part of its forces to Astrakhan and Dagestan (a powerful uprising against the Whites developed there), was able to withstand. Ulagaya's 2nd Kuban corps stopped the enemy, then after 9 days of fighting Denikin's troops counterattacked. At the forefront of the attack were officer regiments - Kuban, Ossetian, Kabardian. Red troops were again driven back from the city.
At the same time, Sidorin's Don army went on the offensive. Under the cover of a militia of old people and youth, which for half a month held the defenses on the right bank of the Don, the regular Cossack divisions were able to rest and replenish the ranks. 3rd Corps Don Corps crossed the Don near Pavlovsk, defeated the 56th Red Infantry Division and began to move east. The Soviet command deployed reserves and stopped the breakthrough. However, in the Kletskaya area, another group of White Cossacks crossed the river - the 1st and 2nd Don corps. The 2nd Don Corps, under the command of General Konovalov, was the main striking force of the army, the best cavalry units were concentrated in it. Konovalov's corps broke through the enemy's defenses, joined up with the 3rd Don Corps, and with the joint efforts of the White Cossacks defeated two Red rifle divisions. The 9th Red Army of the South-Eastern Front began to retreat.
The South-Eastern Front was formed on September 30, 1919 with the aim of crushing the enemy in the Novocherkassk and Tsaritsyn directions and occupying the Don region. The front consisted of the 9th and 10th armies, from mid-October - the 11th army. The front commander is Vasily Shorin. The command of the South-Eastern Front tried to stop the enemy's breakthrough at the turn of the river. Khopra, but it failed. The Don army was reinforced by reinforcements - individual hundreds, militia units holding the defenses along the Don. They were now ferried to the right bank of the river and replenished the regular units. The Red Army was pushed back to the north. The White Cossacks again completely occupied the Don Cossack Region. The Cossacks took Novokhopyorsk, Uryupinskaya, Povorino and Borisoglebsk.
At the peak of success
This was the pinnacle of the White Army's success. In the main direction, the volunteers occupied the line Novgorod-Seversky - Dmitrovsk - Oryol - Novosil - south of Yelets - Don. The entire Denikin front ran along the lower part of the Volga from Astrakhan to Tsaritsyn and further along the line Voronezh - Oryol - Chernigov - Kiev - Odessa. The White Guards controlled a huge territory - up to 16-18 provinces with a population of 42 million people.
The position of Soviet Russia at this moment was extremely difficult. The Soviet government had to mobilize all forces and means to repel the blow of Denikin's army. "Economic Life", the organ of the Supreme Council of the National Economy, wrote in the fall of 1919:
"No matter how difficult it is, but now it is necessary to abandon further advancement in Siberia, and all forces and means to mobilize in order to protect the very existence of the Soviet Republic from Denikin's army …"
However, the rear of Denikin's army was unsatisfactory. The Denikin administration established in the rear was weak and unprofessional. The best people were on the front lines or had already died. In the rear there was a huge number of opportunists, careerists, adventurers, speculators, all sorts of businessmen who “fished in troubled waters”, various evil spirits that were raised from the bottom by the Russian Troubles. This led to many problems, abuse, fraud and speculation. Crime was in full swing, the great criminal revolution continued. The peasant war continued, with gangs and chieftains walking around the provinces.
At the same time, the "democracy" introduced by the Provisional Government continued. In the conditions of war, political freedoms operated. Various press came out almost without restrictions, city government bodies were elected, political parties acted, including the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Social Democrats, who did their best to harm the White Guards. It is clear that all this did not strengthen the position of the AFSR.
War in the North Caucasus
The position of Denikin's army was worsened by the ongoing war in the North Caucasus. Here the White Guards had to keep one more front. In the summer of 1919, Dagestan revolted. Imam Uzun-Khadzhi declared a holy war against the infidels, and in September his fighters began to press against the white troops of the North Caucasus under the command of General Kolesnikov. The White Guards retreated to Grozny. On September 19, the Imam created the North Caucasian Emirate - an Islamic state (Sharia monarchy) that existed on the territory of mountainous Dagestan and Chechnya, part of Ingushetia. His forces were up to 60 thousand fighters.
The uprising was actively supported by the governments of Azerbaijan and Georgia, who feared the victory of the White movement and Turkey. Although Turkey was engulfed in its own civil war between the Kemalists and the Ottomans, it did not abandon its plans to seize the Caucasus. Caravans with weapons went from Turkey through Georgia, military instructors arrived. The commander of the Turkish troops in Dagestan Nuri-Pasha (the former commander of the Caucasian Islamic Army) kept in constant contact with Uzun-Khadzhi. The command of the Uzun-Khadzhi army included officers of the Turkish General Staff, including Hussein Debreli and Ali-Riza Corumlu (the first was the head of the cavalry, the second was the artillery). Georgia in September 1919 sent an expeditionary detachment led by General Kereselidze to assist the troops of the emirate. The Georgians planned to form a corps, and then an entire army. But Kereselidze did not reach the village of Vedeno, the capital of the imam. He was defeated and robbed by the mountaineers, who did not recognize any power. Kereselidze returned to Georgia.
Also, the Reds were part of the army of the North Caucasus Emirate. The remnants of the defeated 11th Red Army were led by Gikalo - in 1918 he led the defense of the red Grozny. The red regiment of Gikalo became part of the army of Uzun Haji and occupied positions near the village of Vozdvizhenka, covering the Vladikavkaz direction. Gikalo's troops received instructions from both Vedeno and Astrakhan, with which they maintained contact through couriers. As a result, the Reds fought alongside the Islamists against the Whites.
As a result, a stalemate developed in the North Caucasus. The insurgent army had an overwhelming numerical superiority over the White Guards, but in terms of combat capability it was significantly inferior to the enemy. Untrained and undisciplined mountaineers could not resist the regular troops, but they knew the area well, and riding the mountain paths and gorges were invincible. The mountaineers had weapons in bulk - from the Turks, the British, the Georgians, the defeated Reds, but the problem was in ammunition, they were sorely lacking. Patrons even became the only hard currency in the North Caucasus. The small White Guards simply could not control such a huge and poorly connected territory, and suppress the uprising. However, it was impossible to turn a blind eye to the emirate. The troops of Uzun-Khadzhi threatened Derbent, Petrovsk (Makhachkala), Temirkhan-Shura (Buinaksk) and Grozny. Highlanders raided Cossack villages and lowland settlements.
In addition, independent highlanders and various bandits continued to rage. The desertion of the highlanders intensified, and they mobilized Denikin into the army. They took weapons with them, created gangs and, taking advantage of the absence of the male population (Cossacks) in the rear, engaged in robbery, looting, murder, violence and abductions.
The White command had to transfer units from the northern front to the south, to form a new front. With the aim, if not to destroy the enemy, then at least to block him. Significant forces of the Terek Cossack army under the command of Ataman Vdovenko, who remained to defend their villages, were excluded from the war with the Reds in the main direction. To prevent the war from taking on the character of a massacre between the Tertsi and the Highlanders, Kuban and volunteer units were transferred here. It is clear that this also affected the position of Denikin's army in the Moscow direction. First of all, of course, the situation in the North Caucasus affected Wrangel's army, whose rear was threatened by an uprising in Dagestan and was receiving reinforcements from the Kuban, Terek and mountain peoples.
