Simultaneously with the offensive of Shatilov's division on Grozny, the troops of Shkuro and Geiman moved to Vladikavkaz. The fierce 10-day battle for Vladikavkaz and the pacification of Ossetia and Ingushetia led to a decisive victory for the White Army in the North Caucasus.
The assault on Vladikavkaz
Ordzhonikidze, the extraordinary commissar of the South of Russia, proposed that the remnants of the 11th army (the 1st and 2nd rifle divisions and other units with a total number of 20-25 thousand bayonets and sabers) retreat to Vladikavkaz. In the Vladikavkaz-Grozny region, relying on the mountaineers who supported the Soviet power, it was possible to organize a strong defense and hold out until the arrival of reinforcements from Astrakhan and the appearance of the Red Army, which was leading an offensive from under Tsaritsyn. These forces could make it possible to hold the Vladikavkaz region and divert significant forces of Denikin's army (Lyakhov's army corps and part of Pokrovsky's cavalry corps), pinning down the Whites in the North Caucasus. However, the bulk of the remaining forces of the 11th Army fled to Kizlyar and beyond. In the Vladikavkaz area, a grouping under the command of Ordzhonikidze, Gikalo, Agniev and Dyakov remained.
The Defense Council of the North Caucasus appointed Gikalo as the commander of the armed forces of the Terek region. By his order, three columns of Soviet troops were created from scattered detachments. The Reds tried to stop the enemy offensive on the outskirts of Vladikavkaz and push the White back to Prokhladny. However, they were defeated on the Darg-Koh, Arkhonskaya, Khristianovskoye line and withdrew to Vladikavkaz.
Simultaneously with the offensive of Pokrovsky's corps to Kizlyar, and then the movement of Shatilov's division to Grozny, Lyakhov's corps - Shkuro's cavalry and Gaiman's Kuban scouts moved to Vladikavkaz. The white command planned to finish off the Reds in Vladikavkaz, and to pacify Ossetia and Ingushetia. In Ossetia, there was a strong pro-Bolshevik movement, the so-called. Kerminists (members of the "Kermen" organization), and the Ingush, because of the enmity with the Terek Cossacks, almost entirely stood for Soviet power. Shkuro proposed to come to an agreement, after the victory over the Reds, to gather the Ingush delegation in Vladikavkaz. The Kerminists offered to cleanse the Christian village, their fortified center, go to the mountains, otherwise he threatened with reprisals. They refused. At the end of January 1919, in a stubborn battle, after two days of artillery shelling of the village, the Whites took Christianity.
Having overcome the enemy's resistance on the Darg - Koh, Arkhonskoye line, the White Guards approached Vladikavkaz by February 1. The Shkuro division, approaching close to Vladikavkaz, opened heavy artillery fire and rushed along the railway to the Kursk Slobodka (city district), trying to break into the city on the move. At the same time, she attacked the Molokan settlement from the south, trying to cut off the city's garrison from the rear. Molokans are adherents of one of the branches of Christianity. At the end of the 19th century, the number of Molokans in Russia exceeded 500 thousand people. Most of them lived in the Caucasus. The Molokans led a collective economy, that is, the ideas of the Bolsheviks were partially close to them. In addition, the Molokans were previously considered a harmful heresy and were repressed by the tsarist authorities. Therefore, the Molokans sided with the Bolsheviks.
The city kept a garrison as part of the Vladikavkaz infantry regiment, the Red Regiment, the 1st and 2nd Communist detachments, a battalion of the Grozny regiment, self-defense detachments from the workers of the city, and from the Ingush, an international detachment from the Chinese, a detachment of the Cheka (a total of about 3 thousand fighters). The red garrison had 12 guns, a detachment of armored cars (4 vehicles) and 1 armored train. Petr Agniev (Agniashvili) commanded the defense of the city.
General Gaiman's division advanced on Vladikavkaz from the north, and on February 2-3, it reached the Dolakovo - Kantyshevo line (25 km from the city). Belykh tried to stop the 180-strong Vladikavkaz school of red cadets under the command of Kazansky. She was supported by the Ingush detachment and the workers' company. For five days, the cadets held the area assigned to them, and most of the soldiers were killed or wounded. Only after that did the remnants of the detachment retreat to the city.
On February 1 - 2, Shkuro's troops shelled the Kursk, Molokan and Vladimir settlements. White offered the enemy to surrender, the ultimatum was rejected. On February 3, Shkuro's troops broke into the trans-river part of Vladikavkaz, occupying the cadet corps. Simultaneously with the attacks on Vladikavkaz, Gaiman's units cut the road from Vladikavkaz to Bazorkino, where Ordzhonikidze and the headquarters of the commander of the armed forces of the Terek region, Gikalo, were located. The Ingush and Kabardian red detachments attacked the whites, pushed the enemy back, but could not restore contact with the city.
The Reds desperately fought back, launched counterattacks. So, on February 5, they attacked the enemy, intending to go on the offensive, in the Kurskaya Slobodka - Bazorkinskaya Road sector and threw him back to his original positions. On February 6-7, the Reds carried out an additional mobilization of the population in the city, collecting weapons and ammunition. On February 6, the Whites, having concentrated large forces, broke through the Red defenses and captured the northern suburb of Kursk Slobodka. With the help of two armored vehicles sent from the general reserve, the garrison counterattacked the enemy, knocked him out of the Kursk settlement and threw him over the river. Terek. On the same day, there was a fierce battle in the southern sector, the White Guards occupied Lysaya Gora and thereby cut off the retreat along the Georgian Military Highway. Then the whites attacked the Molokan settlement, where the 1st Vladikavkaz Infantry Regiment held the defenses. The White Guards were driven back by a counterattack from the Red Regiment's squadron with two armored vehicles. In this battle, the commander of the 1st Vladikavkaz infantry regiment, Pyotr Fomenko, died the death of the brave. On February 7, fierce fighting continued in the area of the Kursk settlement. In the area of the Vladimirskaya Slobodka, the whites broke into the city with a night attack. A counterattack by the garrison reserve halted the breakthrough. The Reds transferred troops from sector to sector, skillfully used the reserve, this helped them to offer serious resistance to the enemy. White could not take the city on the move.
Gaiman's troops were under attack from the Ingush detachments, which attacked in the flank and rear. The local highlanders almost without exception sided with the Bolsheviks. The white command noted the extremely fierce resistance of the Ingush, who, with the support of the Reds, stubbornly resisted. To provide for themselves from the rear, the whites had to crush the resistance of the Ingush villages for several days. So, after a fierce battle, Shkuro's troops took Murtazovo. Then Shkuro managed to convince the Ingush of the senselessness of further resistance. He managed to persuade the pro-Bolshevik-minded residents defending Nazran to surrender. On February 9, Nazran capitulated.
On February 8, fierce battles for Vladikavkaz continued. The volunteers continued strong attacks on the Kursk and Molokan suburbs, but they were all fought back by the Red Army. However, the situation has worsened. Vladikavkaz was continuously fired upon by artillery fire. The city's defenders were running out of ammunition. The Whites intercepted the Bazorkinskaya road, interrupted the movement along the Georgian Military Highway, were able to wedge themselves into defensive positions and occupy part of the Molokan settlement, the building of the cadet corps. The Reds continued their furious counterattacks, temporarily regaining their lost positions, but in general the situation was already hopeless. The situation was further complicated by the fact that there were up to 10 thousand soldiers of the 11th Army sick with typhus in the city. There was nowhere to take them out and nothing on.
On February 9, fierce fighting continued. It became obvious that the situation was hopeless. There will be no help. Two armored vehicles emerged from the standing position. The ammunition is running out. Ingush left the city to protect their villages. The escape routes were intercepted by the enemy. Gikalo and Orzhonikidze retreated to Samashkinskaya, towards Grozny. The enemy strengthened the blockade ring around Vladikavkaz. Some of the commanders offered to leave the city. On February 10, the Shkuro division struck a strong blow at the Kursk suburb and captured it. The Reds threw a reserve, a detachment of armored vehicles into a counterattack. A fierce battle went on all day. The Red Army again threw the enemy back to their original positions.
At night, the red command, having exhausted the possibilities for defense, decided to leave along the Georgian Military Highway. White, bringing up reinforcements, on the morning of February 11 again went to a decisive assault and after a three-hour battle captured the Kursk settlement. The Reds launched a counterattack, but this time without success. At the same time, the Denikinites captured Shaldon and attacked the Vladimir and Verkhne-Ossetian suburbs. In the evening, the Red Army began to retreat to the Molokan settlement, and then to break through along the Georgian Military Highway. Thus ended the 10-day battle for Vladikavkaz.
Bursting into the city, the White Guards inflicted a brutal reprisal on the remaining Red Army soldiers wounded and sick with typhus. Thousands of people were killed. Some of the Reds retreated to Georgia, they were pursued by the Shkuro Cossacks and killed many. Many died in crossing the winter passes. The Georgian government, fearing typhus, initially refused to let refugees in. As a result, they let me in and interned.
Nestled against the Caucasian ridge in the Sunzha Valley between Vladikavkaz and Grozny, the Reds under the command of Ordzhonikidze, Gikalo, Dyakov tried to break through to the sea by the valley of the Sunzha River. The Reds were going to go through Grozny to the Caspian Sea. General Shatilov, who came out of Grozny, joined the battle with them. The Whites overturned the advanced units of the Red at the village of Samashkinskaya. Then a stubborn battle broke out at Mikhailovskaya. The Reds had strong artillery and several armored trains, which, moving forward, inflicted serious damage on the White Guards. The Bolsheviks themselves went on the offensive several times, but the whites threw them back with horse attacks. As a result, the White Guards were able to make a roundabout maneuver and, with a simultaneous attack from the front and flank, defeated the enemy. Several thousand Red Army men were captured, and the Whites also captured many guns and 7 armored trains. The remnants of the red group fled to Chechnya.
Commander of the 1st Caucasian Cossack Division A. G. Shkuro
Outcomes
Thus, the Vladikavkaz group of the Reds was destroyed and scattered. In February 1919, Denikin's army completed the campaign in the North Caucasus. The White Army provided itself with a relatively strong rear and a strategic foothold for a campaign in central Russia. After the assault on Vladikavkaz, two Kuban divisions under the general command of Shkuro were immediately transferred to the Don, where the situation was critical for the White Cossacks. Denikin had to urgently transfer troops to support the Don army, which in January 1919 suffered another defeat at Tsaritsyn and began to fall apart, and to the Donbass.
Red detachments, which went over to partisan struggle, held out only in the mountains of Chechnya and Dagestan. Also in the mountainous regions anarchy continued, almost every nationality had its own "government", which Georgia, Azerbaijan or the British tried to influence. Denikin, on the other hand, tried to restore order in the Caucasus, to abolish these "autonomous states", appointed governors from white officers and generals (often from local) in the national regions. In the spring of 1919, the Denikinites established their rule over Dagestan. The mountain republic ceased to exist. Imam Gotsinsky refused to fight and took his detachment to the Petrovsk area, hoping for the support of the British. But another imam, Uzun-Haji, declared jihad against Denikin. He took his detachment to the mountains, on the border of Chechnya and Dagestan. Uzun-Khadzhi was elected imam of Dagestan and Chechnya, and Vedeno was elected the imamate's residence. He began the creation of the North Caucasian Emirate and fought against the Denikinites. The Uzun-Khadzhi "government" tried to establish contacts with Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey in order to obtain armed assistance.
Interestingly, the jihadists entered into a tactical alliance with the remnants of the Reds, led by Gikalo. They formed an international detachment of red rebels, which was located on the territory of the emirate and was subordinate to the headquarters of Uzun-Khadzhi as the 5th regiment of the army of the North Caucasus Emirate. In addition, the Ingush detachment of red partisans headed by Ortskhanov, located in the mountains of Ingushetia, was subordinate to the imam; he was considered the 7th regiment of the Uzun-Khadzhi army.
As a result, apart from individual centers of resistance, the entire North Caucasus was controlled by whites. The resistance of the mountaineers of Dagestan and Chechnya was generally suppressed by the whites in the spring of 1919, but the White Guards had neither the strength nor the time to conquer the mountainous regions.
In addition, the whites came into conflict with Georgia. Another small war took place - the White Guard-Georgian. The conflict was initially caused by the anti-Russian position of the new "independent" Georgian government. The Georgian and White governments were enemies of the Bolsheviks, but they could not find a common language. Denikin advocated a "united and indivisible Russia", that is, he was categorically against the independence of the Caucasian republics, which were only formally "independent", but in reality were oriented first towards Germany and Turkey, and then towards the Entente powers. The leading role here was played by the British, who at the same time instilled hope in the white and national governments and played their Great Game, solving the strategic task of dismembering and destroying Russian civilization. The white government postponed all questions of the independence of the republics, future borders, etc., until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, after the victory over the Bolsheviks. The Georgian government, on the other hand, sought to take advantage of the turmoil in Russia in order to round up its holdings, in particular, at the expense of the Sochi District. The Georgians also tried to intensify the insurgency in the North Caucasus in order to create various "autonomies" that could serve as a buffer between Georgia and Russia. Thus, the Georgians actively supported the uprising against Denikin in the region of Chechnya and Dagestan.
The reason for the intensification of hostilities was the Georgian-Armenian war, which began in December 1918. It affected the Armenian community of the Sochi District, which was occupied by Georgian troops. The Armenian community there constituted a third of the population, and there were few Georgians. The rebellious Armenians, who were brutally suppressed by the Georgian troops, asked for help from Denikin. The White government, despite British protests, in February 1919 moved troops from Tuapse to Sochi under the command of Burnevich. The White Guards, with the support of the Armenians, quickly defeated the Georgians and occupied Sochi on February 6. A few days later, the Whites occupied the entire Sochi district. The British tried to put pressure on Denikin, demanding, in an ultimatum, the cleansing of the Sochi District, threatening otherwise to stop military assistance, but received a decisive refusal.
