The death of the 11th army
Most of the defeated 11th Army fled - some to Vladikavkaz, most to Mozdok. To the east, the 12th Army occupied the region of Grozny and Kizlyar, covering the only route of retreat - the Astrakhan tract. In the region of Vladikavkaz, there were also the Reds - the detachments of the North Caucasian Republic and the highlanders. Thus, the Reds had about 50 thousand more people in the North Caucasus. True, they were poorly organized, mostly already demoralized and had lost their combat capability, and had serious supply problems. To restore the combat capability of the Red Army in the North Caucasus, it took time to regroup, replenish, establish an iron order, and establish supplies.
The white command, in order to prevent the enemy from coming to his senses, continued to develop the offensive with the aim of the final destruction of the red troops. The Volunteer Army (DA) was reorganized in January 1919 - after the creation of the Crimean-Azov Volunteer Army on the basis of the Crimean-Azov Corps, the DA was named the Caucasian Volunteer Army, and it was headed by Wrangel. It included all the troops stationed at the front from Divnoe to Nalchik. The immediate task for Wrangel's army was the liberation of the Terek region and access to the Caspian Sea. On January 21, after the occupation of Georgievsk, Shkuro's Cossack division from the Pyatigorsk-Mineralnye Vody region was sent to Kabarda and on January 25 captured Nalchik, and on January 27 - Prokhladnaya. From the Prokhladnaya area, the 3rd Army Corps of Lyakhov, which included the divisions of Shkuro and General Gaiman, was sent to Vladikavkaz, and the 1st Cavalry Corps, led by Pokrovsky, along the railway to Mozdok - Kizlyar. To cover the Astrakhan direction and the Stavropol Territory, Wrangel left Stankevich's detachment on Manych and the Ulagai division at the Holy Cross.
Armored train of the Good Army "United Russia"
Pokrovsky's cavalry pursued the 1st and 2nd rifle divisions, the Kochergin brigade and the armored trains of the 11th army, retreating along the railway to Mozdok - Kizlyar. Bypassing maneuvers, the whites continually threatened the flank and rear of the retreating red troops. The White Guards tried to intercept the retreat routes, encircle and destroy the red grouping in the Mozdok area. The withdrawal of the 11th Army was largely spontaneous. The bulk of the troops threw guns, huge carts and tried to get to Astrakhan. People were killed by a severe frost and mowed down by typhus. The lagging groups were pursued by detachments of Cossacks and Kalmyks. On January 28, Pokrovsky defeated the Reds in the Mozdok area. The White Guards took thousands of prisoners, many people drowned in the Terek while fleeing.
They tried to cover the retreat of the defeated troops of the 11th Army with the help of the forces of the 12th Army. On January 28, 1919, a battalion of the Lenin Regiment of the 12th Army arrived in Kizlyar. The rest of the regiment's battalions were to arrive for him. This was a belated aid from the 12th Army, which could no longer change the overall situation of the disaster. On February 1, 1919, the Lenin regiment took up positions at the border of the villages of Mekenskaya and Naurskaya. The rearguard also included Kochubei's cavalry brigade and the Communist cavalry regiment. They were also supposed to be reinforced by the Derbent Infantry Regiment of the 1st Division, which retained the greatest organization and combat capability of the other troops.
On February 1, the Lenin regiment repulsed two white attacks. On February 2, the Whites resumed their offensive, trying to bypass the Red positions at Mekenskaya and reach the Terek station. A stubborn battle broke out. The white cavalry reached the Terek station, causing panic there among the fleeing troops of the 11th Army. Simultaneously, White attacked the Red positions at Meken and Naurskaya. The Lenin regiment, supported by the attacks of Kochubei's cavalry, met the enemy with strong fire and successfully repulsed the first attacks of the enemy. In the afternoon of February 2, the Wrangelites brought up heavy artillery and opened heavy fire on Naurskaya and Mekenskaya. The White Guards surrounded Naurskaya, but the reserve of the Lenin regiment, the 3rd battalion, thrown into the counterattack, temporarily rectified the situation. However, soon the white cavalry attacked the Communist cavalry regiment in Nadterechnaya from the rear and broke into the Meken one. The position of the red troops became critical. The Lenin regiment lost half of its strength in a fierce battle. At night, the Reds retreated in an organized manner to the Terek station, and then to Kizlyar.
The heroism of individual units that retained their combat effectiveness - the Lenin regiment, Kochubei's brigade, could not change the position of the 11th Army. The gain of two days could not restore the order and combat effectiveness of other troops. On February 3-4, the red command, not seeing an opportunity to organize a defense in the Kizlyar region, decided to leave for Astrakhan. The remnants of the 11th Army had a 400-kilometer journey across a bare, waterless desert, in winter conditions, without provisions and places to rest. Only near Logan, Promyslovoy, Yandykov, halfway to Astrakhan, were the fugitives able to provide some help. Kirov was in charge of organizing aid. However, food, medicine and doctors were scarce to help everyone. The epidemic of typhus continued to rage, which affected almost everyone and covered the surrounding villages.
Thus, the retreating red troops, reaching Yandyki, after overcoming the extremely difficult 200-kilometer path from Kizlyar, were still in a very difficult situation: there was nothing to feed them, there were no medicines and medical personnel, there was nowhere to warm people, and to give the necessary rest to continue the hike. About 10 thousand sick people reached Astrakhan. On February 15, by order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Caspian-Caucasian Front, the Revolutionary Military Council of the 11th Army was liquidated, and the Red Army of the North Caucasus ceased to exist. From the remnants of the 11th Army, two divisions were formed: the 33rd Infantry and 7th Cavalry, which became part of the 12th Army.
On February 6, Kizlyar was occupied by Pokrovsky's cavalry. The Wrangelites established a connection at Khasavyurt with the Terek Cossacks of General Kolesnikov, who were stationed in Petrovsk. The remains of the Reds were scattered over the mountains, several thousand were carved north of Kizlyar. White and red terror in the Civil War was commonplace. Whites, successfully advancing, in occupied villages perpetrated reprisals against captured and wounded Red Army soldiers (many under threat of death joined the White Army), massacred civilians who were noted in cooperation with the Bolsheviks. Typhus, winter and desert killed others. Few, miserable groups of hungry, freezing and sick people reached Astrakhan.
The typhus epidemic may have killed more people than the fighting itself. Wrangel recalled: "In the absence of order and properly organized medical care, the epidemic took on unheard-of proportions." The patients filled all the available rooms, the carriages standing on the siding. There was no one to bury the dead, while the living, left to themselves, wandered in search of food, many fell and died. The railway from Mozdok and further was packed with abandoned guns, carts of carts, "mixed with horse and human corpses." And further: “On one of the patrols we were shown a train of the dead. The long row of carriages on the ambulance train was filled with the dead. There was not a single living person on the whole train. In one of the carriages there were several dead doctors and nurses. "The Whites had to take extraordinary measures to prevent the spread of the epidemic, to clear the road, train stations and buildings from the sick and the dead. Looting flourished, local residents took away the abandoned property of the dead army.
According to Wrangel, during the pursuit, the whites captured more than 31 thousand prisoners, 8 armored trains, more than 200 guns and 300 machine guns. The Red Army in the North Caucasus, except for the detachments in the Sunzha Valley and in Chechnya, ceased to exist. Wrangel ordered Pokrovsky to remain with part of the troops in the Kizlyar department, believing that one division would be enough to pursue the Reds retreating to the sea, and sent other forces under the command of General Shatilov to the south to the mouth of the Sunzha River and Grozny in order to intercept the enemy retreating from Vladikavkaz.
Kochubei's brigade was the only unit that retained its operational state. However, he was out of luck. He came into conflict with the authorities, saying that the disaster of the army was connected with treason. As a result, Kochubei was accused of partisanship and anarchy, the brigade was disarmed. Kochubey with several fighters fled across the desert towards the Holy Cross, where he hoped for the help of another famous red commander of the Redneck. However, there were already whites in the Holy Cross, and Kochubei was captured. The illustrious commander was persuaded to go over to the side of the White Army, but he refused. On March 22 he was executed, Kochubei's last words were: “Comrades! Fight for Lenin, for Soviet power!"
One of the leaders of the Kuban Cossacks, in the Volunteer Army, commander of the 1st Kuban Brigade, 1st Kuban Cavalry Division, 1st Kuban Corps, General Viktor Leonidovich Pokrovsky
The capture of Grozny
To intercept the Red troops retreating from the Vladikavkaz area, Wrangel sent Shatilov's division south to take Grozny. In addition, the white command received news that the British wanted to restrict the advance of the Volunteer Army, keeping the oil fields of Grozny for the local "independent" state entities, such as the Mountain Republic. That the British, having landed in Petrovsk, began to move to Grozny.
Concentrating troops at the village of Chervlennaya, Shatilov marched on Grozny. The area was badly devastated by previous hostilities. In the Tersk region, Cossacks and mountaineers were slaughtered to death. Cossack villages, which found themselves between the Chechen auls, were mercilessly slaughtered. The Cossacks responded in the same way, the villages of the mountaineers, which were between the villages, were destroyed. Not a single inhabitant remained in these villages, some were killed, others were taken prisoner or fled to their neighbors. In fact, the war between the Cossacks and the mountaineers resumed since the conquest of the Caucasus. Highlanders in conditions of anarchy and turmoil disbanded, created gangs, returned to the old craft - raids, robberies and theft of people in full. The highlanders either joined with the Bolsheviks to fight the White Cossacks, or fought the Reds.
The oil fields of Grozny have been burning for a long time. They were set on fire by the highlanders at the end of 1917, during an attempt to capture the city. The Bolsheviks were unable to extinguish a massive fire. As Shatilov wrote: “As soon as we approached Grozny, we saw a huge flame and a high cloud of black smoke behind him at the heights. It was part of the oil fields that burned. Whether through negligence, or there was intent here, but a few months before our arrival, these fires began. … The fire from burning gases and spilling oil reached such an intensity that it was completely light in Grozny at night."
On February 4-5, 1919, after a two-day battle, the Whites took Grozny. Artillery destroyed the high voltage wire around the city. Then the whites rushed into the city from several directions. A company of Chinese internationalists from the Pau Tisan Cheka Separate Detachment fought especially fiercely. She was killed almost entirely. The remnants of the red garrison fled for Sunzha, to the west along the Sunzha valley to meet the Reds retreating from Vladikavkaz.
Commander of the 1st Cavalry Division of the Volunteer Army, General Pavel Nikolaevich Shatilov
