Troubles. 1919 year. 100 years ago, in May 1919, the White Army launched an assault on Petrograd. Rodzianko's northern corps, with the support of Estonia and Great Britain, launched an offensive in the Narva-Pskov direction. Having a three-fold superiority in strength, White broke through the defense of the 7th Red Army and took Gdov on May 15, Yamburg on May 17 and Pskov on May 25. In late May - early June 1919, the White Guards reached the approaches to Gatchina, in early June - to Ropsha, Oranienbaum and the Krasnaya Gorka fort.
Baltics on fire
At the end of 1918, three military-political forces prevailed in the Baltic States: 1) German troops, which, after Germany's surrender, had not yet been completely evacuated. The Germans generally supported local nationalists to make local state entities orientated towards Germany; 2) nationalists who relied on external forces, Germany, and then the Entente (mainly England); 3) communists who were going to create Soviet republics and reunite with Russia.
Thus, under the cover of German bayonets, nationalist and white detachments were formed in the Baltic States. Local politicians created "independent" states. At the same time, representatives of the workers' and communist movement sought to create Soviet republics and unite with Soviet Russia.
As the German troops were evacuated, Moscow was able to return the Baltic states to its rule. Soviet national armies were formed on the territory of the RSFSR to liberate and secure the Baltic territories for themselves. The most powerful force was the Latvian Rifle Division (9 regiments), which became the backbone of the Red Army of Soviet Latvia. Estonia was to be occupied by Red Estonian units with the support of the 7th Red Army and the Red Baltic Fleet. The main blow was delivered in the Narva direction. Latvia was to be occupied by Latvian rifle units. In January 1919, the Latvian army was created. It was headed by Vatsetis, who at the same time remained the commander-in-chief of all the armed forces of the RSFSR. Operations to liberate Lithuania and Belarus were to be carried out by the Western Army.
In early December 1918, the Reds tried to take Narva, but the operation failed. There were still German units that, together with the Estonian troops, defended Narva. The battle for Estonia became protracted. The nationalist Estonian government, relying on the remnants of German troops, Russians and Finnish whites from Finland, created a fairly strong army that successfully resisted. Estonian detachments successfully used internal operating lines, relying on two through railways from Reval (Tallinn), and made extensive use of armored trains. The Red troops had to abandon the idea of "lightning war" and methodically attack on the Revel, Yuryev and Pernov axes. Significant forces were required to suppress the enemy.
At the same time, the liberation of Latvia was going on. Here the red Latvian units advanced in three directions: 1) Pskov - Riga; 2) Kreuzburg - Mitava; 3) Ponevezh - Shavli. The bulk of the population, peasants who suffered from the dominance of landlords and large landowners-tenants, supported the Reds. In Riga, self-defense units were formed - the Baltic Landswehr, which included German, Latvian and Russian companies. They were headed by General von Loringofen. Here, the German Iron Division of Major Bischoff was created - a volunteer unit like the Kornilov shock regiment, which was supposed to maintain order in the crumbling German army, which, during the evacuation, quickly disintegrated and more and more succumbed to revolutionary sentiments.
However, this did not prevent the Red Army from taking the city. It was not possible to stop the Reds east of Riga. The newly formed companies of the Landswehr were unable to stop the regular regiments. On January 3, 1919, the Reds occupied Riga. This was facilitated by the successful uprising of the Riga workers, which began a few days before the arrival of the Red troops and disorganized the rear of the enemy. The Baltic Landswehr and the German volunteers tried to hold out in Mitava, and the Reds took Mitava in a few days. In mid-January 1919, an offensive into Courland began on the wide front Vindava - Libava. The advancing red troops occupied Vindava, threatened Libau, but at the turn of the river. The Vindavas stopped them. The German barony, in alliance with the Baltic nationalist bourgeoisie, offered stubborn resistance. Not only local formations fought with the Reds, but also mercenary and volunteer detachments from the remnants of the 8th German army.
The offensive of the Red Army was already running out of steam. The first offensive impulse has dried up. The Latvian riflemen, having got to their homeland, quickly lost their former combat capability. Symptoms of the decomposition of the old army began - the fall of discipline, mass desertion. The front has stabilized. In addition, the struggle was complicated by the fact that the Baltics had already been devastated by the world war and the German occupiers. During the occupation, the Germans systematically plundered the region, and during the evacuation they tried to take everything that was possible (bread, cattle, horses, various goods, etc.), deliberately destroyed roads and bridges in order to hinder the advance of the Red Army. The turmoil led to the revelry of various gangs. Hunger and epidemics. As a result, the material supply of the Red Army deteriorated sharply, which also had the most negative impact on the morale of the Red Army.
Soviet Russia, which fought on the Northern, Southern and Eastern Fronts, could not provide serious material assistance. As a result, the formation of the new Soviet Latvian army went hard. The struggle for Lithuania proceeded in even more unsatisfactory conditions. The Soviet government of Lithuania, due to the lack of a sufficient number of personnel, was unable to form its own army. Petty-bourgeois sentiments were strong in the local population, the support of the Bolsheviks was minimal. Therefore, the 2nd Pskov Division had to be sent to help the local councils. The fight was tough, just like in Estonia. In addition, the Germans came to the aid of the Lithuanian nationalists.
Soon, Great Britain came to replace Germany, which capitulated and was occupied with serious internal problems. The British fleet dominated the Baltic. The Entente landing forces captured the coastal cities: Revel, Ust-Dvinsk and Libava.
Ulmanis's government established itself in Libau, under the protection of the British. The formation of the Latvian army continued here. At the same time, the main assistance was still provided by Germany, which wanted to create a buffer near the borders of East Prussia so that the Reds did not come out to her. Germany helped the Latvian government with finances, ammunition and weapons. A significant part of the volunteer Iron Division also went into the service of Latvia. German soldiers were promised Latvian citizenship and the possibility of acquiring land in Courland. The white Russian Libavsky detachment was also created here.
German captured Landswehr armored car "Titanic" on Riga street, 1919
Feature of the Baltics
A feature of the then Baltic was the predominance of Germans and Russians in the cultural and economic life of the region. Estonians and Latvians were then backward and primitive outlying peoples, darker than the bulk of the Central Russian peasantry. They were extremely far from politics. The local intelligentsia was very weak, just beginning to form. Almost the entire cultural layer of Estonia and especially Latvia was Russian-German. Baltic (Baltic, Ostsee) Germans then constituted a significant percentage of the local population. German knights conquered the Baltics in the Middle Ages and for centuries were the dominant stratum of the population, having a strong influence on the culture and language of the locals.
Therefore, at the beginning of the 20th century, the Baltic Germans constituted the dominant class in cultural and economic relations in the region - the nobility, the clergy, and most of the middle class - urban dwellers (burghers). They did not assimilate with Estonians and Latvians, maintaining the position of the social elite. A century-old enmity lay between the Germans and the Latvian-Estonian peasants and the urban lower classes. It was aggravated by agrarian overpopulation. So, by the beginning of the twentieth century, the Germans still owned almost all of the Baltic forests and 20% of arable land. And the number of the indigenous population, landless peasants, was constantly growing (which caused a massive resettlement of the Baltic peasants to the Russian provinces). Not surprisingly, the young Baltic states carried out agrarian reforms aimed at the radical expropriation of German estates.
Thus, in the Civil War in the Baltics, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Germans and Russian whites had completely different interests. The opponents of the Bolsheviks were not a united front and they had a lot of contradictions. However, at the beginning, when the threat of a "red blitzkrieg" arose, the opponents of the Bolsheviks were still able to unite.
Red armored train at the front of the 7th Red Army. Yamburg. 1919 g.
The general situation in the spring of 1919. North building
At the end of March 1919, the whole of Latvia was in the hands of the Reds, except for the Libava region, where the invaders ruled. But the strategic position of the Red Army was difficult, as the situation in Estonia and Lithuania was dangerous. Latvian red arrows had to allocate troops to the flanks, against Estonia and Lithuania. As a result, the already relatively weak forces of the Latvian army were scattered on a wide front. The center, the Courland direction, was especially weak. There were no reserves, the formation of the 2nd division was going badly, due to problems in material supplies.
Estonia was convenient for defense. It was covered by the Peipsi and Pskov lakes, rivers and swamps. In addition, the main blow of the Red Army fell on Riga, here the best red units were concentrated. The direction to Reval was auxiliary. Estonia was attacked by weaker units, mainly from the Petrograd district, which retained the negative features of the former decayed capital regiments.
Estonian troops in the winter were significantly reinforced by the formation of Russian white detachments. In the fall of 1918, with the support of the German interventionists, the formation of the "Russian volunteer Northern army" began. The formation of the first division went on in Pskov, Ostrov and Rezhitsa (Pskov, Ostrovsky and Rezhitsky regiments, a total of about 2 thousand bayonets and sabers). Also, the "Northern Army" included detachments of various adventurers, such as ataman Bulak-Balakhovich, who first fought for the Bolsheviks, and then ran over to the whites (the Reds planned to arrest him for bloody actions in the village and theft).
The corps was supposed to be headed by Count KA Keller (a talented commander of a cavalry division, and then a cavalry corps, "the first saber of Russia"), but did not reach its destination and was killed in Kiev by the Petliurists. The white formation was temporarily commanded by Colonel Nef. In November 1918, the backbone of the Pskov White Corps left Pskov and began to retreat after the Germans, so it was not able to independently resist the Red Army. In December 1918, the corps was transferred to the Estonian service and was renamed from Pskov to Severny. In December, the corps, together with the Estonian troops, opposed the Reds in the direction of Yuryev.
The Baltic state formations were actively supported by England. First of all, Estonia, where the local government immediately pursued a national chauvinist policy towards the Germans and Russians. The lands of the German nobility were nationalized, the German officials were fired, the Germans were ousted. London was interested in dismembering and weakening Russia, therefore it helped nationalist regimes. The British fleet fettered the actions of the Red Baltic Fleet. The British provided assistance to the local regimes with weapons, ammunition, equipment, and in some cases direct military force, primarily in coastal points. At the same time, the British did not help the Russian whites until the summer of 1919, since the Northern Corps was founded by the Germans, and the White Guards advocated "a united and indivisible Russia." The Whites did not recognize the independence of Estonia, which became their base. That is, whites were potential opponents of local nationalists.
German and Latvian landowners, representatives of the bourgeoisie, who fled from Latvia, where the Reds won, also rendered significant assistance to the Estonian formations. As a result, the attempts of the opponents of the Reds to go on the offensive from Narva to Yamburg and further were successful. Their advance on Valk and Verro was accompanied by success. This forced the commander of the Latvian army (Slaven was appointed to this position in February 1919) to allocate three additional rifle regiments against the White Estonians. The successes of the Red troops in the Lithuanian direction also stopped, as German volunteers appeared in the region of the Kovno province, who strengthened the position of the local Lithuanian government. Also in Lithuania, Polish troops fought against the Reds.
It should be noted that the spring of 1919 was for Soviet Russia a time of extreme exertion of all forces on the Southern and Eastern fronts. The decisive battles of the Civil War were fought in the south and east, so the Red Headquarters could not send sufficient forces and funds to the Western Front. At the same time, spontaneous "kulak" riots flared in the immediate rear of the Reds, throughout the north-west of Russia, often led by deserters who had military training and fled with weapons. The Peasant War continued in the country, the peasants rebelled, dissatisfied with the policy of "war communism", food appropriation and mobilization into the army. For example, in June 1919, more than 7 thousand deserters were counted in three provinces of the Petrograd Military District. The Pskov province was especially prominent, in which the riots were continuous.
Defense of Petrograd. Fighting detachment of responsible workers of trade unions and the Economic Council
A group of commanders and Red Army men. Defense of Petrograd
