The civil war in Siberia had its own characteristics. Siberia in territorial space was several times larger than the territory of European Russia. The peculiarity of the Siberian population was that it did not know serfdom, there were no large landowners' lands that hampered the possessions of the peasants, and there was no land issue. In Siberia, the administrative and economic exploitation of the population was much weaker already because the centers of administrative influence spread only along the line of the Siberian railroad. Therefore, such an influence almost did not extend to the internal life of the provinces lying at a distance from the railway line, and the people needed only order and the possibility of a calm existence. Under such patriarchal conditions, revolutionary propaganda could succeed in Siberia only by force, which could not but provoke resistance. And it inevitably arose. In June, the Cossacks, volunteers and detachments of the Czechoslovakians cleared the entire Siberian railway line from Chelyabinsk to Irkutsk from the Bolsheviks. After that, an irreconcilable struggle began between the parties, as a result of which the advantage was established in the power structure formed in Omsk, relying on the armed forces of about 40,000, among which half were from the Ural, Siberian and Orenburg Cossacks. Anti-Bolshevik insurgent units in Siberia fought under the white-green flag, because "according to the decree of the extraordinary Siberian regional congress, the colors of the flag of autonomous Siberia were established, white and green, as a symbol of Siberian snow and forests."
Rice. 1 Flag of Siberia
It should be said that not only Siberia declared autonomy during the Russian Troubles of the 20th century, there was an endless parade of sovereignties. It was the same with the Cossacks. During the collapse of the Russian Empire and the civil war, several Cossack state formations were proclaimed:
Kuban People's Republic
Great Don Host
Tersk Cossack Republic
Ural Cossack Republic
Orenburg Cossack Circle
Siberian-Semirechensk Cossack Republic
Transbaikal Cossack Republic.
Of course, all these centrifugal chimeras arose primarily from the impotence of the central government, which was repeated in the early 90s. In addition to the national-geographical rift, the Bolsheviks also managed to organize an internal split: the formerly united Cossacks were divided into "red" and "white". Some of the Cossacks, primarily young people and front-line soldiers, were deceived by the promises and promises of the Bolsheviks, and left to fight for the Soviets.
Rice. 2 Red Cossacks
In the South Urals, the Red Guards, under the leadership of the worker-Bolshevik V. K. Blucher, and the Red Orenburg Cossacks of the brothers Nikolai and Ivan Kashirins fought surrounded and retreated from Vekhneuralsk to Beloretsk, and from there, repelling the attacks of the White Cossacks, began a great march along the Ural Mountains near Kungur, to join with the 3rd Red Army. Having passed with battles on the rear of the whites for more than 1000 kilometers, the red fighters and Cossacks in the Askino area united with the red units. Of these, the 30th Infantry Division was formed, the commander of which was appointed Blucher, the former Cossack captains Kashirins were appointed deputy and brigade commander. All three receive the newly established Order of the Red Banner, and Blucher received it at # 1. During this period, about 12 thousand Orenburg Cossacks fought on the side of Ataman Dutov, up to 4 thousand Cossacks fought for the power of the Soviets. The Bolsheviks created Cossack regiments often on the basis of the old regiments of the tsarist army. So, on the Don, for the most part, the Cossacks of the 1st, 15th and 32nd Don regiments went to the Red Army. In battles, the Red Cossacks appear as the best fighting units of the Bolsheviks. In June, the Don red partisans were reduced to the 1st Socialist Cavalry Regiment (about 1000 sabers), headed by Dumenko and his deputy Budyonny. In August, this regiment, replenished with the cavalry of the Martyn-Oryol detachment, deployed to the 1st Don Soviet Cavalry Brigade, headed by the same commanders. Dumenko and Budyonny were the initiators of the creation of large equestrian formations in the Red Army. Since the summer of 1918, they persistently convinced the Soviet leadership of the need to create cavalry divisions and corps. Their views were shared by K. E. Voroshilov, I. V. Stalin, A. I. Egorov and other leaders of the 10th Army. By order of the commander of the 10th Army K. E. Voroshilov No. 62 dated November 28, 1918, Dumenko's cavalry brigade was reorganized into the Consolidated Cavalry Division. The commander of the 32nd Cossack regiment, military sergeant major Mironov, also unconditionally sided with the new government. The Cossacks elected him the military commissar of the Ust-Medveditsky district revolutionary committee. In the spring of 1918, to fight the Whites, Mironov organized several Cossack partisan detachments, which were then combined into the 23rd Division of the Red Army. Mironov was appointed chief of the division. In September 1918 - February 1919, he successfully and dashingly smashed the white cavalry near Tambov and Voronezh, for which he was awarded the highest award of the Soviet Republic - the Order of the Red Banner No. 3. However, most of the Cossacks fought for the Whites. The Bolshevik leadership saw that it was the Cossacks who made up the bulk of the manpower of the White armies. This was especially typical for the south of Russia, where two-thirds of all Russian Cossacks were concentrated in the Don and Kuban. The civil war in the Cossack regions was fought with the most brutal methods, the destruction of prisoners and hostages was often practiced.
Rice. 3 Shooting of captured Cossacks and hostages
Due to the small number of Red Cossacks, the impression was that all Cossacks were at war with the rest of the non-Cossack population. By the end of 1918, it became obvious that in almost every army, about 80% of the combat-ready Cossacks are fighting the Bolsheviks and about 20% are fighting on the side of the Reds. On the fields of the outbreak of civil war, the White Cossacks Shkuro cut themselves with the Red Cossacks of Budyonny, the Red Cossacks of Mironov fought the White Cossacks of Mamantov, the White Cossacks of Dutov fought with the Red Cossacks of Kashirin, and so on … The bloody whirlwind swept over the Cossack lands. The grief-stricken Cossacks said: "Divided into white and red and let's hack each other for the joy of the Jewish commissars." This was only to the advantage of the Bolsheviks and the forces behind them. Such is the great Cossack tragedy. And there were reasons for her. When the 3rd Emergency Circle of the Orenburg Cossack army took place in September 1918 in Orenburg, where the first results of the struggle against the Soviets were summed up, the ataman of the 1st district K. A. Kargin with ingenious simplicity and very accurately described the main sources and causes of Bolshevism among the Cossacks. "The Bolsheviks in Russia and in the army were the result of the fact that we have a lot of poor people. And neither disciplinary regulations, nor executions can eliminate the discord while we are naked. Eliminate this empty space, give it the opportunity to live like a human being - and all these Bolshevism and other "isms" will disappear. However, it was too late to philosophize, and at the Circle, drastic punitive measures were planned against the supporters of the Bolsheviks, Cossacks, nonresidents and their families. I must say that they differed little from the punitive actions of the Reds. The abyss among the Cossacks deepened. In addition to the Ural, Orenburg and Siberian Cossacks, Kolchak's army included the Trans-Baikal and Ussuri Cossack troops, which were under the auspices and support of the Japanese. Initially, the formation of the armed forces to fight the Bolsheviks was based on the principle of voluntariness, but in August the mobilization of young people aged 19-20 was announced, as a result, Kolchak's army began to number up to 200,000 people. By August 1918, forces were deployed on the Western Front of Siberia alone, numbering up to 120,000 men. Parts of the troops were distributed in three armies: Siberian under the command of Gaida, who broke with the Czechs and promoted to generals by Admiral Kolchak, Western under the command of the glorious Cossack general Khanzhin and Yuzhnaya under the command of the ataman of the Orenburg army, General Dutov. The Ural Cossacks, who threw back the Reds, fought from Astrakhan to Novonikolaevsk, occupying a front of 500-600 miles. Against these troops, the Reds had from 80 to 100,000 men on the Eastern Front. However, having strengthened the troops by violent mobilization, the Reds went on the offensive and on September 9 they occupied Kazan, on the 12th Simbirsk and on October 10 they occupied Samara. By the Christmas holidays, Ufa was taken by the Reds, the Siberian armies began to retreat to the east and occupy the passages of the Ural Mountains, where the armies were supposed to replenish themselves, put themselves in order and prepare for the spring offensive. At the end of 1918, Dutov's southern army, formed mainly from the Cossacks of the Orenburg Cossack army, also suffered heavy losses, and in January 1919 left Orenburg.
In the south, in the summer of 1918, 25 ages were mobilized into the Don army and there were 27,000 infantry, 30,000 cavalry, 175 guns, 610 machine guns, 20 aircraft, 4 armored trains in the ranks, not counting the young standing army. The reorganization of the army was completed by August. The infantry regiments had 2-3 battalions, 1000 bayonets and 8 machine guns in each battalion, the cavalry regiments were six hundred in number with 8 machine guns. The regiments were divided into brigades and divisions, divisions into corps, which were placed on 3 fronts: the northern one against Voronezh, the eastern one against Tsaritsyn, and the southeastern one near the village of Velikoknyazheskaya. The Don's special beauty and pride was a standing army of 19-20 years old Cossacks. It consisted of: 1st Don Cossack Division - 5 thousand checkers, 1st Plastun brigade - 8 thousand bayonets, 1st rifle brigade - 8 thousand bayonets, 1st engineer battalion - 1 thousand bayonets, technical troops - armored trains, airplanes, armored detachments, etc. In total, up to 30 thousand excellent fighters. A river flotilla of 8 ships was created. After bloody battles on July 27, the Don units left the army in the north and occupied the city of Boguchar, Voronezh province. The Don army was free from the Red Guard, but the Cossacks categorically refused to go further. With great difficulty, the ataman managed to carry out the resolution of the Circle on the crossing of the borders of the Don army, which was expressed in the order. But it was a dead letter. The Cossacks said: "We will go if the Russians also go." But the Russian Volunteer Army was firmly stuck in the Kuban and could not go north. Denikin refused the chieftain. He declared that he must remain in the Kuban until he liberated the entire North Caucasus from the Bolsheviks.
Rice. 4 Cossack regions of southern Russia
Under these conditions, the ataman looked closely at Ukraine. As long as there was order in Ukraine, as long as there was friendship and an alliance with the hetman, he was calm. The western border did not require a single soldier from the chieftain. There was a correct exchange of goods with Ukraine. But there was no firm conviction that the hetman would resist. The hetman did not have an army, the Germans prevented him from creating it. There was a good division of the Sich riflemen, several officer battalions, a very smart hussar regiment. But these were ceremonial troops. There were a bunch of generals and officers who were appointed commanders of corps, divisions and regiments. They put on the original Ukrainian zhupans, let go of the sedentary forelocks, hung crooked sabers, occupied the barracks, issued statutes with covers in Ukrainian and content in Russian, but there were no soldiers in the army. The entire order was provided by the German garrisons. Their formidable "Halt" silenced all political mongrels. However, the hetman understood that it was impossible to rely on German troops forever and sought a defensive alliance with the Don, Kuban, Crimea and the peoples of the Caucasus against the Bolsheviks. The Germans supported him in this. On October 20, the hetman and the ataman held negotiations at the Skorokhodovo station and sent a letter to the command of the Volunteer Army, setting out their proposals. But the outstretched hand was rejected. So, the goals of Ukraine, Don and the Volunteer Army had significant differences. The leaders of Ukraine and the Don considered the main goal to be the struggle against the Bolsheviks, and the determination of the structure of Russia was postponed until victory. Denikin adhered to a completely different point of view. He believed that he was on his way only with those who deny any autonomy and unconditionally share the idea of a single and indivisible Russia. Under the conditions of the Russian Troubles, this was his huge epistemological, ideological, organizational and political mistake, which determined the sad fate of the white movement.
Ataman faced the fact of harsh reality. The Cossacks refused to go beyond the limits of the Donskoy army. And they were right. Voronezh, Saratov and other peasants not only did not fight the Bolsheviks, but also went against the Cossacks. The Cossacks, not without difficulty, were able to cope with their Don workers, peasants and nonresident people, but they could not defeat the whole of central Russia and understood this perfectly. The ataman had the only way to force the Cossacks to go to Moscow. It was necessary to give them a break from the hardships of combat and then force them to join the Russian people's army advancing on Moscow. He asked volunteers twice and was refused twice. Then he began to create a new Russian southern army with funds from Ukraine and the Don. But Denikin obstructed this business in every possible way, calling it a German undertaking. However, the ataman needed this army due to the extreme weariness of the Don army and the decisive refusal of the Cossacks to march to Russia. In Ukraine, there were personnel for this army. After the aggravation of relations between the Volunteer Army with the Germans and Skoropadsky, the Germans began to prevent the movement of volunteers to the Kuban and in Ukraine, a lot of people who were ready to fight the Bolsheviks, but did not have such an opportunity, accumulated. From the very beginning, the Kiev union "Our Homeland" became the main supplier of personnel for the southern army. The monarchical orientation of this organization sharply narrowed the social base of manning the army, since monarchist ideas were very unpopular among the people. Thanks to the propaganda of the socialists, the word king was still a bogey to many people. With the name of the tsar, the peasants inextricably linked the idea of the harsh collection of taxes, the sale of the last cow for debts to the state, the dominance of landowners and capitalists, the officers of gold-diggers and the officer's stick. In addition, they were afraid of the return of the landlords and punishment for the ruin of their estates. Simple Cossacks did not want restoration, because with the concept of monarchy they associated universal, long-term, compulsory military service, the obligation to equip at their own expense and maintain combat horses that were not needed in the economy. Cossack officers associated tsarism with the idea of a ruinous "privilege". The Cossacks liked their new independent system, they were amused that they themselves were discussing issues of power, land and mineral resources. Tsar and monarchy were contrasted with the concept of freedom. It is difficult to say what the intelligentsia wanted and what it feared, because it never knows it itself. She is like that Baba Yaga who is "always against". In addition, General Ivanov, also a monarchist, a very honored man, but already sick and elderly, undertook to command the southern army. As a result, little came of this venture.
And the Soviet power, suffering defeats everywhere, from July 1918 began to organize the Red Army correctly. With the help of the officers involved in it, the scattered Soviet detachments were brought together into military formations. In regiments, brigades, divisions and corps, military experts were placed in command posts. The Bolsheviks managed to create a split not only among the Cossacks, but also among the officers. It was divided into approximately three equal parts: for whites, for red, and for no one. Here's another great tragedy.
Rice. 5 The tragedy of the mother. One son for the whites and the other for the red
The Don army had to fight against a militarily organized enemy. By August, more than 70,000 fighters, 230 guns with 450 machine guns were concentrated against the Don army. The numerical superiority of the enemy in forces created a difficult situation for the Don. This situation was exacerbated by political turmoil. On August 15, after the liberation of the entire Don territory from the Bolsheviks, the Great Army Circle was convened in Novocherkassk from the entire population of the Don. It was no longer the old "gray" Don Salvation Circle. The intelligentsia and semi-intelligentsia, people's teachers, lawyers, clerks, clerks, solicitors entered it, managed to master the minds of the Cossacks, and the Circle broke up into districts, villages, parties. At the Circle, from the very first meetings, opposition to Ataman Krasnov, which had its roots in the Volunteer Army, opened up. The ataman was accused of his friendly relations with the Germans, the desire for solid independent power and independence. Indeed, the chieftain opposed Bolshevism with Cossack chauvinism, internationalism with Cossack nationalism, and Russian imperialism with Don independence. Very few people then understood the significance of the Don separatism as a transitional phenomenon. Denikin did not understand this either. Everything on the Don irritated him: the anthem, the flag, the coat of arms, the chieftain, the Circle, discipline, satiety, order, Don patriotism. He considered all this to be a manifestation of separatism and by all means fought against the Don and the Kuban. As a result, he chopped off the branch on which he was sitting. As soon as the civil war ceased to be national and popular, it became a class war and could not have success for whites due to the large number of the poorest class. First, the peasants, and then the Cossacks fell away from the Volunteer Army and the White Movement, and it perished. They talk about the treason of the Cossacks to Denikin, but this is not so, but quite the opposite. If Denikin had not betrayed the Cossacks, would not have cruelly insulted their young national feelings, they would not have left him. In addition, the decision taken by the ataman and the Army Circle to continue the war outside the Don intensified anti-war propaganda on the part of the Reds, and ideas began to spread among the Cossack units that the ataman and the government were pushing the Cossacks to conquests alien to them outside the Don, which the Bolsheviks did not encroach on. … The Cossacks wanted to believe that the Bolsheviks really would not touch the Don territory and that it was possible to come to an agreement with them. The Cossacks reasoned: "We liberated our lands from the Reds, let the Russian soldiers and peasants lead the further struggle against them, and we can only help them." In addition, for the summer field work on the Don, workers were required, and therefore it was necessary to free the older ages and dismiss them to their homes, which greatly affected the strength and combat capability of the army. The bearded Cossacks with their authority tightly rallied and disciplined hundreds. But despite the intrigues of the opposition, popular wisdom and national egoism prevailed on the Circle over the sly attacks of political parties. The ataman's policy was approved, and he himself was re-elected on September 12. The ataman firmly understood that Russia itself must be saved. He did not trust either the Germans, much less the Allies. He knew that foreigners did not go to Russia for Russia, but to snatch as much as possible from it. He also understood that Germany and France, for opposite reasons, needed a strong and powerful Russia, and England a weak, fragmented, federal one. He believed in Germany and France, he did not believe in England at all.
By the end of the summer, the fighting on the border of the Don region concentrated around Tsaritsyn, which was also not part of the Don region. The defense there was headed by the future Soviet leader I. V. Stalin, whose organizational abilities are still doubted only by the most ignorant and stubborn. By lulling the Cossacks to sleep by propaganda of the futility of their struggle outside the borders of the Don, the Bolsheviks concentrated large forces on this front. However, the first offensive of the Reds was repulsed, and they retreated to Kamyshin and to the lower Volga. While the Volunteer Army during the summer fought to clear the Kuban region from the army of paramedic Sorokin, the Don Army provided its activities on all fronts against the Reds from Tsaritsyn to Taganrog. During the summer of 1918, the Don army suffered heavy losses, up to 40% of the Cossacks and up to 70% of the officers. The quantitative superiority of the Reds and the vast front-line space did not allow the Cossack regiments to leave the front and go to the rear for rest. The Cossacks were in constant combat tension. Not only people were tired, but the horse train was also exhausted. The harsh conditions and lack of adequate hygiene began to cause infectious diseases, typhus appeared in the troops. In addition, the Red units under the command of the Rednecks, defeated in battles north of Stavropol, went towards Tsaritsyn. The appearance from the Caucasus of Sorokin's army, which was not finished by volunteers, posed a threat from the flank and rear of the Don army, which was waging a stubborn struggle against the garrison of 50,000 people that occupied Tsaritsyn. With the onset of cold weather and general fatigue, the Don units began to move away from Tsaritsyn.
But what about the Kuban? The lack of weapons and soldiers of the Volunteer Army was made up for by enthusiasm and daring. On an open field, under a hurricane of fire, officer companies, striking the imagination of the enemy, moved in slender chains and drove ten times the number of Red troops.
Rice. 6 Attack of an officer company
Successful battles, accompanied by the capture of a large number of prisoners, lifted the spirits in the Kuban villages, and the Cossacks began to take up arms en masse. The composition of the Volunteer Army, which suffered heavy losses, was replenished with a large number of Kuban Cossacks, volunteers who arrived from all over Russia and people from a partial mobilization of the population. The need for a unified command of all forces that fought against the Bolsheviks was recognized by the entire command staff. In addition, it was necessary for the leaders of the White movement to take into account the all-Russian situation in the revolutionary process. Unfortunately, none of the leaders of the Good Army, who claimed the role of leaders on a national scale, possessed flexibility and dialectical philosophy. The dialectics of the Bolsheviks, who, in order to retain power, gave the Germans more than a third of the territory and population of European Russia, of course, could not serve as an example, but Denikin's claims to the role of the immaculate and unyielding guardian of "one and indivisible Russia" under the conditions of the Time of Troubles could only be ridiculous. In the conditions of the multifactorial and merciless struggle of “all against all”, he did not possess the necessary flexibility and dialectics. The refusal of the ataman Krasnov to subordinate the administration of the Don region to Denikin was understood by him not only as the personal vanity of the ataman, but also as the independence of the Cossacks hidden in this. All parts of the Russian Empire that sought to establish order with their own forces were considered by Denikin to be enemies of the white movement. The local authorities of the Kuban also did not recognize Denikin, and punitive detachments began to be sent against them, from the first days of the struggle. Military efforts were scattered, significant forces diverted from the main goal. The main parts of the population, objectively supporting the whites, not only did not join the struggle, but became its opponents. The front demanded a large number of the male population, but it was necessary to reckon with the demands of internal work, and often the Cossacks who were at the front were released from the units for certain periods. The Kuban government freed some ages from mobilization, and General Denikin saw in this "dangerous preconditions and a manifestation of sovereignty." The army was fed by the Kuban population. The Kuban government paid all the expenses for the supply of the Volunteer Army, which could not complain about the supply of food. At the same time, according to the laws of wartime, the Volunteer Army appropriated the right to all property seized from the Bolsheviks, cargo going to the Red units, the right of requisition, and more. Other means of replenishing the Dobrarmia treasury were indemnities imposed on villages that showed hostile actions towards it. To account for and distribute this property, General Denikin organized a commission of public figures from the military-industrial committee. The activities of this commission proceeded in such a way that a significant part of the cargo was spoiled, some were plundered, there was abuse among the members of the commission that the commission was made up of persons, mostly unprepared, useless, even harmful and ignorant. The immutable law of every army is that everything beautiful, brave, heroic, noble goes to the front, and everything cowardly, evading battle, everything thirsting not for feat and glory, but for profit and outward splendor, all speculators gather in the rear. People, who have not seen a hundred-ruble ticket before, turn over millions of rubles, they feel dizzy from this money, they sell "booty" here, here are their heroes. The front is torn, barefoot, naked and hungry, but here people are sitting in cleverly sewn Circassians, in colored caps, service jackets and breeches. Here they drink wine, jingle with gold and politicize.
Here are infirmaries with doctors, nurses and sisters of mercy. Here is love and jealousy. So it was in all armies, so it was in the white armies. Self-seekers marched into the white movement along with ideological people. These self-seekers firmly settled in the rear and flooded Yekaterinodar, Rostov and Novocherkassk. Their behavior cut the sight and hearing of the army and the population. In addition, for General Denikin it was not clear why the Kuban government, while liberating the region, put in place the rulers the same persons who were under the Bolsheviks, renaming them from commissars to atamans. He did not understand that the business qualities of each Cossack were determined in the conditions of Cossack democracy by the Cossacks themselves. However, not being able to put things in order himself in the regions liberated from the power of the Bolsheviks, General Denikin remained implacable to the local Cossack order and to local national organizations, which lived in pre-revolutionary times by their own customs. They were credited to them as hostile "self-styled", and punitive measures were taken against them. All these reasons could not help to attract the population to the side of the white army. At the same time, General Denikin, both during the Civil War and in exile, pondered a lot, but uselessly, about the completely inexplicable (from his point of view) epidemic spread of Bolshevism. Moreover, the Kuban army, territorially and in origin, was divided into the army of the Black Sea Cossacks, resettled by the order of Empress Catherine II after the destruction of the Dnieper army, and the linemen, whose population was made up of settlers from the Don region and from the Volga Cossack communities.
These two parts, which made up one army, were different in character. In both parts, their historical past was kept. The Chernomorites were the heirs of the troops of the Dnieper Cossacks and Zaporozhye, whose ancestors, due to their many times demonstrated political instability, were destroyed like an army. Moreover, the Russian authorities only completed the destruction of the Dnieper Army, and Poland began it, under the rule of the kings of which the Dnieper Cossacks were for a long time. This unstable orientation of the Little Russians has brought many tragedies in the past, it is enough to recall the inglorious fate and death of their last talented hetman Mazepa. This violent past and other features of the Little Russian character imposed a strong specificity on the behavior of the Kuban people in the civil war. The Kuban Rada was divided into 2 currents: Ukrainian and independent. The leaders of Rada Bych and Ryabovol proposed merging with Ukraine, the self-styledists stood for the organization of a federation in which the Kuban would be completely independent. Both dreamed and tried to free themselves from Denikin's tutelage. He, in turn, considered them all traitors. The moderate part of the Rada, the front-line soldiers and the chieftain Filimonov held on to the volunteers. They wanted to free themselves from the Bolsheviks with the help of volunteers. But the ataman Filimonov had little authority among the Cossacks, they had other heroes: Pokrovsky, Shkuro, Ulagai, Pavlyuchenko. The Kuban people liked them very much, but their behavior was difficult to predict. The behavior of numerous Caucasian peoples was even more unpredictable, which determined the greater specificity of the civil war in the Caucasus. Frankly, for all their zigzags and twists, the reds used all this specificity much better than Denikin.
Many hopes of whites were associated with the name of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov. Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich lived all this time in the Crimea, not openly entering political events. He was greatly oppressed by the thought that by sending his telegram to the sovereign with a request to abdicate, he had contributed to the death of the monarchy and the destruction of Russia. The Grand Duke wanted to make amends for this and take part in combat work. However, in response to General Alekseev's lengthy letter, the Grand Duke replied with only one phrase: “Be calm” … and General Alekseev died on September 25. The high command and the civilian part of the administration of the liberated territories were completely united in the hands of General Denikin.
Heavy continuous fighting depleted both sides of the fighting in the Kuban. The Reds also fought among the high command. The commander of the 11th Army, the former paramedic Sorokin, was eliminated, and the command was transferred to the Revolutionary Military Council. Not finding support in the army, Sorokin fled from Pyatigorsk in the direction of Stavropol. On October 17, he was caught, imprisoned, where he was killed without any trial. After the murder of Sor-kin, as a result of internal squabbles among the Red leaders and from impotent rage at the stubborn resistance of the Cossacks, also wanting to intimidate the population, a demonstrative execution of 106 hostages was carried out in Mineralnye Vody. Among those executed were General Radko-Dmitriev, a Bulgarian in the Russian service, and General Ruzsky, who so persistently urged the last Russian Emperor to abdicate the throne. After the verdict on General Ruzsky, the question was asked: "Do you now recognize the great Russian revolution?" He replied: "I see only one great robbery." To this it is worth adding that the beginning of the robbery was laid by him at the headquarters of the Northern Front, where violence was made against the will of the emperor, who was forced to abdicate. As for the bulk of the former officers who were in the North Caucasus, they turned out to be absolutely inert to the events taking place, showing no desire to serve either white or red, which decided their fate. Almost all of them were destroyed “just in case” by the Reds.
In the Caucasus, the class struggle was deeply involved in the national question. Among the numerous peoples inhabiting it, Georgia was of the greatest political importance, and in the economic sense - the Caucasian oil. Politically and territorially, Georgia found itself primarily under pressure from Turkey. Soviet power, but to the Brest Peace, ceded Kars, Ardahan and Batum to Turkey, which Georgia could not recognize. Turkey recognized the independence of Georgia, but on the other hand, it presented even more difficult territorial demands than those of the Brest Peace. Georgia refused to carry them out, the Turks went on the offensive and occupied Kars, heading for Tiflis. Not recognizing Soviet power, Georgia sought to ensure the country's independence by armed force and began to form an army. But Georgia was ruled by politicians who took an active part after the revolution as part of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies. These same persons now ingloriously tried to build the Georgian army on the same principles that at one time led the Russian army to decay. In the spring of 1918, the struggle for Caucasian oil began. The German command removed a cavalry brigade and several battalions from the Bulgarian front and transferred them to Batum and Poti, which had been leased by Germany for 60 years. However, the Turks were the first to appear in Baku and there the fanaticism of Turkish Mohammedanism, the ideas and propaganda of the Reds, the power and money of the British and Germans clashed. Since ancient times, in the Transcaucasus, there was an irreconcilable enmity between Armenians and Azerbaijanis (then they were called Turko-Tatars). After the establishment of the power of the Soviets, the age-old enmity was intensified by religion and politics. Two camps were created: the Soviet-Armenian proletariat and the Turkish-Tatars. Back in March 1918, one of the Soviet-Armenian regiments, returning from Persia, seized power in Baku and slaughtered entire quarters of the Turkish-Tatars, killing up to 10,000 people. For several months, the power in the city remained in the hands of the Red Armenians. In early September, a Turkish corps under the command of Mursal Pasha arrived in Baku, dispersed the Baku commune and occupied the city. With the arrival of the Turks, the massacre of the Armenian population began. The Muslims were triumphant.
Germany, after the Brest Peace, fortified on the shores of the Azov and Black Seas, in the ports of which part of their fleet was introduced. In the coastal cities of the Black Sea, German sailors, who sympathetically followed the unequal struggle between the Dobrarmia and the Bolsheviks, offered their help to the army headquarters, which Denikin contemptuously rejected. Georgia, separated from Russia by a mountain range, had a connection with the northern part of the Caucasus through a narrow strip of coast that made up the Black Sea province. Having annexed the Sukhumi District to its territory, Georgia put forward an armed detachment under the command of General Mazniev in Tuapse by September. This was a fatal decision, when the yeast of the national interests of the newly emerging states with all their acuteness and undecidability was poured into the Civil War. Against the Volunteer Army in the direction of Tuapse, the Georgians sent a detachment of 3,000 men with 18 guns. On the coast, the Georgians began to build fortifications by the front to the north, a small German landing force landed in Sochi and Adler. General Denikin began to reproach the representatives of Georgia for the difficult and humiliating situation of the Russian population on the territory of Georgia, the plundering of the Russian state property, the invasion and occupation by the Georgians, together with the Germans, of the Black Sea province. To which Georgia replied: "The Volunteer Army is a private organization … In the current situation, the Sochi District should become part of Georgia …". In this dispute between the leaders of the Dobrarmia and Georgia, the Kuban government turned out to be entirely on the side of Georgia. The Kubans had friendly relations with Georgia. It soon became clear that the Sochi district was occupied by Georgia with the consent of the Kuban, and that there were no misunderstandings between the Kuban and Georgia.
Such turbulent events developing in the Transcaucasus left no room there for the problems of the Russian Empire and its last stronghold, the Volunteer Army. Therefore, General Denikin finally turned his gaze to the East, where the government of Admiral Kolchak was formed. An embassy was sent to him, and then admiral Kolchak was recognized by Denikin as the Supreme ruler of national Russia.
Meanwhile, the defense of the Don continued on the front from Tsaritsyn to Taganrog. Throughout the summer and autumn, the Don army, without any outside help, fought heavy and constant battles in the main directions from Voronezh and Tsaritsyn. Instead of the Red Guard gangs, the Workers and Peasants Red Army (RKKA), which had just been created by the efforts of military experts, had already fought against the people's Don army. By the end of 1918, the Red Army already had 299 regular regiments, including on the eastern front against Kolchak there were 97 regiments, on the north against the Finns and Germans 38 regiments, on the west against the Polish-Lithuanian troops 65 regiments, on the south 99 regiments, of which there were 44 regiments on the Don front, 5 regiments on the Astrakhan front, 28 regiments on the Kursk-Bryansk front, 22 regiments against Denikin and Kuban. The army was commanded by the Revolutionary Military Council, headed by Bronstein (Trotsky), and the Defense Council headed by Ulyanov (Lenin) stood at the head of all the country's military efforts. In October, the headquarters of the Southern Front in Kozlov received the task to demolish the Don Cossacks and occupy, by all means, Rostov and Novocherkassk. The front was commanded by General Sytin. The front consisted of Sorokin's 11th Army, headquarters in Nevinnomyssk, which operated against volunteers and Kubanians, Antonov's 12th Army, headquarters in Astrakhan, Voroshilov's 10th Army, headquarters in Tsaritsyn, General Yegorov's 9th Army, headquarters in Balashov, General Chernavin's 8th Army, headquarters in Voronezh. Sorokin, Antonov and Voroshilov were the remnants of the previous electoral system, and the fate of Sorokin had already been decided, Voroshilov was looking for a replacement, and all the other commanders were former headquarters officers and generals of the imperial army. Thus, the situation on the Don front took shape in a very formidable manner. The chieftain and the commanders of the armies, Generals Denisov and Ivanov, were aware that the times when one Cossack was enough for ten Red Guards had passed and they realized that the period of "handicraft" operations had passed. The Don army was preparing to repulse. The offensive was stopped, the troops withdrew from the Voronezh province and entrenched in a fortified zone along the border of the Don army. Relying on the left flank on the Ukraine, occupied by the Germans, and on the right on the hard-to-reach Trans-Volga region, the ataman hoped to hold the defense until spring, during this time, strengthening and strengthening his army. But man proposes and God disposes.
In November, extremely unfavorable events of a general political nature took place for Don. The allies won a victory over the Central Powers, Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated the throne, a revolution and the disintegration of the army began in Germany. German troops began to leave Russia. The German soldiers did not obey their commanders, they were already ruled by their Soviets of Soldiers' Deputies. Not so long ago, the formidable "Halt" stern German soldiers stopped crowds of workers and soldiers in Ukraine, but now they obediently allowed themselves to be disarmed by the Ukrainian peasants. And then Ostap suffered. Ukraine boiled over, seethed with uprisings, each volost had its own "fathers" and the civil war rolled dashingly across the country. Hetmanism, Gaidamatchina, Petliurism, Makhnovshchina…. All this was heavily implicated in Ukrainian nationalism and separatism. Many works have been written about this period and dozens of films have been shot, including incredibly popular ones. If you remember "The Wedding in Malinovka" or "Red Devils", then you can vividly imagine … the future of Ukraine.
And then Petliura, joining with Vynnychenko, raised a revolt of the Sich archers. There was no one to suppress the rebellion. The hetman did not have his own army. The German Council of Deputies concluded a truce with Petliura, who drove the trains and the German soldiers loaded into them, abandoning their positions and weapons, and went home. In these conditions, the French command on the Black Sea promised the hetman 3-4 divisions. But at Versailles, the Thames and the Potomac, they looked at it very differently. Big politicians saw in united Russia a threat to Persia, India, the Middle and Far East. They wanted to see Russia destroyed, shattered and burned over a slow fire. In Soviet Russia, the events were followed with fear and trepidation. Objectively, the victory of the Allies was the defeat of Bolshevism. Both the commissars and the Red Army men understood this. As the Don people said that they could not fight with the whole of Russia, so the Red Army men understood that they could not fight against the whole world. But they didn't have to fight. Versailles did not want the salvation of Russia, did not want to share with her the fruits of victory, so they postponed help. There was another reason as well. Although the British and French said that Bolshevism is a disease of the defeated armies, they are the winners and their armies are not touched by this terrible disease. But that was not the case. Their soldiers no longer wanted to fight with anyone, their armies were already being eaten away by the same terrible gangrene of war weariness as the others. And when the allies did not come to Ukraine, the Bolsheviks had hope of victory. Hastily formed squads of officers and cadets remained to defend Ukraine and the hetman. The hetman's troops were defeated, the Ukrainian Council of Ministers surrendered Kiev to the Petliurists, having bargained for themselves and the officers' squads the right to evacuate to the Don and Kuban. The hetman escaped.
Petliura's return to power was colorfully described in the novel Days of the Turbins by Mikhail Bulgakov: chaos, murders, violence against Russian officers and just over Russians in Kiev. And then a stubborn struggle against Russia, not only against the red, but also against the white. The Petliurites staged a terrible terror, massacre and genocide of the Russians in the occupied territories. The Soviet command, having learned about this, moved Antonov's army to the Ukraine, which easily defeated the Petliura bands and occupied Kharkov, and then Kiev. Petliura fled to Kamenets-Podolsk. In Ukraine, after the departure of the Germans, huge reserves of military equipment remained, which the Reds got. This gave them the opportunity to form the Ninth Army from the side of Ukraine and direct it against the Don from the west. With the withdrawal of the German units from the borders of the Don and Ukraine, the position of the Don was complicated in two respects: the army was deprived of replenishment of weapons and military supplies, and a new, western frond was added with a length of 600 miles. For the command of the Red Army, great opportunities opened up for using the prevailing conditions, and they decided to first defeat the Don Army, and then destroy the Kuban and Volunteer armies. All the attention of the chieftain of the Don army was now turned to the western borders. But there was a belief that the allies would come and help out. The intelligentsia was lovingly, enthusiastically disposed towards the allies and looked forward to them. Thanks to the wide spread of Anglo-French education and literature, the British and French, despite the remoteness of these countries, were closer to the Russian educated heart than the Germans. And even more so the Russians, for this social stratum is traditionally and firmly convinced that in our Fatherland there can be no prophets by definition. The common people, including the Cossacks, had different priorities in this regard. The Germans enjoyed the sympathy and liked the simple Cossacks as a serious and hardworking people, the common people looked at the French as a frivolous creature with some contempt, and at the Englishman with great distrust. The Russian people were firmly convinced that during the period of Russian successes "the Englishwoman always shits." It soon became clear that the faith of the Cossacks in the allies turned out to be an illusion and a chimera.
Denikin had an ambivalent attitude towards the Don. While the affairs of Germany were good, and supplies to the Dobroarmiya were supplied from Ukraine through the Don, Denikin's attitude to Ataman Krasnov was cold, but restrained. But as soon as it became known about the victory of the allies, everything changed. General Denikin began to take revenge on the chieftain for independence and show that now everything is in his hands. On November 13, in Yekaterinodar, Denikin convened a meeting of representatives of the Dobroarmiya, Don and Kuban, at which he demanded that 3 main issues be resolved. About a single power (the dictatorship of General Denikin), a single command and a single representation to the allies. The meeting did not come to an agreement, and relations worsened even more, and with the arrival of the allies, a cruel intrigue began against the ataman and the Donskoy army. Denikin's agents among the allies ataman Krasnov has long been presented as a figure of "German orientation". All attempts of the chieftain to change this characteristic were unsuccessful. In addition, when foreigners met, Krasnov always ordered to play the old Russian anthem. At the same time, he said: “I have two options. Either play in such cases "God Save the Tsar", not attaching importance to the words, or a funeral march. I deeply believe in Russia, that's why I can't play the funeral march. I play the Russian anthem. " For this, the Ataman was also considered a monarchist abroad. As a consequence, Don received no help from the allies. But the chieftain was not up to parrying intrigues. The military situation changed dramatically, the Donskoy army was threatened with death. Attaching special importance to the territory of the Don, the Soviet government by November against the Don army concentrated four armies of 125,000 soldiers with 468 guns and 1,337 machine guns. The rear of the Red armies were reliably covered by railway lines, which ensured the transfer of troops and maneuvering, and the Red units were numerically increased. The winter was early and cold. With the onset of cold weather, diseases developed, and typhus began. The 60 thousandth Don army began to melt and freeze numerically, and there was nowhere to take reinforcements. The resources of manpower on the Don were completely depleted, the Cossacks were mobilized from 18 to 52 years old, and as volunteers they were even older. It was clear that with the defeat of the Don Army, the Volunteer Army would also cease to exist. But the Don Cossacks held the front, which allowed General Denikin, taking advantage of the difficult situation on the Don, to conduct a behind-the-scenes struggle against Ataman Krasnov through the members of the Army Circle. At the same time, the Bolsheviks resorted to their tried and tested means - the most tempting promises, behind which there was nothing but unheard-of treachery. But these promises sounded very attractive and humane. The Bolsheviks promised the Cossacks peace and complete inviolability of the borders of the Don army, if the latter lay down their arms and go home.
They pointed out that the allies would not help them; on the contrary, they were helping the Bolsheviks. The fight against the enemy forces exceeding 2-3 times depressed the morale of the Cossacks, and the promise of the Reds to establish peaceful relations in some units began to find supporters. Separate units began to leave the front, exposing it, and, finally, the regiments of the Upper Don District decided to enter into negotiations with the Reds and stopped resistance. The truce was concluded on the basis of self-determination and friendship of peoples. Many Cossacks went home. Through the breaks of the front, the Reds penetrated deep into the rear of the defending units and, without any pressure, the Cossacks of the Khopyorsky District rolled back. The Don army, leaving the northern districts, withdrew to the Seversky Donets line, surrendering village by village to the Red Mironov Cossacks. The ataman did not have a single free Cossack, everything was sent to the defense of the western front. The threat arose over Novocherkassk. The situation could only be saved by volunteers or allies.
By the time the front of the Don Army collapsed, the regions of the Kuban and the North Caucasus had already been liberated from the Reds. By November 1918, the armed forces in the Kuban consisted of 35 thousand Kuban and 7 thousand volunteers. These forces were free, but General Denikin was in no hurry to provide assistance to the exhausted Don Cossacks. The situation and the allies demanded a unified command. But not only the Cossacks, but also the Cossack officers and generals did not want to obey the tsarist generals. This collision had to be resolved somehow. Under pressure from the allies, General Denikin invited the ataman and the Don government to convene for a meeting in order to clarify the relationship between the Don and the command of the Good Army. On December 26, 1918, Don commanders Denisov, Polyakov, Smagin, Ponomarev, on the one hand, and generals Denikin, Dragomirov, Romanovsky and Shcherbachev, on the other, gathered for a meeting in Torgovaya. The meeting was opened with a speech by General Denikin. Beginning with a broader perspective on the fight against the Bolsheviks, he urged those present to forget personal grievances and insults. The issue of a single command for the entire command staff was a vital necessity, and it was clear to everyone that all the armed forces, incomparably smaller in comparison with the enemy's units, should be united under one general leadership and aimed at one goal: the destruction of the center of Bolshevism and the occupation of Moscow. The negotiations were very difficult and constantly came to a standstill. There were too many discrepancies between the command of the Volunteer Army and the Cossacks, in the field of politics, tactics and strategy. But still, with great difficulty and great concessions, Denikin managed to subjugate the Don army.
In these difficult days, the ataman took over the Allied military mission led by General Poole. They examined the troops in positions and in reserve, factories, workshops, stud farms. The more Poole saw, the more he realized that help was needed immediately. But in London there was a completely different opinion. After his report, Poole was removed from the leadership of the mission in the Caucasus and replaced by General Briggs, who did nothing without a command from London. And there were no commands to help the Cossacks. England needed a Russia weakened, exhausted and plunged into permanent turmoil. Instead of helping, the French mission presented the ataman and the Don government with an ultimatum, in which it demanded the complete submission of the ataman and the Don government to the French command in the Black Sea and full compensation for all losses of French citizens (read coal owners) in the Donbass. Under these conditions, the persecution against the ataman and the Donskoy army continued in Yekaterinodar. General Denikin maintained contacts and conducted constant negotiations with the chairman of the Circle Kharlamov and other figures from the opposition to the ataman. However, realizing the seriousness of the situation of the Don army, Denikin sent a division of May-Mayevsky to the Mariupol area and 2 more Kuban divisions were echeloned and awaited an order to move. But there was no order, Denikin was waiting for the Circle's decision regarding the chieftain Krasnov.
The Great Military Circle met on February 1. This was no longer the same circle that had been on August 15 in the days of victories. The faces were the same, but the expression was not the same. Then all the front-line soldiers were wearing shoulder straps, orders and medals. Now all the Cossacks and junior officers were without shoulder straps. The circle, represented by its gray part, became democratized and played like the Bolsheviks. On February 2, the Krug expressed no confidence in the commander and chief of staff of the Don Army, Generals Denisov and Polyakov. In response, the ataman Krasnov insulted for his comrades-in-arms and resigned from the position of ataman. The circle did not accept her at first. But on the sidelines, the opinion dominated that without the resignation of the ataman, there would be no help from the allies and Denikin. After that, the Circle accepted the resignation. In his place, General Bogaevsky was elected ataman. On February 3, General Denikin visited the Circle, where he was greeted with thunderous applause. Now the Volunteer, Don, Kuban, Terek armies and the Black Sea Fleet were united under his command under the name of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (ARSUR).
The truce of the Severodon Cossacks with the Bolsheviks continued, but not for long. A few days after the armistice, the Reds appeared in the villages and began to carry out savage reprisals among the Cossacks. They began to take away grain, steal cattle, kill the rebellious and make violence. In response, on February 26, an uprising began, engulfing the villages of Kazan, Migulinskaya, Veshenskaya and Elanskaya. The defeat of Germany, the elimination of Ataman Krasnov, the creation of the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia and the uprising of the Cossacks began a new stage in the struggle against the Bolsheviks in southern Russia. But that's a completely different story.
