Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Oleg Airapetov
August 2, 2022 , 09:12 — REGNUM
The Soviet government was in a hurry to eliminate the remaining centers of the Civil War, which could divert forces from the western direction. The white North fell first. Even from the beginning of January 1920, changes were noticeable in the mood of the soldiers of General Miller. On the night of February 7-8, most of the 8th Infantry Regiment went over to the side of the Bolsheviks. On February 8, 1920, the Red Army went on the offensive along the entire Northern Front. It developed successfully. The unrest in the rear of the whites intensified, many teams made up of prisoners fled. On February 17, a mass exodus of soldiers from the front began; on February 18, it became clear to Miller that Arkhangelsk would have to be surrendered. The authorities of the Northern region also failed to organize the correct evacuation - they did not prepare for it in advance. On February 21, the Red troops entered Arkhangelsk, Miller and his supporters fled the city on the armed icebreaker Minin, which was towing the yacht Yaroslavna. Those who remained on the shore in desperation fired at the ships with machine guns, the Minin responded with cannon shots.
"Both in the city and in the suburbs, for 10 versts, ships were fired upon from the shores," wrote Miller shortly after, “which compelled them to answer. When leaving the sea, for acceleration, one ship had to be abandoned, taking all the passengers on the Minin icebreaker."
At first, the authorities tried to hide the fact of the fall of Arkhangelsk from the inhabitants of Murmansk, which they hoped to turn into the last fortified stronghold in the North, but this idea ended in complete failure. Already on February 21, Murmansk learned about the flight of the Miller government. The commandant of the garrison telegraphed the impression the news made in the city:
"The population of Murmansk is for an agreement with the Bolsheviks. National militia - too. The commandant's team is completely unreliable. The training team hesitates. The Danes, the Belgians are crying - they are demanding to be sent home."
At 15:00 on February 21, supporters of the Bolsheviks seized power in Murmansk. On March 13, units of the Red Army entered the city. It was left by the Whites without a fight. A total of 1,001 people went across the border to Finland, including 377 officers and 493 soldiers. The final victory of the Reds in Pomorie became obvious. The northern front was liquidated.
At the same time, the victory of the Red Army became obvious in the south. The volunteer army was defeated. One of her officers recalled:
"She rolled non-stop south to the Black Sea with almost no resistance from the enemy."
The withdrawal of the army was badly organized.
"Following her into the unknown, fleeing the Bolsheviks, refugees left," recalled an employee of Wrangel’s headquarters, Gen.-l. P. S. Makhrov, "Ambulance trains with typhoid patients and the wounded were dragging along, trains were moving, formed by almost every military unit. They transported goods that ensured the existence of parts. Among them were trains of speculators and officials of the civil administration of the abandoned areas. All this clogged stations, disrupted normal evacuation, and disorganized the rear, which was already panic-stricken."
Kyiv group under the command of Gen. Bredova was cut off from the main group of troops and began to retreat to join units of the Novorossiysk group. The possibility of retreat towards the Crimea was lost. On December 4 (17), 1919, by order of Denikin, Bredov's troops, located on the left bank of the Dnieper, were subordinated to the commander-in-chief of the Novorossiysk region and the commander of the troops of the Odessa Military District, General-l. N. N. Schilling. He ordered a group of troops Gen.-m. Ya. A. Slashchev to retreat to the Crimea in order to cover the peninsula, Bredov - to retreat to the lower Dnieper and the Bug in order to cover Odessa. Neither Schilling, nor the chief of defense of the Odessa region, Gen.-M. Count P. M. Ignatiev failed to either organize the defense of the city or prepare its evacuation.
Meanwhile, large funds were allocated for this, and there were about 80 thousand soldiers and officers in the Odessa region. Schilling turned to the British for help. On January 18, 1920, their representative promised weapons and transport for the evacuation of 30 thousand people, but on January 21 he announced that this would be impossible due to lack of tonnage.
On January 23, Schilling “very secretly” informed Bredov that he was transferring all military and civil power in the Odessa region to him, and ordered to hold Odessa as long as possible in order to cover the evacuation of the wounded, sick, as well as families of officers and officials who could become victims of the Bolsheviks.
Schilling himself, together with his staff, was preparing to sail for Sevastopol. Everyone who could not leave by sea had to prepare for the march to Tiraspol and the crossing of the Dniester to Bessarabia. The Romanian authorities were informed about the campaign, and they did not refuse to allow Russian troops into their territory. On January 23, Nikolaev was under attack, and almost completed ships were taken from there to Odessa in tow. On January 29, Kherson was surrendered, on January 30 - Nikolaev. On February 4, Schilling gave the order to start the evacuation. On the morning of February 6, the 14th Army launched an offensive against Odessa. The battles near the city were of an exceptionally stubborn nature, nevertheless, on the evening of February 6, the Red Army entered the city, where the struggle continued in the streets. By this time, the garrison was almost completely decomposed.
"There was no question of any discipline. - An American journalist recalled. - At night, there was indiscriminate shooting in the city, and no one dared to go out into the street, not wanting to risk their lives. The soldiers robbed apartments, taking away clothes, fur coats and precious things from the inhabitants; Jews suffered especially. The robbed froze from the cold; the dying soldiers finished off with gun butts. All shops were robbed and goods were stolen. There was no way to stop the atrocities."
There were frosts from -5 to -10 degrees, the sea froze, the ice prevented the available transports and ships from entering the open sea, there were no icebreakers, two Russian icebreaking tugs and one English large tug worked. On February 7, Schilling left Odessa, fighting was still going on in the streets. On this day, English ships and a Russian destroyer were still in the roadstead, shelling the city. Complete chaos reigned in the city and port. Many soldiers, officers and civilians were abandoned.
"During the landing, amazing scenes were played out: women fainted, two men went crazy, one shot himself, several men and women, coming to the very edge of the pier, knelt down and, stretching out their hands to the American fighter, begged to be taken on board."
Only on the afternoon of February 8 did the Red troops establish control over Odessa. Bredov's group was completely surrounded, and she had no choice but to leave towards Bessarabia. To begin with, it was decided to go to Tiraspol, where they hoped to find army depots with ammunition and food, and further to Romania. There were no promised warehouses in Tiraspol, and the Romanians refused to accept the retreating on their territory.
January 28, they continued to move towards Poland. Part of the troops retreating from Odessa towards the Dniester set out late and did not catch up with Bredov's group. The Romanians also did not allow them to cross the Dniester, those who tried to cross the border were shot with machine guns, women and children were killed, robbed and dumped into the river corpses. The rest were forced to surrender to the Reds.
Ironically, it was the 45th division of Yakir and the brigade of G. I. Kotovsky, who, six months earlier, had departed from Odessa to join up with their own. On February 12, Uborevich, in an order for the 14th Army, summed up the results of the pursuit along the Odessa-Tiraspol line: five armored trains, 200 guns, a lot of ammunition, etc. were captured. Now it was necessary to finish off those retreating further and clear the Odessa region of the remnants of Denikin.
On February 19, the 14th Army of the Southern Front received an order to surround and destroy Bredov's group and prevent it from joining Pilsudski's armies. She was unable to complete it. Bredov's group - about 20,000 bayonets and sabers with 2,000 wounded and sick and several thousand civilians - in 14 days passed 400 miles to the front occupied by the Poles.
The Polish command at first did not want to let these troops through and tried to force the retreating to the "neutral territory" between themselves and the Red troops, and only the fear that despair would force these 20 thousand people. act, forced the Poles to change their mind. On March 1, an agreement was signed on the conditions for the transition to Polish territory - the troops were disarmed, only officers kept their personal weapons and horses, the personnel, under the pretext of fighting diseases, moved to special camps,
Back in January 1920, Denikin hoped for the possibility of a successful counterattack, which would once again turn the tide at the front in favor of the VSYUR. On January 7–8, a serious counterattack was also delivered against the Cavalry Army, which crossed the Don on January 6 and was driven back across the river with heavy losses. On February 7, the volunteers inflicted a series of defeats on the 10th Army and drove the Reds out of Rostov-on-Don. In the Kuban, an equestrian group of general-l. A. A. Pavlova went on the offensive on February 17 and defeated the 1st Caucasian Cavalry Division of G. D. Guy and the 28th Infantry Division. The success was temporary, the stubborn defense made it possible for Budyonny's suitable forces to concentrate. His cavalry approached the battlefield after a 50-kilometer march. The breakthrough on the communications of the Reds did not take place. On February 19, the 1st Cavalry Army and the shock group of the 10th Army launched a counteroffensive.
On February 25, Budyonny defeated Shkuro's Kuban cavalry corps near Belaya Glina. The Reds managed to isolate the striking forces of the enemy cavalry from each other, and after this victory they hit the Don Cavalry Corps. On February 25-27, near Yegorlykskaya, the AFSR cavalry was finally defeated, 7,000 prisoners, five armored trains, 67 guns, 153 machine guns were captured.
On February 27, Denikin's front ceased to be controlled, the connection between the center and its right flank, which retreated to the North Caucasus, was lost. On March 22, the 1st Cavalry Army entered Maykop. In fact, the fighting on this front also ended. Panic began in the white armies. Among the employees formed the strongest "pull abroad." The command of the VSYUR was unable to organize a retreat, columns of retreating armies and crowds of civilians were thrown towards Novorossiysk.
"It was filled with refugees and their baggage. I remember Gen. Makhrov. People didn't find a home. Many spent the night on wagons, in doorways, anywhere. New streams of people who sought salvation endlessly poured into the city.
The defeat led to the activation of the "greens", who began to attack refugees and small detachments of the retreating army.
All those who were supposed to organize the rear fled - the command and leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the All-Union Socialist Republic turned out to be powerless. At the last moment, just a few days before the surrender of the city, the preparation of the evacuation was entrusted to the head of the maritime transport, mechanical engineer General.-m. M. M. Ermakov.
The transition from Novorossiysk to the designated port of unloading - Feodosia - took 12-15 hours. It was assumed that the existing ship composition would be enough for two flights a day, which, according to calculations, would be enough to transport the army. Transport was allocated for each division of the Volunteer Corps. Considering that the units were thinned out in battles, and artillery, horses and carts were not supposed to be taken on board, this should have been enough. The evacuation was covered by destroyers of the Black Sea Fleet, as well as allies: the British squadron - the dreadnought Emperor of India,
It was not possible to organize the order during the evacuation. The opportunity to evacuate was often decided thanks to patronage or a bribe - all this quickly became known in the army and affected the morale of people who were worried about the fate of their families, and even about their lives. Order was maintained only by parts of the Volunteer Corps. However, by March 26, they ceased to obey the command. Some units took the transports by storm. All this was superimposed on the mistrust and hostility of the volunteers and the Don Cossacks to each other.
Having lost discipline, desperate people robbed and destroyed property, it was not possible to stop them, although they tried everything, including executions. In the harbor near the water, the cavalrymen left their horses, "quietly whinnying and reaching for the water". Kalmyk units abandoned their camels, some riders killed their four-legged friends, some committed suicide. On March 27, Novorossiysk was taken by the Red Army. There was no more resistance. Warehouses exploded and burned in the city, complete disorder reigned, troops surrendered in masses.
The last units that covered the retreat were the Drozdovsky regiment under the command of Gen.-M. V.V. von Manstein and the crew of the armored train went to the pier and boarded the barges, which were towed away by French ships under machine-gun fire. About 35,000 people were taken out. It was a disaster. On March 22, at a meeting of the senior commanders of the All-Russian Union of Youth in Sevastopol, it was decided to ask the gene. Denikin to transfer the command to the commander of the Caucasian Volunteer Army, Gen.-l. Baron P.N. Wrangel. One of the reasons for this decision was the requirement of England. On the same day, Denikin, who was in Constantinople, departed aboard the British dreadnought Marlborough.
Part of the army retreated further, to the border with Georgia. Another 10,000 people, mostly Cossacks, were taken out of Tuapse. Here, the evacuation also took place in difficult conditions - the “green” partisans actively attacked the port and the retreating ones, but the transportation began on March 27 and ended on April 6, which made it possible to avoid panic and unrest. The French also provided assistance in transportation, providing several transports.
The departure from Tuapse was accompanied by excesses. Four small steamships, one of them armed, entered the harbor of Sukhum in order to replenish coal reserves in agreement with the British. The Georgian authorities seized them and, after protests by the British, released three. Russian destroyers came to the harbor of Sukhum, their commanders threatened to use artillery. The British supported the Russian protest, and the French threatened to take part in it and transfer the destroyer stationed in Batum to Sukhum. It didn't have to be done. The fourth transport was released.
The only success of the whites at this stage was the defense of the Crimea. The command of the Red Army clearly underestimated the importance of the peninsula. The 46th Infantry Division was sent to capture it, which was later joined by the 8th Division of the Red Cossacks. The Crimea was overflowing with refugees and fugitives, the retreating units almost completely lost discipline, they did not receive a salary for 3–5 months and were engaged in “self-supply”, that is, they robbed the local population. The protection of this bridgehead was entrusted to Gen.-M. Ya. A. Slashev. He turned out to be a brilliant organizer, who managed to restore order in the rear by drastic measures and create a mobile defense, in which the emphasis was on maneuver, and not on holding the first line of fortifications.
On January 25, the 46th division went on the offensive. The attackers had a numerical superiority: 4,120 bayonets, 1,100 cavalry, 16 guns and four armored trains against 2,200 bayonets, 1,200 sabers, 32 guns, eight armored trains, six tanks and six aircraft. The morale of most of the defenders was very low. Everyone understood that the war was lost. Intermittent fighting continued until April. Slashchev did not try to hold on to unprepared positions, especially with strong winds and frosts reaching -22. The general left barriers on the isthmus, concentrating large reserves behind them.
With them, he skillfully maneuvered and constantly delivered counterattacks on the troops trying to break through to the peninsula. The general left barriers on the isthmus, concentrating large reserves behind them. With them, he skillfully maneuvered and constantly delivered counterattacks on the troops trying to break through to the peninsula. The general left barriers on the isthmus, concentrating large reserves behind them. With them, he skillfully maneuvered and constantly delivered counterattacks on the troops trying to break through to the peninsula.
Slashchev managed to repel all the attacks of the Reds, and with heavy losses for the attackers. However, the defenders also suffered heavy losses - the elite corps of Gen. Kutepova lost 23 percent of his squad in three days of fighting. Slashchev was promoted to lieutenant general with the addition of the prefix "Crimean" to his surname. On the peninsula, the focus of the Civil War in the European part of Russia was preserved for another year. Wrangel took a number of actions aimed at optimizing control.
“Under any conditions that we will have to experience in the future,” read the report of the Commander-in-Chief of April 8, 1920, "one position is undoubted: the struggle against the Bolshevik-Communists must continue until they are completely defeated and the Soviet power is overthrown.”
The troops gathered after the retreat and evacuation were put in order. They were reduced to three corps and tried to restore discipline and combat readiness.
In Crimea, they no longer planned to defeat the Bolsheviks by armed force; at the very best, Wrangel wanted to preserve the “South Russian statehood” with the help of the allies. He hoped to create a model of state structure, to which the sympathies of the rest of Russia would be drawn in the future. To do this, it was proposed to carry out an agrarian reform, during which the maximum land allotment should be set at 100 hectares, the rest would go to the state land fund for further redistribution of land, return to the slogan of the Constituent Assembly and declare the federal structure of the future Russia, introduce an 8-hour working day, guarantee the rights of trade unions, etc. At the initiative of Wrangel, a close associate of P. A. Stolypin, A. V. Krivoshein, a former minister of agriculture of the imperial government, was placed at the head of the government of the South of Russia.
"I knew him personally for a long time," the general recalled, "his state activity for many years was known to all of Russia. A man of outstanding mind, exceptional capacity for work, he studied the most diverse branches of public administration during his long service."
Wrangel's plans received support from Paris, the choice of the head of government was successful, Krivoshein was known for his liberal views and enjoyed the support of the allies, especially France. To expand social support, he initiated land and zemstvo reforms, which were partially successful. The general declared a "merciless war" on bureaucracy and routine, he was going to create an effective state machine, but in fact this led to its growth and endless changes in the heads of various departments.
"It is necessary to defeat the Bolsheviks and Bolshevism not by force of arms (which does not always give complete success,” Wrangel’s report noted, “it must be defeated ideologically, using, before it’s too late, all the mistakes, all the tactical and political blunders of the Soviet government.”
It was not easy to do this - the Dobrarmia earned a very specific reputation among the local population, who called it the "robber army."
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