- Don Army
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The Don Army was part of the White movement of the Russian Civil War, operating from 1917 to 1919, in the Don region and centered in the town of Novocherkassk.
Contents
History
After the October Revolution in 1917, a civil war broke out between the "Red" and "White" Don Cossacks.
In Novocherkassk, an assembly of Cossacks, the Krug, elected Alexei Kaledin as the first independent ataman sinces the days of Peter the Great. They refused to recognise the Bolshevik government and declared themselves protectors of Russia.
On December 2 (old style calendar), Kaledin's Cossacks seized Rostov-on-Don, driving out the Bolshevik authorities and setting up a government headed by Mitrofan Petrovich Bogayevsky.
The Bolshevik resistance, centered in the Kamenskaya stanitsa, was joined by an army sent by Moscow.
Kaledin, feeling powerless to oppose the Bolsheviks, shot himself on January 29, 1918. He was replaced by major-general Anatoly Mikhailovich Nazarov. Nazarov requested help from the Volunteer Army, but was refused it. His resignation was turned down by the krug, who insisted that he fulfill his duty as a 'true son of the Quiet Don'[1]. He decided to end the civil war by capitulating to the Bolsheviks and met with the Red representative, Sablin. Sablin refused to recognise the authority of the Ataman and declared that the Cossacks should be destroyed. In the evening of February 1918, a detachment of the Red Army, under Lt. N. M. Golubov, broke up a meeting of the krug, arresting Nazarov and the chairman, Voloshinov. They were shot without trial on March 3. A policy of Red Terror was carried out along the Don.
Several stanitsas revolted and formed a new Don army. On May 12, a special krug (the krug for the salvation of the Don) declared the old rights and uniforms restored and declared war upon the Bolsheviks. Pyotr Krasnov, a talented soldier and writer, was elected as the new Ataman.
In the Summer and Fall of 1918, the White Don Army controlled the Don territory, severed Red Army communications between Moscow and the Caucasus (allowing the White Volunteer Army to defeat the Red Army of the Northern Caucasus) and threatened Red Army positions at Tsaritsyn and Voronezh, as well as Rostov-na-Donu.
Much of the Upper Don region, in 1918, had defected to the Bolsheviks, but as a result of the Red Terror, in 1919, rose up in arms against them, in what was known as the Veshenskaya Uprising. The main leaders were Pavel Nazarovich Kudinov and Kharlampii Yermakov. They joined forces with the Don Army centered in Novocherkassk, which was commanded by Ataman Afrikan Bogaevsky. These events form an important part of Mikhail Sholokhov's epic, And Quiet Flows the Don. Indeed, for a long time, Kudinov and Yermakov, who appear in the novel, were considered as fictional by the general public.
In the Winter of 1918-1919, the Red Southern Front, including their Group Kozhevnikov, 8th Army, 9th Army, and 10th Army, counterattacked the Don Army and regained control of the area northeast of the Donets and Manych rivers.
Many Don Cossacks also participated in Kornilov's infamous Ice March.
The Don army was often divided and plagued with indesiciveness, many of the Cossacks not wishing to fight beyond their own territory.
In literature
The events of those years, especially those centered in the Upper Don, as well as events leading up to them, are the focus of Mikhail Sholokhov's epic, And Quiet Flows the Don.
See also
- Don Cossacks
- Alexei Kaledin
- Lavr Kornilov
- Pyotr Krasnov
- Volunteer Army
- White movement
References
- ^ Astapenko, pg. 574
- "Istoriya Donskogo Kazachestva; s drevnejshikh vremyon do 1920" (The history of the Don Cossack Host; from ancient times until 1920) M. P. Astapenko.
External links
Southern Front Armed Forces of South Russia (Volunteer Army · Don Army · 1st Army Corps of AFSR · 2nd Army Corps of AFSR · 3d Army Corps of AFSR · Kiev Army Group of AFSR · Army Group of AFSR's Kiev Region · Army Group of AFSR's Novorossijsk Region · Army Group of AFSR's Kharkiv Region · Caucasus Army of AFSR · Krym-Azov Army of AFSR · Kuban Army of AFSR · Black Sea Fleet of White Movement · Caspian Sea Fleet of White Movement · Army of Wrangel)Eastern Front People Army of Komuch · Siberian Army · Western Army of White Movement · Orenburg Independent Army · 1st Army of White Movement · 2nd Army of White Movement · 3d Army of White Movement · Ural Army · Far East Army · Zemskaya Rat' · Siberian Fleet · Czechoslovak LegionNorth-Western Front Northern Corps of White Movement · North-Westhern Army of White Movement · West Russian Volunteer Army · Chudskoe Lake FleetNorthern Front Northern Army of White Movement · Arctic Fleet of White MovementMiddle Asia Armed Forces of South Russia (Turkestan Army of AFSR · Caspian Sea Fleet of White Movement) · Turkestan Military Organisation · Peasant Army of FerganaCategories:- Don Cossacks
- Military units and formations of White Russia (Russian Civil War)
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