Civil War on the Don

The Civil War on the Don was a series of military conflicts between the Don Cossacks (in alliance with the White Movement in Southern Russia) and the Bolsheviks, primarily on the territory of the Don Host Oblast, which took place from November 1917 to the spring of 1920. It was part of the broader Russian Civil War.

On the Don, as in many other Cossack regions of Russia, there was a historical divide between the non-Cossack population and the Cossacks. The fact that the Don became one of the regions where the White Movement began to form its armies is primarily explained by the fact that the Don Oblast received autonomy and self-government at a new level as early as the spring of 1917, with the region electing an ataman and establishing its own governing institutions.

Since 1806, the center of the Oblast was the city of Novocherkassk. In 1887, the Taganrog City Administration and Rostov–on–Don Uezd were transferred from the Ekaterinoslav Guberniya to the Oblast.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Don Oblast included 9 districts:

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• Don Voysko Oblast

The February Revolution of 1917 and the fall of the Russian monarchy marked the end of the sole command of the Don Military Circle and led to a split and polarization of society and government. Since the spring of 1917, several structures were formed on the territory of the Don Voysko Oblast, claiming power:

1. Komissars of the Provisional Government (regional and nine district);
2. Councils of Workers', Soldiers', Peasants' and Cossacks' Deputies;
3. The Don Military Circle (Congress) and its executive bodies: the Military Government and the Don Regional Ataman;
4. Local government bodies: city councils and their executive bodies.

In May 1917, the Regional Congress of Peasants decided to abolish private ownership of land, but the Don Military Circle declared the Don Lands to be "the historical property of the Kazaks" and decided to recall the Kazaks from the apparatus of the Provisional Government and from the Soviets. This led to an intensification of rivalry between the two power structures – the Military Government and the Councils of Workers', Soldiers', Peasants' and Cossacks' Deputies.

At the same time, General Kaledin returned to the Don, having been removed from command of the 8th Army for not accepting the February Revolution and refusing to carry out the orders of the Provisional Government regarding democratization in the troops. At the end of May, Kaledin took part in the work of the Don Military Circle and, yielding to the persuasion of the Cossack Community, agreed to be elected as the Military Ataman.

On September 1, 1917, the Provisional Government's Minister of War, Aleksandr Verkhovskiy, ordered the arrest of Kaledin for involvement in the Kornilov's Uprising, but the Military Government refused to carry out the order, and on September 4, Aleksandr Kerenskiy cancelled it on the condition that the Military Government "guaranteed" Kaledin.

On November 2, 1917, the South–Eastern Union of Cossack Troops, Highlanders of the Kavkaz and Free Peoples of the Steppes^[2] was established in Vladikavkaz as a state–territorial unit governed on the principles of a confederation. The stated goal of the South–Eastern Union was the fight against "anarcho–Bolshevizm" on the territory of the Cossack Troops – members of the Union, mutual support for maintaining order and legality within the Union and bringing Rossiya to the Constituent Assembly.^[3] In its declaration, it proclaimed: "By guaranteeing its members complete independence of their internal life, the Union undertakes to assist them in preparing their internal structure as independent states of the future Russian Democratic Federal Republic".^[4] After the proclamation of Soviet Power on the Don, Kuban, and Terek (January–March 1918), the South–Eastern Union ceased to exist.

In the first months after the October Revolution, the anti–Bolshevik forces did not have significant social support, so their attempts to organize resistance to Soviet Power in the Cossack Regions were comparatively weak.

The situation on the Don during this period was extremely contradictory. The main cities were dominated by an "outsiders" population, alien to the indigenous population of the Don both in their composition, lifestyle, and political sentiments. Here, especially in Rostov and Taganrog, socialist parties dominated, distrusting the Cossack authorities.^[3] The Mensheviks were numerically dominant in all the councils of the Don Oblast, the central bureaus of trade unions and in many Soviets, and even if they gave way to the Socialist Revolutionaries somewhere, they still occupied leadership positions.^[5] The working population of the Taganrog District supported the Bolsheviks. In the northern part of the Taganrog District there were coal mines and pits of the southern protrusion of the Donets Basin. Rostov became the center of protest by out–of–towners against "Cossack dominance". Local Bolshevik leaders could count on the support of soldiers from the reserve regiment stationed in the city.^[3] The Don moderate Social Democrats, as well as those in the center, were not united in their assessment of the Petrograd Uprising and its consequences. The Chairman of the Novocherkassk Menshevik Committee, Aleksandr Samokhin, expressing the general opinion of the Don Menshevik Defenders, said that he considered it impossible to participate in the Soviets that had taken a hostile position towards the Constituent Assembly. At the same time, the Bolsheviks of the Rostov–Nakhichevan Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies created the Military Revolutionary Committee.^[5]

The city councils of the oblast, in which the Mensheviks had taken strong positions, launched anti–Bolshevik propaganda. The resolution adopted by the Novocherkassk Duma on the proposal of the socialist bloc indicated that the Bolshevik Action on the eve of the convocation of the Constituent Assembly was an attempt to replace the voice of the entire people with the voice of individual groups, a betrayal of the cause of democracy. At an emergency meeting of the Nakhichevan Duma, the Council and the city's trade unions on November 9, the Petrograd Uprising was assessed as "a form of political adventurism", expressing concern that, under the banner of the fight against the Bolsheviks, opponents of democracy would undoubtedly become more active.^[5] The leaders of the local Mensheviks – the Chairman of the Rostov Duma Boris Vasilev, who in the pre–October period had in practice implemented the idea of an agreement with the Kaledin Government, and Pyotr Petrenko, the Chairman of the Rostov–Nakhichevan Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies and at the same time the Chairman of the Public Committee (which united the Rostov–Nakhichevan Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies and the bourgeois Civil Committee) – in the October Days of 1917 considered the possibility of joint actions with the Military Government against the establishment of the Bolshevik Regime. At the same time, both understood that following the defeat of the Bolshevik organizations, the same fate could await the Menshevik organizations.^[5] At the same time, moderate Social Democrats did not want to support Soviet Power, since they continued to consider the transition to socialism in Rossiya premature. Therefore, the Mensheviks called on their organizations to play the role of a "third force" to which both Bolshevizm and the Constitutional Democratic – Kaledin Dictatorship were alien. They considered the expression of such a "third force" to be "a national regional governing body, which would include representatives of the entire population of the Don". In other words, the Mensheviks sought to resolve the confrontation between the Ataman Government and the Bolsheviks by peaceful means, addressing appeals to the population and, first and foremost, to the Military Ataman.^[5] At the same time, the idea of an agreement with the Military Government was not popular among the left wing of the Menshevik Party – the Menshevik Internationalists, who considered it necessary to simultaneously participate in both the Bolshevik Soviets and the committees for the defense of the Constituent Assembly, not trusting the authority of the Circle, and some even demanded unification with the Bolsheviks to fight Kaledin.^[5]

On November 7, 1917, Ataman Aleksey Kaledin issued the following appeal: "In view of the Bolsheviks' actions to attempt to overthrow the Provisional Government... the Military Government, considering such a seizure of power by the Bolsheviks to be criminal,... will provide... full support... to the Provisional Government... The Military Government has temporarily, until the restoration of the Provisional Government's authority and order in Rossiya,... assumed full executive state power in the Don Oblast".

On November 8, while in Rostov the Council attempted to take power into its own hands, Kaledin from Novocherkassk introduced martial law in the coal mining region of the oblast, sending Kazaks there, and established contacts with the Cossack Leadership of Orenburg, Kuban, Astrakhan, and Terek.

On November 9, Kaledin telegraphed an invitation to the Provisional Government and members of the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic to Novocherkassk to organize the fight against the Bolsheviks.

On November 10, the Military Government liquidated the Makeevka Council, a number of mine Councils, and arrested delegates, among whom were not only Bolsheviks, but also Mensheviks.^[5] On November 13, delegates from the Don were arrested while returning from the Second Congress of Soviets.

On November 15, Kaledin issued an order to introduce martial law throughout the Don Oblast. Military units were stationed in all industrial centres. General Nazarov and his Cossack Company settled in Taganrog, and General Pototskiy in Rostov.^[5] The Soviets were liquidated, workers' organizations were closed, their activists were fired from their jobs and, together with their families, were expelled outside the oblast. Delegations of Donets Miners sought protection in Petrograd and Kiev. The politicians of the Central Rada, who considered the Don Government as a potential partner in the future federation, tried to reason with it through negotiations and persuasion, which did not help much. The epicenter of tension was the largest city in the oblast, Rostov.^[6]

At the conference of the Don Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party held on November 16, chaired by the Menshevik P. V. Zavarzin, it was noted that the introduction of martial law by the authorities of the Military Circle could, in the current situation, lead to the emergence of hotbeds of civil strife in the south of Rossiya. At the same time, the delegates agreed with Boris Vasilev that the party "must with all determination distance itself from any ideological closeness with Bolshevizm and recognize only technical agreements with them".^[5]

On November 15, General Mikhail Alekseev arrived in Novocherkassk from Petrograd and immediately turned to Kaledin for help in creating volunteer formations to fight the Bolsheviks. Kaledin, however, refused his request to "give shelter to the Russian officers", citing the fact that the Cossack front–line soldiers were tired of the war and hated the "old regime", and therefore the Don Regiments returning from the front did not want to defend the Don Oblast from the Bolsheviks and were going home. Kaledin asked Alekseev "not to stay in Novocherkassk for more than a week" and to move the formation of volunteer forces outside the oblast. Despite the cold reception, Alekseev immediately began to take practical steps. Already on November 15, he published an appeal to officers, calling on them to "save the Motherland".

The Military Ataman was unable to rouse the front–line Kazaks to fight against the Bolshevik Government: the Cossack Units, returning from the front, went home, since the Kazaks, tired of the war, did not want to fight the Bolsheviks, who had stopped military operations against Germany and sent the army home. Many regiments surrendered their weapons without resistance at the demand of small Red Detachments that stood as barriers on the railway tracks leading to the Don Oblast.

The First Decrees of the Soviet Government inclined the bulk of the Kazaks to the side of the Soviets. The idea of "neutrality" in relation to Soviet Power became widespread among the Cossack front–line soldiers. The Bolsheviks, for their part, sought to take full advantage of this wavering mood of the ordinary Kazaks, to set their poorest part (the so–called "laboring Kazaks") against the wealthy, and to instill the idea that the Military Government was composed of "class enemies".^[3]

Meanwhile, the Military Government itself was torn apart by inter–party contradictions, and the "out–of–town" peasantry was not satisfied with the concessions made to it (broad admission to the Kazaks, participation in stanitsa self–government, transfer of part of the landowners' lands), demanding radical land reform.

On November 20, Ataman Kaledin, having stopped trying to contact the remnants of the deposed Provisional Government, addressed the population of the Oblast with a statement that the Military Government did not recognize the Bolshevik Government, and therefore the Oblast was proclaimed independent until the formation of a legitimate Russian Government.^[3]

On November 14, 1917, an infantry section headed by the Left Socialist Revolutionary, Poruchik Arnautov, moved from Novocherkassk to Rostov, which informed the Military Government that from that moment on it would be called the Military Committee of the Non–Cossack Units of the Don Oblast and would assume responsibility for managing these units. The Military Committee demanded that the Military Government immediately lift martial law in non–Cossack districts, as well as release those arrested for political agitation, and convene a general congress of peasants, workers, and Kazaks to resolve the issue of regional self–government. Arnautov recognized the authority of the Council of People's Komissars and appealed to all regimental committees and commanders of non–Cossack units located in the Don Oblast (in Rostov, Taganrog, Novocherkassk, Azov and Kamenskaya) with an appeal not to carry out the orders of the Military Ataman and his staff.^[7]

Until mid–November, local Bolsheviks did not dare to take up arms, concentrating their attention on organizing revolutionary and democratic forces around the Military Revolutionary Committee in anticipation of the elections to the Constituent Assembly. The Military Government also awaited the election results in order to assess the balance of political forces in the region and begin creating representative authorities in the oblast.^[5]

Elections to the Constituent Assembly in the Don Oblast took place on November 25–27.^[5] Having received their preliminary results, Kaledin convened an emergency meeting of the Military Government on November 27 with the participation of public figures, where he admitted: "We did not think that the Bolshevik Movement would find support among the population and grow to such proportions". The representatives of the Menshevik Party present at the meeting, together with the right–wing Socialist Revolutionaries, proposed concluding an agreement with the Military Government, which should lift martial law in the oblast and organize power on a representative basis for the entire population of the oblast, and not just the Kazaks. However, Kaledin insisted on non–recognition of the Council of People's Komissars and on the need to restore the coalition government in Rossiya. An agreement between the moderate socialists and the Military Government was thus not reached.^[5]

Seeing the lack of desire of the authorities to compromise, part of the Mensheviks decided to go for a temporary alliance with the Bolsheviks. The idea of creating a broad front of forces to fight Kaledin was also considered by the Don Bolsheviks, with some of them believing that military action should be started immediately and an offensive on Novocherkassk should be carried out, while others were against forcing events.^[5]

On November 28, a meeting of representatives of the MRC, the regional military committee, the executive committee of the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies was held, at which an organizational structure was created – the Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC) of the united democracy, which called itself the government of the united democratic forces and offered the population not to carry out the orders of the Host Government.^[5] The Mensheviks insisted on a peaceful resolution of the conflict and intended to enter into negotiations with the representative of the Host Government, General Pototsky. However, as it became known from Novocherkassk, on December 3, a Cossack hundred, on the orders of the Host Government, forcibly disarmed the soldiers of the 272nd and 273rd reserve infantry regiments. On December 7, ships of the Black Sea Fleet arrived in Rostov, sent here to help the Bolsheviks by the decision of the All-Black Sea Congress. The flotilla, consisting of the destroyer Kapitan Saken, two minesweepers, several small vessels, and a landing detachment of sailors, was commanded by the "commission of five" elected by the All-Black Sea Congress, headed by the Bolshevik sailor V. E. Drachuk.^[8] The Menshevik leaders assessed the arrival of the flotilla as evidence of the possibility of the Bolsheviks moving to military action.^[5]

The Don Government regarded the intervention of the Black Sea Fleet as a violation of its sovereignty and, through the revolutionary Stavka, protested to the Council of People's Commissars. The commissar of the Cossack troops at Stavka, Shapkin, handed Krylenko a document stating that "on November 22, several armed trawlers sent by the Black Sea Fleet against the Don Host Government entered the port of Taganrog… another detachment headed to Rostov… In addition, from a variety of sources, there are reports that troops are gathering against the Don from the north… to establish the domination of the principles of the Social Democrats-Bolsheviks on the Don".^[6]

Sailor V. V. Romenets, elected by the Black Sea Central Fleet as the "chief people's commissar of the Black Sea Fleet," only on December 6 informed the Council of People's Commissars of his election and in the following days reported on the "excitement against the Kaledin adventure" that had arisen in the fleet and that local "higher democratic organizations had taken some measures, purely demonstrative. At present, another flotilla is being sent to the Sea of Azov, but a clash is already foreseen… I ask you to inform… comrades, what has been undertaken in this plan from your side, as well as how to act and what to undertake further for the Black Sea Fleet, for passions are flaring up… I have no orders from you. Perhaps we… are mistaken, although we think not".^[6] People's Commissar Trotsky demanded from the Supreme Commander Krylenko "not to enter into any negotiations with the counter-revolutionary conspirators… to put an end to the criminal actions of the Kaledinites and Kornilovites with one blow… the counter-revolutionary rebellion of Dutov." He suggested that Krylenko "immediately move towards Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, and Orenburg such forces that, without shaking our front, would be powerful enough to wipe out the counter-revolutionary rebellion of the Cossack generals and the Cadet bourgeoisie in the shortest possible time" and instructed him to "ask the Ukrainian Rada whether it considers itself obliged to assist in the struggle against Kaledin or intends to regard the advance of our echelons to the Don as a violation of its territorial rights".^[6] The directive of the Council of People's Commissars to the chief commissar of the Black Sea Fleet followed on December 9: "Act with all determination against the enemies of the people, without waiting for any instructions from above. Kaledin, Kornilov, Dutov are outlawed… Respond to the ultimatum with the strongest, boldest revolutionary action".^[6][8]

On December 7, at a meeting of the MRC, the Bolsheviks proposed to present Kaledin with a 24-hour ultimatum: to abolish martial law in the Don Oblast, and the Host Government – to renounce claims to power. After the adoption of this decision, on the evening of on December 8, the SR-Menshevik center announced its withdrawal from the MRC. The Left SRs continued to work under the leadership of the Bolsheviks.^[5]

Meanwhile, on the night of November 25–26 ( December 8–9), 1917, a detachment of Cossacks and cadets destroyed the premises of the Rostov-Nakhichevan Soviet, killing several Red Guards.^[5]

On December 9, the Rostov Bolsheviks announced that power in the Oblast was transferred to the Rostov Military Revolutionary Committee. Attempts by the council delegates to the Bolshevik MRC and to the Host Government to prevent civil war ended in failure, although on December 10 it was decided to send council delegates to the Bolshevik MRC and to the Host Government. However, General Pototsky took an evasive position, and the Bolsheviks stated that there could be no question of negotiations, as Kaledin demanded the disarmament of the Red Guard and the return of the Black Sea flotilla to its permanent base. As a result, on December 11, the Rostov Council decided to remain neutral.^[5]

The Cossack units, however, refused to participate in the suppression of the uprising, and Ataman Kaledin was forced to turn to General M. V. Alekseyev for help. A detachment of officers and cadets of 400–500 bayonets was hastily formed, joined by Don youth – high school students, cadets, and later several Cossack units. Fierce battles unfolded in the Nakhichevan area, the city changed hands several times, until on the night of on December 11 it was finally taken by the revolutionary troops. The cadets retreated to Novocherkassk. On the morning of on December 11, the Kaledinites were driven out of the Rostov station. However, Kaledin, not reconciled with the defeat, pulled reinforcements to Rostov. For three days, the Red Guards and Black Sea sailors fought heavy battles with the superior forces of the Whites, experiencing an acute shortage of men and ammunition.^[8] On December 15, the revolutionary detachments, left without ammunition, retreated from Rostov. The Kaledinites also captured Taganrog and a significant part of the Donbas.^[3] From that day on, the Alekseyev Organization won the right to legal existence.

On December 19, General Lavr Kornilov arrived on the Don and immediately joined General Alekseev's activities.

On December 31, Kaledin, Alekseev and Kornilov entered the so–called "triumvirate", which stood at the head of the Don Civil Council, created to lead the White Movement throughout the territory of the former Russian Empire and claiming the role of an all–Russian government. The Entente Countries contacted it, sending their representatives to Novocherkassk.

On January 2, 1918, by order No. 1058 of Ataman Kaledin, the formation of volunteer detachments in the territory of the Don Oblast was permitted. The creation of the "Volunteer Armiya" and the opening of enrollment into it were officially announced on January 6, 1918.

However, the "neutrality" of the Kazaks prevented Alekseev and Kornilov from forming a truly large army of volunteers on the Don. The Volunteer Armiya was perceived by the Kazaks as a not entirely democratic institution, encroaching on their Cossack liberties, an instrument of big politics, which they did not care about. The Kazaks, observing the serious military preparations of the Soviet Government in the southern direction, believed that they were directed only against "uninvited aliens" – volunteers. This view was not alien to the Provisional Don Government itself, which hoped to reconcile the Soviet Government with the Don and save the oblast from the Bolshevik invasion by collusion with local revolutionary institutions and loyalty to the Soviet Government. As a result, only about 5 thousand officers, yunkers and high school students joined the Volunteer Armiya. Unable to hold on to the Don, the Volunteer Armiya set out on a campaign to Kuban in February 1918, counting on the support of the Kuban Kazaks, but these expectations also did not come true: the Kuban Kazaks, like the Don Kazaks, did not want to fight against the new government. The volunteers, who found themselves in a hostile environment of the local peasant population and revolutionary–minded units of the old army that had returned from the front, had to wage a difficult guerrilla war for survival in Kuban.^[9]

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• Memorial plaque at the former headquarters of the Volunteer Armiya in Rostov–on–Don

In December 1917, the government of Soviet Russia considered the Don Government of Ataman Kaledin and the Ukrainian Central Rada as the main strongholds of counter-revolutionary forces.

On December 9, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR issued an appeal to the entire population titled "On the Struggle Against the Counter-Revolutionary Uprising of Kaledin, Kornilov, and Dutov, Supported by the Central Rada":^[10]

While the representatives of the workers', soldiers', and peasants' deputies of the soviets have opened negotiations to secure a dignified peace for the exhausted country, the enemies of the people—the imperialists, landowners, bankers, and their allies, the Cossack generals—have made a final desperate attempt to sabotage the cause of peace, to wrest power from the soviets, land from the peasants, and to make soldiers, sailors, and Cossacks bleed for the profits of Russian and Allied imperialists. Kaledin in the Don, Dutov in the Urals, have raised the banner of rebellion... Kaledin has imposed martial law in the Don, obstructed grain deliveries to the front, and is amassing forces, threatening Yekaterinoslav, Kharkov, and Moscow. To his aid has come Kornilov, who escaped from prison—the same Kornilov who in July imposed the death penalty and marched on revolutionary Petrograd...
Workers, soldiers, peasants!... The Council of People's Commissars has ordered the deployment of necessary troops against the enemies of the people. The counter-revolutionary uprising will be crushed, and the perpetrators will face punishment commensurate with the gravity of their crimes.
The Council of People's Commissars decrees:
All regions in the Urals, the Don, and elsewhere where counter-revolutionary detachments are found shall be declared under a state of siege.
The local revolutionary garrison must act with full determination against the enemies of the people, without waiting for any orders from above.
Any negotiations with the leaders of the counter-revolutionary uprising or attempts at mediation are strictly prohibited.
Any assistance to counter-revolutionaries from rebellious populations or railway personnel will be punished with the full severity of revolutionary law.
The leaders of the conspiracy are declared outlaws.

On December 19, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR established the Southern Revolutionary Front for the Struggle Against Counter-Revolution. V. A. Antonov-Ovseyenko was appointed commander-in-chief of the front's forces.^[11] Under his direct command was the Revolutionary Field Staff.

The immediate task of the Soviet forces was to cut off Ukraine from the Don and encircle the Don region from multiple directions. Initially, the total strength of the forces sent to Ukraine and the Don was no more than 6–7 thousand infantry and cavalry, with 30–40 guns and several dozen machine guns—mostly combat-ready remnants of the old army, drawn from the front and rear reserve regiments. As they advanced, their numbers grew due to local Red Guard detachments from the Donbas and the incorporation of Bolshevik-leaning garrisons.^[12]

On December 21, 1917, trains carrying Red detachments under the command of R. F. Sivers and sailor N. A. Khovrin arrived in Kharkov—1,600 men with 6 guns and 3 armored cars. This was the same detachment that had fought near Belgorod against the shock battalions breaking through from Stavka to the Don. Between December 24 and 29, 1917, an additional 5,000 soldiers from Petrograd, Moscow, and Tver arrived under the command of Antonov-Ovseyenko and his deputy, former Imperial Russian Army Lieutenant Colonel M. A. Muravyov. Moreover, Kharkov itself already had 3,000 Red Guards and pro-Bolshevik soldiers from the old army.^[13]

On December 24–25, the First All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets was held in the city, proclaiming Ukraine a Republic of Soviets.

After the congress, Antonov-Ovseyenko handed over command of the front's forces in Ukraine to Chief of Staff Muravyov and personally led the campaign against Kaledin's forces.

Kaledin's main forces (though most Cossacks had dispersed to their homes) were concentrated on the Voronezh axis, in the area of Kamenskaya–Glubokaya–Millerovo–Likhaya. On the Taganrog axis, defense was held by Kutepov's detachment from the Volunteer Army, which was being formed in Novocherkassk and Rostov and numbered up to 2,000 fighters by then. Small partisan detachments of Don volunteers (e.g., the detachment of Chernetsov, commandant of the Makeevka mines) and several regular Cossack units occupied the Gorlovka–Makeevka district of the Donbas, from which they had earlier driven out Red Guard detachments. However, the internal state of Kaledin's forces precluded the possibility of large-scale offensive actions.^[12]

By January 7, 1918, Antonov-Ovseyenko had occupied the western part of the Donets Basin almost without resistance. From there, he intended to destroy Kaledin's main forces on the Voronezh axis using columns under Sivers and Sablin. Simultaneously, a column formed in Voronezh under Petrov was to advance on Millerovo from the direction of Voronezh; its forward units had already reached Chertkovo station by this time.

Meanwhile, Cossack detachments under Chernetsov, Lazarev, and Semiletov continued operating in the eastern Donbas.

On December 29, Kaledin's forces crushed the Yasinovka and Bokovo-Khrustalnaya mine Soviets. Fierce fighting erupted in the area of Yuzovka and neighboring Makeevka. On January 1, Cossacks broke into the Brestovo-Bogodukhovsky mine. On January 4, Rudolf Sivers' column entered the Donbas, linking up with mine partisans. On the night of January 3–4, Red Guards launched an offensive from Yuzovka. Fighting spread across the Yuzovka, Khanzhenkovo, Makeevka, Mospino, and Ilovaisk areas. A fierce battle at the Prokhorovka mine between Yuzovka and Makeevka lasted nearly a day and ended in a Red Guard victory.

The advance of Soviet forces was slow due to enemy resistance and the peculiarities of the early Civil War period: combat clashes alternated with negotiations and unauthorized truces between units on both sides. As a result, Sivers' column became the only active force, but it also deviated significantly southward from its intended direction, while disintegration began among its units drawn from the old army. The enemy, taking advantage of this and gathering small combat-ready reserves, pushed back both of Antonov-Ovseyenko's columns with short strikes. On January 9, after heavy losses, Sivers' troops abandoned part of the Yuzovka-Makeevka district and retreated to Nikitovka. The situation near Lugansk also became unfavorable. On the night of January 10, Cossacks seized Debaltsevo. On January 11–13, Chernetsov's detachment occupied the Yasinovka commune in Makeevka, carrying out Kaledin's order to "wipe the Yasinovka mine and its adjacent workers' settlements off the face of the Donetsk region." The punitive detachment executed 61 workers here.

Miners' detachments from Yuzovka, Makeevka, Yenakievo, and a group of troops under Sivers came to the mine's aid. The Yasinovka mine was retaken. In early January, Sivers' forces—now reinforced by 4,000 Donbas Red Guards—launched an offensive through Ilovaisk and Taganrog toward Rostov. A group under Sablin, also bolstered by local Red Guards, began advancing on Rostov from the Lugansk area via Zverevo–Kamenskaya–Novocherkassk. On January 25, Soviet troops occupied Makeevka.

Meanwhile, the majority of Don Cossacks showed no desire to fight. Active propaganda efforts were directed at them, involving members of the Don Revolutionary Committee.^[12]

On January 23, 1918, a Congress of Frontline Cossacks was convened in Kamenskaya, declaring itself the authority in the Don region, deposing Ataman Kaledin, and electing a Cossack Military Revolutionary Committee headed by Junior Sergeant F. G. Podtyolkov and 24-year-old Ensign M. V. Krivoshlykov. The congress recognized the authority of the Council of People's Commissars.

The new revolutionary committee primarily reflected the sentiments of middle-class Cossacks; it failed to coordinate with non-Cossack peasants and workers, who could have provided real support, and even reacted negatively to their military organization. Meanwhile, Don units had disintegrated to such an extent that they refused to fight for either side. Thus, Kaledin managed to achieve local success again with his mobile detachments, expelling the Don Revolutionary Committee from the Don region on January 28, 1918.^[12]

The completely demoralized Don units were replaced on the front by Volunteer Army forces. This measure allowed the defenders to halt the advance of Sivers' and Sablin's columns. However, at this time, an uprising broke out in Taganrog, in the rear of the White forces, and both Red columns were reinforced by new waves of reinforcements from Ukraine and the center. On February 3, 1918, Sivers' column resumed its advance and, by February 8, 1918, linked up with the Taganrog rebels. The Whites' situation worsened, and they retreated toward Rostov daily: Cossack trains attempting to reach the Don from the World War front were disarmed en route. However, a real threat loomed from the Caucasus: a headquarters for the "Southeastern" army, formed in Tsaritsyn, was concentrating the 39th Infantry Division of the old army from the Caucasian Front near Tikhoretsk to cut off the Don's communications with the Kuban by seizing Bataysk.^[12]

On February 10, 1918, Red detachments occupied Taganrog and began advancing on Rostov. White resistance on the approaches to Novocherkassk and Rostov was finally broken, but Sivers' and Sablin's columns advanced slowly, capturing these cities only on February 23, 1918 (Rostov) and February 25, 1918 (Novocherkassk), while Bataysk had already been taken by units of the 39th Infantry Division on February 13, 1918.^[12]

The outnumbered Volunteer Army detachments could no longer hold back the Red advance, and on February 10, 1918, General Kornilov informed Kaledin that the Volunteers were leaving for the Kuban.

The decision of Alekseyev and Kornilov to lead the Volunteer Army to the Kuban stripped Kaledin of his last hope. Having lost the support of frontline Cossacks and seeing no way to stop the Bolshevik detachments, on February 11, 1918, Ataman A. M. Kaledin resigned as Don Ataman and shot himself the same day (according to other sources, he was killed in a third assassination attempt).^[14]

At the beginning of 1918, the troops of the Council of People's Komissars, thanks to the support of the population, overwhelming numerical superiority and good supplies of ammunition from the warehouses of the old army, managed to suppress the centers of anti–Bolshevik resistance, in particular, to establish Soviet Power on the Don and Kuban. The elimination of the first pockets of resistance, however, was not completed due to the weakness of Soviet Power and the low combat capability of Soviet Troops. The Volunteer Armiya retreated and retained its core officer cadres.

The development of events on the Don (lack of support from the Kazaks, constantly increasing pressure from the superior forces of the Reds, the defeat of the most combat–ready Cossack Detachment of Colonel Chernetsov and the death of its commander, and then the suicide of Ataman Kaledin) forced the Volunteer Armiya to leave the Don and move to the Kuban Region to create a base there for further struggle against the Bolsheviks. On February 22, 1918, General Kornilov, at the head of the Volunteer Armiya, set out on the First Kuban Campaign.

On February 25, a detachment of Red Kazaks led by Military Elder Nikolay Golubov occupied Novocherkassk, where a meeting of the Military Circle was taking place at that time. Golubov tore off the general's epaulettes from the Military Ataman Anatoliy Nazarov and arrested him, and ordered the deputies to "get the hell out", after which all the delegates of the Circle were arrested, and Soviet Power was proclaimed in the city. The next day, emergency commissioners arrived in the city with detachments of the Red Guard and began beating up the city's intelligentsiya and officers. The Kazaks did not expect such a turn of events and began to resist. In response to this opposition, on February 17, Ataman Anatoliy Nazarov and 6 other officers were shot.^[15]

On February 25, a volunteer detachment led by the Campaign Ataman of the Don Voysko, Major General Pyotr Popov (Chief of Staff – Colonel Vladimir Sidorin), numbering 1,727 combat personnel, leaves Novocherkassk for the Sal Steppes (see Steppe Campaign). This campaign marked the beginning of the armed struggle of the Don Kazaks against the Red Armiya.^[16]

Before dawn on March 19, 1918, in the stanitsa Denisovskaya, in the house of a Kalmyk gelyun (priest), Nikolay Golubov arrested the Deputy Ataman Mitrofan Bogaevskiy. He brought him to Novocherkassk and placed him in the guardhouse.^[15]

On March 23, the Don Regional Military Revolutionary Committee proclaimed on the territory of the Don Voysko Oblast an "independent Don Soviet Republic in blood union with the Russian Soviet Republic" (official name – Don Republic). The Head of the Don Republic was the Cossack Ensign Fyodor Podtyolkov, who took the post of Chairman of the Council of People's Komissars, as well as the post of Military Komissar of the Republic.^[16]

The First Congress of the Soviets of Workers' and Kazaks' Deputies of the Don Republic, held from April 22 to April 27 in Rostov, declares itself the supreme authority of the Don Soviet Republic,^[17][18] confirms the powers of all previously elected komissars and members of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of the Don Republic. The Don Republic was renamed the Don Soviet Republic.^[19]

Soviet Power lasted in Rostov–on–Don from February 23 to May 3, 1918.^[20]

Already from the end of March, Cossack uprisings broke out in a number of Don stanitsas, provoked by attempts at land redistribution, and in many places by shootings and robberies by Red Guard units. After several weeks of fighting, the rebel Kazaks finally overthrew Soviet Power in Novocherkassk and announced the creation of the All–Great Don Voysko. In April, the creation of the Don Armiya began on the basis of rebel units and the detachment of General Pyotr Popov, who had returned from the Steppe Campaign.

On May 4, 1918, the Bolsheviks retreated from Rostov, having removed all Don Banknotes from the State Bank vaults on the night of May 1, 1918.^[21]

By the beginning of May, the western part of the Don Voysko Oblast, including Rostov, Nakhichevan–on–Don, Taganrog, Millerovo, and Chertkovo, was occupied by the German Expeditionary Force, which entered the territory of neighboring Ukraina in March in accordance with the agreement signed by the Ukrainian Rada with Germany and Austria–Hungary. The leadership of the Don Soviet Republic, evacuated to Tsaritsyn, subsequently moved to the stanitsa Velikoknyazheskaya and continued their activities there until the end of June.

On May 16, in Novocherkassk, General Pyotr Krasnov was elected Ataman of the All–Great Don Voysko, relying on an alliance with Germany in his fight against the Bolsheviks.

Discontent was brewing among the Kazaks over the beginning of the redistribution of land on the Don, and the fact that "out–of–town" peasants, who had previously rented land from the Kazaks, were beginning to occupy and cultivate Cossack allotments in the yurts of Cossack villages. Contradictions in the countryside grew and led to numerous Kazaks' rebellions against the new government. The situation was aggravated by the entry of German Troops into the region: German Cavalry occupied the entire western part of the Donets District, German Garrisons were located in the villages of Kamenskaya and Ust–Belokalitvenskaya, in Millerovo, Bataysk, the Germans occupied Taganrog and the Taganrog District and found themselves 12 kilometers from Novocherkassk.

The turn of the Kazaks against the Bolsheviks allowed the White Movement to gain social support and an economic base in the Don. Having risen to armed struggle against Soviet Power, the Don Kazaks restored the Ataman's Power in May. General Pyotr Krasnov, elected as the Military Ataman, began to form the Don Armiya from Cossack Detachments, using the assistance of German Troops and establishing an exchange of grain with them for weapons and ammunition.^[9]

On May 4, 1918, the last Bolsheviks evacuated from Rostov to the Kuban Region. The next day, the Drozdovites entered the city, but were driven out by the Red Units. Having received a message from the Kazaks, they went towards Novocherkassk and helped the Cossack Detachments drive the Reds out of the capital of the Don Kazaks. They refused to stay with the Kazaks and went south to join the Volunteer Armiya.

On May 8, Krasnov's Kazaks (Turoverov's Cavalry) and German Units (the 20th Reserve Division, which remained in the city until December 1918) occupy Rostov. The Don Soviet Republic ceased to exist.

On May 9, the Provisional Don Government announced the convening of the Circle of Salvation of the Don on May 11.

On May 10, Cossack Detachments occupy Novocherkassk.

On May 11, delegates from villages and military units gather in Novocherkassk and establish the Circle of Salvation of the Don, at which on May 16, Major General Pyotr Krasnov is elected as the Military Ataman, who sends a letter to Emperor Wilhelm with a proposal for cooperation and a request for a protectorate.

On May 18, the Circle of Salvation of the Don proclaimed the creation of an independent state of the All–Great Don Voysko, headed by Ataman Krasnov, on the territory of the Don Voysko Oblast.

As General Krasnov noted, «It is easy for Denikin, of course, to accuse me of supporting the Germans, but Denikin takes weapons from me, although I buy them from the Germans for bread from the warehouses of the Southwestern Front of the former Russian Armiya».

The fate of the Kazaks was finally decided by the secret directive of the Organizational Bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of January 24, 1919, as well as the subsequent actions of the Bolsheviks to implement it. The directive declared non–residents (that is, non–Kazaks) to be the mainstay of Soviet Power in the Cossack Lands, and also described a program of harsh repressive measures for dekazakization:

January 24, 1919.
Circularly. Confidential.
The latest events on various fronts in the Cossack Regions – our advances deep into the Cossack Settlements and the disintegration among the Cossack Troops – force us to give instructions to party workers about the nature of their work in the restoration and strengthening of Soviet Power in the said regions. It is necessary, taking into account the experience of the civil war with the Kazaks, to recognize the only correct thing as the most merciless struggle with all the upper crust of the Kazaks by means of their total extermination. No compromises, no half–heartedness are acceptable. Therefore it is necessary:

1. Conduct mass terror against the rich Kazaks, exterminating them completely; conduct merciless mass terror against all Kazaks who took any direct or indirect part in the struggle against Soviet Power. It is necessary to take all those measures with regard to the middle Kazaks that provide a guarantee against any attempts on their part to make new protests against Soviet Power.

2. Confiscate the grain and force all surplus to be dumped at specified points; this applies to both grain and all other agricultural products.

3. Take all measures to provide assistance to the resettling poor, organizing resettlement where possible.

4. To equate the non–resident newcomers with the Kazaks in terms of land and in all other respects.

5. Conduct complete disarmament, shooting anyone found with a weapon after the surrender deadline.

6. Issue weapons only to reliable elements from non–residents.

7. Armed detachments are to be left in Cossack Villages until complete order is established.

8. All commissioners appointed to one or another Cossack Settlement are requested to demonstrate maximum firmness and steadfastly implement these instructions.

The Central Committee decides to carry out through the appropriate Soviet Institutions the obligation for the People's Commissariat of Agriculture to urgently develop practical measures for the mass resettlement of the poor to Cossack Lands.

— Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party.
Russian Center for the Storage and Study of Documents of Modern History. Fund 17. Inventory 4. File 7. Sheet 5.
Fund 17. Inventory 65. File 35. Sheet 216. Typewritten Copy.

There was no specific signature under the directive ("Circular Letter"), but the Organizational Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) at that time was headed by Yakov Sverdlov.^[22]

In the course of implementing this directive, villages, farms, and settlements were completely burned and destroyed by artillery fire (and chemical shells were also used^[23]), and this despite the fact that the directive did not say a word about such barbaric measures – apparently, it was implied tacitly.^[24][25][26] For example, on May 17 (30), 1919, the village of Karginskaya (where the family of Sholokhov lived) suffered from the Red 33rd Division, in which 20 houses burned down, but the downpour that began saved this village from complete burning.^[23]

Here is another example of such guiding instructions:

Directive of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front on measures to suppress the uprising
16 March 1919 1 hour 35 min.

Top secret.
To the Revolutionary Military Councils of the 8th, 9th, 10th Armies I propose to strictly implement the following: to exert all efforts to the fastest liquidation of the arisen unrest by concentrating the maximum forces to suppress the uprising and by applying the most severe measures against the instigators of the farms:

а) burning of the rebellious farms;

b) merciless execution of all without exception persons who took direct or indirect part in the uprising;

c) execution of every 5th or 10th adult male population of the rebellious farms;

d) mass taking of hostages from the neighboring to the rebellious farms;

e) wide notification of the population of the farms, villages, etc. that all villages and farms noticed in providing assistance to the rebels will be subjected to merciless extermination of the entire adult male population and will be burned at the first case of detection of assistance; exemplary carrying out of punitive measures with wide notification of the population about it.

To accurately inform the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front about all measures taken and being taken.

Member of the Revolutionary Military Council A.Kolegaev.

— RGVA. F.100. Op.3. D.100. L.17–18. Telegraph tape.

As early as September 1918, the chairman of the Moscow Council P. Smidovich said from the rostrum of the VTsIK: "…This war is being waged not to bring about an agreement or to subjugate, this war is for destruction. A civil war cannot be otherwise".^[23]

At the beginning of 1919, the Don Cossacks united with A. I. Denikin, who promised them autonomy. The Don Host became part of South Russia. Power in the Don actually passed to the Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR) under the command of General Denikin, and the Cossack units were also subordinate to him.

In January–March 1919, the troops of the Southern Front of the Red Army launched an offensive with the aim of finally defeating the Don Army, as well as against Denikin's troops for the Donbas.

In February 1919, due to irreconcilable contradictions with the command of the Volunteer Army, Krasnov resigned and left the Don for Estonia to Yudenich, and later to Germany. In Taganrog, Denikin's headquarters was located. The White troops began an offensive on Moscow.

The Red Army units that entered the Upper Don District (which, in addition to Russians and Ukrainians, also included Chinese, Latvians, and former Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war (Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, and others),^[23] took away bread (including seed) and tools (seeders, plows, etc.), carried out repressions, including the compilation of execution lists of unreliable Cossacks, as well as a number of numerous and mass executions. As a result, on March 11, 1919, the Veshenskaya uprising^[23] of the Upper Don Cossacks broke out, which turned out to be successful.

In the autumn of 1919, the Offensive of the Armed Forces of the South of Rossiya on Moskva was stopped and the Whites, putting up stubborn resistance, slowly but steadily retreated to the south. On January 7, 1920, the Cavalry–Consolidated Corps of Boris Dumenko captured the capital of the White Don, Novocherkassk. On January 10, units of the 1st Cavalry Armiya under the command of Semyon Budyonny took Rostov–on–Don by force.^[27]

On January 17, the Red Armiya continued its offensive, but the Red Armiya soldiers failed to gain a foothold on the left bank of the Don, but to the left they still reached the Manych River, threatening the right flank of the Volunteer Corps.

On February 7, under the general leadership of Anton Denikin, the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of the South of Rossiya began. On February 6–8, the Volunteer Corps of Lieutenant General Aleksandr Kutepov and the 3rd Don Separate Corps broke through the defenses of the 8th Army and captured Rostov and Nakhichevan.^[28] The «colored» regiments – the Kornilovites, Markovites, and Drozdovites, as well as the Combined Guards Cavalry – particularly distinguished themselves.^[29]

However, on February 10, by order of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces of the South of Rossiya, Rostov–on–Don was again abandoned without a fight,^[28] due to the flank threat of the Red Units.

On February 25–27, south of the strategically important Sredniy Egorlyk, the Battle of Egorlyk took place – the largest cavalry battle in the history of the Civil War, with up to 25 thousand sabres on both sides, in which General Pavlov's White Cavalry was defeated and retreated to Egorlytskaya.^[28]

At the beginning of the Cossack Liberation Struggle (beginning of 1918), the Salskiy District was a region of the struggle for freedom. Here in the steppes, the partisans of the Marching Ataman, General Pyotr Popov, carried out their remarkable «Steppe Campaign». All the Don Kalmyks stood up to defend their villages and joined the detachment of General Pyotr Popov. After the Salskiy District was cleared under Ataman Krasnov, the Don Kalmyks formed two regiments: the 80th Zyungarskiy and the 3rd Don (1st Don Division) – a standing army and a cavalry half–hundred in the Don Ataman's Convoy. Kalmyks as part of the Don Armiya fought against the Bolsheviks until the very end. When they left their native land, they, as a whole people, with their families, left their villages and retreated with the army to Novorossiysk. Abandoned by the High Command of the White Armiya on the shore of the Novorossiysk Pier, most of them died, suffering a martyr's death at the hands of the Bolsheviks. The Don Kalmyk emigration numbered a little more than a thousand souls, scattered across different countries, but a characteristic phenomenon for them was that they settled abroad without dispersing, but preserved large groups, forming their own Kalmyk farmsteads and villages, and individuals joined general Cossack organizations.

On March 26–27, the 40,000–strong Volunteer Corps left Novorossiysk by sea for Krym.

The Third Don Kalmyk Regiment, formed from Sal Kazaks – Don Kalmyks, did not accept the Reds' offer to capitulate and, together with the 3rd Drozdovskiy Regiment, covered the evacuation. However, if the 3rd Drozdovskiy Regiment, initially forgotten on the shore, was taken out on the destroyer Pylkiy, with Lieutenant General Aleksandr Kutepov returning specially for it, then the 3rd Kalmyk Regiment, during the evacuation from Novorossiysk, was left on the shore and, for the most part, along with the civilian refugees who were following in the regiment's convoy – families of Kalmyk Kazaks – were executed by the Red Armiya soldiers.

The 80th Zyungarskiy Regiment, consisting of Don Kalmyks – Kazaks, was luckier, conducting rearguard battles and covering the retreat of a large party of Don, Kuban and Terek Kazaks to Adler and their subsequent loading onto ships. The majority of the Don, Kuban and Terek regiments, pressed to the shore, accepted the terms of capitulation and surrendered to the Red Armiya units. The 80th Zyungarskiy Regiment did not accept the terms of capitulation, did not lay down its arms, and was evacuated in full force to Krym along with the remnants of the Don Units. In Krym, the 80th Zyungarskiy Regiment marched in parade formation before the Commander–in–Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Rossiya, Pyotr Vrangel, since among the units evacuated from Novorossiysk and Adler, besides this regiment, there was not a single whole and armed unit.

Soviet power was finally established in the Don and adjacent territories. The All–Great Don Voysko ceased to exist.^[28]

• Don Soviet Republic
• Dekazakization
• Iași–Don Campaign of Drozdovskiy's Detachment
• First Kuban (Ice) Campaign

• Andrey Venkov (2008). Ataman Krasnov and the Don Armiya. 1918. History of the Kazaks. Moskva: Veche. ISBN 978-5-9533-2098-6.
• Andrey Venkov (2012). Vyoshenskaya Uprising (PDF). Moskva: Veche. ISBN 978-5-9533-6038-8.
• Sergey Volkov, ed. (2004). The Don Armiya in the Fight Against the Bolsheviks. Moskva: Closed Joint–Stock Company Tsentrpoligraf. ISBN 5-9524-1360-9.
• Arltan Baskhaev. Kalmyks. Under the Military Banner of Rossiya
• Sanzha Balykov. Memories of the Zyungarskiy Regiment. Almanac «White Guard». No. 8. The Kazaks of Rossiya in the White Movement. Moskva: Posev. 2005. Pages 45–52. Publication by Vasiliy Tsvetkov
• Svyatoslav Denisov. Civil War in the South of Rossiya – Constantinople: Printing House «Pressa», 1921
• Vladimir Dobrynin. The Fight Against Bolshevizm in the South of Rossiya // The Fight Against Bolshevizm in the South of Rossiya. Participation in the Struggle of the Don Kazaks – Prague, 1921
• Roman Gul. Ice March (with Kornilov) // Military Literature Website
• Kenéz Péter (2017). The True History of the Volunteer Armiya. 1917–1918. Moskva: Algoritm. ISBN 978-5-906979-90-2.
• Pyotr Krasnov (1922). The All–Great Don Voysko // Archive of the Russian Revolution. Vol. 5. Berlin. pp. 190–321.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Lev Trotskiy. «The Don Voysko» – Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of September 3, 1918
• Directive of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front of March 16, 1919 – Quoted From Sergey Ivanov. The Tragedy of the Kazaks // Russian Socio–Political Monthly Newspaper «Formations of Special Purpose of Rossiya». August 2007 – No. 8 (131)
• Directive of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 8th Army No. 1522 of March 17, 1919 – Quoted From Sergey Ivanov. The Tragedy of the Kazaks // Russian Socio–Political Monthly Newspaper «Formations of Special Purpose of Rossiya». August 2007 – No. 8 (131)
• Resolution of the Don Bureau of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) «On the Basic Principles in Relation to the Kazaks». April 1919 – Quoted From Sergey Ivanov. The Tragedy of the Kazaks // Russian Socio–Political Monthly Newspaper «Formations of Special Purpose of Rossiya». August 2007 – No. 8 (131)

• A Brief History of the Partisan General Alekseev's Infantry Regiment // The White Guard Website. June 23, 2011
• Documents on the History of the Destruction of the Kazaks: a Selection of Party and Soviet Documents from 1919 (from Russian Archives) // Website "General Cossack Village Named After Ataman Pyotr Molodidov". April 3, 2009
• Civil War on the Don: a Selection of Scientific Articles // Donskoy Vremennik: Local History Almanac / Don State Public Library. Rostov–on–Don. 1993–2014