Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

Local British forces, which had occupied Batumi and Baku, supported an Armenian delegation that was sent to Kars in January 1919, but negotiations stalled and violence erupted between Armenia and the forces of the putative Kars Republic, which the Armenians (and the British) regarded as a Turkish puppet state intended to circumvent the Mudros armistice and maintain a Turkish hold on the territories won (or won back) from Russia during the previous year. British forces sent from Batumi, on the orders of General William M. Thomson, eventually occupied Kars on 19 April 1919 and arrested members of the government (12 of whom, along with some 125 other Turkish wartime commanders and politicians, were subsequently exiled to Malta by the Allies). They then disbanded the republic and placed Kars province under Armenian rule (although under the Soviet–Turkish Treaty of Kars of 13 October 1921, Kars would eventually revert to Turkey).

SOUTH-WEST FRONT. This Red front was created on 10 January 1920, according to a directive of the main commander in chief of the Red Army, following a reorganization of the Southern Front. Its task was to clear right-bank Ukraine and Crimea of the remnants of the forces of the Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR) and to defend Kiev against the possibility of an attack from Poland. Its staff was located initially at Kursk and later at Khar′kov. Included in the South-West Front were the 12th (10 January–13 August 1920 and 27 September–25 December 1920), 13th (10 January–21 September 1920), and 14th (10 January–31 December 1920) Red Armies; the 1st Cavalry Army (17 April–14 August 1920); the 6th Red Army (8–21 September 1920); the Ukrainian Labor Army (30 January–25 September 1920); and the forces of the Gomel Fortified District. From 19 May to 13 June 1920, the Fastovsk group of forces (the 44th and 45th Rifle Divisions and the 3rd Detachment of the Dnepr Military Flotilla), commanded by I. E. Iakir, was also attached to the South-West Front.

In January–February 1920, the forces of the South-West Front pushed back the AFSR and, on 7 February 1920, entered Odessa, but attempts to force an entry into Crimea were rebuffed by White forces under the command of Ia. A. Slashchov. In April–May 1920, as the Soviet–Polish War moved into its active phase, forces of the South-West Front were driven out of Mozyr, Ovruch, and Kiev and into left-bank Ukraine. An offensive in May 1920 recaptured Kiev, and by July, the front’s forces were threatening L′vov and Lublin, but the Polish counteroffensive of August–September 1920 pushed them back into Ukraine. (Some historians claim that the front commander’s failure to capture L′vov and to support the forces of the Western Front was caused by the baleful influence of the chairman of the front revvoensovet, J. V. Stalin.) The South-West Front was also confronted with the breakout from Crimea, in early June 1920, of the Russian Army of General P. N. Wrangel, forcing a withdrawal to the right bank of the Dnepr. A counteroffensive in August 1920 proved effective, and the forces of the South-West Front deployed against Crimea were then reorganized into an independent, reconstituted Southern Front, against Wrangel. In late December 1920, the remaining forces of the South-West Front were transferred to the control of the Kiev Military District.

The commander of the South-West Front throughout its existence (10 January–31 December 1920) was A. I. Egorov. Its chief of staff was N. N. Petin.