Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

The council’s initial military members were Denikin (first deputy chairman), Dragomirov (second deputy chairman and assistant to the main commander of the army), A. S. Lukomskii (third deputy chairman and assistant to the main commander of the army), and I. P. Romanovskii (chief of staff). At the first meeting of the Special Council, only eight men were in attendance: Dragomirov, Lukomskii, V. A. Lebedev, A. A. Lodyzhenskii, V. A. Stepanov, E. P. Shuberskii, I. O. Geiman, A. A. Neratov, and A. S. Makarenko. The council was gradually supplemented by 11 departmental directors and later, following the second “Statute on the Special Conference,” by 14 of them. By July 1919, this had expanded to a membership of 24 persons (see appendix 2). The Special Council met in two forms, “large” and “small.” The Large Council discussed important questions of state and decided upon the wording of complex draft laws; the Small Council, chaired by Denikin while Alekseev was still active, dealt with routine business. Following the illness and death of Alekseev, the Special Council was chaired (from October 1918 to September 1919) by Dragomirov and then by Lukomskii. Commissions attached to the Special Council were also established: the first was founded in November 1918 to examine the question of the participation of a representative of the Special Council in the Paris Peace Conference; a second (chaired by Shul′gin) was founded in January 1919, to examine nationality affairs; and a third elaborated laws on trade unions, labor, and the land question.

In August 1919, as the AFSR advanced northward, the Special Council transferred its headquarters from Ekaterinodar to Rostov-on-Don; later, as the AFSR retreated in November–December 1919, it too retreated, to Novorossiisk, where it was disbanded by Denikin on 17 December 1919 and replaced by a Government of the Main Commander of the Armed Forces of South Russia. That, in turn, was superseded by General P. N. Wrangel’s Crimean Government of South Russia at Sevastopol′ in April 1920, following the resignation of General Denikin.

SPECIAL MANCHURIAN DETACHMENT. Created in December 1917, around Verkhneudinsk (now Ulan-Ude), by the then Esaul (future Ataman) G. M. Semenov, this was the first organized military force to oppose Soviet rule in eastern Siberia. Its initial complement was some 90 officers, 35 Cossacks, and 40 Buriats, but it grew rapidly as demobilized officers and men of the Transbaikal Cossack Host returned to the region and joined up. By April 1918, Semenov’s force had transferred to the Chinese Eastern Railway zone in Manchuria, establishing its headquarters at Manzhouli (Manchuria) Station, on the Russian border, and consisted of the Mongol-Buriat Cavalry Regiment, two Mongol-Karachen Regiments, the 1st Semenov and the 2nd Manchurian Infantry Regiments, two officer companies, two Serbian companies, and a battalion of Japanese volunteers (in all, some 700 men). It also commanded 2 armored trains and 14 artillery pieces.

In the autumn of 1918, after several less successful incursions into Soviet territory, Japanese forces assisted the division in capturing Verkhneudinsk (20 August 1918) and Chita (26 August 1918). The latter town then became its headquarters. Following Semenov’s (reluctant) subordination to Admiral A. V. Kolchak as supreme ruler, in June 1919, the detachment (by then renamed the Special Manchurian Division) became part of the 6th East Siberian Army Corps of the Russian Army and was stationed along the railway line between Lake Baikal and the Manchurian border. Following the collapse of the Russian Army, on 21 March 1920, it was renamed the Manchurian Riflemen of Ataman Semenov Brigade and became part of the Far Eastern (White) Army. In September 1920, pursued by the People’s-Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic, which had captured Chita earlier that month, most of its complement followed Semenov across the border into China.

Ataman Semenov commanded the Special Manchurian Detachment throughout its existence, assisted chiefly by the heads of divisions Colonel A. I. Tirbakh, Lieutenant General V. A. Kislitsyn, Major General K. P. Nechaev, and Colonel N. G. Natsvalov, as well as Major General L. N. Skipetrov (who was also chief of staff of the division from 1 September 1918).