Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

1918    2 (15) January: A Sovnarkom decree is issued on universal labor obligation. 3 (16) January: VTsIK adopts the “Declaration of the Rights of the Toiling and Exploited Peoples” and the decree “On the Formation of Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army.” 5–6 (18–19) January: The Constituent Assembly meets in Petrograd; Bolshevik and Left-SR delegates walk out when it refuses to accept the “Declaration of the Rights of the Toiling and Exploited Peoples.” Red forces, commanded by Colonel M. A. Murav′ev, capture Poltava in Ukraine. 6 (19) January: Delegates to the Constituent Assembly are denied entry to the Tauride Palace by Bolshevik guards. 7 (20) January: VTsIK endorses a Sovnarkom decree dissolving the Constituent Assembly. General Kornilov is named as commander in chief of the Volunteer Army. 8 (21) January: Outbreak of Finnish Civil War. 9 (22) January: In its Fourth Universal, the Ukrainian Central Rada proclaims the independence of the Ukrainian National Republic. The Donets-Kryvoi Rog Soviet Republic is proclaimed at Khar′kov. 10 (23) January: Cossack and Russian anti-Bolsheviks create the United Government of the Don to oppose Soviet rule in the Don oblast′ and oversee the activities of the Volunteer Army. On the same day, a congress of Cossack frontoviki in the northern Don region forms a Military-Revolutionary Committee in opposition to the United Government. 11 (24) January: Red Guards capture Yalta and Feodosiia in Crimea. 12 (25) January: Red Guards and units of the Russian Army battle against the rising in Belorussia of the 1st Polish Legion under General Józef Dowbór-Muśnicki. 13 (26) January: Romanian troops capture Kishinev, driving out Rumcherod. Sovnarkom severs relations with Romania. 14 (27) January: Rumcherod declares itself the supreme authority in Bessarabia. 15 (28) January: The Sovnarkom decree “On the Organization of a Worker-Peasant Red Army” on a volunteer basis is issued. Allied leaders announce that the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia has become an integral part of the French army. The Latvian National Assembly (Tautas Padome) proclaims independence. 16–17 (29–30) January: Red forces capture Odessa. 18 (31) January: Dutov’s Cossacks are defeated, and Soviet power is proclaimed in Orenburg. 19 January (1 February): Patriarch Tikhon anathematizes the Bolsheviks. 20 January (2 February): Sovnarkom proclaims the disestablishment of the Russian Orthodox Church. 21 January (3 February): Sovnarkom repudiates Russia’s state debts. 24 January (6 February): Sfatul Ţării declares the independence from Russia of the Moldavian People’sRepublic. 26–27 January (8–9 February): The Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia is founded at Tomsk and immediately driven underground by Red Guards. Soviet forces under M. A. Murav′ev capture Kiev. 27 January (9 February): At Brest-Litovsk, the Central Powers sign a separate peace with the Ukrainian Rada. 28 January (10 February): Trotsky walks out of the Brest-Litovsk negotiations, declaring a policy of “neither war nor peace”: Soviet Russia will not accept the annexationist peace terms offered by the Central Powers but will not continue fighting. Red forces seize Taganrog. 29 January (11 February): A Sovnarkom decree is issued disbanding the imperial Russian fleet and announcing the creation of the Socialist Worker-Peasant Red Fleet. A. M. Kaledin resigns as ataman of the Don Host and subsequently commits suicide, as the Volunteer Army leaves Novocherkassk and embarks on the First Kuban (Ice) March. The Fourth Regional Congress of Soviets at Tashkent declares war on the Kokand government. 30 January (12 February): Turkish forces reopen hostilities against Russian forces in Transcaucasia, advancing toward Erzincan and Trabzon (Trebizond). 31 January: At midnight, Soviet Russia adopts the Gregorian calendar; the following day will be 14 February. 14–20 February: With much brutality, Red forces from the Orenburg Front and Red Guards of the Tashkent Soviet, supported by Austro-Hungarian “internationalists” (liberated prisoners of war), overthrow the Muslim government at Kokand, initiating the war between the Soviet authorities and the Muslim resistance fighters (Basmachi). 16 February: At Vilnius, the Lithuanian National Council (Taryba) proclaims Lithuania’s independence. 17–18 February: German forces reopen operations against Russia: “Operation Thunderbolt” captures virtually the entire Baltic region and much of Belorussia within a week. 19 February: Sovnarkom issues a radio message agreeing to accept the German conditions for peace. The Sovnarkom decree “On the Socialization of the Land” is issued. 19 February–2 May: “The Ice March of the Baltic Fleet”: 226 Russian vessels are moved from Revel and Helsingfors to Kronshtadt, to prevent them from falling into German hands. 21 February: The Committee for the Revolutionary Defense of Petrograd is created. Sovnarkom issues an appeal, “The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger!,” as German forces capture Minsk. 23 February: The Bolshevik Central Committee votes to accept German peace terms (by seven votes in favor to four against, with four abstentions). 23–24 February: Rostov-on-Don is captured by Soviet forces after its evacuation by the Volunteer Army. The British government authorizes the funding of Ataman Semenov’s forces in Manchuria. The Transcaucasian Assembly (Sejm) is established at Tiflis and declares the independence of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic. 24 February: In Revel, the Estonian Provisional Government, under Konstantin Päts, is proclaimed by the Committee of Elders as German forces close on the city. By a vote of 116 to 85 (with 26 abstentions), VTsIK agrees to sign a peace treaty with the Central Powers. 24–28 February: The remaining Allied diplomatic and military missions leave Petrograd (mostly for Vologda). 25 February: Soviet forces capture Novocherkassk. The newly elected ataman of the Don Cossacks, A. M. Nazarov, is shot by Cossack radicals. German forces capture Revel. 28 February: The Austro-Hungarian army begins to advance into Ukraine, as German forces enter Pskov. 1 March: Forces of the Tashkent Soviet disperse the Kokand Autonomy. 2 March: Soviet forces abandon Kiev, which is then occupied by Austro-German units and forces of the Ukrainian Central Rada commanded by S. V. Petliura. 3 March: The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is signed: Soviet Russia loses control of the Baltic provinces, Ukraine, and much of Belorussia; cedes to the Ottoman Empire all territory captured in the Russo–Turkish War of 1877–1878; agrees to full demobilization of its armed forces; and promises to cease agitation and propaganda against the Central Powers. 4 March: The Supreme Military Council is created, headed by L. D. Trotsky. German forces capture Narva. 5 March: The Red Army’s Northern and Western “Screens” are created. German forces land on the Åland Islands, as a first step in their intervention in the Finnish Civil War to assist the Finnish Whites. 6–8 March: British and French troops land at Murmansk, at the invitation of the local soviet. The 8th (Extraordinary) Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks) changes the party name to the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks): RKP(b). 8 March: The Baltic German Landesrat offers the crown of the Duchy of Courland to Kaiser Wilhelm II. 10–12 March: The Soviet government moves from Petrograd to the new capital, Moscow. Invading Austrian and German forces occupy Odessa. 13–14 March: Red forces from Novorossiisk capture Ekaterinodar, the Kuban capital and headquarters of the Kuban Cossack Host. 14 March: Trotsky is named People’s Commissar for Military Affairs. German and White Finnish forces occupy Helsinki (Helsingfors). 14–16 March: The Fourth (Extraordinary) All-Russian Congress of Soviets ratifies the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Subsequently (19 March 1918) all Left-SR commissars resign in protest from Sovnarkom. 15 March: Sovnarkom agrees that the Czechoslovak Legion can leave Russia via Vladivostok, providing it surrenders most of its arms. The first train leaves Penza on 27 March. Turkish forces occupy Trabzon. 21 March: The election of officers is ended in both the Red Army and the Red Fleet. 25 March: A Soviet treaty with Bukhara is signed recognizing the independence of the emirate. The German-sponsored Belarussian National Republic is established. 27 March: The Don Cossack Host rises up against Soviet rule. 30 March: German forces occupy Poltava. 31 March–2 April: Bolshevik and Dashnak forces of the Baku Soviet emerge victorious in fighting with Muslim members of the Musavet. At least 3,500 (and perhaps as many as 12,000) Muslims are killed during the “March Days.” April: The Don Army and the Urals (from January 1919 the Urals Independent) Army are formed. German and Austrian forces overrun much of southeastern Ukraine and Crimea. 3 April: The All-Russian Bureau of Military Commissars (Vsebiurvoenkom) is formed, attached to the Commissariat for Military Affairs. 3–5 April: German forces (commanded by General Rüdiger von der Goltz) land on the Finnish mainland at Hangö (Hanko) and march on Helsinki, which they enter on 12–13 April. 5 April: German forces capture Khar′kov. 5–6 April: 500 Japanese troops land at Vladivostok to “restore order” in the port, followed by contingents of British and U.S. forces. 6 April: Trotsky adds the post of Commissar for Naval Affairs to his portfolio of duties. 9 April: The Bessarabian national assembly (Sfatul Ţării) votes for union with Romania. 10 April: Cossacks elect General P. N. Krasnov as ataman of the All-Great Don Host. 10–13 April: Emerging from the Kuban steppe, the Volunteer Army lays siege to Ekaterinodar before being forced to retire. General Kornilov is killed in action (13 April), and the Whites retire. 11–12 April: The Cheka raids anarchist centers in Moscow, killing more than 100 people. 13 April: General A. I. Denikin is named as the new commander in chief of the Volunteer Army. The Transcaucasian Assembly (Sejm) declares war on Turkey. 14–15 April: Turkish forces enter Batumi (Batum), in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (which had not been recognized by the Transcaucasian Assembly). 17 April: Red forces capture Novocherkassk. 22 April: Under pressure from the Turks, the Transcaucasian Assembly, uniting Azeri Musavetists and (more reluctantly) Armenian Dashnaks and Georgian Mensheviks, declares an independent Transcaucasian Federal Republic under Akaki Chkhenkeli. A VTsIK decree is issued on universal military service (Vsevobuch). VTsIK promulgates “The Oath of the Red Armyman.” 24 April: The Supreme Military Inspectorate of the Red Army is created. 25 April: The Baku Soviet proclaims a Bolshevik–Left-SR Council of People’s Commissars (the Baku Commune) under Stepan Shahumian. 25–27 April: Turkish forces occupy Kars. 27 April: The Supreme Allied War Council recommends that Czechoslovak units that are west of Omsk be diverted to Arkhangel′sk for evacuation. 28–29 April: The first Czechoslovak trains reach Vladivostok. With German support, General P. P. Skoropadskii overthrows the Central Rada and is proclaimed hetman of the Ukrainian State by the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Congress. 1 May: German forces enter Rostov-on-Don. The Food Army (Prodarmiia) of the Soviet Republic is created. 2 May: The Vladivostok Soviet proclaims its supreme authority in the port. 6 May: Don Cossack forces recapture Novocherkassk. 8 May: The All-Russian Main Staff (Vseroglavshtab) is created to oversee Soviet mobilization efforts. 14 May: Czechoslovak forces clash with released Hungarian prisoners of war east of the Urals (the “Cheliabinsk incident”). 14–15 May: The last Red Finnish units surrender to Mannerheim’s forces. 20 May: In response to a demand from the Soviet government, military leaders of the Czechoslovak Legion refuse to surrender their arms. 23 May: The British government resolves to land further forces at Murmansk and Arkhangel′sk. Sovnarkom orders the Cheka to increase surveillance of SR and Menshevik leaders. 24–26 May: The revolt of the Czechoslovak Legion begins. Trotsky orders local Soviets to shoot on the spot any armed Czechoslovak troops found on the Trans-Siberian Railway. 25 May–2 August: The Red Army’s “Ural–Volga Defensive Operation” on the Eastern Front against the Czechoslovak Legion and Komuch’s People’s Army occurs. 26 May: Turkish forces enter Alexandropol. 26–28 May: The Transcaucasian Federation dissolves into Georgian, Armenian, and Azerbaijani republics. An SR conference in Moscow endorses the program of the Union for the Regeneration of Russia, calling for Allied intervention in Russia to restore the Eastern Front. 28 May: The German–Georgian treaty signed at Poti grants Germany access to Georgian raw materials and the right to station troops in Georgia, effectively establishing a German protectorate over Georgia. 29 May: A universal military draft is declared in Soviet Russia. 29–30 May: Czechoslovak forces capture Penza and Syzran′. 1 June: The anti-Bolshevik West Siberian Commissariat is proclaimed at Novonikolaevsk. It sanctions the formation of the Siberian Army. 4 June: Georgia and Armenia sign peace agreements with Turkey (the Treaty of Batumi), ceding Batumi, Kars, Alexandropol, and other regions to Turkey. J. V. Stalin is sent to Tsaritsyn (Stalingrad/Volgograd) to organize its defense against Don Cossack attacks and to secure the supply of food and oil from South Russia to the north. 8 June: Czechoslovak troops capture Samara, where Komuch proclaims its authority and begins the formation of the People’s Army. 10 June: The German Caucasus Mission arrives in Tiflis. 11 June: Sovnarkom issues a decree establishing Committees of the Village Poor. The Taryba offers the crown of Lithuania to the Duke of Urach (Wilhelm von Würtenberg). 12 June: The first rounds of conscription into the Red Army begin. An armistice agreement between the Russian Soviet Republic and the Ukrainian State is signed at Kiev. 13 June: Sovnarkom announces the creation of the Revvoensovet of the Republic to oversee the struggle against the Czechoslovak Legion and the “landlord and bourgeois counter-revolution which lies behind it.” The Eastern Front is organized from the rudimentary 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Red Armies, under Colonel I. I. Vācietis. 14 June: VTsIK votes to exclude all Mensheviks and Right-SRs from its ranks (“for counter-revolutionary activities”) and advises all local soviets to follow suit. 16 June: Capital punishment is restored in Soviet Russia. 18 June: On the orders of the Soviet government, at Tsemesskii Bay, near Novorossiisk, the battleship Svobodnaia Rossiia and nine destroyers of the Black Sea Fleet are scuttled (in an operation overseen by F. F. Raskol′nikov) to prevent their capture by German forces. 20 June: In Petrograd, V. Volodarskii, People’s Commissar for the Press, is assassinated by G. I. Semenov, a member of an SR terrorist organization. 21 June: Captain A. M. Shchastnyi, commander of naval forces in the Baltic Sea and chief architect of the Ice March of the Baltic Fleet, is executed in Moscow, following a dispute with Trotsky. 23 June: Czechoslovak forces capture Ufa. The Second Kuban March of the Volunteer Army begins. 25 June: The Volunteer Army captures Torgovaia, severing railway communication between Soviet forces in the North Caucasus and central Russia. 28 June: Sovnarkom issues a decree nationalizing large-scale industry, signaling the beginning of War Communism. 29 June: The Czechoslovak Legion takes control of Vladivostok. Late June: Menshevik G. F. Bicherakhov instigates an uprising of the Terek Cossacks (commanded by his brother, L. F. Bicherakhov) against Soviet power (the Bicherakhov Uprising). 1 July: The Provisional Siberian Government is formed at Omsk and subsequently (4 July) declares Siberian independence. 1–3 July: The capture of Orenburg by Ural Cossack forces of Ataman Dutov isolates Red forces in Central Asia from Soviet Russia. 4–10 July: The meeting of the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets in Moscow ratifies the first constitution of the RSFSR. 5 July: 322 Left-SR delegates leave the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets in protest at Sovnarkom policies (particularly the peace with Germany and the food dictatorship), signaling the beginning of the Left-SR Uprising. 6 July: With the aim of provoking a renewal of Soviet–German hostilities, two Left-SR Chekists (Ia. G. Bliumkin and N. A. Andreev) assassinate the German ambassador in Moscow, Count Wilhelm von Mirbach. 6–7 July: Left-SR delegates to the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets are arrested in Moscow and held inside the building of the Bolshoi Ballet, as the Latvian Riflemen, commanded by Vācietis, mop up the remnants of Left-SR resistance in the city. 6–21 July: After some initial successes, anti-Bolshevik risings at Iaroslavl′ and other towns in the upper-Volga region (including Murom, Rybinsk, Nizhnii Novgorod, and Penza), which had been organized by B. V. Savinkov and his Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom, are crushed by Soviet forces. 8 July: Anglo–French forces capture Kem, on the western shore of the White Sea. 10 July: Czechoslovak forces capture Syzran′. The Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets agrees to the formation of a regular army and the employment of former tsarist officers as military specialists; it also ratifies the first constitution of the RSFSR. 10–11 July: M. A. Murav′ev, the Left-SR commander of Red forces on the Eastern Front, revolts, attempting to end hostilities with the Czechoslovak Legion and reopen the war against Germany. Murav′ev is shot dead during his arrest. 11–12 July: The Ashkhabad uprising, led by the Menshevik–SR Ashkhabad Committee of Salvation, begins expulsion of the forces of the Tashkent Soviet from Transcaspia and establishes the Transcaspian Provisional Government. 16–17 July: Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, his progeny, and his retainers are executed at Ekaterinburg. 19 July: The constitution of the RSFSR comes into force. 22 July: Czechoslovak forces capture Simbirsk. 23 July: The Volunteer Army captures Stavropol′. 25 July: Czechoslovak forces capture Ekaterinburg. 29 July: Compulsory military training is introduced in the RSFSR; officers of the old army are ordered to register. 2 August: By invitation of the newly proclaimed Supreme Administration of the Northern Region, under N. V. Chaikovskii, some 1,500 British, American, and French forces disembark at Arkhangel′sk. 3–10 August: 12,000 Japanese and a small British force land at Vladivostok. 3–25 August: A Red Army offensive operation on the Eastern Front aimed at the liberation of the Volga and Ural regions is unsuccesful. 6–7 August: Czechoslovak and Komuch forces capture Kazan′, before local Soviet forces can evacuate the imperial gold reserves that had been stored there. 7 August–16 November: Workers in the Ural towns of Izhevsk and Votkinsk rise against the Bolsheviks. 9–20 August: Lieutenant-General A. P. Vostrosablin leads Soviet forces’ defense of the fortress of Kushka (Serhetabat) against forces of the anti-Bolshevik Transcaspian government. 10 August: Responding to a call for assistance from the Ashkhabad Committee, British and Indian troops under the command of General W. Malleson (Norperforce) cross into Transcaspia from northern Persia. 11 August–12 November: Terek Cossack forces led by G. F. Bicherakhov conduct a 100-day siege of Groznyi before overcoming its Soviet defenders. 14 August: Dunsterforce enters Baku. 15–18 August: The Volunteer Army finally captures Ekaterinodar. 26 August: The Volunteer Army captures Novorossiisk, gaining access to the Black Sea. 27 August: Supplementary agreements to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk are signed in Berlin; Soviet Russia agrees to pay 6 trillion marks in compensation to Germany. 30 August: F. E. Kaplan, alleged to be an SR terrorist, shoots at Lenin, hitting him twice, as he leaves a meeting at the Mikhelson factory in Moscow. M. S. Uritskii, head of the Petrograd Cheka, is assassinated by an officer cadet with connections to the SRs (Leonid Kannegeiser). 31 August: A Cheka-led mob enters the British embassy in Petrograd; Captain F. N. A. Cromie, the British naval attaché, is killed. 31 August–4 September: British agent Robert Bruce Lockhart and others implicated in the “Lockhart Plot” are arrested in Moscow. 20 August: Czechoslovak forces clear the last Red troops from the Trans-Siberian Railway near Irkutsk. 2 September: The Revvoensovet of the Republic is created, headed by Trotsky, and post of main commander (commander in chief) is established, first occupied by I. I. Vācietis. The RSFSR is declared to be a “single armed camp.” 5 September: The Sovnarkom decree “On Red Terror” grants sweeping powers to the Cheka, which immediately executes hundreds of prisoners and hostages. 5 September–28 February 1919: A Red Army strategic offensive operation against the Czechoslovak Legion, the People’s Army of Komuch, and White formations on the Eastern Front is aimed at the capture of the Volga–Kama and Urals regions and the establishment of links with the Turkestan Soviet Republic. 6–9 September: A military coup, organized by Captain G. E. Chaplin, is launched at Arkhangel′sk against the Supreme Administration of the Northern Region. 8–23 September: Representatives of Komuch, the Provisional Siberian Government, and other anti-Bolshevik organizations gather at Ufa (the Ufa State Conference) and, under pressure from Allied agents and the Union for the Regeneration of Russia, agree to the establishment of a coalition Provisional All-Russian Government (the Directory). 10–12 September: Red forces, under the personal direction of Trotsky, recapture Kazan′, Vol′sk, and Simbirsk, the first major victories of the Red Army. 14–15 September: The advance of the Turkish Army of Islam forces Dunsterforce to abandon Baku. Before regular Turkish forces can enter the city, some 9,000 Armenians are massacred by local Azeris and Turkish irregulars in the “September Days.” 14 September–8 October: Offensive operations of the 1st and 4th Red Armies and the Volga Military Flotilla result in the capture of Syzran′, Samara, and other Volga cities. 16 September: The Order of the Red Banner is established. 19–22 September: Japanese forces occupy Blagoveshchensk and extend control along the entire Amur branch of the Trans-Siberian Railway. 20 September: The Twenty-Six Commissars (the former leaders of the Baku Commune) are executed between the stations of Pereval and Akhcha-Kuyma (on the Transcaspian Railway). 25 September: The British government approves the dispatch to anti-Bolshevik forces in Russia of equipment for 100,000 men. (A further consignment for another 100,000 was agreed to on 6 December 1918.) October: The Whites’ South-Western (from December 1918 Independent Orenburg, from May 1919 Independent Southern) Army is formed. In northwest Russia, with German support, the Independent Pskov Volunteer Corps is formed. 2–3 October: The British agent Robert Bruce Lockhart leaves Moscow for Finland, the British government having agreed to the release and repatriation of his Soviet equivalent in London, M. M. Litvinov. 7 October: The Provisional Government of the Northern Region is created at Arkhangel′sk. 8 October: After a lengthy illness, General Alekseev dies at Ekaterinodar. The 5th Red Army captures Samara. 14 October: General Ironside succeeds General Poole as commander of the Allied forces in North Russia; by the end of October these consist 6,330 British, 5,200 Americans, 1,700 French, and 2,700 Russians. 15 October: Vice Admiral V. M. Al′tfater is named as the first commander of all naval forces of the RSFSR. 18 October: Lenin is persuaded by Trotsky to recall Stalin from Tsaritsyn; Trotsky is incensed that, during the “Tsaritsyn affair,” Stalin and his associates in the town have resisted the centralization of the Red Army and have refused to cooperate with military specialists—namely, the commander in chief of the Southern Front, General P. P. Sytin. Sovnarkom formally abolishes workers’ control in industry. 28 October: The Czechoslovak National Council, in Prague, proclaims the independence of Czechoslovakia; the disintegration and collapse of Austria-Hungary begins. 29 October: The command of the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia orders a general withdrawal from the Volga front. 30 October: An Allied–Turkish armistice is signed at Mudros, on the island of Lemnos. 1 November: British and Indian forces assist troops of the Ashkhabad Committee in capturing the oasis of Merv from Red forces of the Tashkent Soviet. 1–4 November: As Ukrainian troops of the Austro-Hungarian Army (the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen) seize the city (1 November), the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic is proclaimed at L′viv (L′vov). 1 November–16 July 1919: The Ukrainian–Polish War begins in Galicia (Western Ukraine). 8 November: The Military Academy of the Red Army opens. 11 November: The Allied–German armistice effectively brings an end to the First World War. Romanian forces occupy Bukovina. 13 November: VTsIK announces the annulment of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The Red Army begins to advance into Ukraine, Belorussia, and the Baltic provinces. 14 November: The British War Cabinet agrees to send arms and ammunition to Denikin and to grant de facto recognition to the Ufa Directory, which has now moved to Omsk. A British fleet will also be sent into the Baltic to help the Baltic states establish their independence. 17 November: German forces begin to withdraw from occupied areas of the former Russian Empire. 2,000 British and Indian troops, under General Thompson, reoccupy Baku. 17–18 November: A coup at Omsk unseats the Ufa Directory and names Admiral A. V. Kolchak as “Supreme Ruler and Commander-in-Chief of all Russian Land and Sea Forces.” 18 November: Tautas Padome (the Latvian National Council), at Riga, proclaims the Latvian Provisional Government under Kārlis Ulmanis. 19 November: The Estonian National Council (the Maapäev) returns to power as Estonia affirms its independence. 20 November: Denikin’s forces crush the Red Army of the North Caucasus near Stavropol′, beginning a process that will bring all of the North Caucasus under White control by February 1919. Red forces capture Pskov. The Provisional Workers’ and Peasants’ Government of Ukraine is established; the second Bolshevik invasion of Ukraine begins. 22 November: Polish forces capture L′viv (Lwów); the West Ukrainian People’s Republic moves its capital to Stanislau (Stanyslaviv). 22–29 November: The Red Army moves into Estonia and captures Narva; the Estonian Workers’ Commune is established under Jaan Anvelt. 23–27 November: Allied forces land at Novorossiisk, Sevastopol′, and Odessa. 24 November: A British division under General G. T. Forestier-Walker lands at Batumi and begins establishing control of the Baku–Batumi railway. 30 November: The Council of Worker and Peasant Defense is created in Moscow. VTsIK repeals the 14 June 1918 ban on Menshevik participation in Soviet institutions, following that party’s expression of conditional support for Soviet power. November–January 1919: In the wake of German withdrawals, the 7th Red Army and other Soviet forces occupy Belorussia and parts of the Baltic region. 2 December: Sovnarkom votes to disband the Committees of the Village Poor. 6 December: Red forces capture Dvinsk. 7–31 December: The Georgian–Armenian War erupts over control of the provinces of Lori and Javakheti and the Borchalo district. 8 December: Sovnarkom recognizes the Estonian Soviet Republic (proclaimed on 29 November), which will collapse the following month. The Communist Party of Lithuania establishes a Soviet government at Vilnius. 10 December: Soviet forces capture Minsk. 12 December: A Royal Navy squadron under Rear Admiral E. A. Sinclair reaches Revel (Tallinn) and delivers weapons to Estonian nationalist forces. 12–14 December: The Skoropadskii regime in Kiev collapses, and the Directory of the reestablished Ukrainian National Republic is formed. 17–24 December: As German forces withdraw from the city, some 1,800 French troops land at Odessa—the first contingent of a 60,000-strong army of occupation (including also Greek, Polish, Senegalese, and Algerian detachments) that will soon occupy the Black Sea coast from Bessarabia to Kherson. 24 December: Red forces capture Tartu. 24–25 December: Kolchak’s Northern Army captures Perm′. 26–27 December: Royal Navy vessels off Revel (Tallinn) capture the Red cruiser Spartak. On board is the head of the Red Fleet, F. F. Raskol′nikov, who is taken to London. 29–31 December: Red forces recapture Ufa and Sterlitamak.