Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

1919    January: The Whites’ Northern Corps is formed in Estonia. The Whites’ Western Army is formed in Siberia. A counterattack by the Estonian Army, reinforced by Finnish, Danish, and Swedish volunteers, drives invading Soviet forces back to Narva. 1 January: The Belorussian SSR is formed. 3–5 January: The Red Army occupies Riga (establishing a Soviet government under Pēteris Stučka) and Vil′na (establishing a Soviet government under Vincas Kapsukas). The Latvian Provisional Government flees to Anglo–German protection at Libau (Liepāja); the Lithuanian Provisional Government flees to Kaunas. 3 January–16 March: Soviet forces advance on the Ukrainian Front, capturing Khar′kov (3 January), where a new Soviet government is proclaimed under Cristian Rakovski (28 January); Kiev (4–6 February); and eventually, most of left-bank Ukraine, and establishing bridgeheads on the right bank of the Dnepr. 5–15 January: The Spartacist uprising in Berlin fails. 8 January: The Armed Forces of South Russia is created, uniting the Volunteer Army with the Don (and subsequently the Kuban and Terek) Cossacks, with General Denikin as commander in chief. 13 January: General E. K. Miller arrives at Arkhangel′sk and assumes the post of Governor-General of the Northern Region. N. D. Chaikovskii subsequently leaves North Russia (23 January) to join the Russian Political Conference in Paris. 14 January: A congress of the National Russian Committee at Vyborg selects General N. N. Iudenich as commander of White forces in northwest Russia. 18 January: The Paris Peace Conference opens. 22 January: The Allies broadcast an invitation to all warring parties in Russia to meet for peace talks in Turkey (the “Prinkipo Proposal”). The Act of Zluka proclaims union of the Ukrainian National Republic and the West Ukrainian People’s Republic. 24 January: A circular from the Orgbiuro of the Bolshevik Central Committee calls for mass terror against Cossacks implicated in attacks on Soviet power. Red forces drive Dutov’s Orenburg Cossacks from Orenburg, reestablishing rail communications with Red forces in Central Asia. January–March: The Red Army’s advance on the Southern Front results in the defeat of the Don Army and the capture of the important agricultural regions around the Don and parts of the northern Donbass. 4–6 February: The Red Army captures Kiev. 10 February: White forces commanded by General Wrangel capture the Terek capital, Vladikavkaz. 11 February: S. V. Petliura becomes head of the Ukrainian Directory. 14 February: As German forces withdraw, Red Army and Polish units clash at Bereza Kartuska (Biaroza)—the beginning (or at least a precursor of) the Soviet–Polish War. 15 February: Krasnov resigns as ataman of the Don Cossacks. A. F. Bogaevskii is elected to replace him. 16 February: The formation of the joint Lithuanian-Belorussian Soviet Republic (Litbel; dissolved 25 August 1919) prompts Polish occupation (20 February) of Brest-Litovsk, Białystok, and other border cities. 18 February: Ukrainian partisan forces under Nykyfor Hryhoriiv ally with the Red Army. 24 February: Estonia is cleared of Red forces by the Estonian national army with the aid of the Whites’ Northern Corps. 2–6 March: The First Congress of the (Communist) Third International (the Komintern) meets in Moscow. 2–10 March: Hryhoriiv’s partisans clear Kherson province of all French and other interventionist forces before capturing Nikolaev (12–15 March) from a stranded German garrison and advancing on Odessa. 5 March: The Inter-Allied Railway Committee is established at Harbin to oversee the running of the Trans-Siberian line. 8 March: The American Bullitt mission arrives in Russia to investigate the terms on which the Soviet regime would treat with its enemies. 10–11 March: A further Don Cossack uprising against Soviet rule begins. 13 March: Admiral Kolchak’s Russian Army launches its Spring Offensive, moving across the Urals toward the Volga. 14–16 March: Kolchak’s Western Army captures Ufa. 16 March: The Bolshevik Central Committee decides on repressive measures against the Don Cossacks (“de-Cossackization”). 17 March–16 June: A Red Army offensive on the Ukrainian Front captures most of Ukraine and Crimea. 18–23 March: The 8th Congress of the RKP(b) meets in Moscow. It adopts a new party program and reorganizes the Central Committee (through establishing within it the Politbiuro, the Orgbiuro, and the Secretariat), but sees attacks on the party leadership from the Military Opposition and the Democratic Centralists. 21 March: A Communist regime under Béla Kun is established in Hungary. (Overthrown on 1 August 1919.) 23 March: An agreement is signed between Soviet Russia and the Bashkir leadership, establishing a Bashkir ASSR within the RSFSR. April: In Moscow the Tactical Center is created, aimed at uniting the activities of other anti-Bolshevik underground organizations (the National Center, the Union for the Regeneration of Russia, etc.). 2 April: French and other Allied forces begin to evacuate Odessa, which is occupied by Hryhoriiv’s partisans on 6 April. General Malleson’s troops begin to evacuate Transcaspia. 3–7 April: Soviet forces enter Crimea across the Perekop isthmus and capture Simferopol′ (10 April), Evpatoriia (10 April), Yalta (12 April), and Sevastopol′ (29 April). 7 April: The Bavarian Soviet Republic is proclaimed in Munich. (It collapses on 5 May.) Kolchak’s forces capture Sterlitamak, Belebei, and Menzelinsk. 8 April: French and Greek forces abandon Odessa. 9 April: The Revvoensovet of the Republic establishes a political section (converted on 26 May into the Political Administration of the Red Army, PUR) to control political commissars. 11 April: A Sovnarkom decree is issued on the creation of forced labor camps. 15 April: Kolchak’s Western Army captures Buguruslan. 16 April: General von der Goltz overthrows the Ulmanis government in Latvia and installs the pro-German regime of Andrievs Niedra. 19 April: Soviet forces are driven from Vil′na (Vilnius, Wilno) by the Polish army. A series of mutinies on French vessels in the Black Sea begins. 28 April: French troops evacuate Sevastopol′, where a workers’ soviet had been established to administer the city on 19 April. 28 April–20 June: A strategic counteroffensive of Soviet forces on the Eastern Front pushes Kolchak’s forces back 250–300 miles to the Urals, capturing Ufa and other cities. 30 April: General Miller and the White government in North Russia recognize the supreme authority of Admiral Kolchak. 1 May and 3 May: Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine issue ultimatums demanding the withdrawal of Romanian forces from Bessarabia and Bukovina. 1–21 May: Allied forces advance southward from Murmansk to the northern shores of Lake Onega. 5 May: On Trotsky’s insistence, the commander of the Red Eastern Front, S. S. Kamenev, is dismissed for insisting on pursuing Kolchak’s forces into Siberia and for refusing to release troops for transfer to the Southern Front. Kamenev is subsequently reinstated by Lenin (29 May). 7 May–June: Hryhoriiv’s partisans are at the center of a major rebellion against Soviet power in Ukraine, leading to the collapse of the Southern Front against Denikin. 8 May: The Central Ruthenian People’s Council declares union with Czechoslovakia. 13 May: Iudenich’s 25,000-strong North-West Russian Army launches an advance toward Petrograd from its base in Estonia. 22–23 May: German, Russian, and Latvian forces under von der Goltz drive the Red Army from Riga and southern Latvia. Red forces recapture Merv. 25 May: Estonian and White forces capture Pskov (Pihkva). 26 May: An Allied note to Kolchak offers conditional de facto recognition to the Omsk government as the government of Russia. Kolchak’s reply (4 June) is deemed sufficiently positive to warrant an additional Allied note (12 June) promising further assistance, but there is no overt statement of recognition. 26 May–10 June: Some 8,000 British troops arrive in North Russia to relieve garrisons there. 30 May: Nestor Makhno resigns his command in the Red Army. A few days later (2 June) he is denounced as a kulak and a bandit by Trotsky. June: Allied forces begin to evacuate North Russia. 1 June: As the Red Army storms the Urals, Admiral Kolchak announces the creation of a single Russian Army in Siberia, organized into a new Eastern Front. The VTsIK decree “On the Unification of the Soviet Republics of Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Belorussia for the Struggle against World Imperialism” centralizes control of military and economic affairs in the commissariats of the RSFSR. 1–28 June: Red Army defensive operations take place on the Narva–Pskov front. 5 June: The Landeswehr War begins with German attack on Estonian armored trains. 8 June: Soviet authorities declare Makhno and his followers “outside the law.” 9 June: Ufa is recaptured by Red forces. Kolchak’s forces retreat beyond the Urals. Evhen Petrushevych is appointed dictator of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic. 10 June: Kolchak confirms General Iudenich as Commander of All Land and Sea Forces on the North-West Front. 10–17 June: Anti-Bolshevik mutinies and uprisings are suppressed at a series of fortresses around the Gulf of Finland (Krasnaia Gorka, Seraia Loshad′, Obruchev, etc.), but Red forces rally, and Iudenich is forced to retreat. 12 June: Denikin formally subordinates the command of the Armed Forces of South Russia to Kolchak. 16 June: A Slovak Soviet Republic is established by Hungarian Red Guards. (It collapses on 7 July 1919.) 17–18 June: British naval forces under Lieutenant (later Commodore) Agar attack the Reds’ Baltic Fleet on coastal motor boats; the Soviet cruiser Oleg is torpedoed and sunk off Krasnaia Gorka. 18–20 June: The 9th SR Party Conference in Moscow resolves to cease armed struggle against the Soviet government. 19 June: The Red Army begins offensive operations to drive White forces back from Petrograd. 21–23 June: In the decisive battle of the Landeswehr War (Battle of Võnnu), von der Goltz is defeated by the Estonian Army and the Latvian Northern Corps and is subsequently forced to abandon Riga (5 July). 21 June–7 January 1920: A strategic offensive of Red forces on the Eastern Front leads to the annihilation of Kolchak’s forces and the establishment of Soviet power in the Urals and across Siberia. 24 June–2 July: White forces commanded by General V. Z. Mai-Maevskii capture Khar′kov (27 June); Tsaritsyn is captured by General Wrangel’s Kuban Army (30 June–2 July). Ekaterinoslav and Crimea are also cleared of Red forces. 28 June: The Treaty of Versailles is signed in Paris. 30 June: Kolchak’s Northern Army abandons Perm′. 1 July: Iudenich’s Northern Army Corps is renamed the North-West Army. Soviet troops reoccupy Perm′ and Kungur. 3 July: General Denikin issues his “Moscow Directive.” S. S. Kamenev is confirmed as Vācietis’s replacement as main commander of the Red Army. The resignation from the Politburo and the War Commissariat of Vācietis’s champion, Trotsky, is refused. 8 July: Kolchak dismisses General Radola Gajda from command of the Northern Army. 11–15 July: Soviet forces capture Ashkhabad. 14 July: Soviet forces capture Ekaterinburg. 19 July: The Politbiuro votes to establish separate Georgian, Armenian, and Azerbaijani SSRs. 25–27 July: A counterattack by Kolchak’s forces at Cheliabinsk collapses, and the Whites fall back in disorder. 27 July: Ataman Hryhoriiv is shot dead during a parley with Makhno. August: The West-Siberian Partisan Army is created under E. M. Mamantov. 3 August: Red forces capture Cheliabinsk, taking 15,000 White prisoners. 5 August: The British Military Mission in Siberia is informed from London that no further assistance will be offered to Kolchak, it having been decided to concentrate support on the forces of Denikin and Iudenich. 10 August: K. K. Mamontov’s 4th Don Cavalry Corps launches an extensive offensive (the Mamontov raid) in the rear of Red forces on the Southern Front, capturing several major towns (including Tambov, 18–21 August, and Voronezh, 11 September). General Ironside’s forces launch an offensive south of Arkhangel′sk to disrupt the opposing Reds in preparation for the withdrawal of Allied forces from the region. 14 August: On the initiative of British officers in the region, a North-West Russian Government is formed at Tallinn by White forces. 14 August–12 September: Denikin’s forces advance on a broad front toward Kursk and Orel. 14 August–14 September: The Red Army’s Aktiubinsk offensive operation smashes Kolchak’s Southern and Urals Armies and establishes contact with the Turkestan ASSR. 18 August: British naval forces attack the harbor at Kronshtadt; the Red battleship Andrei Pervozvannyi is sunk. 19 August: British forces evacuate Baku. 23–24 August: Denikin’s forces capture Odessa. 25 August: Litbel dissolves following the complete occupation of its territories by Polish forces. 26 August: Soviet forces capture Pskov, as Estonian forces that have quarreled with Iudenich abandon it. 30 August: On the Turkestan Front, Red forces capture Orsk. Ukrainian nationalist forces under Petliura occupy Kiev. 31 August–2 September: White forces drive Petliura’s forces from Kiev. In Warsaw, Petliura’s representatives conclude an armistice with Poland. 5 September: The Russo–German Western Volunteer Army is created under General P. R. Bermondt-Avalov. 13 September: Troops of the 1st Red Army make contact with Red forces on the Aktiubinsk front, reestablishing links between Central Asia and Soviet Russia. 18–19 September: Cheka forces arrest some 1,000 “counterrevolutionaries” in Moscow. On 23 September the press lists the names of 67 of them who have been executed. 20 September: Troops of the Volunteer Army capture Kursk. 26 September: As Denikin’s forces approach, the Bolshevik Central Committee decides to create the Committee for the Defense of Moscow. Makhno’s Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine defeats Denikin’s forces at Peregonovka and begins a drive eastward across Ukraine, severing the supply lines of the AFSR. 26–27 September: Allied troops evacuate Arkhangel′sk. 28 September–20 October: Iudenich’s forces advance from Estonia to the outskirts of Petrograd. 30 September: The 3rd Kuban Corps, under General A. G. Shkuro, captures Voronezh. 8 October–14 November: Bermondt-Avalov’s attempts to capture Riga and Libau are defeated by Latvian forces, with naval support from the British and French. 11 October–18 November: A decisive Red counteroffensive on the Southern Front halts Denikin’s advance and places the strategic initiative in the hands of the Soviet command. 12 October: The last British troops leave Murmansk. 13–14 October: Denikin’s forces capture Orel, 200 miles from Moscow. 16–21 October: Iudenich’s forces capture Gatchina, Tsarskoe Selo, and the Pulkovo heights on the outskirts of Petrograd. 19–20 October: Red forces recapture Orel. British troops complete the evacuation of Transcaucasia, leaving only a small garrison at Batumi (which withdraws on 7–9 July 1920). 21 October–early December: A Red counteroffensive from Petrograd, organized in person by Trotsky, smashes Iudenich’s North-West Army and drives it back into Estonia. 24 October: Red forces recapture Voronezh. 28 October: As Red forces capture Petropavlovsk, Kolchak orders the removal of his government to Irkutsk but refuses to surrender Omsk. General M. K. Diterikhs resigns as commander in chief in protest and is replaced by General K. V. Sakharov. October–December: An extensive and extremely disruptive raid in the rear of Denikin’s forces is conducted by Makhno’s Revolutionary-Insurgent Army of Ukraine (capturing Guliai-Pole, Berdiansk, Nikopol′, Mariupol′, Melitopol′, Aleksandrovsk, Ekaterinoslav, and other cities); the Armed Forces of South Russia’s retreat threatens to turn into a rout. 2 November–10 January 1920: The Urals–Gur′ev offensive of Red forces smashes the Urals Army of General V. S. Tol′stov and captures the Urals oblast′. 11 November: The Estonian cabinet votes to end support to Russian White forces. 13 November: The command of the Czechoslovak Legion issues a memorandum demanding that the Allies evacuate the legion from Russia. 13–14 November: Forces of the 5th and 3rd Red Armies capture Kolchak’s capital, Omsk. Kolchak and his government flee eastward by train. 16 November–January 1920: Troops of Iudenich’s North-West Army are interned in Estonia. 17 November: By order of the Revvoensovet of the Republic the 1st Cavalry Army is created, commanded by S. M. Budennyi. Red forces recapture Kursk. An anti-Kolchak uprising at Vladivostok (the Gajda putsch) is crushed. 25 November: Maxim Litvinov meets a British representative (James O’Grady) at Copenhagen to discuss the exchange of prisoners of war. 19 November–10 January 1920: A Red Army offensive on the Southern and South-East Fronts smashes the AFSR. Soviet forces capture left-bank Ukraine, the Don oblast′, and the Donbass and reach the approaches to the North Caucasus. 1–24 December: Bermondt-Avalov’s Western Volunteer Army is interned in Latvia. 2 December: Petliura’s representatives in Warsaw sign an agreement accepting Polish occupation of Eastern Galicia (Western Ukraine). 8 December: Denikin appoints General P. N. Wrangel commander of the Volunteer Army, but unable to face abandoning the Don territory, refuses to accept his advice to withdraw all White forces into Crimea. The Allies define the eastern border of Poland (the Curzon Line). 11 December: General V. O. Kappel′ is named commander in chief of Kolchak’s Russian Army as his predecessor, General Sakharov, is arrested. 12 December: Red forces recapture Khar′kov, which is again proclaimed the capital of the Ukrainian SSR. In Siberia, partisan forces lay siege to Krasnoiarsk and other cities, impeding the retreat of Kolchak’s forces. 16–17 December: Soviet forces recapture Kiev. 23 December: Kolchak’s train is held up by Czechoslovak forces at Nizhneudinsk to allow their own echelons to pass. 24 December: Denikin dismisses Wrangel as commander of the Volunteer Army, accusing the latter of scheming against his leadership of the AFSR. 24–25 December: An anti-Kolchak rising is staged at Irkutsk, organized by the Political Center, which gains control of much of the city. 29 December: Red forces capture Tomsk. 30 December: Red forces enter Ekaterinoslav.