Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

The governors of the Administration for Western Armenia were Aram Manougian (June 1916–December 1917); Tovmas Nazerbekian (December 1917–March 1918); and Andranik Toros Oznanian (March–April 1918).

Western Army. This White military force (formally the Western Independent Army), part of the Russian Army of Admiral A. V. Kolchak, was created on 1 January 1919, on the basis of the Kama and Samara groups of the former 3rd Urals Corps. Its staff was based at Cheliabinsk, and it initially conducted operations in the direction of Ufa.

First incorporated into the Western Army were the 3rd Urals Mountain Riflemen; the 6th Urals, the 8th Urals (Votkinsk and the Free Independent Division), and the 9th Volga Corps; the 2nd Ufa Cavalry Division; the 3rd Orenburg Cossack Division; the 2nd and 3rd Orenburg Cossack Brigades; and numerous other smaller units (including a regiment of Serbian volunteers, under a Major Blagotič). Many of these units had previously owed allegiance to the People’s Army of Komuch, or to the Ufa Directory. It also included the 9th (Bashkir) Division, which on 18 February 1919 deserted en masse to the Red Army, abandoning the front between Sterlitamak and Ufa. By April 1919, when it joined the Russian Army’s spring offensive, the Western Army could formally muster 23,600 infantry and 6,500 cavalry, with 590 machine guns and 134 field guns.

After initial successes (capturing Birsk on 10 March, Ufa on 14 March, Belebei on 7 April, and Bugul′ma on 10 April 1919), it had been planned that the Western Army would dig in and rest at the River Ik. However, Kolchak’s staff determined that the advance should continue, and Buguruslan was taken on 15 April 1919. This, however, left the Western Army overextended and grievously exposed on its left flank. On 28 April 1919, that flank was duly attacked by a special maneuvering group of the Reds’ Eastern Front (led by M. V. Frunze and featuring the forces commanded by V. I. Chapaev), which forded the Belaia River and retook Ufa on 7–9 June 1919. The Western Army more or less disintegrated under these blows, as it fled back across the Urals; at Cheliabinsk (in July 1919) it was reformed into the 3rd Army of Kolchak’s reconstituted Eastern Front.

Commanders in chief of the Western Army were General M. V. Khanzhin (24 December 1918–20 June 1919) and General K. V. Sakharov (21 June–22 July 1919). Its chiefs of staff were Major-General S. A. Shchepikhin (1 January–21 May 1919); Major-General K. V. Sakharov (20 May–20 June 1919); and Colonel V. I. Oberiukhtin (22 June–22 July 1919).

WESTERN FRONT. This Red front was created, in accordance with a directive of the main commander in chief of the Red Army (Jukums Vācietis) of 12 February 1919, with the aim of coordinating the activities of Soviet forces in western and northwestern Russia. Its staff was located initially at Staraia Russa, then, in succession, at Molodechno, Dvinsk, Smolensk, and Minsk. Its complement included the 7th Red Army (19 February 1919–10 May 1921), the (Red) Army of Soviet Latvia (from 7 June 1919), the 15th Red Army (19 February 1919–4 October 1920), the Western Army (19 February 1919–7 May 1921; from 13 March 1919 the Belorussian–Lithuanian Army and from 9 June 1919 the 16th Red Army), the Estonian Red Army (19 February–30 May 1919), the 12th Red Army (16 June–27 July 1919, 7 September–17 October 1919, and 14 August–27 September 1920), the Mozyr Group of Forces (18 May–September 1920), the 3rd Red Army (11 June–31 December 1920), the 4th Red Army (11 June–18 October 1920), the 1st Cavalry Army (14 August–27 September 1920), and the Dnepr Military Flotilla (12 February–22 December 1920). Initially numbering some 81,500 men, at the height of its activity (in the summer of 1920, when it was of central importance in the Soviet–Polish War) the Western Front eventually controlled over 180,000 men.