Ataman Kaledin and the Volunteer Army
As noted in the article Creation of the Volunteer Army and its first battle, the creation of the army was associated with the name of General Mikhail Alekseev. The general and his supporters were unhappy with the liberal regime of the Provisional Government and began preparatory work to create a militant organization even during the reign of Kerensky. Alekseev believed that it was necessary to restore order in the country and the army, and for this, tough power was needed.
The coming to power of the Bolsheviks forced Alekseev to transfer the center of the formation of the backbone of the new army from Petrograd to Don. This was due to the destructive processes that took place on the body of Russia. There was a process of destruction of the building of the empire, from which they took out the cornerstones - the regime of autocracy and the imperial army. Independence was declared by Finland, Ukraine, they considered themselves autonomous - Estonia, Bessarabia, Crimea and Transcaucasia. The Cossack regions went along this path: the Don region, headed by ataman Kaledin, Kuban - Filimonov, Terskaya - Karaulov, Orenburg - Dutov.
The strength of the Cossack positions was determined by their military organization and the strength of the largest army, the Don. Therefore, the main figure among the Cossacks in this period was Alexey Kaledin. He was born 12 (24) in October 1861, in the Cossack family, on the farm Kaledin, the village of Ust-Khopyorskaya Region of the Don Cossacks. He studied at the Ust-Medveditsk classical gymnasium, from there he transferred to the Voronezh Military Gymnasium, and also graduated from the 2-e Military Konstantinovsky and Mikhailovsky Artillery Schools. He completed his education at the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff and was counted among the General Staff. He served in the Russian army from 1 in September 1879 to 25 in October 1917: he began serving as a platoon commander of a Cossack Battery artillery battery of the Trans-Baikal Cossack Army, started World War I as a commander of the 12 Cavalry Division, then commanded 12 -GH. army. 8-th cavalry division attacked in the vanguard of the 12-th army and won a number of victories. In 8, the year was noted during the offensive operation of the South-Western Front of the Russian Army under the command of General A. A. Brusilov. Kaledin was distinguished by scrupulousness, perseverance and personal courage, he led the regiments to battle. He was called “the second piece of Russia” (“the first” was Fedor Keller - commander of the 1916 cavalry division, and then the 10 of the cavalry corps). Kaledin reacted negatively to the February Revolution. He refused to comply with the instructions of the Provisional Government on the "democratization" of the army, so he transferred the command of the army and moved to the reserve of the Supreme Commander. In the spring, 3 left for Don, and at the end of May began to participate in the work of the Don Military Circle in Novocherkassk.
Commander of the 12 Army Corps, cavalry general A. Kaledin. November 1915.
At this time, the separatist Cossack movement provoked by the revolution began. The Cossacks were afraid of a general equalizing redistribution of Cossack lands (in the Russian Empire, they had significant privileges, including in the area of land acquisition). The Minister of Agriculture in the Provisional Government of Kerensky, Social Revolutionary Party Viktor Chernov at the Peasant Congress declared that the Cossacks had too large land plots and now they would have to share part of the land. Naturally, the Cossacks were not going to share, they earned this land with faithful service and blood. 8 June 1917 of the year gathered on the Don Military Circle - 700 delegates from the villages and regiments. The candidacy of Kaledin unanimously nominated a military ataman for the post. The general did not want to take on this burden, saying that there would be no benefit from it. But, under the pressure of the Cossacks, Kaledin agreed to the election of a military ataman. Thus, Kaledin became the first elected ataman of the Don Cossacks after the election of the ataman was eliminated by Tsar Peter I. Position Kaledin accepted reluctantly: "... I came to Don with a pure warrior name, and leave, perhaps with curses."
Kaledin was right when he did not want to become the head of the Army. Tumor destruction struck the whole of Russia, there were no exceptions. Unity among the Cossacks was not. On the Don, most of the Circle attributed itself to constitutional democrats (Cadets), some supported socialist revolutionaries (Social Revolutionaries). In the Kuban, the majority of the Rada consisted of Social Revolutionaries, Social Democrats, and Ukrainian nationalists. In fact, the power of the ataman was in many ways nominal, curtailed by “democratic” norms. The government’s meetings turned into empty disputes, with upholding party principles, struggling for wording, and so on. Kaledin could only punch decisions thanks to the enormous personal authority and respect he enjoyed among the Cossacks. As a result, he expressed the will not only of the Don Cossacks, but of the entire Russian Cossacks.
14 August 1917, he delivered a declaration at the Moscow State Conference, where he demanded to put the armed forces out of politics, ban political actions and meetings in military units, eliminate all Soviets and committees above the regimental ones, and restrict the competence of the remaining ones with economic issues. And also to supplement the declaration of the rights of a soldier with a declaration of his duties, decisive measures to restore discipline at the front and in the rear, in order to bring the war to a victorious end.
Ataman Kaledin sympathetically reacted to the speech of General Kornilov, although he did not support him openly. Therefore, on September 9, 1, Minister of War Alexander Verkhovsky, at the direction of Kerensky, declared him a traitor, and ordered him to be removed from his post and arrested. However, the Army Government refused to execute the order of the Provisional Government: “We will not issue the chieftain!” Don’s decision was supported by other Cossack troops, threatening to withdraw the regiments from the front. 1917 September Alexander Kerensky backed down and canceled the order, subject to the "warranties" of the Military Government for Ataman Kaledin.
This situation very well describes the general situation in Russia after the February Revolution. In fact, the country was already falling apart, and the central government lost most of its authority. Not the Bolsheviks ruined and destroyed historical Russia, and the “Februaryists” - politicians (from the Octobrists and Cadets to the Socialist Revolutionaries), a large part of the aristocracy and senior officials, a significant part of the generals and senior officers, bankers and industrialists. It was they who “leaked” Russian statehood, opening the gates to inferno wide.
Cossacks more and more left the control center. By the fall, they began to show themselves more and more opposition to Petrograd, seeing the weakness and incapacity of the central government. Already on October 5, the Kuban Rada adopted a resolution declaring its republic and its entry into Russia as autonomy. Negotiations with the Don Army ended with the creation of the South-Eastern Union from the Don, Kuban, Terek, Astrakhan Cossacks, Kalmyks and the Highlanders of the North Caucasus. It was also proposed to attract the Ural army and the Caucasus. The Cossacks began to talk to the Provisional Government in the language of ultimatums.
Kaledin’s tragedy was that, being a stateman by nature, he was forced to consecrate the process of separating the Cossack regions from Russia with his name. He himself was well aware that all actions aimed at separating were meaningless and cost nothing without preserving Russian statehood. The mistrust between the Provisional Government and the Cossacks led to the fact that Kerensky lost one of the main forces that could really resist the new coup.
After the October Revolution, the ataman Kaledin issued a statement in which he stated that he considered the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks criminal, and until the restoration of the power of the Provisional Government, the Don Government assumed full authority in the Don Region. Kaledin, believing that the Provisional Government could still be restored, wanted to establish contact with its members and begin a struggle against the Bolsheviks. For a long time he did not want to use the money reserves of the regional treasury for the needs of the Don. On October 27, Kaledin declared martial law in the Don Oblast and invited members of the Provisional Government and the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic (“Pre-Parliament”) to Novocherkassk to organize a struggle against the Bolsheviks. On November 2, the ataman received on Don the former Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army, General M. V. Alekseev. Leaders of the Provisional Government and commanders — Rodzianko, Milyukov, Savinkov, Kornilov, Denikin, and others — began to arrive at the Don. At the end of November Kerensky arrived, but Kaledin did not even want to meet with him.
At this time, the situation around the Don was complicated, the Bolshevik government, unlike the Provisional Government, was not going to sit idly and developed a vigorous activity to regain control over the regions. Nearby formed the "Donetsk Socialist Republic". The Black Sea Fleet sent ultimatums, began to prepare ships and landing forces. There was a process of formation of punitive expeditions. Initially, the Don government and local Democrats treated this without much fear, especially considering the former toothlessness of the Provisional Government. In addition, in the Don army under the gun was a 62 regiment, 72 individual hundreds, dozens of artillery batteries. Given the traditionally high combat training of the Cossacks, it was a significant force (especially given the fact that the army had already collapsed).
The problem was that the Don Cossacks themselves were no longer united. The Don region was doing the same things as all over Russia, which in February 1917, collapsed in the arms of chaos. The bloc of socialist revolutionaries and Mensheviks in the press, in workers' organizations and at peasant congresses subjected the Don government to sharp criticism, passed one after another resolution of no confidence in the authorities. The democratic public protested against the martial law on the Don, against disarmament and the expulsion of decomposed army reserve regiments from the region, against the arrest of Bolshevik activists. Democrats of various stripes suggested adopting a strategy of reconciliation with the Bolsheviks. The government, in turn, spent time and energy on reaching an agreement between various parties, groups, organizations. Established a simultaneous congress of the Cossacks and peasants. They created a "parity" cabinet from 7 representatives of the Cossacks and 7 "non-resident". This only further intensified the controversy in the field. The peasantry was not enough already received - participation in the village administration, wide admission to the Cossacks, receiving 3 million tithes of landed estates. Representatives of the peasantry demanded the redistribution of the entire land fund of the Don region. In addition, the nonresident congress decided to disband Alekseev's "army".
The situation was aggravated by the fact that the Cossack regiments began to return from the front. The Cossacks-front-line soldiers, in contrast to ordinary soldiers, returned in an organized manner, with whole military units, with their horses and weapons. This was helped by the fact that many units consisted of residents of the same village. In addition, it was easier to get to the Don, the military unit was easier to capture the train, to break through the chaos that was happening on the railways. Sometimes they even had to force their way through detachments of the Bolshevik orientation or Ukrainian nationalists. Therefore, the Dontians arrived in the Region in an organized, well-armed manner, often even with artillery. But as soon as they arrived in their small homeland, the order ended. Front-line soldiers yearned for a peaceful life, and most of all they feared the war on their lips. For the most part, they were hostile to any force that called them to war, including their government. The traditional order of life, all the foundations collapsed. The time began when the power was in the number of rifles that were in the head.
Some of the front-line Cossacks were sympathetic to the ideas of the Bolsheviks, others liked the anarchy, they became opponents of any government. As a result, there was a split along the line of “old” Cossacks and front-line soldiers. They rejected the traditional way of the village, the unshakable until this time the authority of the elderly. During the internal conflict in the majority of the villages the front-line soldiers won, there were more of them, they were more energetic and better armed. As a result, Don was defenseless in the face of an external threat.
Kaledin understood that he had no power capable of opposing the Bolsheviks, therefore he did not openly support Alekseev. Only after 26 in November 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power in Rostov and Taganrog and almost all the Cossack units took the position of "neutrality", the ataman had to call for help from Alekseevs. Soon the Alekseev Organization was legalized, and Kaledin became one of the members of the triumvirate (along with Alekseev and Kornilov).
Volunteer Army
November 19 (December 2) Bykhov prisoners - Kornilov, Lukomsky, Romanovsky, Denikin and Markov left the prison and moved to the Don. Kornilov decided to go to the Don region marching order with his Tekinsky cavalry regiment. The fighters for the week made the 400-kilometer march, snow-covered roads and forests. In the 26-27 battles of November, the regiment was crushed. Turkmen ran into an ambush in the woods, retreated under fire. Then Tekin fired at an armored train. The regiment was dispersed, the 3 officer and the 264 rider were taken prisoner and were taken to the Bryansk prison. The general decided that without him the soldiers would not be in danger, and further decided to move only with an escort of 44 people. However, he was ambushed again, forced to break out of encirclement. Kornilov dressed as a peasant, and with a false passport, he went alone by rail. 6 (19) December 1917, the peasant Ivanov (Kornilov) arrived in Novocherkassk. Later, several officers and a platoon of horsemen from the Tekinsky regiment made their way to the Don and made up the personal convoy of Kornilov.
Soon the Kornilov shock regiment arrived. He began to be formed from 19 volunteers in May 1917 of the year at the suggestion of the captain, 8 th intelligence chief of the army, Mitrofan Nezhentsev, to counter the collapse of the front, the decomposition of the army and fraternization. 10 June 1917 year the regiment received the patronage of General Kornilov and the banner. The Kornilov shock regiment under the command of Nezhentsev successfully participated in the hostilities on the South-Western Front. From August 1917, he was in the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander Laurus Kornilov. However, the commander himself during his speech at the end of August 1917, decided to abandon the involvement of this unit in the conflict. As a result, the regiment after the failure of the insurgency, was not disbanded. Initially, the regiment was planned to be transported to the Western Front, under the command of the French, but then included in the 1 th Czechoslovak Rifle Division. As a result, the regiment remained on the South-Western Front. After receiving news of the coup in Petrograd, the Czechoslovak Command concluded an agreement with the command of the Kiev Military District and the South-Western Front on the possibility of using Czechoslovakians in armed struggle on the side of the Provisional Government. Already 28 in October 1917, the 1 th Russian Shock Regiment (renamed it), together with the junkers of the Kiev military schools, took part in street fights with the Red Guards who supported the Bolshevik government and Sovietized parts of the Kiev garrison. However, the 31 of October was a truce, the power in Kiev was divided by the Central Rada and the Bolsheviks.
Petliura offered the Kornilov people to stay in the city to protect the order, but his command diverted the soldiers to the place of deployment. On November 12, the Supreme Commander’s Headquarters, which at that moment was headed to Dukhonin, ordered the transfer of the regiment to the Caucasian front. In reality, the Stavka was aware of Alekseev’s plans and tried to support him with troops and weaponsby transferring them to the Don area. However, this plan could not be implemented. After the defeat of Stakes, it became difficult to leave. Ukrainian nationalists only allowed trains with Cossacks. The Cossacks refused to take the Kornilovites. I had to leave for Don alone and in groups. Echelon with weapons and property managed to smuggle on false documents. The Bolshevik authorities reported that the regiment had fled, it was an ordinary thing at that time of troubles. During December, Don arrived before 50 officers and 500 soldiers. Nezhentsev restored the Kornilov regiment as part of the Volunteer Army.
Before the White Guards there was a question about future plans. Initially, Kornilov, along with Denikin, Lukomski was going to go further, to the East, to raise the Volga region and Siberia against the Bolsheviks. Two prominent warlords, Alekseev and Kornilov, found it difficult to get along, and this could bring discord in the units. In addition, Kornilov believed that work on the Don was established, it was necessary to raise other areas. In the Volga region and Siberia, he was able to expand a broad anti-Bolshevik movement. It is even possible to create a front that will allow, not only to sweep the Bolsheviks, but to resist the Germans.
At that time, a group of prominent political figures arrived from Moscow - princes Trubetskoy and Lviv, Milyukov, Struve, Fedorov. They represented the National Center created from the wreckage of moderate and liberal-democratic parties, which decided to support the "army" of Alekseev and had contacts with the Western powers. They demanded that Kornilov stay on the Don. Politicians knew that Kornilov had great authority and, if he remained, many military would be pulled to the Don. And the departure of Kornilov to Siberia, could bleed the formed white army on the Don. As a result, all initiatives on the Don could fall apart. The Moscow “wallets” set a tough condition - financial and material support will be provided only to a real-life military organization, if the leaders of the White movement work together and share their responsibilities. This condition was also supported by the Entente powers. Paris and London promised 100 million rubles (I must say that they cheated, they began to provide a little help only a year later). Kornilov was forced to yield. Thus, from the very beginning, the command of the Volunteer Army was oriented towards politicians and the rich who killed the Russian Empire and the “allies” in the Entente. This doomed the White Movement to defeat, despite the pure ideals of many simple officers and soldiers.
25 December 1917 of the Year (January 7) The Volunteer Army was officially established. Kornilov assumed the organization and command of the Volunteer Army, Alekseev - was the supreme leader of the army, took over financial affairs and issues of foreign and domestic policy, Kaledin - began to form the Don army and took over affairs concerning the Don Cossacks. The chief of staff was appointed Lukomsky, the chief of the 1918 division - Denikin, the chief of staff of the 1 division and the commander of the 1 Officer Regiment - “the sword of General Kornilov” General Markov. General Flug was sent to Siberia to unite anti-Bolshevik organizations. General Erdely was sent to the Kuban, where a volunteer detachment of Captain Pokrovsky was formed.
Kornilov still hoped that his position on the Don was temporary and planned to move to the East. He sent a number of officers to Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan, to organize an anti-Bolshevik movement there. However, most of them had no experience of underground activities, but could not learn along the way, so almost all were quickly calculated and fell into the hands of emergency bodies.
The volunteer army continued its formation. On average, 80-90 people were recorded daily. Weapons began to be taken away from the soldiers who were driving home, getting from the buyers. By the end of 1917, the “army” consisted of the Kornilov regiment, officers, Georgievsky and Cadet battalions, officer squadron, a company of guards officers, four batteries and an engineering company (about 4 thousand bayonets). Alekseev and Kornilov planned to bring the strength of the unit to the 10 of thousands of fighters and only after that begin hostilities. However, the situation was different. The Bolsheviks were not idle and cut off communications, cutting off the Don from the rest of the regions of Russia and Ukraine. The influx of volunteers fell to near zero. Only units reached Don. In December, the Red units launched an offensive against the Don.
General Kornilov with officers of the Kornilov regiment.
The coming to power of the Bolsheviks forced Alekseev to transfer the center of the formation of the backbone of the new army from Petrograd to Don. This was due to the destructive processes that took place on the body of Russia. There was a process of destruction of the building of the empire, from which they took out the cornerstones - the regime of autocracy and the imperial army. Independence was declared by Finland, Ukraine, they considered themselves autonomous - Estonia, Bessarabia, Crimea and Transcaucasia. The Cossack regions went along this path: the Don region, headed by ataman Kaledin, Kuban - Filimonov, Terskaya - Karaulov, Orenburg - Dutov.
The strength of the Cossack positions was determined by their military organization and the strength of the largest army, the Don. Therefore, the main figure among the Cossacks in this period was Alexey Kaledin. He was born 12 (24) in October 1861, in the Cossack family, on the farm Kaledin, the village of Ust-Khopyorskaya Region of the Don Cossacks. He studied at the Ust-Medveditsk classical gymnasium, from there he transferred to the Voronezh Military Gymnasium, and also graduated from the 2-e Military Konstantinovsky and Mikhailovsky Artillery Schools. He completed his education at the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff and was counted among the General Staff. He served in the Russian army from 1 in September 1879 to 25 in October 1917: he began serving as a platoon commander of a Cossack Battery artillery battery of the Trans-Baikal Cossack Army, started World War I as a commander of the 12 Cavalry Division, then commanded 12 -GH. army. 8-th cavalry division attacked in the vanguard of the 12-th army and won a number of victories. In 8, the year was noted during the offensive operation of the South-Western Front of the Russian Army under the command of General A. A. Brusilov. Kaledin was distinguished by scrupulousness, perseverance and personal courage, he led the regiments to battle. He was called “the second piece of Russia” (“the first” was Fedor Keller - commander of the 1916 cavalry division, and then the 10 of the cavalry corps). Kaledin reacted negatively to the February Revolution. He refused to comply with the instructions of the Provisional Government on the "democratization" of the army, so he transferred the command of the army and moved to the reserve of the Supreme Commander. In the spring, 3 left for Don, and at the end of May began to participate in the work of the Don Military Circle in Novocherkassk.
Commander of the 12 Army Corps, cavalry general A. Kaledin. November 1915.
At this time, the separatist Cossack movement provoked by the revolution began. The Cossacks were afraid of a general equalizing redistribution of Cossack lands (in the Russian Empire, they had significant privileges, including in the area of land acquisition). The Minister of Agriculture in the Provisional Government of Kerensky, Social Revolutionary Party Viktor Chernov at the Peasant Congress declared that the Cossacks had too large land plots and now they would have to share part of the land. Naturally, the Cossacks were not going to share, they earned this land with faithful service and blood. 8 June 1917 of the year gathered on the Don Military Circle - 700 delegates from the villages and regiments. The candidacy of Kaledin unanimously nominated a military ataman for the post. The general did not want to take on this burden, saying that there would be no benefit from it. But, under the pressure of the Cossacks, Kaledin agreed to the election of a military ataman. Thus, Kaledin became the first elected ataman of the Don Cossacks after the election of the ataman was eliminated by Tsar Peter I. Position Kaledin accepted reluctantly: "... I came to Don with a pure warrior name, and leave, perhaps with curses."
Kaledin was right when he did not want to become the head of the Army. Tumor destruction struck the whole of Russia, there were no exceptions. Unity among the Cossacks was not. On the Don, most of the Circle attributed itself to constitutional democrats (Cadets), some supported socialist revolutionaries (Social Revolutionaries). In the Kuban, the majority of the Rada consisted of Social Revolutionaries, Social Democrats, and Ukrainian nationalists. In fact, the power of the ataman was in many ways nominal, curtailed by “democratic” norms. The government’s meetings turned into empty disputes, with upholding party principles, struggling for wording, and so on. Kaledin could only punch decisions thanks to the enormous personal authority and respect he enjoyed among the Cossacks. As a result, he expressed the will not only of the Don Cossacks, but of the entire Russian Cossacks.
14 August 1917, he delivered a declaration at the Moscow State Conference, where he demanded to put the armed forces out of politics, ban political actions and meetings in military units, eliminate all Soviets and committees above the regimental ones, and restrict the competence of the remaining ones with economic issues. And also to supplement the declaration of the rights of a soldier with a declaration of his duties, decisive measures to restore discipline at the front and in the rear, in order to bring the war to a victorious end.
Ataman Kaledin sympathetically reacted to the speech of General Kornilov, although he did not support him openly. Therefore, on September 9, 1, Minister of War Alexander Verkhovsky, at the direction of Kerensky, declared him a traitor, and ordered him to be removed from his post and arrested. However, the Army Government refused to execute the order of the Provisional Government: “We will not issue the chieftain!” Don’s decision was supported by other Cossack troops, threatening to withdraw the regiments from the front. 1917 September Alexander Kerensky backed down and canceled the order, subject to the "warranties" of the Military Government for Ataman Kaledin.
This situation very well describes the general situation in Russia after the February Revolution. In fact, the country was already falling apart, and the central government lost most of its authority. Not the Bolsheviks ruined and destroyed historical Russia, and the “Februaryists” - politicians (from the Octobrists and Cadets to the Socialist Revolutionaries), a large part of the aristocracy and senior officials, a significant part of the generals and senior officers, bankers and industrialists. It was they who “leaked” Russian statehood, opening the gates to inferno wide.
Cossacks more and more left the control center. By the fall, they began to show themselves more and more opposition to Petrograd, seeing the weakness and incapacity of the central government. Already on October 5, the Kuban Rada adopted a resolution declaring its republic and its entry into Russia as autonomy. Negotiations with the Don Army ended with the creation of the South-Eastern Union from the Don, Kuban, Terek, Astrakhan Cossacks, Kalmyks and the Highlanders of the North Caucasus. It was also proposed to attract the Ural army and the Caucasus. The Cossacks began to talk to the Provisional Government in the language of ultimatums.
Kaledin’s tragedy was that, being a stateman by nature, he was forced to consecrate the process of separating the Cossack regions from Russia with his name. He himself was well aware that all actions aimed at separating were meaningless and cost nothing without preserving Russian statehood. The mistrust between the Provisional Government and the Cossacks led to the fact that Kerensky lost one of the main forces that could really resist the new coup.
After the October Revolution, the ataman Kaledin issued a statement in which he stated that he considered the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks criminal, and until the restoration of the power of the Provisional Government, the Don Government assumed full authority in the Don Region. Kaledin, believing that the Provisional Government could still be restored, wanted to establish contact with its members and begin a struggle against the Bolsheviks. For a long time he did not want to use the money reserves of the regional treasury for the needs of the Don. On October 27, Kaledin declared martial law in the Don Oblast and invited members of the Provisional Government and the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic (“Pre-Parliament”) to Novocherkassk to organize a struggle against the Bolsheviks. On November 2, the ataman received on Don the former Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army, General M. V. Alekseev. Leaders of the Provisional Government and commanders — Rodzianko, Milyukov, Savinkov, Kornilov, Denikin, and others — began to arrive at the Don. At the end of November Kerensky arrived, but Kaledin did not even want to meet with him.
At this time, the situation around the Don was complicated, the Bolshevik government, unlike the Provisional Government, was not going to sit idly and developed a vigorous activity to regain control over the regions. Nearby formed the "Donetsk Socialist Republic". The Black Sea Fleet sent ultimatums, began to prepare ships and landing forces. There was a process of formation of punitive expeditions. Initially, the Don government and local Democrats treated this without much fear, especially considering the former toothlessness of the Provisional Government. In addition, in the Don army under the gun was a 62 regiment, 72 individual hundreds, dozens of artillery batteries. Given the traditionally high combat training of the Cossacks, it was a significant force (especially given the fact that the army had already collapsed).
The problem was that the Don Cossacks themselves were no longer united. The Don region was doing the same things as all over Russia, which in February 1917, collapsed in the arms of chaos. The bloc of socialist revolutionaries and Mensheviks in the press, in workers' organizations and at peasant congresses subjected the Don government to sharp criticism, passed one after another resolution of no confidence in the authorities. The democratic public protested against the martial law on the Don, against disarmament and the expulsion of decomposed army reserve regiments from the region, against the arrest of Bolshevik activists. Democrats of various stripes suggested adopting a strategy of reconciliation with the Bolsheviks. The government, in turn, spent time and energy on reaching an agreement between various parties, groups, organizations. Established a simultaneous congress of the Cossacks and peasants. They created a "parity" cabinet from 7 representatives of the Cossacks and 7 "non-resident". This only further intensified the controversy in the field. The peasantry was not enough already received - participation in the village administration, wide admission to the Cossacks, receiving 3 million tithes of landed estates. Representatives of the peasantry demanded the redistribution of the entire land fund of the Don region. In addition, the nonresident congress decided to disband Alekseev's "army".
The situation was aggravated by the fact that the Cossack regiments began to return from the front. The Cossacks-front-line soldiers, in contrast to ordinary soldiers, returned in an organized manner, with whole military units, with their horses and weapons. This was helped by the fact that many units consisted of residents of the same village. In addition, it was easier to get to the Don, the military unit was easier to capture the train, to break through the chaos that was happening on the railways. Sometimes they even had to force their way through detachments of the Bolshevik orientation or Ukrainian nationalists. Therefore, the Dontians arrived in the Region in an organized, well-armed manner, often even with artillery. But as soon as they arrived in their small homeland, the order ended. Front-line soldiers yearned for a peaceful life, and most of all they feared the war on their lips. For the most part, they were hostile to any force that called them to war, including their government. The traditional order of life, all the foundations collapsed. The time began when the power was in the number of rifles that were in the head.
Some of the front-line Cossacks were sympathetic to the ideas of the Bolsheviks, others liked the anarchy, they became opponents of any government. As a result, there was a split along the line of “old” Cossacks and front-line soldiers. They rejected the traditional way of the village, the unshakable until this time the authority of the elderly. During the internal conflict in the majority of the villages the front-line soldiers won, there were more of them, they were more energetic and better armed. As a result, Don was defenseless in the face of an external threat.
Kaledin understood that he had no power capable of opposing the Bolsheviks, therefore he did not openly support Alekseev. Only after 26 in November 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power in Rostov and Taganrog and almost all the Cossack units took the position of "neutrality", the ataman had to call for help from Alekseevs. Soon the Alekseev Organization was legalized, and Kaledin became one of the members of the triumvirate (along with Alekseev and Kornilov).
Volunteer Army
November 19 (December 2) Bykhov prisoners - Kornilov, Lukomsky, Romanovsky, Denikin and Markov left the prison and moved to the Don. Kornilov decided to go to the Don region marching order with his Tekinsky cavalry regiment. The fighters for the week made the 400-kilometer march, snow-covered roads and forests. In the 26-27 battles of November, the regiment was crushed. Turkmen ran into an ambush in the woods, retreated under fire. Then Tekin fired at an armored train. The regiment was dispersed, the 3 officer and the 264 rider were taken prisoner and were taken to the Bryansk prison. The general decided that without him the soldiers would not be in danger, and further decided to move only with an escort of 44 people. However, he was ambushed again, forced to break out of encirclement. Kornilov dressed as a peasant, and with a false passport, he went alone by rail. 6 (19) December 1917, the peasant Ivanov (Kornilov) arrived in Novocherkassk. Later, several officers and a platoon of horsemen from the Tekinsky regiment made their way to the Don and made up the personal convoy of Kornilov.
Soon the Kornilov shock regiment arrived. He began to be formed from 19 volunteers in May 1917 of the year at the suggestion of the captain, 8 th intelligence chief of the army, Mitrofan Nezhentsev, to counter the collapse of the front, the decomposition of the army and fraternization. 10 June 1917 year the regiment received the patronage of General Kornilov and the banner. The Kornilov shock regiment under the command of Nezhentsev successfully participated in the hostilities on the South-Western Front. From August 1917, he was in the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander Laurus Kornilov. However, the commander himself during his speech at the end of August 1917, decided to abandon the involvement of this unit in the conflict. As a result, the regiment after the failure of the insurgency, was not disbanded. Initially, the regiment was planned to be transported to the Western Front, under the command of the French, but then included in the 1 th Czechoslovak Rifle Division. As a result, the regiment remained on the South-Western Front. After receiving news of the coup in Petrograd, the Czechoslovak Command concluded an agreement with the command of the Kiev Military District and the South-Western Front on the possibility of using Czechoslovakians in armed struggle on the side of the Provisional Government. Already 28 in October 1917, the 1 th Russian Shock Regiment (renamed it), together with the junkers of the Kiev military schools, took part in street fights with the Red Guards who supported the Bolshevik government and Sovietized parts of the Kiev garrison. However, the 31 of October was a truce, the power in Kiev was divided by the Central Rada and the Bolsheviks.
Petliura offered the Kornilov people to stay in the city to protect the order, but his command diverted the soldiers to the place of deployment. On November 12, the Supreme Commander’s Headquarters, which at that moment was headed to Dukhonin, ordered the transfer of the regiment to the Caucasian front. In reality, the Stavka was aware of Alekseev’s plans and tried to support him with troops and weaponsby transferring them to the Don area. However, this plan could not be implemented. After the defeat of Stakes, it became difficult to leave. Ukrainian nationalists only allowed trains with Cossacks. The Cossacks refused to take the Kornilovites. I had to leave for Don alone and in groups. Echelon with weapons and property managed to smuggle on false documents. The Bolshevik authorities reported that the regiment had fled, it was an ordinary thing at that time of troubles. During December, Don arrived before 50 officers and 500 soldiers. Nezhentsev restored the Kornilov regiment as part of the Volunteer Army.
Before the White Guards there was a question about future plans. Initially, Kornilov, along with Denikin, Lukomski was going to go further, to the East, to raise the Volga region and Siberia against the Bolsheviks. Two prominent warlords, Alekseev and Kornilov, found it difficult to get along, and this could bring discord in the units. In addition, Kornilov believed that work on the Don was established, it was necessary to raise other areas. In the Volga region and Siberia, he was able to expand a broad anti-Bolshevik movement. It is even possible to create a front that will allow, not only to sweep the Bolsheviks, but to resist the Germans.
At that time, a group of prominent political figures arrived from Moscow - princes Trubetskoy and Lviv, Milyukov, Struve, Fedorov. They represented the National Center created from the wreckage of moderate and liberal-democratic parties, which decided to support the "army" of Alekseev and had contacts with the Western powers. They demanded that Kornilov stay on the Don. Politicians knew that Kornilov had great authority and, if he remained, many military would be pulled to the Don. And the departure of Kornilov to Siberia, could bleed the formed white army on the Don. As a result, all initiatives on the Don could fall apart. The Moscow “wallets” set a tough condition - financial and material support will be provided only to a real-life military organization, if the leaders of the White movement work together and share their responsibilities. This condition was also supported by the Entente powers. Paris and London promised 100 million rubles (I must say that they cheated, they began to provide a little help only a year later). Kornilov was forced to yield. Thus, from the very beginning, the command of the Volunteer Army was oriented towards politicians and the rich who killed the Russian Empire and the “allies” in the Entente. This doomed the White Movement to defeat, despite the pure ideals of many simple officers and soldiers.
25 December 1917 of the Year (January 7) The Volunteer Army was officially established. Kornilov assumed the organization and command of the Volunteer Army, Alekseev - was the supreme leader of the army, took over financial affairs and issues of foreign and domestic policy, Kaledin - began to form the Don army and took over affairs concerning the Don Cossacks. The chief of staff was appointed Lukomsky, the chief of the 1918 division - Denikin, the chief of staff of the 1 division and the commander of the 1 Officer Regiment - “the sword of General Kornilov” General Markov. General Flug was sent to Siberia to unite anti-Bolshevik organizations. General Erdely was sent to the Kuban, where a volunteer detachment of Captain Pokrovsky was formed.
Kornilov still hoped that his position on the Don was temporary and planned to move to the East. He sent a number of officers to Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan, to organize an anti-Bolshevik movement there. However, most of them had no experience of underground activities, but could not learn along the way, so almost all were quickly calculated and fell into the hands of emergency bodies.
The volunteer army continued its formation. On average, 80-90 people were recorded daily. Weapons began to be taken away from the soldiers who were driving home, getting from the buyers. By the end of 1917, the “army” consisted of the Kornilov regiment, officers, Georgievsky and Cadet battalions, officer squadron, a company of guards officers, four batteries and an engineering company (about 4 thousand bayonets). Alekseev and Kornilov planned to bring the strength of the unit to the 10 of thousands of fighters and only after that begin hostilities. However, the situation was different. The Bolsheviks were not idle and cut off communications, cutting off the Don from the rest of the regions of Russia and Ukraine. The influx of volunteers fell to near zero. Only units reached Don. In December, the Red units launched an offensive against the Don.
General Kornilov with officers of the Kornilov regiment.
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