See what "vsyur" is in other dictionaries. White Guard Armed Forces of the South of Russia
The VSUR included:
- (in January - May 1919 it was called the Caucasian Volunteer)
- Don army
- Caucasian Army (since May 1919)
- Kuban army (since February 1920)
- Crimean-Azov Volunteer Army (from June 1919 - 3rd separate army corps)
- Separate Turkestan army
- Troops of the Terek-Dagestan Territory (since July 1919 - Troops of the North Caucasus)
- Troops of the Kyiv region (since September 1919)
- Troops of Novorossia and Crimea (since September 1919)
- Caspian military flotilla, etc.
Trip to Moscow
On May 17 - 24, the All-Union Socialist Youth as part of the Volunteer, Don and Caucasian armies under the general command of General Denikin launched counterattacks, broke through the front and launched a counteroffensive in the band from to, delivering the main blow to.
At the same time, mutinies broke out in the rear of the Soviet troops on the Upper Don, on, in and provinces, the suppression of which required significant forces.
Having suffered a series of heavy defeats, the Soviet troops left in May - June,.
In mid-August, the Southern Front tried to launch a counteroffensive in order to defeat the advancing main grouping of white troops, seize the lower reaches and prevent the main enemy forces from retreating to.
Having learned in advance about the preparation of a counteroffensive, the Denikin command made an attempt to disrupt it by sending the 4th Don Cossack Corps of Lieutenant General (6 thousand sabers, 3 thousand bayonets, 12 guns) to a raid on the rear of the Red troops. To combat it, the Soviet command created the Internal Front under the command of M. M. Lashevich (about 23 thousand people, aviation, armored trains). Having suffered significant losses, the remnants of the Mammoths went behind the front line.
The raid of Mamontov's cavalry failed to thwart the counteroffensive of the Red Army. A special group (comprising the 9th and 10th armies, the Cavalry Corps and a detachment of the Volga-Caspian military flotilla delivered the main blow in the general direction from the regions north and , and the strike group under the command of V.I. Selivachev (8th Army , part of the forces of the 13th Army, Voronezh fortified area) - from the area on. During the counteroffensive, Soviet troops were able to reach the approaches to and, but were driven back to the north by several counterattacks, not reaching their goals due to lack of forces and poor interaction. no less, the Southern Front managed to delay Denikin's advance on Moscow for a whole month.
In September, Denikin's troops continued their offensive - they took, -, - (Ukraine was occupied by the White Guard troops back in August).
The troops of the Southern Front launched a counteroffensive. Fierce battles unfolded, which were fought with varying success for more than two weeks. In the course of them, the Whites took, but already
Armed Forces of the South of Russia (VSUR), a brief history
Formed on December 26, 1918 as a result of an agreement between the commander Volunteer army A.I. Denikin and Don Ataman P.N. Krasnov about the unification of their forces under the general leadership of A.I. Denikin. They included a number of operational associations, the most important of which were:
- Volunteer Army
- Don Army
- Caucasian Army
- Troops of the Novorossiysk region
- Troops of the Kyiv region
- Troops of the North Caucasus
- Troops of the Black Sea coast
Since January 22, 1919, the Troops of the Transcaspian Region, which acted separately, were also included in the VSYUR. Separate units were the Rostov, Taganrog and Yeysk garrisons.
By July 5, 1919 numbered a total of 244,890 people (including 23,116 in headquarters and departments and 23,463 in garrisons), of which 16,765 officers (including 4,140 in headquarters and departments and 1,533 in garrisons), 167,625 combatants (incl. 4098 in headquarters and departments and 14834 in garrisons), 28932 auxiliary (including 6320 in headquarters and departments and 4926 in garrisons) and 31568 non-combatants (including 8558 in headquarters and departments and 2170 in garrisons) lower ranks .
The VSYUR had communications and automotive parts, as well as spare parts, railway parts and some engineering parts that were not part of the associations:
Caucasian Engineering Battalion: 1st and 2nd (regiment Vvedensky) Caucasian separate engineering companies, 1st and 2nd separate pontoon companies (formed in October 1919 in Ust-Labinskaya with transfer to Izyum).
Aviation VSYUR included 3 divisions and a separate detachment.
Armored units of the VSYUR(not counting the armored trains of the Don Army) consisted of 10 divisions (two light and heavy armored trains each) and over 20 separate armored trains, armored units included 2 divisions of tanks and an armored automobile division.
In addition, there were North Caucasian, Kharkov and Kyiv local brigades(which included district military commanders of the respective localities) and two departments of military commanders- Chernoyarsky (captain Matrosov) and Tsaritsynsky (colonel Grigoriev), who were not part of the brigades. In addition, there was a state guard (20 cavalry brigades) and naval forces (the Black Sea Fleet, the Caspian and river flotillas).
At the headquarters of the VSYUR were:
- commandant's company,
- Commandant's Hundred,
- Ordinary squadron,
- Special officer company
- Convoy of the commander-in-chief.
On October 5, 1919 VSYUR in total there were 107,395 bayonets, 46,671 sabers, 5,387 sappers, 2,813 machine guns, 601 guns (434 light, 15 mountain, 69 howitzers, 74 heavy, 9 small-caliber), 72 aircraft, 41 armored trains, 34 armored vehicles and 38 tanks. The number of white forces in the South as a whole increased steadily until the summer of 1919. After mobilization by the spring of 1919, before the start of the offensive, the army consisted of about 100 thousand people, in the summer and autumn, at the climax of the war, their total number reached 300 thousand. October (the maximum number for the entire war) - about 150 thousand at the front and in the rear.
At the time of withdrawal beyond the Don on December 26-27, 1919 in the Volunteer Corps there were 3383 bayonets and 1348 sabers (in the Consolidated Kuban-Tersky Corps 1580 sabers and in the 4 Don Corps 7266 bayonets and 11098 sabers), on January 1, 1920, the Volunteer and Kuban-Tersky Corps had 10988 fighters, and the Don Army - 36470.
On January 5, 1920 in the VSYUR 81,506 people remained, including 10 thousand in the Volunteer Corps, and in total 30,802 people in volunteer units. By mid-January 1920, less than 54 thousand remained in the Don and Kuban (10 thousand in the Volunteer Corps, 7 in the Kuban units and 37 in the Don), there were no more than 10 thousand officers among them (in the Don Army by the time Novorossiysk evacuation there were about 5 thousand officers).
Bredov's group that retreated to Poland in March 1920 numbered about 23 thousand people.
35-40 thousand people were evacuated from Novorossiysk to Crimea. At the end of March 1920 more than 150 thousand mouths were on allowance in the army, but of this number only about one sixth could be considered a combat element, the rest were the wounded, sick, disabled people of various categories, pupils cadet corps and military schools, a huge number of reserve ranks, in most cases the elderly, ranks of numerous rear institutions.
The VSYUR was distinguished by a high percentage of officers (in total, approximately 115,000 officers passed through their ranks). In most units of regular cavalry the ratio of officers and soldiers was approximately 1:12, in artillery in normal circumstances - 1:3 - 1:5. Typically, the batteries consisted of 30-40 officers and 150 soldiers. A high percentage of officers were in armored train units. In the Cossack and other irregular units, the percentage of officers was extremely small. sometimes dropping even less than the regular number. Even in the artillery, the number of officers did not exceed the state requirement. This continued until the Novorossiysk evacuation, during which the percentage of officers who left for the Crimea was much higher than among ordinary Cossacks. Approximately 2/3 of the senior commanders(from colonel and above) of the Imperial Army. With an abundance of generals and colonels, all staff, administrative and rear posts were staffed by them. Among the top leaders (commanders and chiefs of staff of armies, operational formations and corps commanders), only a third (moreover, mainly those who commanded Cossack formations) were promoted to generals in the White Army (by 1918 they were colonels, only V.L. Pokrovsky was a captain ). Awards officers(with the exception of the Don Army) were carried out only through early promotion to ranks, the former award system of the Russian army was in effect for the soldiers.
The losses of the Armed Forces of South Russia in killed and dead amount to several tens of thousands of people. There were many victims during the evacuation of Novorossiysk. Almost a large loss was caused by mortality from diseases, primarily from typhus, which was especially rampant during the autumn-winter retreat of 1919. At the same time, the total number of officers killed was approx. 30 thousand, with losses from diseases - up to 35-40 thousand. Significant losses by the prisoners of the All-Union Socialist Republic began to suffer only in the autumn of 1919. From October 20 to November 20, 1919, the Southern Front of the Red Army captured 300 officers with 7367 soldiers. By January 10, 1920, 40,450 prisoners were taken by the Southern Front, 20,550 by the South-Eastern Front, and 61,000 by the Reds from November 19 to January 10. Especially many were taken prisoner at the beginning of 1920 during the agony of the White Front in the South as a result of the mediocre evacuations of Odessa and Novorossiysk. On January 29-30, 1920, 730 people were captured in Kherson and Nikolaev, in Odessa on February 7, 1920, 3 generals, about 200 officers and 3 thousand soldiers (including 1,500 sick and wounded) were captured. Of the Ovidiopol detachment (16 thousand, including many refugees) that had withdrawn from Odessa, 127 people managed to move to Romania. Many officers were captured in Yekaterinodar. At the end of March 1920, with evacuation of Novorossiysk 22 thousand people were taken prisoner (Soviet sources give a figure of 2,500 officers and 17 thousand soldiers and Cossacks) - mainly Kuban and Don units (there were up to 80 senior Kuban officers - commanders of regiments, batteries and plastun battalions with 5 generals). Total at the crash of the All-Union Socialist Republic 182895 people were captured, incl. in Ukraine from January 13 to February 12 - 19318 and in the Don, Kuban and North Caucasus from February 14 to May 2 - 163577.
Commanders-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Russia:
- Lieutenant General A.I. Denikin (December 26, 1918 - March 22, 1920),
- Lieutenant General Baron P.N. Wrangel (since March 22, 1920).
Assistant to the Commander-in-Chief and Head of the Military Directorate
- gen.-leit. A.S. Lukomsky.
Chiefs of Staff:
- gen.-leit. I.P. Romanovsky (December 26, 1918 - March 22, 1920),
- Major General P.S. Makhrov (March 22 - April 28, 1920).
Quartermaster General:Major General Yu.N. Plyushchik-Plyushevsky.
duty general- Major General S.M. Trukhachev.
Artillery Inspector- gen.-lieutenant. N.A. Ilkevich.
Formation Inspector- Lieutenant General N.M. Kiselevsky.
chief supply manager- Lieutenant General A.S. Sannikov.
Chief Commander of Military Communications- Lieutenant General N.M. Tikhmenev.
Chief of Aviation- Major General I. Kravtsevich.
Head of tank units- regiment. V.A. Khaletsky.
Sources:
Volkov S.V. "White movement in Russia: organizational structure
(Materials for the reference book)"
The VSUR included:
January-April 1919
Having defeated and destroyed the 90,000-strong 11th Red Army in the North Caucasus by February 1919, the command of the All-Union Socialist Republic began to transfer troops to the north, to the coal basin of the Donbass and to the Don, to help units of the Don Army (15 thousand bayonets and sabers), retreating under the onslaught of the Southern Front of the Red Army (85 thousand bayonets and sabers). In heavy defensive battles in March-April 1919, north of Rostov-on-Don and Novocherkassk, and on Manych, volunteers and Cossacks (25 thousand bayonets and sabers) held back the offensive of superior Red forces, thereby allowing the command of the All-Union Socialist League to prepare a spring counteroffensive.
Trip to Moscow
In May - June, the Reds left the Donbass, Crimea, June 24 - Kharkov, June 27 - Yekaterinoslav, June 30 - Tsaritsyn.
In mid-August, the Southern Front of the Reds tried to launch a counteroffensive in order to defeat the advancing main grouping of White troops, take control of the lower reaches of the Don, and prevent the withdrawal of the main enemy forces to the North Caucasus.
Having learned in advance about the preparation of the counteroffensive, the Denikin command made an attempt to disrupt it, sending on August 10 the 4th Don Cossack Corps, Lieutenant General Mamontov (6 thousand sabers, 3 thousand bayonets, 12 guns) to raid the rear of the Red troops. Having broken through the front, the Cossack corps went deep into the rear of the Reds, taking cities, destroying garrisons and enemy units, destroying communications, distributing weapons to partisans. To combat it, the Soviet command created the Internal Front under the command of M. M. Lashevich (about 23 thousand people, aviation, armored trains).
The raid of Mamontov's cavalry, although it could not disrupt the counteroffensive of the Red Army, completely destroyed and disorganized the rear of the Reds, seriously undermining the combat capability of the advancing units. On August 14, a special group (consisting of the 9th and 10th armies, the Cavalry Corps of Semyon Budyonny and a detachment of the Volga-Caspian military flotilla delivered the main blow in the general direction to Rostov from the regions north of Novokhopyorsk and Kamyshin, and the strike group under the command of V. And Selivachev (8th Army, part of the forces of the 13th Army, Voronezh fortified area) - from the Liski area to Kupyansk.
Advancing with heavy fighting, by the beginning of September they reached the near approaches to Kharkov and Tsaritsyn, where they were completely defeated. After that, Denikin's troops continued their successful offensive to the north and west. Odessa was taken on August 27, Kyiv fell on August 31, and Kursk fell on September 20.
September and the first half of October 1919 were the time of the greatest success of the anti-Bolshevik forces. Leading a successful offensive, Denikin's troops took Voronezh on October 6, Oryol on October 13 and threatened Tula. The southern front of the Bolsheviks was collapsing.
But since mid-October 1919, the position of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia has noticeably worsened. The rear was destroyed by Makhno's raid across Ukraine, who broke through the White front in the Uman region at the end of September, besides, troops had to be withdrawn from the front against him, and the Bolsheviks, having concluded a truce with the Poles and with the Petliurists, released forces to fight Denikin. Having created a quantitative and qualitative superiority over the enemy in the main, Oryol-Kursk, direction (62 thousand bayonets and sabers for the Reds against 22 thousand for the Whites), in mid-October the Red Army launched a counteroffensive.
April 4, 1920 Denikin resigned and left Russia. The remnants of the White troops withdrew to the Crimea and were reorganized into the Russian Army under the command of General Baron Wrangel.
Commanders-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Russia
- Lieutenant General Denikin (January 8 - April 4)
- Lieutenant General Baron Wrangel (April 4 - May 11, 1920). Then the VSYUR was transformed into the Russian Army with the same commander-in-chief.
see also
- VSYUR posters
Notes
Bibliography
- The last battles of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. Series: Russia forgotten and unknown. White movement. Centerpolygraph, 2004. ISBN 5-9524-1011-1
- Biographical directory of the highest ranks of the Volunteer Army and the Armed Forces of the South of Russia: Materials white movement- 384 with ISBN 5-17-014831-3, ISBN 5-271-04653-2, ISBN 5-86566-050-0 ~92.11.27/657.
Links
- M. N. Levitov KORNILOVTS IN BATTLE IN THE SUMMER-FALL OF 1919
- V. A. Larionov TO MOSCOW
- Shambarov VG State and revolution. - M.: Algorithm, 2001
- Order to the Special Meeting, drawn up by the Supreme Ruler of Russia, Lieutenant General A.I. Denikin.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .
See what "VSYUR" is in other dictionaries:
VSYUR- Armed forces of the South of Russia military, historical, RF Dictionary: Dictionary of abbreviations and abbreviations of the army and special services. Comp. A. A. Shchelokov. M .: AST Publishing House LLC, Geleos Publishing House CJSC, 2003. 318 s ... Dictionary of abbreviations and abbreviations
Troops of the Kyiv Region of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia ... Wikipedia
This term has other meanings, see Kharkiv region (meanings). Kharkiv region VSYUR Kharkiv region ZSPR Flag ... Wikipedia
Troops of the Novorossiysk Region of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia ... Wikipedia
This term has other meanings, see Kyiv region (meanings). Kyiv region VSYUR Flag ... Wikipedia
This term has other meanings, see Special meeting ... Wikipedia
Commander of the 1st Army Corps, Lieutenant General A.P. Kutepov (in the form of the 1st Drozdovsky Regiment with an adjutant (in the form of the 1st Markovsky Regiment). 1919 1st Army Corps ... Wikipedia
The Second Corps of the White Guard of the South was formed during the strategic deployment of the Volunteer Army on November 15, 1918. Initial composition: 1st Infantry Division (until May 15, 1919) 3rd Infantry Division (until December 27, 1918) 1 ... Wikipedia
Formed in the Volunteer Army on November 15, 1918. Initial composition: 2nd Kuban Plastun Brigade Colonel Ya.A. Slashchev 1st Caucasian Cossack Division. 3 AK was disbanded on January 10, 1919. Corps commander Gen. Leith ... Wikipedia
This article is about the White Guard Turkestan Army of the times civil war in Russia. The military formation of the Red Army had a similar name, the Turkestan army ... Wikipedia
Armed Forces of the South of Russia(VSYUR) - operational-strategic association of white troops of the South of Russia in 1919-1920, during the Civil War. They were formed on January 8, 1919 as a result of the unification of the Volunteer Army and the army of the Great Don Army against the Bolsheviks for the joint struggle. The maximum strength of the VSYUR was reached in October 1919 - 270 thousand people, 600 guns, 38 tanks, 72 aircraft, about 120 ships (according to other sources, about 160 thousand people in July 1919).
Compound
The VSUR included:
- Volunteer Army (in January - May 1919 it was called the Caucasian Volunteer)
- Don Army (since February 23, 1919)
- Caucasian Army (since May 1919)
- Kuban Army (since February 1920, former Caucasian Army)
- Crimean-Azov Army (from June 1919 - 3rd separate army corps)
- Separate Turkestan army
- Troops of the Terek-Dagestan Territory (since July 1919 - Troops of the North Caucasus)
- Troops of the Kyiv region (since September 1919)
- Troops of Novorossiya and Crimea (since September 1919)
- Black Sea Fleet
- Don Fleet
- Caspian military flotilla, etc.
- According to the agreement signed on November 6, 1919, the Ukrainian Galician Army was to become part of the All-Union Socialist League, but as a result of the retreat of the Whites from the territory of Ukraine, this agreement was not fully implemented.
January-April 1919
Having defeated and destroyed by February 1919 in the North Caucasus the 90,000th 11th Army of the Reds, the command of the All-Union Socialist Republic of Youth began to transfer troops to the north, to the coal basin of the Donbass and to the Don, to help units of the Don Army (15 thousand bayonets and sabers), retreating under the onslaught of the Southern Front of the Red Army (85 thousand bayonets and sabers). In heavy defensive battles in March-April 1919, north of Rostov-on-Don and Novocherkassk, and on Manych, volunteers and Cossacks (25,000 bayonets and sabers) held back the offensive of superior Red forces, thereby allowing the command of the VSYUR to prepare a spring counteroffensive. In March 1919, the command of the Whites in the South of Russia organized a state guard, starting to form its own state apparatus in the occupied territories.
Trip to Moscow
On May 17, 1919, the Armed Forces of the South of Russia began an operation to defeat the Southern Front of the Red Army in order to enter the operational space and launch an offensive against Moscow.
In mid-May 1919, the troops of the Southern Front of the Reds (100 thousand bayonets and sabers, 460 guns, 2000 machine guns) under the command of V. M. Gittis launched an offensive in the Donbass, on the Seversky Donets and Manych rivers in the general direction of Don and Novocherkassk in order to encircle and destroy parts of the All-Russian Union of Youth.
On May 17 - 24, 1919, the troops of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, using mass peasant-Cossack uprisings in the rear of the Red Army (on the Upper Don and in Ukraine), as part of the Volunteer, Don and Caucasian armies (70 thousand bayonets and sabers, 350 guns, 1500 machine guns) under the general command of General Denikin, they launched counterattacks, broke through the front of the Reds and launched a counteroffensive in the zone from the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov to the Caspian Sea, inflicting the main blow on Kharkov and an auxiliary one on Tsaritsyn.
In May - June, the Reds left the Donbass, Crimea, June 24 - Kharkov, June 27 - Yekaterinoslav, June 30 - Tsaritsyn.
The military defeats of the armies of the Southern Front at the end of May 1919 gave reason to consider them a prologue to the fall Soviet power, therefore, on July 3, 1919, Denikin in Tsaritsyn set his troops the task of capturing Moscow. His directive was:
|
With the ultimate goal of capturing the heart of Russia - Moscow, I order:
|
However, the Whites were constantly lacking the strength to develop success, since the main provinces and industrial cities of central Russia were in the hands of the Reds. Why the latter had an advantage both in the number of troops and in weapons. The Soviet command, for its part, proclaimed the slogan "Everyone to fight Denikin!" (July 9) and took emergency measures to strengthen the Southern Front. Already in July, its number increased to 180 thousand people. and ok. 900 guns. The pace of the Denikin offensive slowed down - only on the right flank of the offensive did the Caucasian army manage to move north and capture Kamyshin on July 22.
In mid-August, the Southern Front of the Reds tried to launch a counteroffensive with the aim of defeating the advancing main grouping of White troops, seizing the lower reaches of the Don and preventing the main enemy forces from retreating to the North Caucasus.
Having learned in advance about the preparation of the counteroffensive, the Denikin command made an attempt to disrupt it, sending on August 10 the 4th Don Cossack Corps, Lieutenant General Mamontov (6 thousand sabers, 3 thousand bayonets, 12 guns) to raid the rear of the Red troops. Having broken through the front, the Cossack corps went deep into the rear of the Reds, taking cities, destroying garrisons and enemy units, destroying communications, distributing weapons to partisans. To combat it, the Soviet command created the Internal Front under the command of M. M. Lashevich (about 23 thousand people, aviation, armored trains). The raid of Mamontov's cavalry, although it could not disrupt the counteroffensive of the Red Army, completely destroyed and disorganized the rear of the Reds, seriously undermining the combat capability of the advancing units.
On August 14, a special group (consisting of the 9th and 10th armies, the Cavalry Corps of Semyon Budyonny and a detachment of the Volga-Caspian military flotilla delivered the main blow in the general direction to Rostov from the regions north of Novokhopyorsk and Kamyshin, and the strike group under the command of V. And Selivachev (8th army, part of the forces of the 13th army, Voronezh fortified area) - from the Liski area to Kupyansk. Advancing with heavy fighting, by the beginning of September they reached the near approaches to Kharkov and Tsaritsyn, where they were completely defeated. After which Denikin's troops continued their successful offensive to the north and west.Odessa was taken on August 27, Kyiv fell on August 31, Kursk fell on September 20.
September and the first half of October 1919 were the time of the greatest success of the anti-Bolshevik forces. Leading a successful offensive, Denikin's troops took Voronezh on October 6, Oryol on October 13 and threatened Tula. The southern front of the Bolsheviks was collapsing. The Bolsheviks were close to disaster and were preparing to go underground and flee abroad. An underground Moscow Party Committee was created, government agencies began evacuating to Vologda. All the forces of the Southern and part of the forces of the South-Eastern fronts were thrown against the All-Union Socialist Republic (image of September 27, 1919).
But since mid-October 1919, the position of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia has noticeably worsened. The rear was destroyed by Makhno's raid across Ukraine, who broke through the White front in the Uman region at the end of September, besides, troops had to be withdrawn from the front against him, and the Bolsheviks, having concluded a truce with the Poles and the Petliurists, freed forces to fight Denikin. Of particular importance was the fact of the transfer of the Latvian Rifle Division from the Polish front in Belarus to the Southern Front, near Karachev, on its basis, a strike group under the command of the commander of the Latvians A.A. Martusevich, who, with her flank attack in the 20th of October, stopped the Kornilovites rushing towards Moscow. Having created a quantitative and qualitative superiority over the enemy in the main, Oryol-Kursk, direction (62 thousand bayonets and sabers for the Reds against 22 thousand for the Whites), in mid-October the Red Army launched a counteroffensive.
In fierce battles, marching with varying success, south of Orel, the troops of the Southern Front (commander A.I. Egorov) inflicted a defeat on the small units of the Volunteer Army by the end of October, and then began to push them along the entire front line. In the winter of 1919-1920, Denikin's troops left Kharkov, Kyiv, Donbass, Rostov-on-Don. In February-March 1920, a defeat followed in the battle for the Kuban due to the disintegration of the Kuban army (due to its separatism, the most unstable part of the VSYUR). After that, the Cossack units of the Kuban army completely decomposed and began to massively surrender to the Reds or go over to the side of the "Greens", which led to the collapse of the White front and the retreat of the White Army to Novorossiysk.
April 4, 1920 Denikin resigned and left Russia. The remnants of the White troops withdrew to the Crimea and were transformed into the Russian Army under the command of General Baron Wrangel.
Commanders-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Russia
- Lieutenant General Denikin (January 8, 1919 - April 4, 1920)
- Lieutenant General Baron Wrangel (April 4 - May 11, 1920). Then the VSYUR was transformed into the Russian Army with the same commander in chief.
ARMED FORCES OF THE SOUTH OF RUSSIA (VSYUR), united military establishment White movement in the South of Russia during the Civil War of 1917-22. Existed in 1919-20. They were formed on January 8, 1919 as a result of an agreement between the commander of the Volunteer Army, Lieutenant General A. I. Denikin and the ataman of the Don Cossack Army, General of Cavalry P. N. Krasnov, which provided for the unification of the Volunteer Army and the Don Army and their subordination to the commander-in-chief of the All-Union Socialist Republic, which Denikin became ( the right of rank-building, awards and reorganization of the Don army remained with the ataman). Military formations of other Cossack troops of the South of Russia at the time of the formation of the All-Union Socialist Republic were part of the Volunteer (Kuban and Terek troops) and Don (Astrakhan troops) armies. Soon after the organization of the All-Union Socialist League, the Crimean-Azov and Caucasian volunteer armies (in January 1919), as well as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Don armies (in February 1919) were deployed from the Volunteer Army. From February 1919, the Entente countries provided assistance to the All-Union Socialist Revolutionary Federation (for example, in March - September, Great Britain supplied 12 tanks, 558 guns, over 1.5 million artillery shells, etc.). In April 1919, the French military presence was curtailed completely, and the British was limited to the actions of the fleet and technical units.
The refusal of Great Britain from the military presence in Turkestan in the spring of 1919 made it easier for the troops of the Transcaspian region to join the All-Union Socialist Republic of Russia (in the summer and autumn they fought against the Soviet troops advancing along the Turkestan railway). On June 12, 1919, the Commander-in-Chief of the All-Union Socialist League declared his subordination to the Supreme Ruler of Russia and Supreme Commander land and sea forces to Admiral A.V. Kolchak, however, in fact, he continued to act independently due to the remoteness of the theater of operations and communication difficulties (information about the transfer of powers of the Supreme Ruler by Kolchak to Denikin on 4.1.1920 did not reach the VSYUR in a timely manner). By October 1919, the VSYUR, after a series of reorganizations, consisted of the Volunteer, Caucasian and Don armies, troops of the Novorossiysk and Kyiv regions, troops of the Black Sea coast and the North Caucasus, Black Sea Fleet, Caspian flotilla and River Forces of the South of Russia (a total of over 113 thousand bayonets and about 46 thousand sabers, about 2.8 thousand machine guns, about 600 artillery pieces, 72 aircraft, 38 tanks, 34 armored vehicles, 41 armored trains, about 120 warships, auxiliary vessels and armed steamships).
The existence of the so-called Special Conference under the Commander-in-Chief of the All-Union Socialist League, which performed legislative and executive functions, the existence of its own lawmaking, and the issue of money make it possible to qualify the All-Union Socialist Republic as public education. The administration of the territories occupied by the All-Union Socialist Republic was carried out by the commander-in-chief (appointed by the commander-in-chief of the All-Union Socialist Republic) of individual regions (Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav, Kursk and Oryol provinces were subordinate to the commander of the Volunteer Army, Saratov province - to the commander of the Caucasian army, Black Sea province - to the commander of the Black Sea coast, Transcaspian region - to the commander-in-chief of the North Caucasus). The regions of the Cossack troops were ruled by elected chieftains and military governments, which had considerable autonomy. In the national regions of the North Caucasus (Chechnya, Kabarda, etc.) there was an institution of rulers (formally independent, but in fact appointed by the commander-in-chief of the All-Union Socialist Republic). Initially, the recruitment of the VSYUR was carried out mainly at the expense of volunteers. But as the scale of the struggle and the losses associated with it increased, the command of the All-Union Socialist Republic began to resort to mobilization in the occupied territories, as well as to replenishing its troops with captured Red Army soldiers, which negatively affected their combat capabilities.
The heavy defeats of the Don Army in the northern sector of the front in early 1919 created a threat of dismemberment and complete defeat of the VSYUR. In March-April, the offensive of the Soviet troops was stopped in the Crimea, Donbass, on the Lower Don and Manych, and during the counter-offensive in May-June, the All-Union Socialist League reached the line of the Lower Dnieper, Yekaterinoslav, Kharkov, Balashov, Tsaritsyn. The troops of the Caucasian army approached Astrakhan (see Astrakhan defense 1919-20). The largest military action of the AFSR was the Moscow campaign of Denikin in 1919, as a result of which the troops of the AFSR, having repelled the August offensive of 1919 of the Soviet Southern Front and inflicted a defeat (September - October) on the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Ukrainian Galician Army, by October 1919 reached the line Odessa, Mogilev-Podolsky, Kyiv, Chernigov, Oryol, Voronezh, Tsaritsyn. But as a result of the counter-offensive of the Southern Front in 1919 and the intensification of the Makhnovist movement in the rear of the Volunteer Army, the offensive of the All-Union Socialist Republic ceased. Attempts by the VSYUR command to organize defense in the Lower Don (December 1919 - January 1920), as well as in the Odessa region (January 1920), the Manych (January - February 1920) and Kuban (March 1920) rivers, ended in failure. The main grouping of troops of the Kyiv and Novorossiysk regions (Lieutenant General N.E. Bredov), not accepting the battle near Odessa and having made a march to the area of deployment of Polish troops in January - February (the so-called Bredovsky campaign), was interned (in the summer of 1920, it was partially transported to Crimea). The 2nd Army Corps of the All-Union Socialist League under the command of Major General Ya. A. Slashchev retreated to the Crimean Peninsula in January-February 1920 and managed to hold it. The main grouping of the Armed Forces of South Russia [Volunteer Corps (reorganized from the army), Don and Kuban (formed in January on the basis of the Caucasian) Army] retreated to the North Caucasus. After the defeat of the Red Army of the North Caucasian group of the Armed Forces of South Russia, its remnants (35-40 thousand people, about 100 guns, up to 500 machine guns) were evacuated on March 26-27 from Novorossiysk to the Crimea. The remnants of the Transcaspian detachment and the troops of the North Caucasus, in turn, withdrew to the territory of Georgia, where they were interned (transported to the Crimea during the summer - autumn of 1920). On 4/4/1920 A. I. Denikin transferred command of the remnants of the AFSR to Lieutenant General P. N. Wrangel, who on 11/5/1920 created the "Russian Army" on the basis of the AFSR (both names continued to exist in parallel until the autumn of 1920).
Lit.: Volkov SV White movement in Russia: organizational structure. M., 2000; Tsvetkov V. Zh. White armies of the South of Russia 1917-1920 M., 2000; Karpenko S. V. Essays on the history of the White movement in the South of Russia (1917-1920). M., 2002; Denikin A.I. Essays on Russian Troubles: In 3 books. M., 2003-2005; White movement. historical portraits: L. G. Kornilov, A. I. Denikin, P. N. Wrangel. M., 2006.
