The revolutionary events that took place in Russia from February to October 1917 actually destroyed the vast empire and led to the outbreak of the Civil War. Seeing such a difficult situation in the country, the remnants of the tsarist army decided to join forces to restore reliable power in order to carry out military operations not only against the Bolsheviks, but also to protect their homeland from the encroachments of an external aggressor.
Volunteer Army Formation
The merger of the parts took place on the basis of the so-called Alekseyev organization, the beginning of which falls on the day of the general’s arrival. It was in his honor that this coalition was named. This event occurred in Novocherkassk on November 2 (15), 1917.
A month and a half later, in December of that year, a special meeting was convened. Its members were Moscow deputies, led by the generals. In essence, the question of the distribution of roles in command and control between Kornilov and Alekseev was discussed. As a result, it was decided to transfer the entirety of military power to the first of the generals. The formation of the units and bringing them into full combat readiness was entrusted to the General Staff, headed by Lieutenant General S. L. Markov.
At Christmas, the troops were ordered to take command of the army, General Kornilov. From that moment on, she officially became known as Volunteer.
The situation on the Don
It is no secret that the newly created army of General Kornilov was in dire need of the support of the Don Cossacks. But she never got it. In addition, the Bolsheviks began to squeeze the ring around the cities of Rostov and Novocherkassk, while the Volunteer Army darted inside it, desperately resisting and suffering huge losses. Having lost support from the Don Cossacks, the commander in chief General Kornilov on February 9 (22) decided to leave Don and go to the village of Olginskaya. Thus began the Ice Campaign of 1918.
In the abandoned Rostov there were a lot of uniforms, cartridges and shells, as well as medical depots and personnel - all that a small army so needed to guard the approaches to the city. It is worth noting that at that time neither Alekseev nor Kornilov resorted to forced mobilization and confiscation of property.
Village Olginskaya
The ice campaign of the Volunteer Army began with its reorganization. Arriving in the village of Olginskaya, the troops were divided into 3 infantry regiments: Partisansky, Kornilovsky shock and Combined-officer. Within a few days, the volunteers left the village and moved towards Yekaterinodar. This was the first Kuban ice campaign that passed through the Khomutovskaya, Kagalnitskaya and Yegorlykskaya villages. For a short time the army entered the territory of the Stavropol province, and then again entered the Kuban region. For the entire time of their journey, volunteers constantly had armed clashes with units of the Red Army. Gradually, the ranks of the Kornilovites were thinning, and with each passing day they became smaller and smaller.
Unexpected news
On March 1 (14) Yekaterinodar was occupied by the Red Army. The day before, Colonel V. L. Pokrovsky and his troops left the city, which greatly complicated the already contented difficult position of the volunteers. Rumors that the Reds occupied Yekaterinodar, reached Kornilov a day later, when the troops were at Vyselki station, but they did not attach much importance to them. After 2 days in the village Korenovskaya, which was occupied by volunteers as a result of a stubborn battle, they found one of the numbers of the Soviet newspaper. It was reported that the Bolsheviks really occupied Yekaterinodar.
The news received completely discounted the Kuban Ice Campaign, for which hundreds of human lives were wasted. General Kornilov decided not to lead his army to Yekaterinodar, but to turn south and cross the Kuban. He planned to rest his troops in the Circassian villages and Cossack mountain villages and wait a bit. Denikin called such a decision Kornilov “a fatal mistake” and, together with Romanovsky, tried to dissuade the army commander from this undertaking. But the general was unshakable.
Military unit
On the night of March 5-6, the Kornilov Army’s ice campaign continued southward. After 2 days, the volunteers crossed the Laba and went to Maykop, but it turned out that in this area every farm should be taken with battle. Therefore, the general abruptly turned west and, crossing the Belaya River, rushed to the Circassian villages. Here he hoped not only to rest his army, but also to unite with the Kuban troops of Pokrovsky.
But since the colonel did not have fresh data on the movement of the Volunteer Army, he stopped making attempts to break through to Maykop. Pokrovsky decided to turn to the Kuban River and join forces with Kornilov, who had already managed to leave there. As a result of this confusion, two armies - the Kuban and Volunteer - tried to find each other at random. And finally, on March 11, they succeeded.
Village Novodmitrievskaya: Ice trip
It was March 1918. Exhausted by the daily many kilometers of marches and weakened in battle, the army had to go through viscous chernozem, as the weather suddenly turned bad, it started to rain. It was replaced by frost, so the soldiers' greatcoats swollen from the rain began to literally freeze. In addition, it suddenly got colder and a lot of snow fell in the mountains. The temperature dropped to -20 ⁰. As participants and eyewitnesses later told of those events of the wounded who were transported in carts, by evening, they had to break away with bayonets from the thick ice crust formed around them.
I must say that to top it all, in mid-March there was also a fierce clash, which went down in history as a battle near the village of Novodmitrievskaya, where the fighters of the Combined Officer Regiment were especially distinguished. Later, under the name "Ice Camp" they began to mean this battle, as well as previous and subsequent transitions along the steppe covered with infusion.
Contract signing
After the battle near the village of Novodmitrievskaya, the military Kuban formation proposed to include it in the Volunteer Army as an independent fighting force. In exchange for this, they promised to facilitate the replenishment and supply of troops. General Kornilov immediately agreed to such conditions. The ice campaign continued, and the size of the army increased to 6 thousand people.
Volunteers again decided to go to the capital of the Kuban - Ekaterinodar. While staff officers were developing a plan of operation, the troops were reorganized and rested, while repelling the numerous attacks of the Bolsheviks.
Ekaterinodar
Kornilov’s army’s ice campaign was nearing completion. March 27 (April 9) volunteers crossed the river. Kuban and began to storm Ekaterinodar. The city was defended by the 20,000-strong army of the Reds, commanded by Sorokin and the Autonomies. The attempt to capture Yekaterinodar failed, in addition, after 4 days, as a result of another battle, General Kornilov was killed by an accidental shell. Denikin took over his duties.
I must say that the Volunteer Army fought in complete encirclement with the forces of the Red Army superior to several times. Denikin’s losses now amounted to about 4 hundred dead and 1.5 thousand wounded. But, despite this, the general managed to withdraw the army from the encirclement across the Don River.
April 29 (May 12) Denikin with the remnants of his army went south of the Don region to the Gulyai-Borisovka-Mechetinskaya-Yegorlytskaya district, and the next day, the Kornilov Ice Camp, which later became a legend of the White Guard movement, was completed.
Siberian crossing
In the winter of 1920, under the pressure of the enemy, the retreat of the Eastern Front, commanded by Admiral Kolchak, began. It should be noted that this operation took place, like the campaign of the Kornilov army, in the most severe climatic and weather conditions. A horse-pedestrian crossing with a length of about 2 thousand km passed along the route from Novonikolaevsk and Barnaul to Chita. Among the servicemen of the White Army, he received the name "Siberian Ice Camp".
This difficult transition began on November 14, 1919, when units of the White Army left Omsk. Troops led by V.O. Kappel retreated along the Trans-Siberian Railway, transporting the wounded by echelons. The Red Army was chasing them literally on their heels. In addition, the situation was complicated by the numerous riots that erupted in the rear, as well as attacks from various gangster and partisan detachments. To top it all off, the transition was also exacerbated by Siberian severe frosts.
At that time the railway was controlled by the Czechoslovak Corps, so the troops of General Kappel were forced to leave the cars and transfer to the sled. After that, the White Army began to be a gigantic toboggan train.
When the White Guards approached Krasnoyarsk, a garrison revolted in the city under the leadership of General Bronislav Zinevich, who concluded a world war with the Bolsheviks. He persuaded Kappel to do the same, but was refused. At the beginning of January 1920, several skirmishes took place, after which more than 12 thousand White Guards bypassed Krasnoyarsk, crossed the Yenisei River and went further east. About the same number of soldiers chose to surrender to the city garrison.
Leaving Krasnoyarsk, the army was divided into columns. The first was commanded by K. Sakharov, whose troops marched along the railway and the Siberian highway. The second column continued its Ice campaign led by Kappel. She moved first along the Yenisei, and then along the Kan River. This transition turned out to be the most difficult and dangerous. The fact is that p. The canal was covered with a layer of snow, and under it flowed water of non-freezing sources. And this is in a 35-degree frost! The military had to move in the dark and constantly fall into wormwood, completely invisible under the thickness of the snow. Many of them, having frozen, remained lying, and the rest of the army moved on.
During this transition, it turned out that General Kappel froze his legs, falling into the wormwood. He underwent an operation to amputate his limbs. In addition, from hypothermia, he fell ill with pneumonia. In mid-January 1920, whites captured Kansk. On the twenty-first day of the same month, the Supreme Ruler of Russia, Kolchak, the Czechs issued to the Bolsheviks. After 2 days, the already dying General Kappel gathered the council of the army headquarters. It was decided to take Irkutsk by storm and release Kolchak. On January 26, Kappel died, and General Wojciechowski led the ice campaign.
Since the advance of the White Army to Irkutsk was somewhat delayed due to constant fighting, Lenin took advantage of this and issued an order to execute Kolchak. It was executed on February 7th. Upon learning of this, General Wojciechowski abandoned the now meaningless assault on Irkutsk. After that, his troops crossed Lake Baikal and at st. Mysovaya loaded all the wounded, sick and women with children into the echelons. The rest continued their Great Siberian Ice Campaign to Chita, which is about 6 hundred kilometers. They entered the city at the beginning of March 1920.
When the transition was completed, General Wojciechowski instituted a new order - For the Great Siberian Campaign. He was awarded all the officers and soldiers who participated in it. It is worth noting that members of the Kalinov Bridge musical group vividly reminded of this historic event several years ago. “Ice campaign” was the name of their album, which was completely dedicated to the retreat of Kolchak’s army in Siberia.