History Lessons: Leaders of the White Movement

In the civil war, the most diverse forces came out against the Bolsheviks. They were Cossacks, nationalists, democrats, monarchists. All of them, despite their differences, served the White cause. Defeated, the leaders of the anti-Soviet forces either perished, or were able to emigrate.

Alexander Kolchak

Although the resistance to the Bolsheviks has not become fully integrated, it was Alexander Kolchak (1874-1920) who is considered by many historians to be the main figure of the White movement. He was a professional soldier and served in the Navy. In peacetime, Kolchak became famous as a polar explorer and scientist-oceanographer.

Like other military personnel, Alexander Kolchak received extensive experience during the Japanese campaign and the First World War. With the advent of the Provisional Government, he briefly emigrated to the United States. When news of the Bolshevik coup came from home, Kolchak returned to Russia.

The Admiral arrived in Siberian Omsk, where the Socialist-Revolutionary government made him a Minister of War. In 1918, the officers committed a coup, and Kolchak was named the Supreme Ruler of Russia. Other leaders of the White Movement did not have as much power as Alexander Vasilyevich (he had a 150,000-strong army at his disposal).

On the territory under control, Kolchak restored the legislation of the Russian Empire. Moving from Siberia to the west, the army of the Supreme Ruler of Russia advanced to the Volga region. At the peak of their success, the whites were already approaching Kazan. Kolchak tried to draw as much of the Bolsheviks as he could to clear Denikin's way to Moscow.

In the second half of 1919 the Red Army launched a massive offensive. The whites retreated farther to Siberia. The foreign allies (the Czechoslovak Corps) issued the Social Revolutionaries, who was traveling eastward on the Kolchak train. The Admiral was shot in Irkutsk in February 1920.

Anton Denikin

If Kolchak was in charge of the White Army in the east of Russia, Anton Ivanovich Denikin (1872-1947) was the key commander in the south for a long time. Born in Poland, he went to study in the capital and became a staff officer.

Then Denikin served on the border with Austria. He spent the First World War in Brusilov's army, participated in the famous breakthrough and operations in Galicia. The Provisional Government briefly made Anton Ivanovich commander of the South-Western Front. Denikin supported the mutiny of Kornilov. After the failure of the coup, the lieutenant general was in prison for some time (Bykhov seat).

Having freed himself in November 1917, Denikin began to support the White cause. Together with the generals Kornilov and Alexeyev, he created (and then solely headed) the Volunteer Army, which became the backbone of resistance to the Bolsheviks in the south of Russia. It was to Denikin that the Entente countries made their bid, declaring war on the Soviet power after its separate peace with Germany.

For some time Denikin clashed with the Don Ataman Peter Krasnov. Under the pressure of the allies, he obeyed Anton Ivanovich. In January 1919 Denikin became commander-in-chief of the AFWR - the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. His army cleared the Kuban, the Don, the Tsaritsyn, the Donbass, and Kharkov from the Bolsheviks. The Denikin offensive drowned in Central Russia.

VSYUR retreated to Novocherkassk. From there Denikin moved to the Crimea, where in April 1920, under the pressure of his opponents, transferred his powers to Peter Wrangel. Then came the departure to Europe. In exile, the general wrote memoirs "Sketches of Russian Troubles," in which he tried to answer the question of why the White Movement was defeated. In the civil war Anton Ivanovich blamed exclusively Bolsheviks. He refused to support Hitler and criticized collaborators. After the defeat of the Third Reich, Denikin changed his place of residence and moved to the United States, where he died in 1947.

Lavr Kornilov

The organizer of the unsuccessful coup, Lavr Georgievich Kornilov (1870-1918) was born in the family of a Cossack officer, which predetermined his military career. As a scout he served in Persia, Afghanistan and India. In the war, having been captured by the Austrians, the officer fled to his homeland.

Initially, Lavr Georgievich Kornilov supported the Provisional Government. He considered the main enemies of Russia to be leftists. As a supporter of strong power, he began to prepare an anti-government speech. His campaign against Petrograd failed. Kornilov, along with his supporters, was arrested.

With the onset of the October Revolution, the general was released. He became the first commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army in the south of Russia. In February 1918, Kornilov organized the First Kuban (Ice) campaign against Ekaterinodar. This operation has become legendary. All the leaders of the White movement in the future tried to be equal to the pioneers. Kornilov tragically died during the artillery shelling of Ekaterinodar.

Nikolay Yudenich

General Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich (1862-1933) was one of the most successful military commanders of Russia in the war against Germany and its allies. He led the staff of the Caucasian army during her battles with the Ottoman Empire. Having come to power, Kerensky sent the military leader to resign.

With the onset of the October Revolution, Nikolai Nikolayevich Yudenich lived illegally for some time in Petrograd. At the beginning of 1919, he moved to falsified documents. The Russian Committee, which met in Helsinki, proclaimed him Commander-in-Chief.

Yudenich established contacts with Alexander Kolchak. Coordinating his actions with the admiral, Nikolai Nikolayevich unsuccessfully tried to enlist the support of the Entente and Mannerheim. In the summer of 1919, he received a portfolio of a military minister in the so-called North-Western government, formed in Reval.

In autumn Yudenich organized a campaign to Petrograd. Basically, the White movement in the civil war operated on the outskirts of the country. The army Yudenich, on the contrary, tried to liberate the capital (as a result, the Bolshevik government moved to Moscow). She occupied Tsarskoe Selo, Gatchina, and reached the Pulkovo heights. Trotsky was able to send reinforcements to Petrograd by rail, thus nullifying all attempts by the Whites to get the city.

By the end of 1919, Yudenich retreated to Estonia. A few months later he emigrated. The general spent some time in London, where he was visited by Winston Churchill. Having got used to the defeat, Yudenich settled in France and moved away from politics. In 1933, he died in Cannes from pulmonary tuberculosis.

Alexei Kaledin

When the October Revolution struck, Alexei Maximovich Kaledin (1861-1918) was the ataman of the Don army. To this post he was elected a few months before the events in Petrograd. In the Cossack cities, especially in Rostov, sympathy for the socialists was strong. Ataman, on the contrary, considered the Bolshevik revolution criminal. Having received disturbing news from Petrograd, he defeated the Soviets in the Don Military Region.

Alexey Maximovich Kaledin acted from Novocherkassk. In November another white general, Mikhail Alexeev, arrived there. In the meantime, the Cossacks in the mass fluctuated. Many war veterans tired of the war reacted vividly to the slogans of the Bolsheviks. Others treated the Leninist government neutrally. Almost nobody cared about the Socialists.

Having lost hope of reconnection with the overthrown Provisional Government, Kaledin took decisive steps. He announced the independence of the Don Region. In response, the Rostov Bolsheviks raised the uprising. Ataman, having secured Alexeyev's support, suppressed this speech. The first blood was spilled on the Don.

At the end of 1917, Kaledin gave the go-ahead for the creation of the anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army. In Rostov there were two parallel forces. On the one hand, it was a volunteer army of white generals, on the other - local Cossacks. The latter increasingly sympathized with the Bolsheviks. In December the Red Army occupied Donbass and Taganrog. Cossack units in the meantime finally decayed. Realizing that his own subordinates do not want to fight Soviet power, the ataman committed suicide.

Ataman Krasnov

After the death of Kaledin, the Cossacks did not long sympathize with the Bolsheviks. When Soviet power was established on the Don, yesterday's front-line soldiers quickly hated the Reds. Already in May 1918, an uprising broke out on the Don.

The new ataman of the Don Cossacks was Petr Krasnov (1869-1947). During the war with Germany and Austria, he, like many other white generals, participated in the glorious Brusilov breakthrough. The military always treated the Bolsheviks with disgust. It was he who, on the orders of Kerensky, tried to discourage Petrograd's followers from the supporters of Lenin, when the October Revolution was only just completed. Krasnov's small detachment occupied Tsarskoe Selo and Gatchina, but soon the Bolsheviks surrounded and disarmed him.

After the first failure, Peter Krasnov was able to move to the Don. Becoming an ataman of anti-Soviet Cossacks, he refused to obey Denikin and tried to conduct an independent policy. In particular, Krasnov established friendly relations with the Germans.

Only when the surrender was announced in Berlin, the isolated ataman submitted to Denikin. The Commander-in-Chief of the Volunteer Army did not suffer a dubious ally for long. In February 1919, Krasnov, under the pressure of Denikin, went to the army of Yudenich in Estonia. From there he emigrated to Europe.

Like many leaders of the White Movement, who were in exile, the former Cossack ataman dreamed of a rematch. Hatred of the Bolsheviks pushed him to support Hitler. The Germans made Krasnov head of the Cossacks in the occupied Russian territories. After the defeat of the Third Reich, the British issued to Peter Nikolayevich USSR. In the Soviet Union, he was tried and sentenced to capital punishment. Krasnov was executed.

Ivan Romanovsky

Warlord Ivan Pavlovich Romanovsky (1877-1920) in the tsarist era was a participant in the war with Japan and Germany. In 1917, he supported Kornilov's speech and, along with Denikin, served an arrest in the town of Bykhov. Moving to the Don, Romanovsky participated in the formation of the first organized anti-Bolshevik detachments.

The general was appointed Deputy Denikin and directed his staff. It is believed that Romanovsky had a great influence on his boss. In the will, Denikin even called Ivan Pavlovich his successor in the event of an unforeseen death.

By virtue of his straightforwardness, Romanovsky was in conflict with many other commanders in Dobrarmiya, and then in VSYUR. The White movement in Russia treated him ambiguously. When Denikin was succeeded by Wrangel, Romanovsky left all his posts and left for Istanbul. In the same city, he was killed by the lieutenant Mstislav Kharuzin. The shooter, who also served in the White Army, explained his deed by the fact that Romanovsky's vinyl was defeated by VSYUR in the civil war.

Sergey Markov

In the Volunteer Army, Sergei Leonovovich Markov (1878-1918) became a cult hero. His name was called a regiment and colored military units. Markov became known for his tactical talent and his own courage, which he demonstrated in every battle with the Red Army. Participants of the White Movement treated the memory of this general with special trepidation.

The military biography of Markov in the Tsarist era was typical of the then officer. He participated in the Japanese campaign. On the German front commanded a rifle regiment, then became commander in the headquarters of several fronts. In the summer of 1917, Markov supported the Kornilov insurrection and, together with other future white generals, was under arrest in Bykhov.

At the beginning of the civil war the military moved to the south of Russia. He was one of the founders of the Volunteer Army. Markov made a great contribution to the White cause in the First Kuban campaign. On the night of April 16, 1918, with a small detachment of volunteers, he seized Medvedkov, an important railway station where volunteers destroyed the Soviet armored train, and then escaped from the encirclement and escaped the persecution. The result of the battle was the rescue of Denikin's army, who had just committed an unsuccessful assault on Ekaterinodar and was on the brink of defeat.

The feat of Markov made him a hero for the whites and a sworn enemy for the Reds. Two months later, the talented general took part in the Second Kuban campaign. Near the town of Shablievka, its parts came up against the superior forces of the enemy. In a fateful moment for himself, Markov found himself in an open space, where he equipped an observation post. The position was opened fire from the Red Army armored train. A grenade exploded near Sergei Leonidovich, which caused him a fatal wound. A few hours later, on June 26, 1918, the soldier passed away.

Petr Wrangel

Petr Nikolayevich Wrangel (1878-1928), also known as the Black Baron, came from a noble family and had roots connected with the Baltic Germans. Before becoming a military man, he received an engineering education. The desire for military service, however, prevailed, and Peter went to study for the cavalryman.

The debut campaign of Wrangel was the war with Japan. During the First World War he served in the Horse Guards. He distinguished himself by several exploits, for example, by capturing a German battery. Once on the Southwestern Front, the officer took part in the famous Brusilov breakthrough.

In the days of the February Revolution, Pyotr Nikolayevich called for troops to enter Petrograd. For this, the Provisional Government removed him from the service. The Black Baron moved to a dacha in the Crimea, where he was arrested by the Bolsheviks. The nobleman managed to escape only thanks to the pleas of his own wife.

As for the aristocrat and supporter of the monarchy, for Wrangel the White idea was an uncontested position during the Civil War. He joined Denikin. The military commander served in the Caucasian army, led the capture of Tsaritsyn. After the defeats of the White Army during the march to Moscow, Wrangel began to criticize his chief Denikin. The conflict led to the temporary departure of the general to Istanbul.

Soon Peter Nikolayevich returned to Russia. In the spring of 1920 he was elected commander-in-chief of the Russian army. Its key base was the Crimea. The peninsula was the last white bastion of the Civil War. Wrangel's army repulsed several attacks of the Bolsheviks, but eventually was defeated.

In exile, the Black Baron lived in Belgrade. He created and headed the ROVS - Russian All-Military Union, then transferring these powers to one of the Grand Dukes, Nikolai Nikolaevich. Shortly before his death, while working as an engineer, Peter Wrangel moved to Brussels. There he suddenly died of tuberculosis in 1928.

Andrei Shkuro

Andrei Grigorievich Shkuro (1887-1947) was a born Kuban Cossack. In his youth he went on a gold prospecting expedition to Siberia. In the war with the Kaiser Germany, Shkuro created a partisan detachment, for the sake of which he was nicknamed "The Wolf's Hundred."

In October 1917, the Cossack was elected to the Kuban Regional Council. Being convinced by a monarchist, he negatively reacted to the news about the coming to power of the Bolsheviks. Shkuro began to fight the Red Commissars, when many leaders of the White Movement had not yet managed to loudly declare themselves. In July 1918 Andrei Grigorievich with his detachment expelled the Bolsheviks from Stavropol.

In the autumn, the Cossack rose at the head of the 1st Officer's Kislovodsk Regiment, then the Caucasian Equestrian Division. The chief of Shkuro was Anton Ivanovich Denikin. In Ukraine, the military broke up the detachment of Nestor Makhno. Then he took part in a campaign against Moscow. Shkuro hosted battles for Kharkiv and Voronezh. In this city, his campaign choked.

Departing from Budyonny's army, the Lieutenant-General reached Novorossiysk. From there he sailed to the Crimea. In the army Wrangel Shkuro did not take root because of the conflict with the Black Baron. As a result, the white commander was in exile before the complete victory of the Red Army.

Shkuro lived in Paris and Yugoslavia. When the Second World War began, he, like Krasnov, supported the Nazis in their struggle against the Bolsheviks. Shkuro was a Gruppenfiihrer of the SS and, in this capacity, fought against Yugoslav partisans. After the defeat of the Third Reich, he tried to break through into the territory occupied by the British. In Austrian Linz, the British gave Shkuro along with many more officers. The White commander was tried together with Petr Krasnov and sentenced to death.