Ice campaign of the army Kornilov. Ice campaign of the Volunteer Army

The revolutionary events that took place in Russia from February to October 1917 actually destroyed a huge empire and led to the unleashing of the Civil War. Seeing such a difficult situation in the country, the remnants of the tsarist army decided to unite their efforts to restore a reliable government so as to carry out military actions not only against the Bolsheviks, but also to protect the homeland from the encroachments of the external aggressor.

Formation of the Volunteer Army

The merger of the units took place on the basis of the so-called Alekseev organization, whose activities begin to fall on the day of the arrival of the general. It was in his honor that this coalition was named. This event took place in Novocherkassk on November 2 (15), 1917.

A month and a half later, in December of the same year, a special meeting was held. Its participants were Moscow deputies headed by the generals. In fact, the question of the distribution of roles in the management of troops between Kornilov and Alekseev was discussed. As a result, it was decided to hand over the fullness of military power to the first of the generals. Formation of units and bringing them to full combat readiness instructed the General Staff, headed by Lieutenant-General S. L. Markov.

On Christmas holidays, the troops were ordered to join the command of the army of General Kornilov. From that moment it officially became known as Volunteer.

Situation on the Don

It is no secret that the newly created army of General Kornilov was in dire need of support for 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 was tossing about inside it, fiercely resisting and carrying huge losses. Deprived of support from the Don Cossacks, Commander-in-Chief of the troops, General Kornilov on February 9 (22) decided to leave Don and go to Olginskaya stanitsa. So began the Ice campaign of 1918.

In abandoned Rostov there were a lot of uniforms, cartridges and shells, as well as medical stores and personnel - everything that a small army needed to protect the approaches to the city. It is worth noting that at that time neither Alekseev nor Kornilov had resorted to forced mobilization and confiscation of property.

Olginskaya village

The ice campaign of the Volunteer Army began with its reorganization. Arriving in the village Olginskaya, the troops were divided into 3 infantry regiments: Partizansky, Kornilovsky percussion and Combined Officer. Within a few days the volunteers left the village and moved towards Ekaterinodar. This was the first Kuban Ice campaign, which passed through Khomutovskaya, Kagalnitskaya and Egorlykskaya stanitsa. For a short time the army entered the territory of the Stavropol province, and then re-entered the Kuban region. For all the time of their journey, volunteers have always had armed clashes with parts of the Red Army. Gradually, the ranks of the Kornilovites were thinning, and with each passing day they were getting smaller and smaller.

Unexpected news

On March 1 (14) the Red Army men occupied Ekaterinodar. The day before Colonel VL Pokrovsky and his troops had left the city, which greatly complicated the already difficult situation of volunteers. Rumors that the Reds occupied Yekaterinodar, reached Kornilov the day after, when the troops were at the station Vyselki, but they were not given much importance. Two days later, in the village of Korenovskaya, occupied by volunteers as a result of a stubborn battle, one of the numbers of the Soviet newspaper was found. It was reported there that the Bolsheviks really occupied Yekaterinodar.

The news received completely devalued 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 auls and Cossack mountain villages and wait a little. Such a decision Kornilov Denikin called "fatal mistake" and together with Romanovsky tried to dissuade the army commander from this venture. But the general was unshakable.

Combine troops

On the night of 5 to 6 March, the Kornilov army's ice campaign continued in a southerly direction. After 2 days the volunteers crossed the Lab and went to Maikop, but it turned out that in this locality every farm should be taken with a fight. Therefore, the general sharply turned to the west and, crossing the Belaya River, rushed to the Circassian auls. Here he hoped not only to rest his army, but also to unite with the Kuban troops Pokrovsky.

But since the Colonel did not have any fresh data on the movement of the Volunteer Army, he ceased to make attempts to break through to Maykop. Pokrovsky decided to turn to the river Kuban and connect with the troops of Kornilov, who had already managed to escape from there. As a result of this confusion, two armies - the Kuban and the Volunteers - tried to find each other at random. And, finally, on 11 March they succeeded.

Novodmitryevskaya village: Ice trek

It was March of 1918. Exhausted daily mnogokilometrovymi marches and weakened in battle, the army had to go for a viscous chernozem, as the weather suddenly deteriorated, it began to rain. He was replaced by frosts, so the soldier's greatcoats, swollen from the rain, literally froze. In addition, it was sharply colder and a lot of snow fell in the mountains. The temperature dropped to -20 ° C. As later participants and eyewitnesses of those events, wounded, who were transported on carts, told us, by the evening they had to be disconnected with bayonets from the thick ice crust formed around them.

I must say that to top it all, in the middle of March there was also a cruel clash that went down in history as a battle near the village of Novodmitrievskaya, where the fighters of the Combined Officer Regiment particularly distinguished themselves. Later, under the name of the "Ice Campaign", this battle began to be understood, as well as the preceding and subsequent transitions to the steppe covered in the steppes.

Signing of the contract

After the battle near the village Novodmitrievskaya, the military Kuban formation proposed to include it in the Volunteer Army as an independent fighting force. In exchange, they promised to facilitate the replenishment and supply of troops. Such conditions were immediately agreed by General Kornilov. The ice campaign continued, and the strength of the army increased to 6 thousand people.

Volunteers decided to again go to the capital of the Kuban - Ekaterinodar. While the staff officers were developing the plan for the operation, the troops reformed and rested, while repulsing the numerous attacks of the Bolsheviks.

Ekaterinodar

The ice campaign of the Kornilov army was drawing to a close. 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 Reds, commanded by Sorokin and Autonomists. Attempt to capture Ekaterinodar failed, and in 4 days as a result of the next battle, an accidental shell killed General Kornilov. His duties were taken over by Denikin.

It must be said that the Volunteer Army fought in conditions of complete encirclement with the forces of the Red Army that surpassed several times. Losses have already made Denikin about 4 hundred dead and 1,5 thousand wounded. But, in spite of this, the general managed to withdraw the army from the encirclement beyond the river Don.

April 29 (May 12) Denikin with the remains of his troops went to the south of the Don region in the area Gulyai-Borisovka - Mechetinskaya - Yegorlytskaya, and the next day Kornilov's Ice campaign, which later became the legend of the Whiteguard movement, was completed.

Siberian transition

In the winter of 1920, under the onslaught of the enemy, the retreat of the Eastern Front began, commanded by Admiral Kolchak. It should be noted that this operation was conducted, as well as the campaign of the Kornilov army, in the hardest climatic and weather conditions. A horse-and-pedestrian crossing with a length of about 2,000 km passed along the route from Novonikolaevsk and Barnaul to Chita. Among the servicemen of the White Army, he was called the "Siberian Ice Campaign".

This hardest transition began on November 14, 1919, when parts of the White Army left Omsk. The troops led by V. O. Kappel retreated along the Transsib, carrying the wounded by echelons. Literally on the heels of them the Red Army was chasing. In addition, the situation was further complicated by numerous riots that broke out in the rear, as well as attacks by various gangster and partisan detachments. To top it all, the transition was also exacerbated by the Siberian fierce frosts.

At that time, the Czechoslovak Corps controlled the railway, so General Kappel's troops were forced to leave the cars and change into sledges. After that, the White Army began to represent a giant in size sled train.

When the White Guards approached Krasnoyarsk, a garrison under the leadership of General Bronislaw Zinevich, who concluded a peace treaty with the Bolsheviks, rebelled in the city. He and Kappel persuaded to do the same, but was refused. At the beginning of January 1920, several skirmishes took place, after which more than 12,000 White Guards went around Krasnoyarsk, crossed the Yenisei River and went further, to the east. Approximately the same number of soldiers preferred to surrender to the city garrison.

Leaving Krasnoyarsk, the army was divided into columns. The first commander was K. Sakharov, whose troops marched along the railway and the Siberian tract. The second column continued its Ice campaign under the leadership of Kappel. She moved first along the Yenisei, and then along the river Kan. This transition was the most difficult and dangerous. The fact is that p. Kahn was covered with a layer of snow, and under it flowed the water of non-freezing springs. And this is in 35-degree frost! The military had to move in the dark and constantly fall into the polynyas, completely invisible under the thick snow. Many of them, freezing, and remained to lie, and the rest of the army moved on.

During this transition, it turned out that General Kappel froze his feet, falling into the wormwood. He was operated on amputation of limbs. In addition, from hypothermia, he fell ill with pneumonia. In mid-January 1920 White captured Kansk. On the twenty-first day of the same month of the Supreme Ruler of Russia Kolchak, Czechs were given to the Bolsheviks. Two days later, the already dying General Kappel assembled the advice of the army headquarters. It was decided to take Irkutsk by storm and liberate Kolchak. On January 26, Kappel died, and General Voytsehovsky led the Ice campaign.

Since the promotion of the White Army to Irkutsk was somewhat delayed because of constant fighting, this was taken advantage of by Lenin, who issued an order for the execution of Kolchak. It was carried out on February 7. Learning about this, General Wojciechowski refused to become the now meaningless storm of Irkutsk. After that, his troops crossed the Baikal and at the station. Cape immersed all the wounded, sick and women with children in trains. The rest continued their Great Siberian Ice trip to Chita, which is about 6 hundred kilometers. They entered the city in early March 1920.

When the transition was over, General Wojciechowski established a new order - "For the Great Siberian Expedition". They were awarded all the officers and soldiers who participated in it. It is worth noting that the participants of the "Kalinov Bridge" music group reminded of this historic event several years ago. "Ice campaign" - the so-called album was theirs, fully dedicated to the retreat of Kolchak's army in Siberia.