ГЕРМАНСКИЕ ОККУПАЦИОННЫЕ ВОЙСКА И ФОРМИРОВАНИЕ АНТИБОЛЬШЕВИСТСКИХ АРМИЙ НА УКРАИНЕ И НА ЮГЕ РОССИИ В 1918 Г.(по данным германских архивов)

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to reveal the peculiarities of the formation of the German occupation forces and anti-Bolshevik armies in Ukraine and southern Russia in 1918 based upon data of German archives. The author draws attention to the fact that during the German occupation of the western outskirts of the former Russian Empire, one of the basic problems of the stability of the regime was the formation of an armed wing of anti-Bolshevik forces from the remnants of the disintegrated old army and its command staff. The escalation of the Civil War would not have been possible without the organization of thousands of officers and their supply of weapons. As part of the 1918 campaign of the Great War, both the Entente and Germany and its allies did this. The Ukrainian state became a particularly large potential for replenishing the White armies. The policy of the occupying command often came into complete conflict with the course of German diplomacy aimed at normalizing relations with Soviet Russia. Support for the recruitment and transit of officers, financing and arming of the «Great Russian» armies became an increasingly acute problem for both the Ukrainian authorities and the German headquarters, counting on the foreign policy reorientation of the White movement, especially before the death of M.V. Alekseev. As a result, the author draws conclusions that the documents published for the first time allow to reconstruct the process of formation of the Southern and Astrakhan armies, as well as to determine their role in the further consolidation of the White movement in southern Russia.