Volunteer Army in the Don and North Caucasus (November 1917 — December 1918)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the actions of the Volunteer Army in the Don and the Caucasus in the first period of its existence. The combat path of the army was reconstructed and the political component of the anti-Bolshevik forces was presented. Much attention is paid to the historiography of the problem. The personal contribution of the leaders of the White movement to the successes and failures at the early stage of the struggle against the Bolsheviks is underlined. The author comes to the conclusion that during the entire first year of its existence - from the birth of the “Alekseev organization” in November 1917 and until Denikin and Krasnov reached an agreement on the creation of the Armed Forces in the South of Russia under the united high command of A. I. Denikin in December 1918 the leaders of the army made no major mistakes either in the military or in the political field; on the contrary, their firm and consistent position, supported by the army masses, made it possible by the end of 1918 to achieve obvious successes in the field of both military and state building and turn into the main anti-Soviet force in the South.