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WarChron - Volunteer Army South Russia |
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The Year 1917
On 21 December, at Petrograd, the Left SR's joined Lenin's government in a coalition with the socialist administration.
On 21-22 December, at Jasi, a Romanian Cabinet met to consider attempting to disarm Bolshevik controlled forces. On the 22nd, three Romanian regiments, with a group of Ukrainians, disarmed about 3,000 Bolsheviks at Socola, who had taken over trains. They were intercepted as they neared Jasi, and were disarmed without violence, having failed in an attempt to seize General Shcherbachev, commander of the Russian 6th Army. The Bolsheviks were led by Semyon Roshal. He was murdered after his capture to set an example.
On 22 December, at Brest-Litovsk, the peace talks were slowly dragging on day by day.
In Berlin, Germany sent a note urging Finland to apply to the Bolsheviks for recognition.
On 23 December, the Crimean Tatar National Republic was established at Bakhchinsarae. It was directed by Ch. Chelebiev, with military director D. Seidamet. On 24-27 January 1918, Red Guards and revolutionary sailors seized power. On 22 March 1918 it became the Soviet Tauride.
In Paris, the Allied Supreme War Council in Paris stressed the necessity of keeping the eastern front active by every means possible, and suggested approaches by which this aim could be achieved. The move signalled the beginning of Allied intervention in Russia.
At Novocherkassk, arrival of a French Military Mission under Colonel Hucher. He held talks with General Alekseev to arrange support for the Whites in South Russia. Hucher claimed that the French government had granted him a credit of 100 million rubles to aid the Whites.
Already there was talk of granting spheres of influence among the Allies. France was to become responsible for the Ukraine, Bessarabia, the Crimea, and provisionally for the Don region. The British were to operate in the Caucasus, Georgia, Armenia and Kurdistan.
During this period, French General Berthelot at Jasi, sent pilot Captain Bordes with seven million francs for the Whites at Novocherkassk, but by the time he had arrived there the Volunteer Army had moved to the Kuban. Bordes was believed to have sent three million francs to Moscow with Colonel Hucher, while he continued searching for General Kaledin with the rest of the funds.
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French efforts included establishing and organizing anti-Bolshevik centers, along with the formation of Polish, Czechoslovak and Ukrainian divisions. Berthelot handled such matters in South Russia, while General Niessel did the same in central and northern Russia.
In Tiflis, the Reds began formation of a Caucasian Army.
On 23/24 December, Romanian troops arrested the Bolshevik Kondarushkin and other revolutionaries at Russian 4th Army HQ at Roman.
On 24 December, the Reds enforced an eight hour workday on the railroads. The Reds established the Commissariat of Public Education which took control of education from the hands of the Orthodox Church.
At Paris, the Supreme Allied Council announced that everyone willing to support the continuation of the war in Russia would get Allied aid.
In the Ukraine, Ukrainian authorities interrupted telegraph service between Petrograd and the Southwest Front. French involvement was possible, as members of the French Military Mission were believed to have disrupted Red communications and railway lines in the region during December 1917 through February 1918.
On 25 December, at Novocherkassk, General Kornilov took command of the Volunteer Army of South Russia. Red General Antonov-Ovseenko, HQ at Kharkov, sent part of his forces against the Whites at Novocherkassk and Rostov, with the rest moving on the cities of Ekaterinoslav and Taganrog. The Reds had 100 machine guns, twenty field guns, five aircraft, and an armored train.
At Kiev, the Belgian Armored Car Division received orders to return to the Allied Western Front. On 20 February 1918, they left Kiev in 50 railway cars for Moscow, arriving on the 25th. From Moscow they proceeded eastward via Vyatka, Perm, Omsk, Irkutsk on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. They left Vladivostok on 24 May on the S.S. Sheridan, arriving in San Francisco on 12 June. By train they reached New York, then by ship, reaching the French port of Bordeaux in July.
In the Ukraine, the newly formed Red Ukrainian Army, led by Antonov-Ovseenko, was composed of four army groups headed by Yegorov, Berzin, Kudinskiy and Muraviev, which eventually had 30,000 men, sixty field guns and ten armored trains. UNR forces, led by Simon Petlyura, numbered only 15,000 men in scattered units to oppose them.
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On the Romanian Front, at 0300 hours General Kelchevskiy's Ukrainian troops moved against the Bolsheviks at Botosani, who were arrested without incident. The Romanians were doing all in their power to disarm and repatriate Russian troops in the region.
On 26 December, an All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets met at Kharkov. The Kharkov Bolsheviks proclaimed the Kiev Rada as dissolved, and established the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. The move was made with the help of the local Red Guard and the 30th Auxiliary Regiment, which disarmed the local UNR regiment, seizing 18 armored cars and other military equipment.
In Manchuria, at the request of the Allies, Chinese troops restored General D.L. Horvath to power in Kharbin (Harbin).
On 27 December, Russian General V.G. Boldyrev, former commander of the 5th Army, was tried by a revolutionary tribunal and sentenced to three years in prison.
At Petrograd, a Red decree announced that all banks have been nationalized, placing them under direct state control. They then amalgamated all private banks with the State Bank. There was no doubt that money would be needed for the revolution.
At Riga, Latvia again declared its independence from Russia.
In Siberia, at Irkutsk, the Bolsheviks seized control of the city, killing three Frenchmen in the action.
In Japan, at another meeting in Tokyo of the Advisory Council on Foreign Relations, there was a decided split between “interventionist” and “anti-interventionist” factions.
In late December, at Uralsk, Ataman B.P. Martinov began formation of the Uralsk Cossacks (White Guards) southwest of Orenburg.
On 28 December, a provisional peace agreement was signed between the Reds and the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk. The Ukrainian Rada agreed to join the peace talks at Brest-Litovsk.
On the Romanian Front, Romanian intelligence issued an order to all units. It concerned Russian plunder and marauding of estates and villages, with isolated individuals and with organized bands openly committing robberies, pillaging and even felonies, terrorizing the population with guns, grenades and all manner of violence; detachments and units occupying by force camps not intended for them and refusing to leave.
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