The 13th Army was a field army of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

, which existed between 5 March 1919 and 12 November 1920.

History

Its predecessor was the Group of Forces on the Kursk direction, formed on 18 November 1918, under leadership of I.S. Kozhevnikov from troops arriving from the frontlines of the First World War. After its assignment to the Southern Front in December 1918, where it participated in January 1919 in the successful

Voronezh–Povorino Operation The Voronezh–Povorino Operation, was a battle in January 1919 between the White and Red Armies during the Russian Civil War around the city of Voronezh and the railway station of Povorino. The Red Army defeated the Don Army under Pyotr Krasnov. ...

, it was renamed as the Donetsk Group of Forces in February 1919, and in March reformed as the 13th Army. In Spring 1919, it suffered serious losses in the Battle of the Donbass. In August and September 1919, together with the 8th Army, it became part of the ''Selivachyov Group'', named after its commander Vladimir Selivachyov. On 10 January 1920 the Southern Front was renamed as the Southwestern of which the 13th Army remained a part. In September 1920 it was assigned to the second creation of the Southern Front, at that time fighting against Wrangel. During the Civil War the Army's force structure was highly dynamic with most subunits operating as part of operational groups. These included ''Special (reserve) Group'' (two regiments and a battery), ''Left Group'' (two divisions, cavalry and infantry brigades), ''Shock Group'' (Latvian division, Cossack cavalry brigade and separate brigade), and ''Perekopskaya Group'' (Latvian and 3rd divisions, 8th cavalry division, Nesterov group, and later 52nd division and 85th brigade of the 29th division). This last group fought on the approaches to Crimea, and experienced many changes, at one time including a group of armoured trains and the 1st Cavalry corps, but was eventually split between the Ekaterinoslav direction group of forces and the 6th Army. The rest of the 13th fought towards the southern coast of the Black sea between Perekop and north-east of Odessa. In October 1920 the army lost many of its units to the

2nd Cavalry Army The 2nd Cavalry Army () was a cavalry Field army, army of the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. History It was created by an order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southwestern Front (RSFSR), Southwestern Front on 16 July 1920 ...

. This first 13th Army participated in operations spanning an area from the southern Kursk gubernia to then Crimea. She fought against Denikin, the Don nationalist Cossacks and Wrangel. participated in the offensive into Donbass, and its defence, the

Orel–Kursk operation The Orel–Kursk operation (known in Soviet historiography as the Orel–Kromy operation) was an offensive conducted by the Southern Front (RSFSR), Southern Front of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic's Red Army against the White m ...

and in the Perekop-Chongar Operation.extract from Section VII, Vol I, Fronts, armies and groups, Civil War, Central State Archive of the Soviet Army (Russian) On November 12, 1920 the 13th Army was disbanded. Its administration was merged with the management of the 4th Army.
Its last location of headquarters was in the city of Slavyansk.

Commanders

* Innokentiy Kozhevnikov : 06.03.1919 — 16.04.1919 * Anatoliy Gekker : 16.04.1919 — 18.02.1920 * Ivan Pauka :18.02.1920 — 05.07.1920 * Robert Eideman 05.07.1920 — 10.07.1920 * Ieronim Uborevich : 10.07.1920 — 11.11.1920 Members of the Revolutionary Military Council include *

Georgy Pyatakov Georgy Leonidovich Pyatakov (; ; 6 August 1890 – 30 January 1937) was a Ukrainian revolutionary and Soviet politician. He was a leading Bolshevik in Ukraine during and after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Born in Kiev Governorate, Pyatakov wa ...

(28.07.1919 — 03.11.1919) * Arkady Rosengolts (07.10.1919 — 19.12.1919) *

Volodymyr Zatonsky Volodymyr Petrovych Zatonsky (; July 27, 1888 – July 29, 1938) was a Soviet Union, Soviet politician, academic, Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Communist Party activist, full member of the Ukrainian SSR Academy of Sciences (from 1929) ...

(22.05.1919 — 26.07.1920)

References

{{Soviet Armies of the Russian Civil War Soviet field armies in the Russian Civil War Military units and formations established in 1919 Military units and formations disestablished in 1920