The 11th 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 fought on the Caspian-Caucasian Front. It took a prominent part in the sovietization of the three republics of the southern Caucasus in 1920–21, when

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

, and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

were brought within the orbit of Soviet Russia.

Russian Civil War

Since the Russian Republic's Caucasus Front (April 1917 - March 1918) dissolved, it did not have a true successor organization.
The Army of the North Caucasus, which was renamed 11th Army on October 3, 1918, constituted the main army of the

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

in the area during the

. During the

the 11th Army fought against the

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

troops of General

Anton Denikin Anton Ivanovich Denikin (, ; – 7 August 1947) was a Russian military leader who served as the Supreme Ruler of Russia, acting supreme ruler of the Russian State and the commander-in-chief of the White movement–aligned armed forces of Sout ...

Volunteer Army The Volunteer Army (; ), abbreviated to (), also known as the Southern White Army was a White Army active in South Russia during the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1920. The Volunteer Army fought against Bolsheviks and the Makhnovists on the ...

in the western part of the

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, or Ciscaucasia, is a subregion in Eastern Europe governed by Russia. It constitutes the northern part of the wider Caucasus region, which separates Europe and Asia. The North Caucasus is bordered by the Sea of Azov and the B ...

. It was the main strength of the Caspian-Caucasian Army Group. In January 1919, the front of 200 miles held by the Red troops along the Caucasus foothills and South Russian steppes was cut into two by the White forces in the

Northern Caucasus Operation (1918–1919) The Northern Caucasus Operation was fought between the White and Red Armies during the Russian Civil War between December 1918 and March 1919. The White Army captured the entire Northern Caucasus. The Red Army withdrew to Astrahan and the Volga ...

, which resulted in the panic flight of the 11th Red Army. According to

Peter Kenez Peter Kenez (; born 1937) is a Jewish Hungarian-American historian specializing in Russian and Eastern European history and politics. Life Kenez was born and grew up in Pesterzsébet, Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary. His father was arrested in Ma ...

, "The raging

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...

epidemics greatly contributed to the misery of the soldiers; during the winter of 1918-1919 fifty thousand men became ill. The sick, the hungry, and the demoralized gave themselves up by the tens of thousands. The Whites captured large stores of weapons and the Eleventh army ceased to exist." On 27 April 1920 the 11th Army took

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

and

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (), also known as the Azerbaijan People's Republic (; ), was the first secular democracy, democratic republic in the Turkic peoples, Turkic and Muslim worlds. *Tadeusz Swietochowski. ''Russia and Azerbaijan: ...

collapsed. The Bolsheviks then established the

Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, also referred to as the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, Azerbaijan SSR, Azerbaijani SSR, AzSSR, Soviet Azerbaijan or simply Azerbaijan, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent re ...

, as a Soviet republic in May 1920. This was the first country in the

South Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and West Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Armenia, ...

that the Bolsheviks seized control of. Taking advantage of its quarrels with neighboring Armenia, the 11th Army had little difficulty in initially sovietizing Azerbaijan. Although it soon was embroiled in a fierce anti-Soviet insurgency, the army remained poised to advance into the two remaining republics, Armenian and Georgia. For the time being, however, the authorities in Moscow ordered the army to stand down while negotiations between Russia and Armenia were being carried out. In that brief span the Red Army did aid Armenian communists fighting against the Armenian government in the

Ijevan Ijevan ( ) is a town and urban municipal community in the Ijevan Municipality of the Tavush Province of Armenia, also serving as the province's administrative centre. It is located at the center of the region, at the foot of Ijevan ridge of Guga ...

region of Armenia. In September–November 1920

and in February–March 1921, Georgia were invaded and brought under Bolshevik control. Having conquered the whole of Transcaucasia, the 11th Army was dissolved on May 29, 1921 and replaced by the

Independent Caucasus Army The Red Banner Caucasus Army () was a Soviet army existing from 1921 to 1935. The army was named the Independent Caucasus Army on its creation, and carried this name until August 1923, when it was renamed the Red Banner Caucasus Army. It ceased to e ...

Commanders

The commanders of the Army of the North Caucasus were : *

Alexei Ivanovich Avtonomov Alexei Ivanovich Avtonomov (; 1890–1919) was a Russian Red Army military commander during the Russian Civil War. Avtonomov was a Kuban Cossack. He fought in World War I with the rank of Cornet (sub-lieutenant) but rose quickly during the Civi ...

(25 January - 28 May 1918) * Karl Kalnin (28 May - 2 August 1918), *

Ivan Sorokin Ivan Lukich Sorokin ; 4 December 1884 – 3 November 1918) was a Russian military leader and participant in the Russo-Japanese War, World War I, and the Russian Civil War. He was Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army of the North Caucasus and Comma ...

(3 August - 3 October 1918) The head of the 11th Army's Revolutionary Military Council was

Sergo Ordzhonikidze Sergo Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze, ; (born Grigol Konstantines dze Orjonikidze; 18 February 1937) was an Old Bolshevik and a Soviet statesman. Born and raised in Georgia, in the Russian Empire, Ordzhonikidze joined the Bolsheviks at an e ...

.
The military leaders of the 11th Army were *

(3 - 27 October 1918) *

Ivan Fedko Ivan Fyodorovich Fedko (; ; July 6, 1897 – February 26, 1939) was a Soviet Komandarm 1st rank and army commander. He was born in what is now the Left-bank Ukraine. He fought in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I before joining the B ...

(17 - 30 November 1918) * Vladimir Kruse (30 November 1918 - 3 January 1919) *

Mikhail Levandovsky Mikhail Karlovich Levandovsky (; 15 May 1890 – 29 July 1938) was a Soviet Komandarm 2nd rank. He fought in World War I in the Imperial Russian Army and in the Russian Civil War in the Soviet Red Army. He participated in the Soviet invasions of ...

(3 January - 13 February 1919) * N.A. Żdanow (20 March - 3 June 1919) * A. Smirnow (3 - 10 June 1919) * V.P. Raspopov (14 August — 26 September 1919), * J.P. Butyagin (26 September — 19 December 1919), *

Matvei Vasilenko Matvei Ivanovich Vasilenko (; ; – 1 July 1937) was a Soviet komkor (corps commander). He fought in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I before going over to the Bolsheviks in the subsequent Civil War. He also fought in the war against ...

(19 December 1919 — 29 March 1920), *

(29 March — 12 July 1920), *

(26 July — 12 September 1920), * Anatoly Gekker (19 September 1920 — 29 May 1921). Military decisions were supervised by the Army's ''Council of War''. Its members were in 1921:

Sergey Kirov Sergei Mironovich Kirov (born Kostrikov; 27 March 1886 – 1 December 1934) was a Russian and Soviet politician and Bolshevik revolutionary. Kirov was an early revolutionary in the Russian Empire and a member of the Bolshevik faction of the Russ ...

Valerian Kuybyshev Valerian Vladimirovich Kuybyshev (; – 25 January 1935) was a Russian revolutionary, Red Army officer, and prominent Soviet politician. Biography Early years Born in Omsk in Siberia on , Kuybyshev studied at the , a Cadet Corps in O ...

, J.P. Butyagin, K.A. Mekhonoshin, Sokolov, J.I. Vesnik, Lukin, B.D. Mikhailov, Kvirkeliya, S.S. Eliava and P.I. Kushner. By 1921, the 11th Red Army is characterized by the modern French historian

Marie Broxup Marie Bennigsen-Broxup (1944 – 7 December 2012) was an expert on the Caucasus and Central Asia, with particular emphasis on Muslim communities within these regions. She pioneered an area studies focus on the former Soviet south, founding new rese ...

as "a purely Russian army led by Russian commanders and Russian political cadres."Broxup, Marie. "The Last Ghazawat: The 1920-1921 Uprising," cited in John B. Dunlop (1998), ''Russia Confronts Chechnya: Roots of a Separatist Conflict'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 40, . In May 1921 the army lost its name and was integrated into the Caucasian Front, later part of the

North Caucasus Military District The North Caucasus Military District was a military district of the Russian Armed Forces from 1992-2010. Before 1992 it had been part of the Soviet Armed Forces since 1918. In 2010 it became the Southern Military District and lately also included t ...

References

{{Soviet Armies of the Russian Civil War Soviet field armies in the Russian Civil War Military units and formations established in 1918 Military units and formations disestablished in 1921