The Steppe March (Russian: Степной поход) was a successful

military withdrawal A tactical withdrawal or retreating defensive action is a type of military operation, generally meaning that retreating forces draw back while maintaining contact with the enemy. A withdrawal may be undertaken as part of a general retreat, to ...

by the

Don Cossacks Don Cossacks (russian: Донские казаки, Donskie kazaki) or Donians (russian: донцы, dontsy) are Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don. Historically, they lived within the former Don Cossack Host (russian: Д� ...

in Spring 1918, towards the steppe around the Sal River, to ensure their survival under attack from the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

. In January–February 1918, the Red Army had conducted the successful Donbass-Don Operation in which

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don ( rus, Ростов-на-Дону, r=Rostov-na-Donu, p=rɐˈstof nə dɐˈnu) is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East ...

was occupied on February 23, and the Cossack capital

Novocherkassk Novocherkassk (russian: Новочерка́сск, lit. ''New Cherkassk'') is a city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located near the confluence of the Tuzlov and Aksay Rivers, the latter a distributary of the Don River. Novocherkassk is best known ...

on February 25. The

Don Cossack Don Cossacks (russian: Донские казаки, Donskie kazaki) or Donians (russian: донцы, dontsy) are Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don. Historically, they lived within the former Don Cossack Host (russian: Д� ...

Ataman

Alexei Kaledin Aleksei Maksimovich Kaledin (russian: Алексе́й Макси́мович Каледи́н; 24 October 1861 – 11 February 1918) was a Don Cossack Cavalry General who led the Don Cossack White movement in the opening stages of the Russian C ...

committed suicide on 11 February 1918. The

Volunteer Army The Volunteer Army (russian: Добровольческая армия, translit=Dobrovolcheskaya armiya, abbreviated to russian: Добрармия, translit=Dobrarmiya) was a White Army active in South Russia during the Russian Civil War from ...

under the command of Generals

Mikhail Alekseev Mikhail Vasilyevich Alekseyev (russian: Михаил Васильевич Алексеев) ( – ) was an Imperial Russian Army general during World War I and the Russian Civil War. Between 1915 and 1917 he served as Tsar Nicholas II's Ch ...

and General

Lavr Kornilov Lavr Georgiyevich Kornilov (russian: Лавр Гео́ргиевич Корни́лов, ; – 13 April 1918) was a Russian military intelligence officer, explorer, and general in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I and the ensuing Rus ...

retreated during the

Ice March The Ice March (Russian: Ледяной походъ), also called the First Kuban Campaign (Russian: Первый кубанскій походъ), a military withdrawal lasting from February to May 1918, was one of the defining moments in the ...

to the

Kuban Kuban (Russian and Ukrainian: Кубань; ady, Пшызэ) is a historical and geographical region of Southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe, the Volga Delta and the Caucasus, and separated fr ...

. Field Ataman Popov's Don Cossacks didn't want to leave the Don and instead departed toward the river Sal on 26 February. Popov's force included 1500 Cossacks, five guns, and 40 machine guns. On 23 April, Popov's force, now diminished to 1000, linked up with K. S. Poliakov's Zaplavskaia army at Konstantinovskaia. From the combined force, Popov organized Southern, Northern and Trans-Don army groups, under S. V. Denisov, Semiletov, and Semenov respectively. On 6 May, the Southern group helped capture

, which coincided with the German advance, and the arrival of

Mikhail Drozdovsky Mikhail Gordeevich Drozdovsky (russian: Михаил Гордеевич Дроздовский; October 7, 1881 – January 1, 1919) was a Russian army officer and one of the military leaders of the anti-Bolshevik White movement during the Ru ...

's men from Romania.

References

{{reflist History of the Don Cossacks

Russian Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Russian Civil War , partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I , image = , caption = Clockwise from top left: {{flatlist, *Soldiers ...

White movement Battles of the Russian Civil War History of Donetsk Oblast May 1918 events April 1918 events March 1918 events February 1918 events