Ural Army
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The Ural Separate Army was a military formation of the White Army 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 operated in the Volga region and the Southern Urals and was formed on December 28, 1918 from units of the Ural Cossack Army and other military units within the Urals Region. The headquarters of the Ural Army received the rights of a separate army headquarters. The composition and number varied between 15 and 25 thousand, depending on the situation on the fronts and the territory of action. This mostly isolated army experienced a constant and strong lack of weapons and ammunition. Most of the time the Army was formally under command of Admiral Kolchak, at the end of 1919 – beginning of 1920, it tried to coordinate with
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 ...
.


Actions

It first acted against Red Guard units, from June 1918 against the 4th and 1st armies of the Red Eastern Front and from August 15 against the Red Turkestan Front. In April 1919, during the general offensive of Kolchak's armies, it broke through the Red's front and besieged Uralsk, which had been abandoned in January 1919. It also approached Saratov and Samara, but its limited means did not allow to capture the Urals. The Ural Army consisted of: * 1st Ural Cossack Corps (1st and 2nd Ural Cossack Divisions), * 2nd Iletsk Cossack Corps, * 3rd Ural-Astrakhan Cossack Corps. In early July 1919, the troops of the Red Turkestan Front launched a counteroffensive against the Ural Army. The well-equipped 25th Infantry Division, commanded by Vasily Chapayev and redeployed from Ufa, defeated units of the Ural Army on July 5–11, broke through the blockade of Uralsk, and entered the city on July 11, 1919. The Ural Army began to retreat on all fronts. On September 5, 1919, the Ural Army obtained its last success when it executed the Lbishchensk raid, in which the divisional headquarters of the Red 25th Infantry Division were ambushed near
Lbishchensk Chapaev (, ''Chapaev''; Russian: Чапаев) is a town in north-western Kazakhstan. It is the seat of Akzhaik District in West Kazakhstan Region. The town is located 130 km south of Oral, Kazakhstan (Uralsk), on the right bank of the Ura ...
and commander Vasily Chapayev and some 2,500 soldiers were killed.


Defeat

But after the collapse of Kolchak's Eastern Front in October–November 1919, the Ural Army was isolated by superior forces of the Reds, thereby losing all sources of replenishment with weapons and ammunition. The defeat of the Ural Army by the Bolsheviks was only a matter of time. On November 2, the Red Turkestan Front consisting of the 1st and 4th armies (18,500 infantry, 3,500 cavalry, 86 guns and 365 machine guns) launched a general offensive against the Ural Army (5,200 infantry, 12,000 cavalry, 65 guns, 249 machine guns), planning to surround and destroy the main forces of the Ural Army with concentrated attacks on Lbishchensk from the north and east. Under the pressure of the superior forces of the Reds, the Ural Army began a retreat. On November 20, the Reds captured
Lbishchensk Chapaev (, ''Chapaev''; Russian: Чапаев) is a town in north-western Kazakhstan. It is the seat of Akzhaik District in West Kazakhstan Region. The town is located 130 km south of Oral, Kazakhstan (Uralsk), on the right bank of the Ura ...
, but they could not surround the main force of the Ural Army. The front stabilized south of Lbishchensk. The Turkestan Front called up reserves and was replenished with weapons and ammunition. The Ural Army had neither reserves nor ammunition. On December 10, 1919, the Reds resumed the offensive. The resistance of the weakened Ural Army units was broken and the front collapsed. On December 11, Zhalpaktal fell and on December 18, the Reds captured the city of Tajpak, thereby cutting off the route of retreat for the Iletsk Corps. On December 22 the Gorsky settlement, one of the last strongholds of the Ural Army before the city of Guryev, was also lost. The army commander, General Vladimir Tolstov, and his staff retreated to Guryev on the
Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...
. The remnants of the Iletsk Corps, suffering heavy losses in the battles during the retreat and from typhus, were almost completely destroyed or captured by Red troops near Malyy Baybuz on January 4, 1920. At the same time, the Kirghiz regiment of this corps almost completely went over to the side of the troops of the
Alash Autonomy The Alash Autonomy, also known as Alash Orda, was an unrecognized Kazakh proto-state located in Central Asia and was part of the Russian Republic, and then Soviet Russia. The Alash Autonomy was founded in 1917 by Kazakh elites, and disestabli ...
, which at that time acted as allies of the Bolsheviks. The Kirghiz captured the headquarters of the Iletsk corps, the 4th and 5th Iletsky divisions, and handed them over as prisoners to the red Corps commander. Lieutenant-General Vladimir Akutin was shot by the troops of the 25th ("Chapayevsky") division (according to other sources, was arrested and taken to Moscow, where he was later shot). The 6th Iletsk Division, which retreated to the Volga across the steppe of the Bukey Horde, was almost completely whipped out by disease, hunger and Red Army bullets.


Death March

On January 5, 1920, the city of Guryev was taken by the Red Army. A part of the Ural Army became prisoners, a part of the Cossacks went over to the Reds. The remnants of the Ural Army, led by the army commander General V.S. Tolstov, decided to leave for the south, hoping to unite with the White Turkestan Army of General Boris Kazanovich. A caravan with carts and civilians (families and refugees), totaling about 15,000 people, headed south along the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea towards Fort Alexandrovsk. The march took place in January – March 1920, under very difficult conditions of a harsh winter in a deserted landscape with icy winds and frost down to minus 30 degrees and in absence of sufficient drinking water and a catastrophic shortage of food and medicine. On 10 February, the Red Army took Krasnovodsk, south of Fort Alexandrovsk. The goal was to be evacuated on ships of the
Caspian Flotilla The Caspian Flotilla () is the flotilla of the Russian Navy in the Caspian Sea. Established in November 1722 by the order of Tsar Peter the Great as part of the Imperial Russian Navy, the Caspian Flotilla is the oldest flotilla in the Russian ...
of the AFSR to the other side of the Caspian sea in Port Petrovsk. By the time of arrival at Fort Alexandrovsk, less than 3,000 Cossacks remained from the Army, most of whom suffered from different stages of typhoid or frostbite. The sense of the campaign was lost, when by the end of March 1920, Denikin's troops were retreating in the Caucasus and Port Petrovsk was abandoned. Most Cossacks were captured or killed by the Red Army at Fort Alexandrovsk. On April 4, 1920, the Ural Army had ceased to exist. Only a small detachment of 214 people (several generals, officers, Cossacks, and civilians (family members), led by
Ataman Ataman (variants: ''otaman'', ''wataman'', ''vataman''; ; ) was a title of Cossack and haidamak leaders of various kinds. In the Russian Empire, the term was the official title of the supreme military commanders of the Cossack armies. The Ukra ...
Vladimir Tolstov, marched on towards Persia. 162 of them survived the march and reached Persia on June 2.the free dictionary
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Army commanders

* Major General M. F. Martynov (April – September 1918); * Major General Vladimir Akutin (late September – November 14, 1918) * Lieutenant-General Nikolai Savelyev (November 15, 1918 – April 7, 1919), * Major General (from November 7, 1919, Lieutenant General) Vladimir Tolstov (April 8, 1919 – beginning of 1920).


Sources



* ttp://www.xenophon-mil.org/rushistory/sovruscivilwar/carl-9.htm Xenophon


References

{{White Armies and White Fleets of the Russian Civil War Military units and formations of White Russia (Russian Civil War)