The 16th 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 ...

era. It was originally formed as the Western Army () on November 15, 1918, by the

Russian SFSR 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 ...

for the purpose of recovering territories lost by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and establishing

Soviet republics In the Soviet Union, a Union Republic () or unofficially a Republic of the USSR was a constituent federated political entity with a system of government called a Soviet republic, which was officially defined in the 1977 constitution as " ...

in those territories. The Western Army engaged various local forces from the

Baltic States The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, and its actions contributed to starting the

Polish–Soviet War The Polish–Soviet War (14 February 1919 – 18 March 1921) was fought primarily between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, following World War I and the Russian Revolution. After the collapse ...

of 1919–1920. The army fought in the Polish

– The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Soviet War under the command of

Nikolai Sollogub Nikolai Vladimirovich Sollogub (; – 7 August 1937) was a Soviet military specialist who served in World War I, the Russian Civil War, and the Polish-Soviet War, reaching the rank of Komdiv in the Red Army. During the Great Purges he was imp ...

and advanced westwards into Poland in July 1920 before being thrown back during the Battle of Warsaw in August. The army retreated east into Belarus and was disbanded in May 1921.

History

Formation

After the

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria), by which Russia withdrew from World War I. The treaty, whi ...

, the newly established Russo-German border was controlled on the Russian side, by the so-called Western Section of Curtain Troops (Западный участок отрядов завесы), or simply the Western Curtain. The curtain was a sparse and heterogeneous set of detachments. Its commander was Vladimir Egoryev. (His official rank was "military leader" (военный руководитель), since he was a former

Tsarist Tsarist autocracy (), also called Tsarism, was an autocracy, a form of absolute monarchy in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire. In it, the Tsar possessed in principle authority and ...

general A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

) The Western Curtain covered over 800 kilometres along the line Nevel–

Polotsk Polotsk () or Polatsk () is a town in Vitebsk Region, Belarus. It is situated on the Dvina River and serves as the administrative center of Polotsk District. Polotsk is served by Polotsk Airport and Borovitsy air base. As of 2025, it has a pop ...

– Senno–

Orsha Orsha (; , ; ) is a city in Vitebsk Region, Belarus. It is situated on the fork of the Dnieper, Dnieper River and Arshytsa River, and it serves as the administrative center of Orsha District. As of 2025, it has a population of 101,662. History ...

–

Mogilev Mogilev (; , ), also transliterated as Mahilyow (, ), is a city in eastern Belarus. It is located on the Dnieper, Dnieper River, about from the Belarus–Russia border, border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and from Bryansk Oblast. As of 2024, ...

–

Zhlobin Zhlobin (; ; ; ) is a town in Gomel Region, Belarus. It is located on the Dnieper River, and serves as the administrative center of Zhlobin District. It is situated from Gomel. As of 2025, it has a population of 76,304. The town is notable fo ...

–

Gomel Gomel (, ) or Homyel (, ) is a city in south-eastern Belarus. It serves as the administrative centre of Gomel Region and Gomel District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it is the List of cities and largest ...

–

Novy Oskol Novy Oskol () is a town and the administrative center of Novooskolsky District in Belgorod Oblast, Russia, northeast of Belgorod, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: It is called ''Novy Oskol'' () to distinguish it from Stary ...

. Eventually the Western Curtain was arranged into seven detachments with over 20,000 troops. This number was actually very small in relation to the area it covered, and insufficient in case of any larger battle. Moreover, part of its manpower was moved to other bottlenecks of the

. Eventually, further recruiting by the

allowed a reorganization of the detachments of the Curtain into regular divisions, and the Western Curtain was further reorganized into the Western Defense Region (Западный район обороны). It was created by the

Revolutionary Military Council The Revolutionary Military Council (), sometimes called the Revolutionary War Council Brian PearceIntroductionto Fyodor Raskolnikov s "Tales of Sub-lieutenant Ilyin." or ''Revvoyensoviet'' (), was the supreme military authority of Soviet Rus ...

order #3/2 on September 11, 1918, headquartered at

Kaluga Kaluga (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Kaluga Oblast, Russia. It stands on the Oka River southwest of Moscow. Its population was 337,058 at the 2021 census. Kaluga's most famous residen ...

. The Region extended from

Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

to the Western edge of the Southern Front, and was commanded by Andrei Snesarev. After the

was annulled by the Soviets on November 13, 1918 the Western Defense Region was transformed into the Western Army (November 15, 1918), garrisoned in

Smolensk Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest cities in Russia. It has been a regional capital for most of ...

. It was composed of: the Pskov Infantry Division (later the Lithuanian Rifle Division), the 17th Vitebsk Rifle Division, the Western Rifle Division and units of the 2nd Area of Front Defense. By the end of 1918, the strength of the Western (16th) Army was around 19,000 men, but had little artillery or cavalry (8 guns and 261 horses total). Over the next few months the strength of the Army grew to 46,000 men due to conscription and the mobilization of Communist Party members. It was considered by the Soviet High Command to be one of the least important armies in that period.

Westward advance

Immediately after its formation, on November 17, 1918, the Western Army started a bloodless advance, following the retreat of the German forces, in the direction of

and

. The purpose of the Russian westward offensive of 1918–1919 was to take control over the territory abandoned by the German Army retreating from the

Ober-Ost The Supreme Commander of All German Forces in the East (), also known by its German abbreviation as , was both a high-ranking position in the armed forces of the German Empire as well as the name given to the occupied territories on the German s ...

theater of operations. Later the Soviet Western Army engaged various self-defence and militia groups from Belarus, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. Among scores of battles, the Battle of Bereza Kartuska on February 14, 1919 sparked the

. The army became part of the Western Front on February 19, and was renamed the Lithuanian-Belorussian Army on March 13. With this redesignation, the army officially became the army of the Lithuanian-Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, a Soviet puppet state covering the territory of Lithuania and Belorussia. On June 9, it became the 16th Army after it was pushed out of Lithuania after retreating from

Panevėžys Panevėžys () is the fifth-largest List of cities in Lithuania, city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, eighth-most-populous city in the Baltic States. it occupies with 89,100 inhabitants. As defined by Eu ...

in the Lithuanian War of Independence. Around the same time, the army headquarters was moved forward to Mogilev. The army continued to retreat until August, ceding

Molodechno Maladzyechna, or Molodechno, is a town in Minsk Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative centre of Maladzyechna District (and formerly of Molodechno Region from 1944 to 1960). Maladzyechna is located northwest of Minsk. In 2006, it had an ...

and

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

to Polish troops, and in August took up defensive positions on the line of the

Berezina River The Berezina or Byarezina (, ; ) is a river in Belarus and a right tributary of the Dnieper. The river starts in the Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve. The length of the Berezina is . The width of the river is 15–20 m, the maximum is 60 m. The ba ...

. From August 14, it was commanded by

. In September, the army headquarters was relocated back to Smolensk, but moved to

Novozybkov Novozybkov (; ) is a historical town in Bryansk Oblast, Russia with a population, in 2021, of 38,680. The city is home to a branch of the Bryansk State University. History It was founded in 1701 and was granted town status in 1809. Novozybkov ...

from March and May 1920. Between March and April 1920, the army fought to capture

Mozyr Mazyr or Mozyr (, ; , ; ; ) is a city in Gomel Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Mazyr District. It is situated on the Pripyat River about east of Pinsk and northwest of Chernobyl in Ukraine. As of 2025, it has a po ...

. In May, the headquarters moved back to Mogilev.

Polish-Soviet War

May Offensive

From May 14 to June 8, 1920, the army fought in the Western Front counterattack against the Polish Kiev offensive, the May Offensive. In the counterattack, planned by front commander

Mikhail Tukhachevsky Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky ( rus, Михаил Николаевич Тухачевский, Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevskiy, p=tʊxɐˈtɕefskʲɪj; – 12 June 1937), nicknamed the Red Napoleon, was a Soviet general who was prominen ...

, the 16th Army was to frontally attack the Polish 4th Army at Borisov and Igumen and keep it from moving to reinforce threatened Polish units, while the 15th Army, the main force, would advance southwest towards Molodechno, then wheel around and push the

1st Polish Army First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

into the rear of the 4th, driving them into the

Pripet marshes __NOTOC__ The Pripet Marshes or Pripyat Marshes (), also known as Pinsk Marshes (), the Polesie Marshes, and the Rokitno Marshes, are a vast natural region of wetlands in Polesia, along the forested basin of the Pripyat River and its tributaries f ...

and destroying them there. The attack began on May 14, but failed when the Soviet advance was unable to build momentum and the 15th Army was counterattacked and forced into a disorderly retreat at the beginning of June. The 16th Army crossed the

Berezina The Berezina or Byarezina (, ; ) is a river in Belarus and a right tributary of the Dnieper. The river starts in the Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve. The length of the Berezina is . The width of the river is 15–20 m, the maximum is 60 m. The ba ...

and created a bridgehead, but was itself counterattacked and forced to retreat back across the Berezina.

July Offensive and Battle of Warsaw

Between July 4 and 23, the army fought in the July Offensive, the renewed Soviet offensive in the war. During the offensive, the army rapidly advanced through Belarus, capturing Igumen,

Bobruisk Babruysk (, ) or Bobruysk (, ; , ) is a city in Mogilev Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Babruysk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. It is situated on the Berezina River. Babruysk o ...

, Minsk,

Baranovichi Baranavichy or Baranovichi is a city in the Brest Region of western Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Baranavichy District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it has a population of 170,817. ...

Slonim Slonim is a town in Grodno Region, in western Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Slonim District. It is located at the junction of the Shchara and Isa (river), Isa rivers, southeast of Grodno. As of 2025, it has a population of ...

, and Vawkavysk. On July 25, the Soviet attack on Warsaw began, culminating in the Battle of Warsaw. The 16th Army continued to advance westward, and on the night of August 1, the army attacked Polish general Wladyslaw Sikorski's

Polesie Group Independent Operational Group Polesie (''Samodzielna Grupa Operacyjna Polesie'', SGO Polesie) was one of the Polish Army Corps (Operational Groups) that defended Poland during the Invasion of Poland in 1939. It was created on 11 September 1939 and ...

Brest-Litovsk Brest, formerly Brest-Litovsk and Brest-on-the-Bug, is a city in south-western Belarus at the border with Poland opposite the Polish town of Terespol, where the Bug and Mukhavets rivers meet, making it a border town. It serves as the admini ...

after crossing the

Western Bug The Bug or Western Bug is a major river in Central Europe that flows through Belarus (border), Poland, and Ukraine, with a total length of . On August 8, Tukhachevsky issued his order for the capture of Warsaw, in which the 16th Army was to attack the city from the east, covered on its flank by the Mozyr Group of Forces. During the Battle of Radzymin between August 13 and 16, the army's 27th Omsk Rifle Division, commanded by Vitovt Putna, fought to capture

Radzymin Radzymin is a town in Poland and is one of the distant suburbs of the city of Warsaw. It is located in the powiat of Wołomin of the Masovian Voivodeship. The town has 8,818 inhabitants (as of 2008, but the surrounding commune is heavily populate ...

, which changed hands more than five times during the fighting. At the same time, Polish leader

Józef Piłsudski Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Chief of State (Poland), Chief of State (1918–1922) and first Marshal of Poland (from 1920). In the aftermath of World War I, he beca ...

's Assault Group began the counteroffensive. They quickly broke through the understrength Mozyr Group on 16th Army's flank, and on 18 August the army came under attack from both the three divisions of the Assault Group's 4th Army on its flank and the 10th and 15th Divisions advancing from Warsaw on its front. Under pressure, the three southernmost divisions of the 16th Army began a precipitate retreat to the east, but then were attacked in turn by troops from the Assault Group. As a result of these actions, the 8th and 10th Rifle Divisions were destroyed, while the 2nd Rifle Division suffered heavy losses. The 17th Rifle Division lost communication with the rest of the army in the chaos, leaving the Putna's 27th as the only intact unit in the army. Out of touch with the situation at the front due to Polish radio jamming, Tukhachevsky ordered Sollogub to create a defensive line between Radzymin and Brest-Litovsk with his southern divisions to prevent Polish troops from attacking the Soviet rear. For this purpose, the army's commander was given permission to draw on the 60,000 replacements near Grodno. Sollogub issued the orders on August 19, when army headquarters had lost contact with all of its units, so they were not received. Early on the next day, he was almost captured by Feliks Jaworski's Polish cavalry brigade at his headquarters in Ostrożany. By this time, most of the army had fled across the Bug towards

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the List of cities and towns in Poland, tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Biał ...

, with only the 27th Division holding a couple of crossings to allow stragglers to pass through. By August 21, the army's remnants were hurriedly retreating eastwards in small groups, mostly avoiding roads and towns, with the 27th Division, down to 25% strength, guarding the rear and covering the retreat of both the 16th Army and the Mozyr Group. On August 22, Białystok was captured by the Polish 1st Legions Infantry Division, cutting off stragglers from the army and the Mozyr Group. The 27th Division launched a counterattack and briefly opened the road, but Putna left the area after a Polish counterattack retook the gains, leaving the stragglers to capture. Three days later, the division crossed the

Niemen Neman, Nemunas or Niemen is a river in Europe that rises in central Belarus and flows through Lithuania then forms the northern border of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia's western exclave, which specifically follows its southern channel. It drains ...

, moving towards Vawkavysk, away from the Polish forces. After withdrawing east of the Niemen back into Belarus, Tukhachevsky began preparations for renewing the offensive. As part of the resulting reorganization of the Red Army units of the front, the two best units of the 16th Army, the 2nd and 27th Divisions, were transferred to the 15th Army. In exchange, the army received the 48th and 56th Rifle Divisions, bringing it back up to its strength before the Battle of Warsaw, and its headquarters was located at

Battle of the Niemen River and operations in Belarus

However, Pilsudski launched his attack, known as the Battle of the Niemen River, on September 21. Although the Soviet line initially held, Polish forces moved through Lithuania, then swept south into the rear of the Soviet northern flank, which began a disorganized retreat. In the center, the 15th and 16th Armies retreated in an orderly fashion thanks to the actions of the 27th Division, the southernmost of the 15th Army units. By October 1, the units of the two armies were holding positions in a line of old Russian World War I trenches, opposite the former Polish positions from before the July Offensive. The defense line was quickly broken through by the Polish advance, and by the time the Polish troops captured Minsk and reached the Berezina on October 15, the 16th Army had been reduced to a skeleton of its original size. The war ended on the next day when the cease-fire between Poland and the RSFSR took effect. On October 17, the army was reinforced with troops from the disbanded 4th Army. From October, it was headquartered at Mogilev. Between November and December, the 16th Army fought against Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz's troops. On December 7, the army received the troops of the disbanded 3rd Army. In March, the Gomel Fortified Region became part of the 16th Army. The army was disbanded on May 7, 1921, and its troops distributed to other Western Front units.

Commanders

The army was commanded by the following officers: * Andrei Snesarev (November 15, 1918May 31, 1919) * Filipp Mironov (acting, May 3114, 1919) *

Alexander Novikov Alexander Alexandrovich Novikov (; – 3 December 1976) was the chief marshal of aviation for the Soviet Air Forces during the Soviet Union's involvement in the World War II, Second World War. Lauded as "the man who has piloted the Red Air F ...

(June 14July 22, 1919) * Vasily Glagolev (July 22August 14, 1919) *

(August 14, 1919September 21, 1920) * Alexander Kuk (September 26, 1920April 24, 1921) * Yevgeny Shilovskiy (April 24May 7, 1921)

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * {{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 Lithuania in the Russian Civil War Belarus in the Russian Civil War