The Western Front () was a front 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 ...

and

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 ...

, which existed between 12 February 1919 and 8 April 1924. The Western Front was first established on the basis of the administration of the disbanded Northern Front. The Front headquarters were located consequently in

Staraya Russa Staraya Russa (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the Polist, Polist River, south of Veliky Novgorod, the administrative center of the oblast. Its population has steadily decreased over ...

, Molodechno,

Daugavpils Daugavpils (see also other names) is a state city in southeastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city derives its name. The parts of the city to the north of the river belong to the historical Latvian region ...

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 ...

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 ...

Operations

At the time of the formation of the Western Front, Soviet troops were fighting on a front some 2,000 km long, stretching from

Murmansk Murmansk () is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far Far North (Russia), northwest part of Russia. It is the world's largest city north of the Arctic Circle and sits on both slopes and banks of a modest fjord, Ko ...

(against the White Northern Army and the North Russia intervention), over the Karelian Isthmus (against Finland), and the Baltics to the Belorussian Front (against Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian formations and Russian White Guards, supported by German and Polish troops). By July 1919, the Soviet Armies of the Western Front had retreated from the Baltic area under the onslaught of the enemy. In Belarus, the Polish offensive was stopped in August on the Berezina River. In August 1919 the Front forces were on the line of the Gulf of Finland-Pskov-Polotsk-Berezina river. In June-August and October-November 1919, the 7th and 15th Armies, supported by the ships of the Baltic Fleet, repelled two offensives of the White Northwestern Army under Nikolai Yudenich against Petrograd and defeated it, which allowed the concentration of the main efforts of the Red Army in the fight against the armies of Denikin and Kolchak. In 1920, the Western Front became the main front of the Soviet Republic and it participated in repelling the offensive of the Polish Army during the

. The May operation (1920) of the Western Front, although it did not achieve its goals, created favorable conditions for a successful counteroffensive of the troops of the South-Western Front in Ukraine. As a result of the July operation (1920) of the Western Front, Belarus and parts of Lithuania were occupied, and in August 1920 the troops of the Western Front approached Warsaw. However, the reassessment by the Soviet command of its forces and the underestimation of the enemy's forces, as well as bad coordination between the Western and South-Western Fronts, led to the defeat of the Soviet troops of the Western Front in the

Battle of Warsaw (1920) The Battle of Warsaw (; , ), also known as the Miracle on the Vistula (), was a series of battles that resulted in a decisive Polish victory and complete disintegration of the Red Army in August 1920 during the Polish–Soviet War. After the ...

and their withdrawal. Despite the defeat of the Red Army, Poland didn't continue the war and a truce was signed on 12 October, which enabled the Red Army to concentrate its main forces against Wrangel's troops around the Crimean Peninsula. The Western Front and its administration continued to exist after the end of hostilities, until it was transformed into the

Western Military District The Western Military District () was a Military districts of Russia, military district of Russia, in existence from 2010 until its abolishment as a unitary military command on February 26, 2024, succeeded by the newly reconstituted Moscow Mil ...

on April 8, 1924.

Composition

* 7th Army (19.02.1919 - 10.05.1921), * 16th Army (a.k.a. Western Army and Belarusian-Lithuanian Army) (19.02.1919 - 07.05.1921), * 15th Army (a;k.a. Soviet Latvian Army) (19.02.1919 - 04.10.1920), * Estonian Army (19.02.1919 - 30.05.1919), * 12th Army (16.06.1919 - 27.07.1919, 07.09.1919 - 17.10.1919, 14.08.1920 - 27.09.1920), * 3rd Army (11.06.1920 - 31.12.1920), * 4th Army (11.06.1920 - 18.10.1920), * 1st Cavalry Army (14.08.1920 - 27.09.1920), * Reserve Army (04.1920 - 11.1920) * Mozyr group (18.05.1920 - 09.1920) * Dnieper Flotilla (1919)

Composition of the Western Front in August 1920

* 3rd Army ( Komandarm Vladimir Lazarevich) ** 5th Rifle Division () ** 6th Rifle Division () ** 21st Rifle Division () ** 56th Rifle Division (K. N. Annenkov) * 4th Army (Komandarm Yevgeniy Sergeyev, replaced by Aleksandr Shuvayev from 31 July 1920) ** 12th Rifle Division () ** 18th Rifle Division (I. F. Kuprianov) ** 53rd Rifle Division (K. P. Shcherbakov) **

54th Rifle Division The 54th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army and Soviet Army, formed twice. The division was formed in 1936 and fought in the Winter War. The division spent most of World War II in Karelia fighting with Finnish t ...

(V. N. Shubin) ** 143rd Brigade ( 48th Rifle Division) ** 164th Brigade ( 55th Rifle Division) (M. I. Rozen) * 3rd Cavalry Corps ( Komkor Gaia Gai) ** 10th Cavalry Division (N. D. Tomin) ** 15th Cavalry Division (V. I. Matuzenko) * 15th Army (Komandarm August Kork) ** 4th Rifle Division (V. I. Solodukhin) ** 11th Rifle Division (M. K. Simonov) ** 16th Rifle Division (S. P. Medvedovskiy) ** 33rd Rifle Division (O. A. Stigga) * 16th Army (Komandarm Nikolai Sollogub) ** 2nd Rifle Division (R. V. Longva) ** 8th Rifle Division (V. M. Smirnov) ** 10th Rifle Division (A. E. Dauman) ** 17th Rifle Division (K. P. Nevezhin) ** 27th Rifle Division ( Vitovt Putna) * Mozyr Group ( Komdiv Tikhon Khvesin) ** 57th Rifle Division (N. Z. Mikita-Kolyada) ** 139th Brigade ( 47th Rifle Division)

Commanders

Commander : * Dmitry Nikolayevich Nadyozhny (19.02.1919 - 22.07.1919) * Vladimir Gittis (22.07.1919 - 29.04.1920) *

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 ...

(29.04.1920 - 04.03.1921) * Ivan Zakharov (04.03.1921 - 20.09.1921) * Alexander Yegorov (20.09.1921 - 24.01.1922) *

(24.01.1922 - 26.03.1924) * August Kork (26.03.1924 - 05.04.1924) * Alexander Kuk (05.04.1924 - 08.04.1924) Chief of Staff : * Nokolai Domogyrov (19.02.1919 — 26.05.1919), * Nikolai Petin (26.05.1919 — 17.10.1919), * Alaksei Peremytov (17.10.1919 — 13.11.1919), * Vladimir Lazarevich (13.11.1919 — 09.02.1920), * Nikolai Schwartz (25.02.1920 - 30.09.1920) * Nikolai Sollogub (01.10.1920 - 06.12.1920) * Pavel Ermolin (06.12.1920 - 07.06.1921) * Mikhail Batorsky (07.06.1921 - 23.11.1921) * Sergei Mezheninov (23.11.1921 - 06.07.1923) * Ivan Gludin (06.07.1923 - 30.09.1923) * Alexander Kuk (30.09.1923 - 08.04.1924) Members of the Revolutionary Military Council include : * Boris Pozern * Reingold Berzin *

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

* Konstantin Yurenev * Józef Unszlicht * Arkady Rosengolts * Ivar Smilga * Felix Dzerzhinsky * Romuald Muklevich

Source

* {{Soviet fronts of the Russian Civil War Soviet units and formations of the Russian Civil War Military units and formations established in 1919 Military units and formations disestablished in 1924 Soviet fronts