Taman Army (Red Army)

The Taman army (the number at the time of the formation of 30,000 people — about 27 thousand units, 3.5 thousand sub. And 15 guns) was formed on August 27 in Gelendzhik as part of 3 columns that had previously fought against the White Guards on the Taman Peninsula and German interventionists and those who were cut off after the Soviet troops left Yekaterinodar on August 16. The army was to make its way along the Black Sea coast through Tuapse to join the main forces of the Red Army.

These troops included: the 1st left convoy of the combined forces on the Grivensky area under the command of E.I. Kovtyukha, created on August 13 in the village of Novonikolaevskaya from the 1st Soviet Regiment; Slavic and Anastasievsky battalions, Poltava battalion of the 1st North Kuban regiment (total about 7.5 thousand units, 500 sub., 22 machine guns and 2 guns), Kuban-Black Sea regiment under the command of I.Ya. Safonova, 4th Dnieper Regiment under the command of I.I. Matveeva and other minor units. All these units, under the pressure of the whites, were forced to retreat to the village of Verkhnebakanskaya (Tunnel), where on August 25 at a meeting of the command staff it was decided to form two more columns, uniting small parts around the Kuban-Black Sea and the 4th Dnieper regiments. The commander of the 2nd column was Safonov, and the 3rd - Matveev.

The former sailor I.I. Matveev , his deputy commander of the 1st column E.I. Kovtyukh (former officer of the tsarist army with the rank of headquarters captain), chief of staff G.N. Baturin , political commissar N.K. Kich military commissar at the headquarters of the army A.F. Katsura The workers of Novorossiysk and sailors of the ships of the Black Sea Fleet sunk in June 1918 also entered the Taman Army.

The Soviet campaign from the Taman Peninsula passed through Tuapse to join the main forces of the Red Army of the North Caucasus in August - September 1918.

The army of 25,000 refugees was moving behind the army, which made its actions extremely difficult. The campaign took place in a difficult combat situation: the 1st column was at the forefront , clearing the way of the Menshevik troops of Georgia ; The 2nd column repulsed the attacks of the White Cossacks from mountain gorges; The 3rd column conducted rearguard battles with Denikinites ; there was an acute need for ammunition, food and medicine. On August 28, the 1st convoy occupied Arkhipo-Osipovka , and on September 1 - Tuapse , defeating the Georgian infantry division and capturing 16 guns, 10 machine guns and a significant amount of ammunition. On September 2, the 1st column protruded from Tuapse through the spurs of the Main Caucasian Range to Khadyzhenskaya . Reflecting the attacks of the White Guard units of General V. L. Pokrovsky in the area of Khadyzhenskaya and Pshekhskaya , the units of the 1st column liberated Belorechenskaya on September 12 . On September 14, after the approach of the 2nd and 3rd columns, the Tamanians broke through the defenses of the whites north of Belorechenskaya and on September 18 in Dondukovskaya joined the main forces of the Red Army of the North Caucasus, joining in its struggle with the Denikins. September 26, the 1st column captured Armavir .

After joining the main forces of the Red Army, the commander of the Taman Army I.I. Matveev was removed from his post and, on the initiative of I. Sorokin , was shot on October 8, 1918 by the sentence of a military tribunal in Pyatigorsk . E.I. Kovtyukh was appointed commander of the army by order of the RVS of the 11th Army.

Subsequently, the army columns were reorganized into two infantry divisions, three cavalry regiments and one artillery brigade.

In October - November 1918, the Taman army fought stubborn battles in the Stavropol region. On the night of October 29, the Taman army defeated Drozdovsky’s division , which defended Stavropol, and the next day completely liberated the city. On November 14, the Taman army had to surrender Stavropol to the Drozdovsky division surrounding the city and break out of the encirclement.

On December 3, 1918, the Taman Army was awarded the Honorary Red Banner of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR . In December, its remnants were reorganized into the 3rd Taman Rifle Division, which in January - February 1919, with the onslaught of superior enemy forces, moved to the Astrakhan region and was disbanded.

At the beginning of September 1919, Kovtyukh made a report of the RVSR on the combat route of the Taman army and petitioned to recreate it from the surviving units for the campaign to the Kuban. RVSR agreed to the proposal of Kovtyukh and gave permission for the formation of the 48th Rifle (Taman) Division with its subsequent deployment to the army. Despite the call of the chief of 48 Kovtyukh to the former soldiers and commanders of the Soviet-Taman army to arrive at the assembly point, after 1.5 months. managed to collect only 3 thousand people. As a result of this, on November 25, by order of the troops of the Southeast Front, the 48th Infantry Division was poured into the 50th (formed in July 1919), which was called the 50th Taman Rifle Division. Under the command of Kovtyukh, she participated in military operations in late 1919 - early 1920. By order of the troops of the Caucasian Front No. 613 of April 26, 1920, the 50th Infantry Division was merged into the 34th Infantry Division.

• Taman army campaign 1918 // Great Soviet Encyclopedia (TSB). Publishing house "Soviet Encyclopedia". 3rd edition, 30 volumes.
• Baturin G.N. Red Taman Army, Krasnodar, 1940
• Kovtyukh E.I. "Iron Stream" in military terms. - Moscow: State Military Publishing House, 1935.
• Sukhorukov V.T. XI army in battles in the North Caucasus and the Lower Volga (1918-1920), M., 1961
• Gorlov V.P. Heroic campaign, 2nd ed., M., 1967.
• Stepanov Aleksey Red Kaleidoscope of the Civil War. Soviet-Taman army. 1918. // Zeichhaus . 1995. No. 4. P. 40-41
• Serafimovich A.S. Iron Stream , 1924