Russian army of Wrangel

The Russian army of Baron Wrangel consisted of a headquarters and five corps:

• Headquarters - Military Directorate, Military Technical Directorate, VOSO, Main Apartment (Sevastopol), Department of the General Staff, Office of Chief Quartermaster, Naval Directorate, Special Department (Counterintelligence) and others. Head of Staff - Lieutenant-General P. Shatilov

• 1st Army (Volunteer) Corps ( Drozdovskaya , Markovskaya , Kornilovskaya , Alekseevskaya division). Commander - Lieutenant-General A. P.
• 2nd Army Corps (13th and 34th Infantry Divisions, a separate cavalry brigade). Commander - Lieutenant-General Ya. A. Slashchev
• Don Corps (formed May 1, 1920). It included the 2nd and 3rd Don divisions and the Guards brigade. On September 4, 1920 included in the 1st Army. Composition: 1st and 2nd Don Horse and 3rd Don Division. Commander - Lieutenant-General Abramov F. F.
• The combined corps of Lieutenant General Pisarev PK (the 3rd cavalry and Kuban Cossack divisions also included the Terek-Astrakhan and Chechen brigades). Previously entered the Kuban army , July 7, 1920 reorganized into the Equestrian Corps.
• The cavalry corps (formed July 7, 1920 from the Consolidated Corps) as part of the 1st and 2nd cavalry divisions. On September 4, 1920 included in the 1st Army. Composition: 1st and 2nd cavalry and 1st Kuban Cossack divisions, the Reserve cavalry regiment and the cavalry sapper and blasting team. Commander - Major General I. G. Barbovich
• The group of Lieutenant General Ulagay S. G. - units intended for the landing on the Kuban (1st and 2nd Kuban Cossack and Combined Divisions and the Terek-Astrakhan brigade).

Directly at the headquarters of the Russian Army were foreign military missions of Japan , the United States , France , Poland , Serbia , and the United Kingdom . At the headquarters of the Russian army there were political and information units, as well as cultural and educational departments. The Russian army also included aviation units (6 air detachments), tank units (two divisions) and armored trains (4 armored train divisions; com. - General Ivanov), positional artillery units (two brigades and two divisions). The Konstantinovskoye, Aleksandrovskoye, Kornilovskoye, Kuban Alekseevskoye military and Sergievsky artillery schools and military courses operated for personnel training.

Army numbers: by May 22–27 thousand units. and sub. (in the Crimea at the beginning of 1920 there were about 3.5 thousand people and a total of 35-40 thousand were transferred from the North Caucasus). By the beginning of June, 25 thousand pieces. and sub. In September 1920, the army with all its rear institutions numbered about 300 thousand people, of which about 50 thousand at the front, about 80 thousand in military camps and about. 30 thousand wounded. The combat composition of the army in September did not exceed 30-35 thousand people. (in the middle of September, 33 thousand), in October - 25–27 thousand. Of the 50 thousand officers in the Russian Army, there were 6 thousand directly in combat formations, 13 thousand in the immediate rear and 31 thousand in the rear (including and the wounded). ^[2]

Despite the fact that by the beginning of 1920 the food and technical bases of the Russian army were exhausted (the army was maintained exclusively at the expense of the local population), it was nevertheless a sufficiently effective force that successfully restrained the onslaught of the Red Army until the fall of 1920. By the spring of 1920, after the successful defense of the Crimea by the forces of the Slaschev Corps, the main tactical task of the Russian army was to get out of the Crimea and break through to Northern Tavria, where she planned to replenish food supplies and connect with parts of the troops of the Director of the UPR Simon Petlyura , with whom Wrangel negotiated .

In the course of a successful operation in June 1920 (see the defeat of the horse group of the Redneck ) units of the Russian army managed to escape from the Crimea and break through to the Donbass . However, in August, the further offensive of the Russian army was stopped, including due to the defeat at Kakhovka , fierce battles continued on the entire front in Northern Tavria, almost without interruption. An attempt to land troops in the Kuban under the leadership of Lieutenant General S. G. Ulagay , at the beginning quite successful, eventually ended in failure. The Taman assault of Major General Kharlamov was also defeated at the end of August 1920. In the combat operations of the Russian army, the Army of the Revival of Russia, General M. Fostikova , and some guerrilla units of Ukraine (in particular, the “special partisan detachment” of Ataman Volodin, later included in the Russian Army) contributed.

The last powerful offensive units of the Russian army in September-October 1920, during the Zadneprovskaya operation failed. Simultaneously with this operation, the next offensive against the Kakhovsky bridgehead of the second army corps under the command of General Vitkovsky ended in vain and with heavy losses. Pulling up reserves and achieving 4-5 times superiority, Frunze went on the offensive and during the fierce weekly battles he drove the Russian Army Wrangel out of Northern Tavria. As a result, the white parts were again isolated in the Crimea . The troops of the Southern Front, together with the Makhnovists, carried out the Perekop-Chongar offensive, the purpose of which was to capture Perekop and Chongar and break through to the Crimea . The attack on the main line of attack was carried out by the forces of the 51st division of Blucher , the 15th division, the 1st and 2nd cavalry armies, the Latvian division, and the rebel army N. Makhno under the general leadership of M. Frunze . White commanders relied on the inaccessibility of the fortifications built at Perekop and Chongar, which defended the most combat-ready units - the Kornilov and Drozdov regiments , as well as the Kuban Cossack units, the 34th Infantry Division and armored vehicles.

Despite this, units of the Russian army could not hold back the advance of the Reds, on the night of November 9, 1920, breaking through the defenses of the peninsula. The subsequent oncoming battles on November 9–11 forced the Russian army to retreat from Perekop and Ishun positions, after which its units moved in orderly to the port cities of Sevastopol , Yalta , Feodosia , and Kerch and were evacuated from Crimea to the Russians occupied by the Entente on November 13–16. the flag of France) ships, under the guise of British and French warships. The Red Army, which received an appropriate ultimatum from the French command, made no attempt to prevent the evacuation.

After the evacuation of the Crimea, the remnants of the Russian army were reformed and consolidated into three corps — the 1st Army (about 25 thousand people), the Don Army (up to 20 thousand people) and the Kuban (16 thousand people), located, respectively, in the former military camps in the Gallipoli area (see Gallipoli seat ), in Chataldji and on the island of Lemnos . The commander-in-chief and his headquarters were located in Constantinople . The fleet was reorganized into the Russian squadron and moved to Bizerte ( Tunisia ) (over time, the ships were transferred to France as payment for the evacuation and maintenance of the army). ^[3]

Having landed on the coast of Turkey, the Russian army was actually interned . Soldiers and civilians received refugee status and were held by the French government. The idea of ​​transferring the army to other theaters of operations or using it to protect the Black Sea straits by the Allies was rejected. However, the command of the Russian army did not consider the fight against the Bolsheviks ended and took measures to preserve the Army as a combat structure. Armed officers and special forces maintained order and discipline among the troops. The prevention of decay, the destruction of military order, the desire to return to Russia was achieved by harsh measures of action, up to and including executions.

The French government was not interested in the maintenance of the army of Wrangel. Financial assistance has been reduced to a minimum. The conditions of stay in the camps were extremely difficult. The result of the meager rations and diseases was a high mortality rate among military personnel.

On February 12, 1921 the number of the Russian army was 48 thousand. 312 people.

After the government of Soviet Russia declared an amnesty in honor of the four-year anniversary of the October Revolution to certain categories of servicemen stationed abroad, a significant part of the former military personnel of the Russian army, Baron Wrangel, with the assistance of the French government, returned to their homeland.

In November – December 1921, the remnants of the army were transported to Bulgaria and Serbia.

On September 1, 1924, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, Lieutenant-General Baron P.N. Wrangel transformed the remnants of his army into the Russian All-Military Union (EMRO).

• Russian army (1919)

• Goncharenko O. G. White movement. Trekking from the Pacific to the Pacific. - M .: Veche, 2007. - ISBN 978-5-9533-1988-1
• Kruchinin A.S., Komarovsky E.A., Trambitsky Yu.A., Marynjak A.V., Abinyakin R.M., Tsvetkov V.Zh. White movement. Historical portraits. - M .: AST , 2006. - ISBN 5-17-025887-9