Volunteer Army

The Volunteer Army (Добровольческая армия in Russian, or Dobrovolcheskaya armiya) was a counterrevolutionary army in South Russia during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1920.

The Volunteer Amy (VA) began forming in November-December of 1917 by General Mikhail Alekseev in Novocherkassk and General Lavr Kornilov and his supporters. Initially, the VA included volunteering officers, cadets, students and Cossacks. On December 27, 1917 (January 9, 1918), the creation of the VA was officially announced. Alekseev became its overall leader, Kornilov - its Commander-in-chief, General Alexander Lukomsky - its Chief of Staff, General Anton Denikin - commander of the 1st Division. They also created the so called Special Council at the headquarters, which included of Peter Struve,M.Fedorov , A.Khripunov , G.Trubetskoy and Boris Savinkov.

In the early January of 1918, the VA numbered approximately 4,000 men and fought against the Red Army together with the units of General Kaledin. In the late February, the VA had to retreat from Rostov due to the onset of the Red Army and left for Kuban in order to unite with the Kuban Cossack counterrevolution. However, most of the Kuban Cossacks did not grant their support to the VA. Only a small unit (3,000 men) under the command of General V.Pokrovsky joined the VA on March 26, 1918, increasing its number to 6,000 people. The VA's attempt to capture Yekaterinodar between April 9 and April 13 was a fiasco, costing Kornilov his life. General Denikin took the command over the remnants of the VA and left for the remote stanitsas beyond the Don region. In June of 1918, 3,000 men of Colonel M.Drozdovsky joined the VA. On June 23, the VA (8,000-9,000 men) began its so called Second Kuban Campaign with the support from Pyotr Krasnov. By September of 1918, the VA had already had 30,000-35,000 men thanks to mobilization of the Kuban Cossacks and "counterrevolutionary elements", gathered in North Caucasus. Thus, the VA took the name of the Caucasus Volunteer Army.

In the fall of 1918, the governments of Great Britain, France and the USA increased their material and technical assistance to the VA. With the support from Entente, the forces of the South Russian counterrevolution were combined into the so called Armed Forces of South Russia (Вооружённые силы Юга России, or Vooruzhenniye sily Yuga Rossii) under the command of Denikin. In the late 1918 - early 1919, Denikin managed to inflict a defeat on the 11th Soviet Army and capture the North Caucasus region. In January of 1919, the Caucasus Volunteer Army was divided into the Caucasus Army and the Volunteer Army, which would later be joined by the Don Army, created from the remnants of Krasnov's Cossack army. After capturing Donbass, Tsaritsyn and Kharkov in June of 1919, Denikin began to advance towards Moscow on June 20 (July 3). According to his plan, the main blow to Moscow was to be inflicted by the VA (40,000 men) under the command of General Vladimir May-Mayevsky .

The White Army was known for its cruelty and plundering activities on conquered territories, for which the ordinary Russian people would dub this regime "Denikinschina ". Some of the units and formations of the VA possessed relatively good military skills and fighting strength due to a large number of officers in its ranks, who fanatically despised the Soviets. However, the VA's fighting efficiency started to decrease in the summer of 1919 in light of significant losses and recruitment of mobilized peasants and even Red Army soldiers in captivity.

During the counter-offensive of the Red Army (since October of 1919), the VA sustained a decisive defeat and rolled back to the South. In the early 1920, it retreated to the areas beyond the Don region and was reduced to a Corps of 5,000 men under the command of General Alexander Kutepov.

On March 26 and March 27, 1920, the remnants of the VA were evacuated from Novorossiysk to the Crimea, where they merged with the army of Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel.