# Civil War on the Don

The Civil War on the Don was a series of military conflicts between the Don Cossacks (in alliance with the White Movement in Southern Russia) and the Bolsheviks, primarily on the territory of the Don Host Oblast, which took place from November 1917 to the spring of 1920. It was part of the broader Russian Civil War.
On the Don, as in many other Cossack regions of Russia, there was a historical divide between the non-Cossack population and the Cossacks. The fact that the Don became one of the regions where the White Movement began to form its armies is primarily explained by the fact that the Don Oblast received autonomy and self-government at a new level as early as the spring of 1917, with the region electing an ataman and establishing its own governing institutions.

## Don Host Oblast

The center of the oblast since 1806 was the city of Novocherkassk. In 1887, the Taganrog city administration and the Rostov-on-Don district were transferred to the oblast from the Yekaterinoslav Governorate.
* Don Host Oblast
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Don Oblast consisted of 9 districts:
| No. | District | District Center | Area, versts² | Population (1897), people |
| 1 | Donetsk | stanitsa Kamenskaya (12,190 people) | 24,659.3 | 455,819 |
| 2 | 1st Don | stanitsa Konstantinovsk (9,267 people) | 15,415.9 | 271,790 |
| 3 | 2nd Don | stanitsa Nizhne-Chirskaya (6,780 people) | 23,219.7 | 239,055 |
| 4 | Rostov | Rostov-on-Don (119,476 people) | 6,012.0 | 369,732 |
| 5 | Salsk | stanitsa Velikoknyazheskaya (5,583 people) | 18,961.0 | 76,297 |
| 6 | Taganrog | Taganrog (51,437 people) | 12,229.4 | 412,995 |
| 7 | Ust-Medveditsky | stanitsa Ust-Medveditskaya (5,805 people) | 18,082.6 | 246,830 |
| 8 | Khopyor | stanitsa Uryupinsk (11,286 people) | 15,861.4 | 251,498 |
| 9 | Cherkassky | Novocherkassk (51,963 people) | 9,750.3 | 240,222 |

## February–October 1917

The February Revolution of 1917 and the fall of the Russian monarchy marked the end of the unified leadership of the Don Host Circle, leading to a split and polarization of society and power. From the spring of 1917, several structures claiming power were formed on the territory of the Don Host Oblast:
* Commissars of the Provisional Government (regional and nine district commissars);
* Soviets of workers', soldiers', peasants', and Cossacks' deputies;
* Don Host Circle (assembly) and its executive bodies: the Host Government and the Don Regional Ataman;
* bodies of city self-government – city councils and their executive bodies.
In May 1917, the Regional Congress of Peasants decided to abolish private ownership of land, but the Don Host Circle declared the lands of the Don as the "historical property of the Cossacks" and decided to recall Cossacks from the apparatus of the Provisional Government and from the Soviets. This led to an escalation of rivalry between the two power structures – the Host Government and the Soviets of workers', soldiers', peasants', and Cossacks' deputies.
At the same time, General Kaledin returned to the Don, having been removed from command of the 8th Army for not accepting the February Revolution and refusing to carry out the orders of the Provisional Government on democratization in the troops. At the end of May, Kaledin participated in the work of the Don Host Circle and, yielding to the persuasion of the Cossack community, agreed to be elected as the Host Ataman.
On September 1, 1917, the Minister of War of the Provisional Government A. I. Verkhovsky ordered the arrest of Kaledin for involvement in the Kornilov Affair, but the Host Government refused to carry out the order, and on September 4, A. F. Kerensky canceled it on the condition of a "guarantee" from the Host Government for Kaledin.
On November 2, 1917, the Southeastern Union of Cossack Hosts, Mountaineers of the Caucasus, and Free Peoples of the Steppes was established in Vladikavkaz as a state-territorial entity governed on the principles of a confederation. The stated goal of the Southeastern Union was to fight "anarcho-Bolshevism" on the territory of the Cossack hosts – members of the Union, mutual support to maintain order and legality within the Union, and bringing Russia to the Constituent Assembly. In its declaration, it proclaimed: "Guaranteeing its members complete independence in their internal life, the Union undertakes to assist them in preparing their internal structure as independent states of the future Russian Democratic Federative Republic." After the proclamation of Soviet power in the Don, Kuban, and Terek (January–March 1918), the Southeastern Union ceased to exist.

## November–December 1917
### Socio-Political Situation

In the first months after the October Revolution, the anti-Bolshevik forces did not have significant social support, so their attempts to organize resistance to Soviet power in the Cossack regions were relatively weak.
The situation on the Don during this period was extremely contradictory. In the main cities, the "non-native" population predominated, alien to the indigenous population of the Don both in its composition, way of life, and political sentiments. Here – especially in Rostov and Taganrog – socialist parties dominated, distrustful of the Cossack authorities. The Mensheviks numerically predominated in all the councils of the Don Oblast, central trade union bureaus, and in many Soviets, and even where they yielded to the Socialist Revolutionaries, they still held leadership positions. The working population of the Taganrog District supported the Bolsheviks. In the northern part of the Taganrog District were the coal mines and pits of the southern protrusion of the Donbas. Rostov became the center of protest by non-Cossacks against "Cossack domination." Local Bolshevik leaders could count on the support of soldiers from the reserve regiment stationed in the city. The Don moderate Social Democrats, as in the center, were not united in their assessment of the Petrograd uprising and its consequences. The chairman of the Novocherkassk Menshevik Committee, A. F. Samokhin, expressing the general opinion of the Don Menshevik-defensists, said that he considered it impossible to participate in the Soviets, which had taken a hostile position towards the Constituent Assembly. At the same time, the Bolsheviks of the Rostov-Nakhichevan Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies created a Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC).
The city councils of the oblast, in which the Mensheviks had taken strong positions, launched anti-Bolshevik propaganda. In a resolution adopted by the Novocherkassk Council on the proposal of the socialist bloc, it was stated that the Bolshevik uprising on the eve of the convocation of the Constituent Assembly was an attempt to replace the voice of the entire people with the voice of individual groups, a betrayal of the cause of democracy. At an emergency meeting of the Nakhichevan Council, Council, and trade unions of the city on November 9, the Petrograd uprising was assessed as "a form of political adventurism," expressing concern that under the flag of the struggle against the Bolsheviks, opponents of democracy would undoubtedly become more active. The leaders of the local Mensheviks – the chairman of the Rostov Council, B. S. Vasilyev, who even in the pre-October period in practice pursued the idea of an agreement with the Kaledin government, and P. S. Petrenko, chairman of the Rostov-Nakhichevan Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies and at the same time chairman of the Public Committee (uniting the Rostov-Nakhichevan Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies and the bourgeois Civil Committee) – in the October days of 1917 considered the possibility of joint actions with the Host Government against the establishment of the Bolshevik regime. At the same time, both understood that after the defeat of the Bolshevik organizations, the same fate could await the Menshevik organizations. At the same time, the moderate Social Democrats did not want to support Soviet power either, as they continued to consider the transition to socialism in Russia premature. Therefore, the Mensheviks called on their organizations to play the role of a "third force," alien to both Bolshevism and the Cadet-Kaledin dictatorship. They considered the expression of such a "third force" to be a "nationwide regional governing body, which would include representatives of the entire population of the Don." In other words, the Mensheviks sought to eliminate the confrontation between the ataman's power and the Bolsheviks by peaceful means, appealing to the population and, first of all, to the Host Ataman. At the same time, the idea of an agreement with the Host Government was not popular among the left wing of the Menshevik party – the Menshevik-Internationalists, who considered it necessary to simultaneously participate in both the Bolshevik Soviets and the committees for the defense of the Constituent Assembly, not trusting the power of the Circle, and some even demanded unification with the Bolsheviks to fight Kaledin.

### Actions of the Host Government

On November 7, 1917, Ataman A. M. Kaledin issued the following appeal: "In view of the Bolsheviks' attempts to overthrow the Provisional Government… the Host Government, considering such a seizure of power by the Bolsheviks criminal,… will provide… full support… to the Provisional Government… The Host Government temporarily, until the restoration of the power of the Provisional Government and order in Russia,… has assumed full executive state power in the Don Oblast."
On November 8, while in Rostov the Soviet attempted to take power into its own hands, Kaledin from Novocherkassk declared martial law in the coal-mining region of the oblast, sending Cossacks there, and established contacts with the Cossack leadership of Orenburg, Kuban, Astrakhan, and Terek.
On November 9, Kaledin invited the Provisional Government and members of the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic to Novocherkassk by telegraph to organize the struggle against the Bolsheviks.
On November 10, the Host Government liquidated the Makeyevsky Soviet, a number of mine Soviets, and arrested delegates, among whom were not only Bolsheviks but also Mensheviks. On November 13, delegates from the Don returning from the II Congress of Soviets were arrested.
On November 15, Kaledin issued an order declaring martial law throughout the Don Oblast. Military units were stationed in all industrial centers. General Nazarov with a Cossack hundred was stationed in Taganrog, General Pototsky – in Rostov. Soviets were liquidated, workers' organizations were closed, their activists were dismissed from work and, together with their families, were expelled from the oblast. Delegations of Donetsk miners sought protection in Petrograd and Kiev. Politicians of the Central Council, who considered the Don Government as a potential partner in a future federation, tried to restrain it through negotiations and persuasion, which did not help much. The epicenter of tension was the largest city of the Oblast – Rostov.
At a conference held on November 16, the Don Committee of the RSDLP under the chairmanship of the Menshevik P. V. Zavarzin noted that the introduction of martial law by the Host Circle could, under the current circumstances, lead to the emergence of pockets of civil strife in the south of Russia. At the same time, the delegates agreed with B. S. Vasilyev that the party "must resolutely dissociate itself from any ideological proximity to Bolshevism and recognize only technical agreements with them".

### Beginning of the Alekseyev Organization

On November 15, General M. V. Alekseyev arrived in Novocherkassk from Petrograd and immediately turned to Kaledin for help in creating volunteer formations to fight the Bolsheviks. Kaledin, however, refused his request to "give shelter to Russian officers," citing the fact that the Cossacks-frontline soldiers were tired of the war and hated the "old regime," and therefore the Don regiments returning from the front did not want to defend the Don Oblast from the Bolsheviks and were dispersing to their homes. Kaledin asked Alekseyev "not to stay in Novocherkassk for more than a week" and to move the formation of volunteer forces outside the oblast. Despite the cold reception, Alekseyev immediately took practical steps. Already on November 15, he published an appeal to officers, calling on them to "save the Motherland".

### Neutrality of the Cossacks towards Soviet Power

The Host Ataman failed to raise the Cossacks-frontline soldiers to fight against the Bolshevik power: the Cossack units, returning from the front, dispersed to their homes, as the Cossacks, tired of the war, did not want to fight the Bolsheviks, who had stopped military actions against Germany and disbanded the army to their homes. Many regiments surrendered their weapons without resistance at the demand of small Red detachments standing as barriers on the railway lines leading to the Don Oblast.
First Decrees of Soviet Power inclined the bulk of the Cossacks to the side of the Soviets. Among the Cossacks-frontline soldiers, the idea of "neutrality" towards Soviet power became widespread. The Bolsheviks, for their part, sought to use this wavering mood of the rank-and-file Cossacks to the fullest, to restore its poorest part (the so-called "working Cossacks") against the wealthy, to instill the idea that the Host Government was composed of "class enemies".
Meanwhile, the Host Government itself was torn by inter-party contradictions, and the "non-native" peasantry was not satisfied with the concessions made to it (wide admission to the Cossacks, participation in village self-government, transfer of part of the landowners' lands), demanding a radical land reform.
On November 20, Ataman Kaledin, having ceased attempts to contact the remnants of the overthrown Provisional Government, addressed the population of the Oblast with a statement that the Host Government did not recognize the Bolshevik power, and therefore the Oblast was declared independent until the formation of a legitimate Russian government.
On November 14, 1917, the infantry section headed by the Left SR, Lieutenant Arnautov, moved from Novocherkassk to Rostov, which informed the Host Government that from that moment it was called the Military Committee of the Non-Cossack Units of the Don Oblast and assumed the duties of managing these units. The Military Committee demanded from the Host Government the immediate abolition of martial law in the non-Cossack districts, as well as the release of those arrested for political agitation, the convocation of a general congress of peasants, workers, and Cossacks to resolve the issue of regional self-government. Arnautov recognized the power of the Council of People's Commissars and appealed to all regimental committees and commanders of non-Cossack units stationed in the Don Oblast (in Rostov, Taganrog, Novocherkassk, Azov, and Kamenskaya) with a call not to carry out the orders of the Host Ataman and his staff.

### Elections to the Constituent Assembly

Until mid-November, local Bolsheviks did not dare to take armed action, focusing on organizing revolutionary and democratic forces around the MRC in anticipation of the elections to the Constituent Assembly. The Host Government also awaited the results of the elections to assess the balance of political forces in the region and begin creating representative bodies of power in the oblast.
The elections to the Constituent Assembly in the Don Oblast took place on November 12–14 (25–27). Having received their preliminary results, Kaledin on November 27 convened an emergency meeting of the Host Government with the participation of public figures, where he admitted: "We did not think that the Bolshevik movement would find support among the population and grow to such proportions." The representatives of the Menshevik party present at the meeting, together with the Right SRs, proposed to conclude an agreement with the Host Government, which should abolish martial law in the oblast and organize power on a representative basis of the entire population of the oblast, and not just the Cossacks. However, Kaledin insisted on non-recognition of the Council of People's Commissars and on the need to restore a coalition government in Russia. Thus, no agreement was reached between the moderate socialists and the Host Government.

### Uprising against Kaledin

Seeing the lack of desire of the authorities to compromise, part of the Mensheviks decided to go for a temporary alliance with the Bolsheviks. The idea of creating a broad front of forces to fight Kaledin was also considered by the Don Bolsheviks, with some of them believing that military action should be started immediately and an offensive on Novocherkassk should be carried out, while others were against forcing events.
On November 28, a meeting of representatives of the MRC, the regional military committee, the executive committee of the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies was held, at which an organizational structure was created – the Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC) of the united democracy, which called itself the government of the united democratic forces and offered the population not to carry out the orders of the Host Government. The Mensheviks insisted on a peaceful resolution of the conflict and intended to enter into negotiations with the representative of the Host Government, General Pototsky. However, as it became known from Novocherkassk, on December 3, a Cossack hundred, on the orders of the Host Government, forcibly disarmed the soldiers of the 272nd and 273rd reserve infantry regiments. On December 7, ships of the Black Sea Fleet arrived in Rostov, sent here to help the Bolsheviks by the decision of the All-Black Sea Congress. The flotilla, consisting of the destroyer Kapitan Saken, two minesweepers, several small vessels, and a landing detachment of sailors, was commanded by the "commission of five" elected by the All-Black Sea Congress, headed by the Bolshevik sailor V. E. Drachuk. The Menshevik leaders assessed the arrival of the flotilla as evidence of the possibility of the Bolsheviks moving to military action.
The Don Government regarded the intervention of the Black Sea Fleet as a violation of its sovereignty and, through the revolutionary Stavka, protested to the Council of People's Commissars. The commissar of the Cossack troops at Stavka, Shapkin, handed Krylenko a document stating that "on November 22, several armed trawlers sent by the Black Sea Fleet against the Don Host Government entered the port of Taganrog… another detachment headed to Rostov… In addition, from a variety of sources, there are reports that troops are gathering against the Don from the north… to establish the domination of the principles of the Social Democrats-Bolsheviks on the Don".
Sailor V. V. Romenets, elected by the Black Sea Central Fleet as the "chief people's commissar of the Black Sea Fleet," only on December 6 informed the Council of People's Commissars of his election and in the following days reported on the "excitement against the Kaledin adventure" that had arisen in the fleet and that local "higher democratic organizations had taken some measures, purely demonstrative. At present, another flotilla is being sent to the Sea of Azov, but a clash is already foreseen… I ask you to inform… comrades, what has been undertaken in this plan from your side, as well as how to act and what to undertake further for the Black Sea Fleet, for passions are flaring up… I have no orders from you. Perhaps we… are mistaken, although we think not". People's Commissar Trotsky demanded from the Supreme Commander Krylenko "not to enter into any negotiations with the counter-revolutionary conspirators… to put an end to the criminal actions of the Kaledinites and Kornilovites with one blow… the counter-revolutionary rebellion of Dutov." He suggested that Krylenko "immediately move towards Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, and Orenburg such forces that, without shaking our front, would be powerful enough to wipe out the counter-revolutionary rebellion of the Cossack generals and the Cadet bourgeoisie in the shortest possible time" and instructed him to "ask the Ukrainian Rada whether it considers itself obliged to assist in the struggle against Kaledin or intends to regard the advance of our echelons to the Don as a violation of its territorial rights". The directive of the Council of People's Commissars to the chief commissar of the Black Sea Fleet followed on December 9: "Act with all determination against the enemies of the people, without waiting for any instructions from above. Kaledin, Kornilov, Dutov are outlawed… Respond to the ultimatum with the strongest, boldest revolutionary action".
On December 7, at a meeting of the MRC, the Bolsheviks proposed to present Kaledin with a 24-hour ultimatum: to abolish martial law in the Don Oblast, and the Host Government – to renounce claims to power. After the adoption of this decision, on the evening of on December 8, the SR-Menshevik center announced its withdrawal from the MRC. The Left SRs continued to work under the leadership of the Bolsheviks.
Meanwhile, on the night of November 25–26 (December 8–9), 1917, a detachment of Cossacks and cadets destroyed the premises of the Rostov-Nakhichevan Soviet, killing several Red Guards.
On December 9, the Rostov Bolsheviks announced that power in the Oblast was transferred to the Rostov Military Revolutionary Committee. Attempts by the council delegates to the Bolshevik MRC and to the Host Government to prevent civil war ended in failure, although on December 10 it was decided to send council delegates to the Bolshevik MRC and to the Host Government. However, General Pototsky took an evasive position, and the Bolsheviks stated that there could be no question of negotiations, as Kaledin demanded the disarmament of the Red Guard and the return of the Black Sea flotilla to its permanent base. As a result, on December 11, the Rostov Council decided to remain neutral.
The Cossack units, however, refused to participate in the suppression of the uprising, and Ataman Kaledin was forced to turn to General M. V. Alekseyev for help. A detachment of officers and cadets of 400–500 bayonets was hastily formed, joined by Don youth – high school students, cadets, and later several Cossack units. Fierce battles unfolded in the Nakhichevan area, the city changed hands several times, until on the night of on December 11 it was finally taken by the revolutionary troops. The cadets retreated to Novocherkassk. On the morning of on December 11, the Kaledinites were driven out of the Rostov station. However, Kaledin, not reconciled with the defeat, pulled reinforcements to Rostov. For three days, the Red Guards and Black Sea sailors fought heavy battles with the superior forces of the Whites, experiencing an acute shortage of men and ammunition. On December 15, the revolutionary detachments, left without ammunition, retreated from Rostov. The Kaledinites also captured Taganrog and a significant part of the Donbas. From that day on, the Alekseyev Organization won the right to legal existence.

### Arrival of Kornilov. Creation of the "Triumvirate"

On December 19, General L. G. Kornilov arrived on the Don and immediately joined the activities of General Alekseyev.
On December 31, Kaledin, Alekseyev, and Kornilov formed the so-called "triumvirate," which headed the Don Civil Council, created to lead the White Movement throughout the territory of the former Russian Empire and claiming the role of the all-Russian government. The countries of the Entente entered into contact with it, sending their representatives to Novocherkassk.
On January 2, 1918, by order of Ataman Kaledin No. 1058, the formation of volunteer detachments on the territory of the Don Oblast was permitted. Officially, the creation of the "Volunteer Army" and the opening of enrollment in it were announced on January 6, 1918.
However, the "neutrality" of the Cossacks prevented Alekseyev and Kornilov from forming a truly large army from volunteers. The Volunteer Army was perceived by the Cossacks as not entirely a democratic institution, encroaching on their Cossack liberties, an instrument of big politics, which they did not care about. The Cossacks, observing the serious military preparations of Soviet power in the southern direction, believed that they were directed only against the "uninvited newcomers" – the volunteers. This view was not alien to the Provisional Don Government itself, which hoped to reconcile Soviet power with the Don through conciliation with local revolutionary institutions and loyalty to Soviet power and save the oblast from the invasion of the Bolsheviks. As a result, only about 5,000 officers, cadets, and senior students joined the Volunteer Army. Unable to hold on to the Don, the Volunteer Army in February 1918 set out on a campaign to the Kuban, counting on the support of the Kuban Cossacks, but these calculations did not materialize: the Kuban Cossacks, like the Don Cossacks, did not want to fight against the new government. The volunteers, finding themselves in a hostile environment of the local peasant population and the revolutionary-minded units of the old army returning from the front, had to wage a hard partisan war for survival in the Kuban.

## Cossack rule of Krasnov

On May 9, the Provisional Don Government announced the convening of the Circle of Salvation of the Don on May 11.
On May 10, Cossack Detachments occupy Novocherkassk.
On May 11, delegates from villages and military units gather in Novocherkassk and establish the Circle of Salvation of the Don, at which on May 16, Major General Pyotr Krasnov is elected as the Military Ataman, who sends a letter to Emperor Wilhelm with a proposal for cooperation and a request for a protectorate.
On May 18, the Circle of Salvation of the Don proclaimed the creation of an independent state of the All–Great Don Voysko, headed by Ataman Krasnov, on the territory of the Don Voysko Oblast.
As General Krasnov noted, «It is easy for Denikin, of course, to accuse me of supporting the Germans, but Denikin takes weapons from me, although I buy them from the Germans for bread from the warehouses of the Southwestern Front of the former Russian Armiya».
The fate of the Kazaks was finally decided by the secret directive of the Organizational Bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of January 24, 1919, as well as the subsequent actions of the Bolsheviks to implement it. The directive declared non–residents (that is, non–Kazaks) to be the mainstay of Soviet Power in the Cossack Lands, and also described a program of harsh repressive measures for dekazakization:
   January 24, 1919. Circularly. Confidential. The latest events on various fronts in the Cossack Regions – our advances deep into the Cossack Settlements and the disintegration among the Cossack Troops – force us to give instructions to party workers about the nature of their work in the restoration and strengthening of Soviet Power in the said regions. It is necessary, taking into account the experience of the civil war with the Kazaks, to recognize the only correct thing as the most merciless struggle with all the upper crust of the Kazaks by means of their total extermination. No compromises, no half–heartedness are acceptable. Therefore it is necessary:
       1. Conduct mass terror against the rich Kazaks, exterminating them completely; conduct merciless mass terror against all Kazaks who took any direct or indirect part in the struggle against Soviet Power. It is necessary to take all those measures with regard to the middle Kazaks that provide a guarantee against any attempts on their part to make new protests against Soviet Power.
       2. Confiscate the grain and force all surplus to be dumped at specified points; this applies to both grain and all other agricultural products.
       3. Take all measures to provide assistance to the resettling poor, organizing resettlement where possible.
       4. To equate the non–resident newcomers with the Kazaks in terms of land and in all other respects.
       5. Conduct complete disarmament, shooting anyone found with a weapon after the surrender deadline.
       6. Issue weapons only to reliable elements from non–residents.
       7. Armed detachments are to be left in Cossack Villages until complete order is established.
       8. All commissioners appointed to one or another Cossack Settlement are requested to demonstrate maximum firmness and steadfastly implement these instructions.
   The Central Committee decides to carry out through the appropriate Soviet Institutions the obligation for the People's Commissariat of Agriculture to urgently develop practical measures for the mass resettlement of the poor to Cossack Lands.
There was no specific signature under the directive ("Circular Letter"), but the Organizational Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) at that time was headed by Yakov Sverdlov.
In the course of implementing this directive, villages, farms, and settlements were completely burned and destroyed by artillery fire (and chemical shells were also used), and this despite the fact that the directive did not say a word about such barbaric measures – apparently, it was implied tacitly. For example, on May 17 (30), 1919, the village of Karginskaya (where the family of Sholokhov lived) suffered from the Red 33rd Division, in which 20 houses burned down, but the downpour that began saved this village from complete burning.
Here is another example of such guiding instructions:
   Directive of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front on measures to suppress the uprising 16 March 1919 1 hour 35 min.
   Top secret. To the Revolutionary Military Councils of the 8th, 9th, 10th Armies I propose to strictly implement the following: to exert all efforts to the fastest liquidation of the arisen unrest by concentrating the maximum forces to suppress the uprising and by applying the most severe measures against the instigators of the farms:
       а) burning of the rebellious farms;
       b) merciless execution of all without exception persons who took direct or indirect part in the uprising;
       c) execution of every 5th or 10th adult male population of the rebellious farms;
       d) mass taking of hostages from the neighboring to the rebellious farms;
       e) wide notification of the population of the farms, villages, etc. that all villages and farms noticed in providing assistance to the rebels will be subjected to merciless extermination of the entire adult male population and will be burned at the first case of detection of assistance; exemplary carrying out of punitive measures with wide notification of the population about it.
   To accurately inform the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front about all measures taken and being taken.
   Member of the Revolutionary Military Council A.Kolegaev.
As early as September 1918, the chairman of the Moscow Council P. Smidovich said from the rostrum of the VTsIK: "…This war is being waged not to bring about an agreement or to subjugate, this war is for destruction. A civil war cannot be otherwise".
At the beginning of 1919, the Don Cossacks united with A. I. Denikin, who promised them autonomy. The Don Host became part of South Russia. Power in the Don actually passed to the Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR) under the command of General Denikin, and the Cossack units were also subordinate to him.
In January–March 1919, the troops of the Southern Front of the Red Army launched an offensive with the aim of finally defeating the Don Army, as well as against Denikin's troops for the Donbas.
In February 1919, due to irreconcilable contradictions with the command of the Volunteer Army, Krasnov resigned and left the Don for Estonia to Yudenich, and later to Germany. In Taganrog, Denikin's headquarters was located. The White troops began an offensive on Moscow.
The Red Army units that entered the Upper Don District (which, in addition to Russians and Ukrainians, also included Chinese, Latvians, and former Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war (Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, and others), took away bread (including seed) and tools (seeders, plows, etc.), carried out repressions, including the compilation of execution lists of unreliable Cossacks, as well as a number of numerous and mass executions. As a result, on March 11, 1919, the Veshenskaya uprising of the Upper Don Cossacks broke out, which turned out to be successful.

## Final victory of the Reds

In the autumn of 1919, the Offensive of the Armed Forces of the South of Rossiya on Moskva was stopped and the Whites, putting up stubborn resistance, slowly but steadily retreated to the south. On January 7, 1920, the Cavalry–Consolidated Corps of Boris Dumenko captured the capital of the White Don, Novocherkassk. On January 10, units of the 1st Cavalry Armiya under the command of Semyon Budyonny took Rostov–on–Don by force.
On January 17, the Red Armiya continued its offensive, but the Red Armiya soldiers failed to gain a foothold on the left bank of the Don, but to the left they still reached the Manych River, threatening the right flank of the Volunteer Corps.
On February 7, under the general leadership of Anton Denikin, the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of the South of Rossiya began. On February 6–8, the Volunteer Corps of Lieutenant General Aleksandr Kutepov and the 3rd Don Separate Corps broke through the defenses of the 8th Army and captured Rostov and Nakhichevan. The «colored» regiments – the Kornilovites, Markovites, and Drozdovites, as well as the Combined Guards Cavalry – particularly distinguished themselves.
However, on February 10, by order of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces of the South of Rossiya, Rostov–on–Don was again abandoned without a fight, due to the flank threat of the Red Units.
On February 25–27, south of the strategically important Sredniy Egorlyk, the Battle of Egorlyk took place – the largest cavalry battle in the history of the Civil War, with up to 25 thousand sabres on both sides, in which General Pavlov's White Cavalry was defeated and retreated to Egorlytskaya.
At the beginning of the Cossack Liberation Struggle (beginning of 1918), the Salskiy District was a region of the struggle for freedom. Here in the steppes, the partisans of the Marching Ataman, General Pyotr Popov, carried out their remarkable «Steppe Campaign». All the Don Kalmyks stood up to defend their villages and joined the detachment of General Pyotr Popov. After the Salskiy District was cleared under Ataman Krasnov, the Don Kalmyks formed two regiments: the 80th Zyungarskiy and the 3rd Don (1st Don Division) – a standing army and a cavalry half–hundred in the Don Ataman's Convoy. Kalmyks as part of the Don Armiya fought against the Bolsheviks until the very end. When they left their native land, they, as a whole people, with their families, left their villages and retreated with the army to Novorossiysk. Abandoned by the High Command of the White Armiya on the shore of the Novorossiysk Pier, most of them died, suffering a martyr's death at the hands of the Bolsheviks. The Don Kalmyk emigration numbered a little more than a thousand souls, scattered across different countries, but a characteristic phenomenon for them was that they settled abroad without dispersing, but preserved large groups, forming their own Kalmyk farmsteads and villages, and individuals joined general Cossack organizations.
On March 26–27, the 40,000–strong Volunteer Corps left Novorossiysk by sea for Krym.
The Third Don Kalmyk Regiment, formed from Sal Kazaks – Don Kalmyks, did not accept the Reds' offer to capitulate and, together with the 3rd Drozdovskiy Regiment, covered the evacuation. However, if the 3rd Drozdovskiy Regiment, initially forgotten on the shore, was taken out on the destroyer Pylkiy, with Lieutenant General Aleksandr Kutepov returning specially for it, then the 3rd Kalmyk Regiment, during the evacuation from Novorossiysk, was left on the shore and, for the most part, along with the civilian refugees who were following in the regiment's convoy – families of Kalmyk Kazaks – were executed by the Red Armiya soldiers.
The 80th Zyungarskiy Regiment, consisting of Don Kalmyks – Kazaks, was luckier, conducting rearguard battles and covering the retreat of a large party of Don, Kuban and Terek Kazaks to Adler and their subsequent loading onto ships. The majority of the Don, Kuban and Terek regiments, pressed to the shore, accepted the terms of capitulation and surrendered to the Red Armiya units. The 80th Zyungarskiy Regiment did not accept the terms of capitulation, did not lay down its arms, and was evacuated in full force to Krym along with the remnants of the Don Units. In Krym, the 80th Zyungarskiy Regiment marched in parade formation before the Commander–in–Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Rossiya, Pyotr Vrangel, since among the units evacuated from Novorossiysk and Adler, besides this regiment, there was not a single whole and armed unit.
Soviet power was finally established in the Don and adjacent territories. The All–Great Don Voysko ceased to exist.