Don Army The Don Army was part of the White movement of the Russian Civil War , operating from 1917 to 1919 , in the Don region and centered in the town of Novocherkassk . History . After the October Revolution in 1917 , a civil war on Don broke out between the " Red " Bolsheviks and " White " Don Cossacks . In Novocherkassk , an assembly of Cossacks , the " Krug " , elected Alexei Kaledin as the first independent ataman sinces the days of Peter the Great . They refused to recognise the Bolshevik government and declared themselves protectors of Russia . On December 2 ( old style calendar ) , Kaledin ' s Cossacks seized Rostov - on - Don , driving out the Bolshevik authorities and setting up a government headed by Mitrofan Petrovich Bogayevsky . The Bolshevik resistance , centered in the Kamenskaya stanitsa , was joined by an army sent by Moscow . Kaledin , feeling powerless to oppose the Bolsheviks , shot himself on January 29 , 1918 . He was replaced by major - general Anatoly Mikhailovich Nazarov . Nazarov requested help from the Volunteer Army , but was refused it . His resignation was turned down by the krug , who insisted that he fulfill his duty as a ' true son of the Quiet Don ' . He decided to end the civil war by capitulating to the Bolsheviks and met with the Red representative , Sablin . Sablin refused to recognise the authority of the Ataman and declared that the Cossacks should be destroyed . In the evening of February 1918 , a detachment of the Red Army , under Lt . N . M . Golubov , broke up a meeting of the krug , arresting Nazarov and the chairman , Voloshinov . They were shot without trial on March 3 . A policy of Red Terror was carried out along the Don . Several stanitsas revolted and formed a new Don army . On May 12 , a special krug ( the krug for the salvation of the Don ) declared the old rights and uniforms restored and declared war upon the Bolsheviks . Pyotr Krasnov , a talented soldier and writer , was elected as the new Ataman . In the Summer and Fall of 1918 , the White Don Army controlled the Don territory , severed Red Army communications between Moscow and the Caucasus ( allowing the White Volunteer Army to defeat the Red Army of the Northern Caucasus ) and threatened Red Army positions at Tsaritsyn and Voronezh , as well as Rostov - na - Donu . Much of the Upper Don region , in 1918 , had defected to the Bolsheviks , but as a result of the Red Terror , in 1919 , rose up in arms against them , in what was known as the " Veshenskaya Uprising . " The main leaders were Pavel Nazarovich Kudinov and Kharlampii Yermakov . They joined forces with the Don Army centered in Novocherkassk , which was commanded by Ataman Afrikan Bogaevsky . These events form an important part of Mikhail Sholokhov ' s epic , And Quiet Flows the Don . Indeed , for a long time , Kudinov and Yermakov , who appear in the novel , were considered as fictional by the general public . In the Winter of 1918 - 1919 , the Red Southern Front , including their Group Kozhevnikov , 8th Army , 9th Army , and 10th Army , counterattacked the Don Army and regained control of the area northeast of the Donets and Manych rivers . Many Don Cossacks also participated in Kornilov ' s infamous Ice March . The Don army was often divided and plagued with indesiciveness , many of the Cossacks not wishing to fight beyond their own territory . In literature . The events of those years , especially those centered in the Upper Don , as well as events leading up to them , are the focus of Mikhail Sholokhov ' s epic , " And Quiet Flows the Don " .