Ice March

This article is about the White Army's retreat towards Kuban. For the retreat across Lake Baikal, see Great Siberian Ice march.

The Ice March (Russian: Ледяной поход), also called the First Kuban Campaign (Russian: Первый кубанский поход), a military withdrawal lasting from February to May 1918, was one of the defining moments in the Russian Civil War of 1917 to 1921. Under attack by the Red Army advancing from the north, the forces of the Volunteer Army, sometimes referred to as the White Guard, began a retreat from the city of Rostov south towards the Kuban, in the hope of gaining the support of the Don Cossacks against the Bolshevik government in Moscow.

First Kuban Campaign or Ice March
Part of the Southern Front of the Russian Civil War
A Volunteer Army recruitment poster represents a woman addressing her son with the words: "My son! Go and save your Motherland!"
Date February 22 – May 13, 1918 Location Kuban Oblast, Southern Russia Result Strategic White victory
Belligerents
White movement Volunteer Army	Bolsheviks Red Army
Commanders and leaders
Lavr Kornilov † Mikhail Alekseyev Anton Denikin Sergey Markov M. O. Nezhentsev †	Ivan Sorokin Alexei Avtonomov Rudolf Sivers
Strength
Volunteer Army: initially 4,000, later 6,000 (2,000 Don Cossacks) 14 artillery pieces	Red Army: 24,000 - 60,000 20+ artillery pieces 3 armored trains
Casualties and losses
400 killed 1,500 wounded 2,000 deserted	5,000-20,000+ killed (exact number unknown) 10,000 wounded 7,000 captured 3,000 fled 2 armored trains captured or destroyed During the battle of Yekaterinodar: 15,000 lost, about 10,000 of which were wounded

Map of the march

Volunteer Army

After the Bolshevik Party seized power in Russia in November  [O.S. October] 1917, many of those opposed to the new government gravitated towards the fringes of the old Russian Empire, particularly to those parts still under the control of the German Army. In the Don Cossack capital, Novocherkassk (near Rostov-on-Don), the Don Cossack Host had elected General Aleksei Maksimovich Kaledin to the position of Ataman at its traditional assembly, the Host Krug (1 July [O.S. 18 June] 1917). On 20 November  [O.S. 7 November] 1917, not long after the Communists took control in central Russia, the Don Krug declared its independence. Novocherkassk became a haven for those opposed to the Bolshevik Revolution, and soon hosted the headquarters of the Volunteer Army, made up for the most part of former Tsarist officers, and under the command of General Mikhail Alekseyev and General Lavr Kornilov.

The Cossacks aimed primarily to defend their independence, but the Volunteers persuaded them that they could guarantee this only by joining with them in fighting against the Bolsheviks, who had the support of a large part of the non-Cossack population of the Don region. With the encouragement of Kaledin, the Whites, still only some 500 strong, managed to recapture the city of Rostov from local Red Guard units on 15 December  [O.S. 2 December] 1917. However, by the beginning of 1918 better-organised and stronger Communist forces began an advance from the north, capturing Taganrog on the Sea of Azov on 10 February [O.S. 28 January] 1918. Kornilov, now in command of some 4,000 men at Rostov, judged it pointless to attempt a defence of the city in the face of superior forces. Instead, the Volunteers made ready to relocate to the south, deep into the Kuban, in the hope of attracting more support, though the whole area was in deep winter. Thus began the Ice March. With his defenses gone and his government in a state of collapse, Kaledin shot himself (11 February [O.S. 29 January] 1918).

Kornilov's death

On 23 February, as the Red Army entered Rostov, Kornilov began the march south across the frozen steppelands. The soldiers, carrying one rifle each, and hauling some field artillery, were accompanied by long trail of civilians from Rostov fearful of Bolshevik reprisals. Anton Denikin, Kornilov's second-in-command, later recalled, "We went from the dark night of spiritual slavery to unknown wandering-in search of the bluebird." The bluebird was a traditional symbol of hope in Russian fairy tales and legend.

From his four thousand men, Kornilov formed three regiments under General S. L. Markov, Colonel Nezhintsev, General Afrikan P. Bogaewsky, and a battalion under General Borovskii. Another thousand civilians accompanied the army, including the politicians V. N. Lvov, L. V. Polovtsev, L. N., Novosiltsev, and N. P. Shchetnina, plus journalists, professors, soldiers' wives, doctors and nurses.

According to Peter Kenez, "United by a boundless hatred of the enemy, the soldiers performed miracles of military accomplishment; the world had seen few armies of comparable size with greater fighting ability." On 23 February, the army entered Olginskaia for a rendezvous with Ataman Popov on 26 February. However, Popov elected to stay within the Don, while the Volunteer Army headed south towards Ekaterinodar and the Kuban. The march took them through Stavropol province and their first battle, and victory, against the Bolsheviks on 6 March at Lezhanka. On 9 March, the army entered the Kuban, and another battle on 14 March at Berezanskaia. On 17 March, after four days of fighting, the army captured Korenovskaia, and its large cache of military supplies. On 28 March, the bitterest battle was fought against the Bolsheviks in which a number of volunteer officers froze to death crossing a small river with shallow icy water, hence the name of the campaign. By the end of March, the Volunteer Army was able to absorb Viktor Pokrovsky's Kuban Army, which had recently fled Ekaterinodar.

With his army now double in size, Kornilov decided to mount an attack on Ekaterinodar, the capital of the recently established North Caucasian Soviet Republic. Kornilov organized his army into three brigades under Markov, Bogaevskii and Erdeli. The attack, which began on 10 April, was met with heavy resistance from forces more than twice the size of the Volunteers. Kornilov was killed when an artillery shell hit the farmhouse where he had set up headquarters. Some accounts have characterized this event as "very bad luck" because shell had hit the one room where Kornilov was, killing him but not injuring anybody else present in the building. He was succeeded in command by Denikin, who decided to abandon the assault after five days of fighting, and withdraw to the north. Hearing of the death of Kornilov, Lenin told the Moscow Soviet, "It can be said with certainty that, in the main, the civil war has ended."

On the evening of 13 April, the Volunteer Army's forced march began in order to save the demoralized Volunteer Army, avoiding large Red forces. Denikin left 211 of his severely wounded, with doctors and nurses, at Elizavetinskaia, Diad'kovskaia, and Il'inskaia. By the beginning of May, the army had made it back to the border of the Don. According to Kenez, "The Ice March had ended. The Army, which had started the march with four thousand soldiers, had five thousand at the end of the campaign. But the greatest achievement of the march was simply survival."

Aftermath

The campaign inspired hope in the volunteers, and showed that the white army could resist in a huge disparity of forces, just as the Steppe March was later used to raise the moral component of the troops.

The Volunteer Army established its headquarters in Mechetinskaia and Egorlykskaia, and established contact with Ataman Pyotr Krasnov. Krasnov agreed to support the Volunteer Army with weapons and money, and take on the sick and wounded. In June, Alekseev established a political department in Novocherkassk, and Denikin published his "Goals of the Army". Amongst other points, it stated "the Germans must withdraw from the territory of Russia; the Bolsheviks must capitulate and be disarmed..."

Memory

First Kuban Campaign Badge

All those who survived the First Kuban Campaign, referred to as pervopokhodniks (Russian: Первопохо́дники, "First-campaigners", see ru:Первопоходник) were awarded the First Kuban Campaign Badge in memory of their courage and martyrdom.

References

• Figes, O. A People's Tragedy: the Russian Revolution, 1891-1924, 1997.
• Kenez, P. Civil War in South Russia: the First Year of the Volunteer Army, 1971
• Mawdsley, E. The Russian Civil War, 2005.
• Alexey Tolstoy, " Road to Calvary", book two "18th year".