The place of the First Cavalry Army in the history of the Red Army is special. This formation, which existed in 1919-1921, managed to fight on several fronts of the Civil War. Budyonny's cavalry fought in the Donbass, Ukraine, Don, Kuban, the Caucasus, Poland and the Crimea. In the Soviet Union, the First Cavalry acquired a legendary status that no other part of the Red Army had.
Creation
The famous First Cavalry Army was created in November 1919. The decision to form it was made by the Revolutionary Military Council. The corresponding proposal was made by Joseph Stalin. The army included three divisions and the 1st Cavalry Corps. They were commanded by Semyon Budyonny. It was he who led the new formation.
On the eve of this event, Budyonny's forces occupied the Kastornaya station in the modern Kursk region. They pursued the retreating units of the Mamontov and Shkuro corps. During the fighting, telephone and telegraph lines were damaged, which is why Budyonny did not immediately find out that he was the commander of the First Cavalry Army. He was informed of the official decision in Stary Oskol. Voroshilov and Shchadenko were also appointed members of the Revolutionary Military Council of the new formation. The first one already participated in the organization of the 10th Red Army,the second had experience in forming smaller pieces.
Device
In early December 1919, the future Marshal Yegorov, Stalin, Voroshilov and Shchadenko came to Budyonny. Together they signed Order No. 1. So the First Cavalry Army was created. The order was drawn up in Velikomikhailovka. Today there is a memorial museum of the First Cavalry Army.
The newly created army achieved its first successes in the first days of its existence. On December 7, the white corps of Konstantin Mamontov was defeated. Valuiki were taken. Here was an important railway junction and there were trains with ammunition and food. Many horses and baggage were also captured.
In the battles for Valuiki, the 4th division was especially hard tested. A powerful fire of armored trains was concentrated against her. Despite this, the divisions acted in a coordinated manner and captured Valuiki from the flanks.
Initially it was planned that there would be five cavalry divisions in the Cavalry. However, due to the lack of people at first, only three entered it. Also, two rifle divisions and an auto detachment named after Sverdlov were added as reinforcement. It included 15 vehicles with machine guns mounted on them. There was also a squadron of Stroev (12 aircraft). It was intended for reconnaissance and establishing communications between parts of the army. 4 armored trains were assigned to the Cavalry: "Kommunar", "Worker", "Death of the Directory" and "Red Cavalryman".
Donbass
When Valuyki were taken, Budyonnyreceived a new order: to go to the line Kupyansk - Timinovo. The Revolutionary Military Council decided to strike the main blow along the railway, and the auxiliary one - in the direction of Pokrovskoye. The offensive was carried out rapidly, as the Soviet leadership feared that the retreating whites would begin to destroy mines important to the economy. Convoys, medical posts, supply bases were pulled up. On December 16, the Red Army entered Kupyansk.
The first cavalry army was created to fight the forces of the Dobroarmiya, which made an unsuccessful attempt to march to Moscow. Now the Whites were retreating, and the Reds, moving south and southwest, pursued the opponents of Soviet power.
In December, the Cavalry Army was faced with the task of forcing the Seversky Donets River in the Loskutovka-Nesvetevich section. Despite the winter, the ice on it was not strong enough to withstand the weight of the cavalry and artillery. Therefore, there were 2 ways to overcome this natural barrier: to capture an already finished bridge or build your own crossing. The White Guard command sent fresh forces to the northern bank of the river. Despite this, on the morning of December 17, the Revolutionary Military Council gave the order to cross the Donets.
The First Cavalry Army was supposed to concentrate its own armored forces, pull up the rear, fix the railway tracks, replenish ammunition. The operation was designed to move quickly. Because of this, Budyonny's First Cavalry Army became very distant from neighboring friendly regiments. Nevertheless, the Seversky Donets was still forced. It happened on December 23, 1919. At the same time,Lisichansk.
End of 1919
December 25-26 stubborn battles continued in the direction of Popasnaya. They were led by the 12th Infantry Division, moving forward with the help of armored trains. On its way, it overturned the forces of the 2nd Kuban Corps. On December 26, the division reached the Popasnaya-Dmitrievka line. On the same day, the 4th Don Cavalry Corps was driven back abroad Krinichnaya - Good. By December 27, the Cavalry had completely captured the Bakhmut-Popasnaya line. White, meanwhile, was preparing for a counterattack on the left flank.
Leaving behind the Seversky Donets, the First Cavalry continued the pursuit of units under the command of Generals Shkuro and Ulagai. On December 29, the Whites left Deb altsevo, and the next day, Gorlovka and Nikitovka. In a major battle near the village of Alekseevo-Leonovo, the regiments that were part of the Markov division were defeated.
The 9th Infantry and 11th Cavalry Divisions continued their offensive from Gorlovka. On January 1, 1920, they occupied the Ilovaiskaya station and Amvrosievka. The Circassian White Division stationed here suffered a crushing defeat. Its remnants fled in the southeast and southwest directions. During the last week of 1919, the Whites lost 5,000 prisoners and 3,000 killed. Cavalry captured 170 machine guns, 24 guns, 10 thousand shells, 1.5 thousand horses and other military property.
By January, Donbass was completely under the control of the Bolsheviks. This victory was of great operational-strategic, economic and political significance. The Soviet Republic gained access todensely populated proletarian region, where there were inexhaustible sources of fuel. For the Cavalry opened the shortest path for the attack on Rostov and Taganrog.
Rostov
In the new 1920, the First Cavalry Army took part in the large general Rostov-Novocherkassk operation and somewhat changed the direction of its movement. On January 6, her forces occupied Taganrog. A vast Bolshevik underground operated here.
On the first day of the new year, Budyonny and Shchadenko went to the forward units of the divisions to clarify the situation. Voroshilov was considered a connoisseur of the Donbass and remained at the army headquarters in Chistyakovo (he also wrote an appeal to the workers of the Donets Basin). In Kolpakovka, Budyonny met with Semyon Timoshenko. Soon, its units advanced to Matveyev Kurgan. Fighting began near the General's Bridge. On the evening of January 7, the Whites made an unsuccessful attempt at a counteroffensive.
On January 8, Timoshenko's division entered Rostov-on-Don for the first time. Street fighting for the city lasted three days. The big mistake of the White Guard command was the decision to strengthen the defensive lines on the outskirts of Rostov, but not to pay attention to the protection of the outskirts and the city center. The appearance on the streets of the red cavalry was all the more unexpected because the opponents of the Bolsheviks celebrated Christmas en masse.
On January 10, Lewandovsky's 33rd division came to Tymoshenko's rescue, and Rostov finally passed into the hands of the Bolsheviks. During the fighting, about 10 thousand White Guards were taken prisoner. Dozens of guns, two hundred machine guns and other property were in the hands of the Red Army.
Local Revolutionary Military Council sentvictorious report to Lenin and the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front. It was reported that Rostov and Nakhichevan were taken, and the Whites were driven back beyond Gniloaksayskaya and Bataysk. The intensified rains prevented further pursuit of the enemy. At Aksayskaya, the Whites destroyed the crossing over the Don, and at Bataysk, across the Koisug. However, the Reds managed to save the bridge and the railway across the river in Rostov itself. A commandant, head of the garrison was appointed in the city, and a Revolutionary Committee was formed.
Caucasus
After the Whites left the banks of the Don and the Donetsk basin, the main battles moved closer to the Caucasus, where the First Cavalry Army went. During the years of the Civil War, there were a great many such episodes of redeployment and reassignment to other fronts. Together with the First Cavalry, the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th armies fought in the North Caucasus. The Whites and the Reds had comparable forces, but the representatives of the White movement had more cavalry, which gave them good room for maneuver.
The Budyonnovites started their first march (to Platovskaya) on February 11th. The path was difficult, as complete impassability reigned on the left bank of the Sal. Machine-gun carts were fixed on sleds. The convoys and artillery sank in a meter-long layer of loose snow. It was hard on the horses too. Over time, the Budyonnovtsy acquired their own breed, distinguished by its special endurance and prepared for the difficult conditions of the war. They were then bred by the stud farm of the First Cavalry Army, opened already in the Soviet era.
February 15, the red cavalry in the area of Kazennybridge crossed the Manych and launched an attack on Shablievka. The Red Army took advantage of the darkness and bypassed the positions of the White Guards, inflicting an unexpected blow on them. Shablievka was taken, the plastun battalion of the 1st Kuban Corps of Vladimir Kryzhanovsky was captured.
Egorlyk
From February 25 to March 2, the Battle of Yegorlyk took place - the largest cavalry combat action in the entire Civil War. The First Cavalry Army took an active part in it. Budyonny managed to defeat the forces of General Kryzhanovsky and Alexander Pavlov. The total number of cavalry that took part in the clash was 25 thousand people.
The 6th division of Tymoshenko, hiding in a hollow, deliberately allowed enemy columns to approach him, after which the White Guards were covered with heavy artillery fire. A decisive attack followed. White was confused and began to retreat. It was the 4th Don Corps.
There were other units in General Pavlov's group. The commander himself commanded the 2nd Don Corps. This detachment met with the vanguard of the 20th Infantry Division (it was moving to Sredny Yegorlyk). Suddenly, the 4th cavalry division of the Cavalry entered the ranks of the Pavlovtsy. Artillery and machine guns were actively used, there was a brutal felling. Budyonny and Voroshilov led the 1st brigade and cut off the enemy's retreat to Sredny Ergolyk.
In the battle, the key force of the Whites, the Cossack cavalry, was defeated. Because of this, the general retreat of the opponents of Soviet power began. The commander of the First Cavalry Army did not fail to take advantage of the success: the divisions subordinate to himoccupied Stavropol and Khomutovskaya. Further pursuit of the enemy, however, slowed down. The terrible spring thaw has affected.
Kuban
On March 13, 1920, Budyonny, who was in Yegorlykskaya, received a new directive from the Revolutionary Military Council of the Caucasian Front. The paper contained an order to cross the Kuban River. On March 14, Ordzhonikidze (a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the front) and Tukhachevsky (front commander) arrived at the First Cavalry.
Soon the troops set off on a new campaign. On the banks of the Kuban, the corps of Sultan Giray was defeated. Retreating, the whites destroyed most of the crossings. Instead, new pontoons were built, damaged bridges were repaired. By March 19, the First Cavalry Crossed the Kuban.
Three days later the Budyonnovites entered Maykop. Here, Shevtsov's army of five thousand was waiting for them. These were pro-Bolshevik partisans, consisting of the Black Sea and Caucasian detachments. Shevtsov's detachment also helped establish Soviet power in Tuapse and Sochi.
Maikop was an important city from a strategic point of view, as there were valuable oil fields. Their protection was taken up directly by the First Cavalry Army. The Civil War has already reached a turning point. White retreated on all fronts. Maikop operation was the last for Budyonny in the Caucasus.
Poland
In the spring of 1920, Budyonny's First Cavalry Army found itself at war with Poland (sources of that time used the term "Polish Front"). Essentially, it was part of onegeneral conflict on the territory of the collapsed Russian Empire.
For 52 days, Budyonny's forces moved from Maykop to the Ukrainian city of Uman. All this time skirmishes with the UNR army continued. In May-June, the 1st Cavalry participated in the Kyiv operation of the Red Army. In the first two days of the offensive, she managed to defeat Ataman Kurovsky.
The Polish front was broken through on June 5th. Soldiers and trumpeters of the First Cavalry Army entered Zhytomyr. The key role in this success was played by the 4th division, commanded by Dmitry Korotchaev. The small Polish garrison was defeated. Numerous Red Army soldiers were released from captivity. On the same day, the Poles left Berdichev.
In those June days of 1920, the commander of the First Cavalry Army of the Red Army was primarily busy establishing control over the most important roads and railways. It was the Budyonnovists who disrupted communication between various Polish detachments, which helped other Soviet forces to occupy Kyiv. At the end of June, the cavalry entered Novograd-Volynsky, and on July 10 - in Rovno.
At the end of July 1920, the Budennovites were transferred to Lvov. Here they were subordinated to the Western Front (previously they were part of the Southwestern Front). On August 16, the Western Bug was forced. The days of bloody battles for Lviv have come. Aviation and armored trains acted against the Red Army. Events in the vicinity of Lvov fell into the plot of the novel "How the Steel Was Tempered", written by Nikolai Ostrovsky.
The cavalry never occupied the city. Having received Tukhachevsky's order to advance in the direction of Lublin, she left the Lvov environs. Last few daysIn August, the battles for Zamostye took place. Here, the commander of the First Cavalry Army during the Civil War, Budyonny, could not break the resistance of the Poles and the Ukrainians from the UNR army who came out on their side.
Crimea
In September 1920, the Cavalry was on the Southern Front, where fighting continued against the White Guards of Wrangel who controlled the Crimea. The Perekop-Chongar operation, which followed in November under the general command of Mikhail Frunze, ended with the occupation of the peninsula by the Reds.
The cavalry made a great contribution to the victory of the Red Army in the battles near the Kakhovka bridgehead. Budyonnovites acted together with the Second Cavalry Army, commanded by Philip Mironov.
The last battles of the famous formation refer to the winter of 1920-1921. The commander of the First Cavalry Army again led his troops to Ukraine, where the Soviet government continued to fight the Makhnovists. This was followed by a transfer to the North Caucasus, where the rebel army of Mikhail Przhevalsky was defeated. The disbandment of the First Cavalry Army took place in May 1921. Her headquarters continued to work until the fall of 1923.
The Cavalry's successes in Russia were due to the speed of regroupings, flexibility of maneuver and the concentration of superior means and forces in the direction of the main attack. The Red Cavalry loved surprise attacks and was distinguished by the clear interaction of its own formations and units.
Joseph Stalin, the future head of the Soviet state, was an honorary Red Army soldier in the First Cavalry (Marshal Yegorov received the same title). After the Civil War, sheacquired the status of an important symbol of the successful struggle against the opponents of the Bolsheviks. Budyonny became one of the first five Soviet marshals. He was also awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union three times.
Today, a stud farm of the First Cavalry Army operates in the Zernogradsky District of the Rostov Region. A monument to the Budyonnivtsy was erected in Lvovskaya. There are Cavalry streets in Stary Oskol, Simferopol and Rostov-on-Don. Her artistic image is known thanks to the collection of short stories by Isaac Babel, films by Efim Dzigan, Georgy Berezko and Vladimir Lyubomudrov.
