Northwestern Army (Russia)
The Northwestern Army was a White Army that operated in the Pskov Governorate, Estonia and Latvia during the Russian Civil War from 1919 to 1920.
History
The origin of the Northwest Army was the plan to create an army by a group of ultra-reactionary Petrograd officers in the summer of 1918, in the territory controlled by Germany and with German support to confront the Bolsheviks. By October 10, 1918, a force of some 6,000 troops was created in the city of Pskov, which was called the Northern Corps. A quarter of them were officers of the former Tsarist army, and the rest was made up of local recruits, escaped Petrograd officers and prisoners of war released by the Germans.
The military supplies promised by the Germans didn't materialize and the Northern Corps had to retreat abruptly into Estonia at the end of November 1918. The Estonian Government, faced with a Bolshevik advance, accepted to take the White force into its territory and supply it, in exchange for passing under its control, and this despite the ideological difference between the independence fighters of Tallinn and the Russian ultranationalists.
Together with the Finnish counterrevolutionary forces of Mannerheim, the Estonians and the Northern Corps were able to stop the advance of the Bolsheviks and to launch a counteroffensive in which they took Pskov and Yamburg in May 1919.
The White administration of the newly conquered territories was disastrous, as Rodzianko's subordinates unleashed a wave of terror against suspected Bolsheviks and against the Jewish population in general.
In June, the Northern Corps, now renamed the Northwestern Army, approached Luga, Ropcha and Gatchina, threatening Petrograd. But the Bolsheviks mobilized their reserves and aligned 40,000 men against the Northwestern Army supported by two Estonian divisions. On August 1, the Bolsheviks launched a counter-attack and drove back the Estonian troops, who were reluctant to fight outside their country. On August 5, Yamburg fell and Pskov was recaptured by the Reds on August 28.
Petrograd Campaign
On October 12, 1919, the Northwestern Army, some 18,500 men strong against 25,000 on the Red side, forced the frontline at Yamburg and seized on October 16 Luga and Gatchina. On October 20 Tsarskoye Selo fell into the hands of the White troops, who were now at the gates of Petrograd. They captured the Pulkovo Heights, the left flank of the Army entered Ligovo and advanced units engaged the enemy in skirmishes as far as the Ijorski factories. But the lack of forces and means, Estonia's lack of support, the disobedience of Pavel Bermondt-Avalov and his West Russian Volunteer Army, the passivity of the British fleet, and the Red numerical superiority made it impossible to take Petrograd.
After ten days of fierce fighting with the Reds, whose numbers had risen to 60,000, the North-West Army was pushed back by the 7th and 15th Red Army from November 2, 1919 and retreated fighting into Estonia in the Narva region.
In Estonia, 15,000 soldiers and officers of the Northwestern Army were disarmed, and 5,000 of them were interned in camps. General Yudenich was arrested by men of Bułak-Bałachowicz, with the tacit consent of the Estonian authorities, before being released after the intervention of the commander of the English squadron anchored at Tallinn.
On January 22, 1920, by decree of Nikolai Yudenich, the Northwestern Army ceased to exist.
Yudenich went into exile in France, where he died near Nice on October 5, 1933.
Strength
- 17,500 (July 1919)
- 18,500 (October 1919)
- 15,000 (November 1919)
Commanders
- Anton Dzerozhinsky (1918 - 19.06.1919)
- Alexander Rodzyanko (19.06.1919 — 02.10.1919)
- Nikolai Yudenich (02.10.1919 — 28.11.1919)
- Peter Vladimir von Glasenapp (28.11.1919 — 22.01.1920)