Armed Forces of South Russia
남러시아군
The unified White army of South Russia, formed under Denikin on 8 January 1919 by joining the Volunteer Army and the Don Army. In summer 1919 it took Tsaritsyn and Kharkov and ordered the advance on Moscow, but it was beaten near Orel in October and driven south. In April 1920 Denikin handed command to Wrangel and it became the "Russian Army". The Russian abbreviation VSYuR (ВСЮР) is read "ve-es-yu-er".
In depth
It came into being when Krasnov's Don Army, deprived of its German patron by Germany's defeat, accepted Denikin's command, and the Allies backed a single command. The Crimean-Azov Army, the forces of the North Caucasus and the Turkestan Army were added later, and the reorganisation of May 1919 put May-Mayevsky's Volunteer Army, Sidorin's Don Army and Wrangel's Caucasian Army, mostly Kuban Cossacks, side by side. The English source gives 150,000 men (48,000 of them cavalry) for October 1919 and the Russian source up to 270,000 for the same month, a wide disagreement. Britain supplied 280,000 rifles, 4,898 machine guns, 917 guns, 102 tanks and 194 aircraft. Civil administration lay with the Special Council until it was replaced on 30 December 1919 by a government under the commander-in-chief and in March 1920 by the South Russian Government. After the evacuation of Novorossiysk in March 1920 the remaining units became Wrangel's Russian Army in the Crimea.