Don Republic
돈 공화국
The anti-Bolshevik state the Don Cossacks set up during the Russian Civil War with Novocherkassk as its capital. It was proclaimed by the "Circle for the Salvation of the Don" in May 1918, and Ataman Pyotr Krasnov took as its name "Almighty Don Host", a title from 17th-century tsarist letters to the Don. It allied with the Germans and attacked Tsaritsyn, and after the Don Army joined Denikin's Armed Forces of South Russia in January 1919 it fell to the Red Army in early 1920.
In depth
Having retaken Novocherkassk from the Don Soviet Republic in April 1918, the Cossacks formed a Don Provisional Government under Georgy Yanov. The "Circle for the Salvation of the Don", opened on 11 May, elected Krasnov ataman on the 16th, and the next day Krasnov presented 50-point "Basic Laws" that made private property inviolable and abolished all laws passed since the abdication of Nicholas II. The republic was divided into ten okrugs covering today's Rostov and Volgograd Oblasts and parts of Luhansk and Donetsk, and Krasnov named "governors" for the parts of Voronezh and Saratov provinces he had taken. Germany handed over rifles and guns in return for grain, and the Don Army attacked Tsaritsyn three times between July 1918 and January 1919, failing each time. After Germany's defeat Krasnov accepted Denikin's command in January 1919 and gave up the atamanship in February. Through the de-Cossackization of spring 1919 and the Vyoshenskaya uprising the Don became White ground again, but the Red counter-offensive of early 1920 ended the republic.