Moscow Directive
모스크바 지령
Order No. 08878, issued on 3 July 1919 (20 June Old Style) by Anton Denikin, commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of South Russia, in newly captured Tsaritsyn. Naming "the capture of the heart of Russia, Moscow" as the final goal, it sent Wrangel's Caucasian Army towards Moscow by way of Saratov and Nizhny Novgorod, Sidorin's Don Army towards Voronezh and Yelets, and May-Mayevsky's Volunteer Army through Kursk, Orel and Tula. The White advance on Moscow in the summer and autumn of 1919 began with this directive.
In depth
The directive was an order in Denikin's own first person. Besides the axes of the three armies, its nine points ordered the line of the Dnieper and Desna to be taken, Kiev included, an advance towards Kherson and Nikolaev, a Black Sea Fleet blockade of Odessa, and set the boundaries between the armies and the joint use of the Tsaritsyn railway. Denikin later wrote that it was less an operational order than a "symbol" that would unite the Whites. Wrangel and Sidorin, commanders of the Caucasian and Don Armies, opposed it, and Wrangel called it Denikin's "fatal mistake", arguing for a defensive line from Yekaterinoslav to Tsaritsyn and a push to the Volga to join Kolchak. May-Mayevsky, the chief of staff Romanovsky and the 1st Army Corps commander Kutepov held that the march on Moscow was the only right course. Six days later, on 9 July, Lenin issued the appeal "Everyone to fight Denikin!"