Northwestern Army (Russian Civil War)
북서군 (러시아 내전)
The White army that fought towards Pskov and Petrograd from Estonia in the Russian Civil War. The Northern Corps, formed in German-occupied Pskov in 1918, was reorganised as the Northwestern Army in June 1919; in October, under Yudenich, it reached the Pulkovo Heights outside Petrograd before the Red 7th and 15th Armies pushed it back into Estonia. Disarmed and interned, it was dissolved on 22 January 1920.
In depth
It began with a plan by Petrograd officers in summer 1918 to raise an anti-Bolshevik army with German support. A Northern Corps of about 6,000 was formed in Pskov in October, but the promised German supplies never came, and at the end of November the corps withdrew into Estonia, staying there under the control of the Estonian government. Having taken Pskov and Yamburg in the offensive of May 1919, the corps was renamed the Northwestern Army in June, while units under Rodzianko unleashed terror against suspected Bolsheviks and Jews in the occupied territory. It attacked again on 12 October with about 18,500 men, taking Luga and Gatchina on the 16th and Tsarskoye Selo on the 20th, but with too little Estonian support, the disobedience of Bermondt-Avalov's West Russian Volunteer Army and a passive British fleet it could not beat a Red Army that grew to 60,000.
Estonia, heading for the Tartu peace, disarmed the retreating army at Narva, where typhus killed about 4,000. By Yudenich's decree of 22 January 1920 the army ceased to exist and its funds were paid out as a final salary. The Russian source notes that Soviet historiography called it "Yudenich's army", though Yudenich commanded it directly for less than two months.