Rostov–Novocherkassk operation
로스토프-노보체르카스크 작전
The operation of 6 to 10 January 1920 in which the Red Southern and South-Eastern Fronts took Rostov-on-Don, on the lower Don, and Novocherkassk, the capital of the Don Cossacks. A shock group led by Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army set out to cut Denikin's Armed Forces of South Russia in two, one part in Ukraine and the other beyond the Don. Novocherkassk fell on 7 January and Rostov on the 10th, and the Whites fell back in two groups, south across the Don and towards Crimea and Odessa.
In depth
The Southern Front was commanded by Yegorov, with Stalin and Lashevich on its Revolutionary Military Council, and the South-Eastern Front by Shorin, with Gusev and Smilga on its council. Having lost Kharkov and the Donbas, Kutepov's Volunteer Corps fell back along the railway, and on 6 January the Reds entered Taganrog, abandoned by the Whites. On the 7th General Toporkov's White consolidated cavalry corps pushed back the 1st Cavalry Army near the Generalsky Bridge over the Tuzlov north of Rostov, but on the same day Dumenko's consolidated cavalry corps and the 21st Rifle Division of the 9th Army stormed Novocherkassk, taking 167 guns and 8 tanks. On the 8th Toporkov's corps was surrounded and mostly surrendered, and Mamontov's 4th Don Cavalry Corps withdrew beyond the Don against Denikin's orders. On the night of the 8th to 9th the 8th Army and the 1st Cavalry Army fought in the streets of Rostov, and on the morning of the 9th the Kornilov division briefly retook the city, which only gave the remaining Whites time to cross the Don bridges. On the 10th Rostov was wholly in Red hands, and according to the Russian source 11,000 prisoners and 33 guns were taken. The Whites were badly beaten but not destroyed, and they dug in behind the Don and the Manych. The Russian source sees the decision of the Allied Supreme Council on 16 January to lift the economic blockade of Soviet Russia as a direct effect of the victory.