Volunteer Army (White)
의용군 (백군)
The White army of South Russia raised at Novocherkassk at the end of 1917 by Alekseyev and Kornilov from officers and cadets. After the Ice March and two Kuban campaigns it took the North Caucasus, became the core of the Armed Forces of South Russia in January 1919 and reached Orel that autumn. In March 1920 it was evacuated from Novorossiysk to the Crimea and merged into Wrangel's army.
In depth
At first it was the "Alekseyev Organisation", named after its founder, and the creation of the Volunteer Army was officially announced on 9 January 1918 (27 December 1917 Old Style). Alekseyev was overall leader, Kornilov commander-in-chief, Lukomsky chief of staff, Denikin commander of the 1st Division and Sergey Markov commander of the 1st Officers Regiment; of the first 3,000 recruits only twelve were ordinary soldiers. Driven from Rostov by the Red Army in February 1918, some 4,000 men made the "Ice March" to the Kuban, and when Kornilov was killed attacking Yekaterinodar on 13 April Denikin took command. After Drozdovsky's 3,000 men joined in June it launched the Second Kuban Campaign and grew to 30,000–35,000 by September, when it was called the Caucasus Volunteer Army.
On 8 January 1919 it formed the Armed Forces of South Russia together with the Don Army, and after the Caucasus Army was split off in May it became, under May-Mayevsky and with about 40,000 men, the main striking force of the advance on Moscow. Its many officers made it a strong fighting force, but losses that summer and the conscription of peasants and prisoners lowered its quality, and it was decisively defeated in the Red counter-offensive of October. Reduced by early 1920 to a corps of 5,000 under Kutepov, it was shipped from Novorossiysk to the Crimea on 26–27 March. The English source names its failure to offer a political idea that most of the population could understand as a cause of defeat. "Volunteer Army" was also used as shorthand for all the White forces in South Russia.