Battle for the Donbas (1919)

In March, Kozhevnikov's group made the first attempt to oust the Whites from Donbas.[9] The Red Army struck the central part of Donbas with Mykitivka, Yenakiieve, Yuzivka, Bakhmut and Luhansk.[12] Particularly fierce fighting took place in the area of Debaltseve,[8] a key railway junction that the Red Army took over on 16 March.[12] Due to the lack of progress of Kozhevnikov's troops, the commander of the Southern Front Vladimir Gittis shifted part of the 8th Army to the west as support, against the intentions of the commander-in-chief of the Red Army Jukums Vācietis. However, the transfer of troops was stopped in the last days of March due to spring thaws and damage to the railway network.[9] On 28 March, troops of the 13th Army entered Yenakiieve, Mykitivka, Makiivka and Horlivka, and on April 3 they seized Yuzivka, Yasynuvata and Starobesheve.[12] On 1 April, the Dnieper Division under the command of Pavel Dybenko captured Mariupol and pushed as far as to be within of 30–40 km from Taganrog.[13] However, on 6 and 7 April, White cavalry divisions under the command of Andrei Shkuro and Vladimir May-Mayevsky broke the defense of the Reds in the central part of Donbas and again took control of Yuzivka, Volnovakha, Mariupol, Makiivka, Yasynuvata, Yenakiieve and Horlivka. Volnovakha was recaptured by the Red Army after another bloody battle on 24 April, two days later the Reds again controlled Mariupol, and on 28 April, they also captured Yuzivka.[12] In the cities occupied by the Bolsheviks, councils and executive committees were formed, and regional congresses of councils were held.[12]

As a result of the fighting, industrial plants and railway lines operating in Donbas were largely destroyed or stopped production. A significant part of the workers and their families left the region fleeing the hostilities. At the end of March, the Congress of Councils of the newly created Donetsk Governorate chose an executive committee headed by Fyodor Sergeyev and developed a plan for the reconstruction of industry in Donbas.[12] In April 1919 the de facto capital of the province became Bakhmut, then, when it was decided to expand the province's borders, its authorities were moved to Luhansk.[12]

Vladimir May-Mayevsky achieved a series of victories over the Red forces during the fighting for Donbas.

At the end of April 1919, the Whites began a counteroffensive, reinforced by the use of tanks.[12] 60 of the tanks were provided by the Allies as part of the first batch of weapons, together with 200,000 firearms and 500 million pieces of ammunition, as well as 6,200 machine guns and 168 aircraft.[10] In the first clashes in which it was used, the new weapons raised panic among the Reds. Tanks repeatedly approached the red positions without any problems, inflicting serious losses on them, with some Red troops running away at the mere sight of them.[12] Thanks to the use of tanks, May-Mayevsky's troops again took control of Yuzivka, Yasynuvata, Krynychna and Debaltseve.[12] May-Mayevsky successfully used the existing communication network in Donbas, especially the railway lines, to efficiently move between towns. At the head of the forces numbering from 3 to 6 thousand soldiers successfully repelled the attacks of Red Army groups that were over three times or even ten times stronger, in a series of spectacular victories over the red forces. Another factor that contributed to the success of the Whites was the conflict between the command of the Red Army and the Makhnovshchina, who formally submitted to the Soviet command, but did not wish to extend the Bolshevik power to the territory under their control.[14] Nestor Makhno himself did not even maintain contact with the command of the Southern Front of the Red Army, with which he should theoretically have coordinated his actions due to his proximity, nor with the staff of the 13th Army.[15] In May and June 1919, Andrei Shkuro's White troops broke through the Makhnovist defense lines without much difficulty. At that time, Leon Trotsky proclaimed Makhno an outlaw. In the rear of the main front of the fighting between the Red and Whites, clashes between the Bolshevik forces and the Makhnovists took place.[14] In May 1919, the otaman Nykyfor Hryhoriv, allied with them so far, also revolted against the command of the Red Army and the Ukrainian Bolsheviks. His 20,000 troops occupied the much of the provinces of Katerynoslav and Kherson for three weeks, thus binding the considerable Red forces.[16] Fighting with the Makhnovists and Hryhorivites exposed the right flank of the 13th Army, which had to withdraw after White tank attacks.[17]

Monument to the defense of Luhansk at the turn of April and May 1919 in Ostraya Mogila.

On 20 April, the front stretched along the Dmitrovsk-Horlivka line, and the Whites even had an open road towards the Ukrainian Soviet capital of Kharkiv.[12] Then Mykitivka, Bakhmut and Sloviansk were seized.[12] On 21 April, Andrei Shkuro's troops arrived at Luhansk, defended by units of the 8th Army, the 1st Moscow Workers' Division and Jānis Lācis's 15th Rifle Division.[18] The mobilization of workers was announced in the city, and a military-revolutionary committee headed by Sergei Lapin was formed. 9,000 volunteers, including workers from Luhansk and Alchevsk, as well as some peasants from nearby villages, joined the 15th Rifle Division.[18] On 30 April, the city's defenders went on a counter-offensive in the area of Ostra Mogila and threw the attackers 30 km from the city, but on 4 May they failed to repel another attack and Luhansk was captured by the Whites.[18]

On 8 May, Vladimir Lenin called the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR for a special mobilization in defense of Donbas.[12] He suggested transferring to this region some of the units that fought at the same time in western and central Ukraine, but his orders were not implemented.[19]

Innokentiy Kozhevnikov, commander of the 13th Army (in the center, with binoculars), surrounded by the crew of an armored train. To the left of him Lyudmila Mokievskaya-Zubok, the only woman in history in command of an armored train; who died in early March in the battle for Debaltseve.

In theory, at the end of April 1919, the Reds still outnumbered the Whites in Donbas, they also had more cannons and machine guns. At the same time, however, the Whites, unlike their opponents, were able to make excellent use of cavalry, and their commanders on the Southern Front significantly exceeded the skills of the red commanders.[20] In particular, Innokentiy Kozhevnikov, Anatoly Skachko (commander of the 2nd Ukrainian Soviet Army between April and June 1919), Tichon Hvesin (commander of the 8th Army from March 1919) and Pavel Knyagnitsky (commander of the 9th Army from November 1918 to June 1919) lacked commanding competences and experience.[20] In addition, in mid-June 1919, the commander of the 9th Army, Nikolai Vsevolodov, defected to the side of the Whites. For the previous few months, while performing the duties of the chief of staff in the same operating union, he had been passing on information about the Red plans to their opponents.[21] Relations between the Red commanders, including former officers or non-commissioned officers of the Imperial Russian Army, and the political commissars and soldiers remained difficult, causing problems with discipline to continue.[22] The combat value of the Red units, which until then had only conducted partisan operations and only shortly before the march on Donbass were organized into the 13th Army, was much lower than the value of experienced units under the command of May-Mayevsky.[23] In the opinion of Nikolai Kakurin, already in mid-April, the weakened 13th Army was not capable of offensive actions.[24] Another factor that contributed to the success of the Whites in Donbas was the fact that the Reds fought on many fronts at the same time - against the interveners in the north, against the Baltic states, in Ukraine, and in March–April also against Alexander Kolchak's Spring offensive in Siberia. It was the latter direction that was considered to be the priority and it received most of the resources.[25]

At the beginning of June 1919, the battle of Donbas ended with a complete victory for the Whites, who continued their offensive into the Left-Bank and Sloboda Ukraine. At the end of the month, the Volunteer Army smashed the Fortified Region, which was being hastily built by the Reds, and on 27 June they captured Kharkiv.[26] After this defeat, Vacietis ordered the forces involved so far in the fighting on the left-bank to withdraw to a "safe zone", i.e. to those governorates in European Russia where Bolshevik power was still secure.[25]

The Whites controlled Donbas until the end of 1919, when after the defeat of Denikin's advance on Moscow, the Red Army again captured this area in the course of Donbas operation.[27]