Year of creation of the 1st cavalry army. Commander of the First Cavalry

According to the official version, the creators and leaders of the legendary First Cavalry during the Civil War were Semyon Budyonny and Klim Voroshilov. Actually this is not true. Indeed, they were the leaders, but the creators ... The real organizer of the equestrian units on the Don was the former sergeant-major of the tsarist army, the full Knight of St. George Boris Dumenko. Back in the spring of 1918, he organized a cavalry regiment to fight the counter-revolution. In September 1919, under his command, the horse-combined corps of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) was created, which fought the troops of the white generals Krasnov and Denikin. Dumenko established strict discipline, which, combined with skillful battle tactics, ensured his victory over the enemy. At the direction of Lenin, Trotsky, who was the organizer of the Red Army, People's Commissar and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, personally presented Boris Dumenko with the Order of the Red Banner. From the regiments and brigades of his corps, Dumenko formed two cavalry armies - the First under the command of his deputy Budyonny and the Second - under the command of Philip Mironov. By the way, the very existence of the Second Cavalry, and the name of its commander, are completely deleted from the annals of the civil war. In the future, the story of the ascent to Olympus by the First Cavalry and its commanders begins. Boris Dumenko and his closest associates were arrested on a false charge of murdering the military commissar of the Mikeladze corps. Taking advantage of this provocation (and perhaps even organizing it), Budyonny, together with members of the Revolutionary Military Council of the First Horse Voroshilov and Shchadenko, gave a negative description of Dumenko - and on May 11, 1920 he was shot (he was rehabilitated in 1964). Then it was the turn of the commander of the Second Cavalry Mironov. He was a talented and skillful commander, under his leadership the Second Cavalry played a decisive role in crossing the Sivash and defeating Wrangel. Mironov did not want to recognize the superiority of the First Cavalry and its command in any way. Taking advantage of the fact that Mironov openly protested against the terror of the Bolsheviks on the Don, a case was opened against him and on February 13, 1921 he was arrested and shot after 1.5 months (Mironov was rehabilitated in 1960). Now no one prevented Budyonny from being considered, according to Lenin, "the most brilliant cavalry commander."
Unlike Dumenko's army, Budyonny's detachments, although they had high fighting qualities, were the most undisciplined units of the Red Army. Drunkenness, looting, robberies, executions, Jewish pogroms were commonplace here, to which Budyonny did not even pay attention. This anarchist freemen, which reigned in the First Cavalry, is well described by Babel, who fought in its composition, in the book Cavalry. Budyonny, after the publication of Cavalry, publicly threatened the writer "to chop this Jew Babel into cabbages" and even published an article in the central press entitled "Babel's Babism." Gorky stood up for the writer, positively evaluating the work. Subsequently, Babel will be reminded of this, declaring him a spy for two foreign intelligence services at once.
In September 1919, Budyonny and Voroshilov became close during the defense of Tsaritsyn with Stalin, a member of the RVSR, which significantly affected their future fate. They were impressed that Stalin, just like them, hated Trotsky with his order, the desire for harsh discipline, and the involvement of military specialists from former tsarist officers. Voroshilov at one time was even a member of the opposition, which demanded the expulsion of military experts from the army. Trotsky wrote: "Voroshilov is a fiction, a limited provincial without an outlook and without military abilities." Subsequently, history has fully confirmed the correctness of these words. During the hostilities, he really did not show any military talents, but he was always distinguished by the “purity” of party views. It was near Tsaritsyn that he first and fully showed his incompetence in military affairs, and after Stalin's departure, Trotsky removed Voroshilov from command of a group of troops.
Nevertheless, thanks to his friendship with Stalin, after the end of the civil war, Voroshilov became the deputy of the new People's Commissar of War, Frunze. In the same people's commissariat, Budyonny also took a fairly high post. There was only one step left to the pinnacle of glory. And Stalin helped to make this step again. The fact is that Stalin was dissatisfied with Frunze, who did not attach the necessary importance to the work of political commissars in the army. Frunze suffered from a stomach ulcer for many years, but refused to be operated on all the time. And then, at the end of 1925, a special decision of the Politburo of the party forced him to undergo an operation. According to Stalin's former personal secretary Boris Bazhenov, who fled to the West in 1928, “during the operation, exactly the anesthesia that Frunze could not bear was used. And he died on the operating table. His wife was convinced that he had been stabbed and committed suicide. Voroshilov became People's Commissar, an extremely narrow-minded person who was associated with Stalin during the civil war. The writer Boris Pilnyak, in his Tale of the Unextinguished Moon, wrote about the mysterious circumstances of Frunze's death (Pilnyak was shot in 1938). Frunze's children - 5-year-old daughter Tanya and 2-year-old son Timur (died during the war in an air battle and posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union) - were taken in by the childless Voroshilov family (!).
During the period of Stalinist repressions, the commanders of the First Cavalry showed their human qualities most clearly. So, Voroshilov was the main conductor of the "purge" of the army deployed by Stalin. Under his leadership, about 40 thousand commanders were "cleaned out like a vile infection". At the same time, he personally authorized most of the arrests and executions. Budyonny, his faithful deputy, did not lag behind his boss. At the party plenum in March 1937, he advocated the execution of Bukharin and Rykov, in May of the same year - for the execution of Tukhachevsky and Rudzutak: "these scoundrels need to be executed." Budyonny became a member of the Special Judicial Presence under the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which on June 11, 1937 considered the case of the "military-fascist" conspiracy - the case of Tukhachevsky and other major military leaders. After the trial of Tukhachevsky, a talented and intelligent man, one of the first 5 marshals of the Soviet Union, whom he had disliked since the Civil War, Budyonny wrote a loyal letter to Stalin approving the court's decision. And even many years later, after the debunking of the cult of personality, Budyonny, in the circle of associates in the First Cavalry, said: “Yes, they were all shot correctly.” At the same time, he saved several directors of stud farms, and literally pulled Rokossovsky, a former fighter of the First Cavalry, from the dungeons of the Lubyanka. By the way, the former fighters of this army generally suffered relatively little in those years - despite the fact that Voroshilov and Budyonny dragged them to all more or less responsible posts in the People's Commissariat of Defense. So, the former member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the First Horse Shchadenko since 1937 became the deputy people's commissar for personnel and also joined in the repressions in the army. But the greatest harm to the Red Army was caused, of course, by Marshal (since 1940) Kulik, the former chief of artillery of the "Budyonny cavalry", and from May 1937 - deputy people's commissar of defense and head of the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army. Besides the fact that he took part in the massacres of the military, he rejected the importance of mechanizing the army, focusing only on horse traction. On his instructions, tank corps were disbanded, heavy artillery was decommissioned, he actively opposed the creation of the Katyusha guards mortars and the famous T-34 tanks.
Marshal Voroshilov was removed from the post of People's Commissar of Defense in 1940, after unsuccessful actions in the Soviet-Finnish war. The Great Patriotic War began - and the mediocrity of the red marshals from the First Cavalry manifested itself in full force. Voroshilov was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the North-Western Direction, but soon, having shown his complete inability to lead troops in a modern war, he was sent as front commander in Leningrad. And here he suffered a crushing defeat. German troops came so close to the city that Voroshilov at the Military Council of the front raised the question of preparing for the explosion of the main industrial enterprises, in other words, he actually admitted the possibility of surrendering the city to the enemy. When Stalin found out that Voroshilov personally led a military unit into the attack, in a marshal's uniform and with a pistol in his hands, he urgently recalled him to Moscow. He was entrusted with a purely formal post of Commander-in-Chief of the partisan movement. Marshal Zhukov later recalled that "Voroshilov remained an amateur in military matters to the end and never knew them deeply and seriously."
Marshal Budyonny from July to September 1941 was Commander-in-Chief of the troops of the South-Western direction. His mismanagement led to the fact that the 600,000-strong group of the Red Army was surrounded and completely destroyed north of Kyiv, led by its commander, Colonel General Kirponos. In August 1941, on the orders of Budyonny, the Dneproges was blown up. In this case, not only the German units that had broken through were killed, but also a large number of Soviet soldiers, civilians and hundreds of thousands of cattle. In one hour, the entire lower part of Zaporozhye was demolished - with huge stocks of industrial equipment, which were being prepared for evacuation to the Urals. After being removed from office, Budyonny commanded the Reserve Front. In October 1941, due to the poor organization of the defense, the Germans
it was precisely the left flank of the Reserve Front that was defending Moscow that broke through. April 1942
Stalin appointed him commander-in-chief of the North Caucasus direction, as a result, the Germans broke through to the Caucasus. In the end, Budyonny also received a purely nominal post of commander of the Red Army cavalry.
The third marshal from the First Cavalry - Kulik for inept actions in the Crimea and near Rostov in 1942 was deprived of all awards and demoted to major general (according to other sources, to lieutenant or even to private). Then he was dismissed from the army for drunkenness and embezzlement of state property, and in 1950 he was shot "for participating in an anti-Soviet conspiracy" (rehabilitated in 1956).
It is noteworthy that the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (Voroshilov - twice, and Budyonny - three times), they were both awarded not during the war and not even immediately after the victory, but after the death of Stalin, in the late 50s - 60s, when Khrushchev and Brezhnev handed out high awards left and right.
To the credit of the First Cavalry, it should be noted that such talented commanders as Yegorov (one of the first 5 marshals, shot in 1939), Zhukov, Rokossovsky, Timoshenko, Sokolovsky, Pliev also left its ranks.
P.S. In preparing this essay, the author used the following literature: B. Bazhenov "Memoirs of Stalin's personal secretary"; G. Zhukov "Memories and reflections"; L. Vasilyeva "Kremlin Wives"; R. Gul "Red Marshals"; E. Dolmatovsky "Green gate"; I.Babel "Cavalry"; A. Chakovsky "Blockade"; L. Trotsky "Portraits of revolutionaries"; Biographical Encyclopedic Dictionary; "Boris Dumenko and Semyon Budyonny" Livejournal; Marlen Insarov Philip Kuzmich Mironov.

In 1917, the capitalist world was shocked by a gigantic event - the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia, which marked the beginning of a new era in world history - the era of socialism. In a fierce struggle against the tsarist autocracy and the bourgeois-landowner system, the working class of our country, in alliance with the working peasantry, under the leadership of the Communist Party and the great Lenin, abolished oppression, violence and exploitation of man by man and proclaimed the Soviet socialist state. In the fire of the Civil War, imposed by the overthrown classes and international imperialism, the Soviet people created a new type of army, which defended the great October conquests, covering its battle flags with unfading glory.

I dedicate my modest work to the blessed memory of the soldiers, commanders and political workers of the Red Army who fell in the battles for the freedom and independence of the Soviet state.

CM. BUDENNY

I. Before Great October

Soon after the abolition of serfdom, my grandfather, a peasant in the settlement of Kharkov, Biryuchinsky district, Voronezh province, was forced to leave his native places: taxes and redemption payments that he had to pay for one tithe of the land he received turned out to be unbearable. Leaving his ruined farm, my grandfather with three young children - among them was my two-year-old father - moved to the Don. But even here, in the rich Cossack region, for newcomers or, as they were called, out-of-town peasants, life was not easier.

All land on the Don has long belonged to the Cossacks and landlords. The lot of non-residents was farm work. In search of seasonal work, they rushed around the edge. Among the privileged Cossacks, the out-of-town farm laborer was a completely disenfranchised person. The Cossack could beat and even kill him with impunity. And no matter how many taxes the Cossack chieftains came up with for non-residents: for a dugout - a tax, for a window - a tax, for a pipe - a tax, for a cow, a sheep, a chicken - a tax.

My father, Mikhail Ivanovich, like his grandfather, worked as a farm laborer all his life. In his youth, not having his own corner, he wandered along the Don from village to village in search of work, and having married a peasant woman from the former serfs of the Bolshaya Orlovka settlement, Melanya Nikitichna Yemchenko, he settled in the Kozyurin farm, not far from the village of Platovskaya. I was born on this farm in 1883 and lived here until 1890, when the need forced our family to go to Stavropolitsina. In the same year we returned to the Don and settled on the Litvinovka (Dalniy) farm, located on the right bank of the Manych River, forty kilometers west of the village of Platovskaya. Here, at the age of nine, I was assigned as a boy to the shop of the merchant of the first guild, Yatskin, a former peddler who, in addition to the shop, owned three thousand acres of land, which he rented from the Cossacks.

During the day I was running errands for the owner and clerks, and in the evening, when all my peers were already asleep, I washed the dirty, trampled, spit-stained floors of the store. Then - I was already a teenager then - the owner sent me to work in the forge.

Working in the smithy as a blacksmith's assistant and a hammerer from dawn to dusk, I could not go to school, but I wanted to study, and I began to learn to read and write with the help of the senior master's clerk Strausov. He undertook to teach me to read and write, and for this I had to clean his room, clean his shoes, wash the dishes, in general, perform the duties of a servant. After work, I stayed in the smithy and by the light of the kagan, I studied the lessons given to me by Strausov.

It was hard after a hard day at work. My eyes closed, and in order not to fall asleep, with an ABC book in my hand, I knelt on a pile of anthracite heaped in the forge or doused myself with water.

As a young man, I worked for the same merchant Yatskin on a locomobile threshing machine as an oiler, a fireman, and then as a machinist.

In the autumn of 1903 I was drafted into the army. I was called up in the Biryuchinsky district of the Voronezh province, in the volost where my grandfather was from and where we received passports. Among the recruits called to serve in the cavalry, I was sent from Biryucha to Manchuria. We arrived there in January 1904, when the Russo-Japanese War had already begun. Somewhere between Qiqihar and Harbin, a batch of recruits was selected from our echelon to replenish the 46th Cossack regiment. I served in this regiment, which was guarding communications of the Russian army in Manchuria and serving as a flying mail, until the end of the war, and participated in several skirmishes with the Honghuzi.

After the end of the war, the 46th Cossack Regiment went back to the Don, and we, the young soldiers who served in it, were transferred to the Primorsky Dragoon Regiment, stationed in the village of Razdolny, near Vladivostok.

During my service in the Primorsky Dragoon Regiment, the first Russian revolution took place. Revolutionary performances also took place in military units stationed in the Far East, and especially on ships of the navy. We dragoons learned about this from leaflets that we found in our barracks in the morning. Of the revolutionary slogans, the most ardent support among us, among the majority of the peasants, was met by the slogan: "The land must belong to those who cultivate it!"

In 1907, the command of the regiment sent me to the St. Petersburg equestrian school at the Higher Officer Cavalry School. Then in the cavalry regiments there was the position of a rider, who was obliged to conduct instructor supervision of the dressage of young horses. Such riders-instructors were prepared by the school to which I was sent. The end of this school promised me the opportunity to get rid of the hard share of a farm laborer that was waiting for me at home after returning from military service: a regimental rider who had served his term could always get a job as a bereator (trainer) at some stud farm.

After studying at school for about a year, I learned the rules of working with a horse well and won first place in the dressage of young horses in competitions. This gave me the right, after passing the second year of training, to remain at the school as a riding instructor. But the regiment needed its own rider, and, not wanting to lose him, the regimental command hurried to recall me from school: enough, they say, to study, since I had already come out in the first place in the tests.

At school, I was awarded the rank of junior non-commissioned officer. Returning to the regiment, I took up the position of a rider and soon received the rank of senior non-commissioned officer. By position, I used the rights of a sergeant-major.

My service life has passed, but I remained in the Primorsky Dragoon Regiment as an over-conscript. In the summer of 1914, I was given leave with the right to travel to the village of Platovskaya, where by that time my father and his family had moved.

Shortly after I arrived home, the First World War began. She interrupted my vacation, but I could no longer return to my regiment. According to the then existing situation, as a non-commissioned officer of extra-long service, who was on vacation, on the very first day of the announcement of mobilization, I had to appear at the local military presence and receive a referral to the military unit.

Only this year, when, ironically, marks the 80th anniversary of the creation of the 1st Cavalry, the FSB declassified miraculously surviving documents that reveal far from glorious pages in the history of the army that made glory to Voroshilov and Budyonny. "The Case of the 1st Cavalry" tells about a small episode of the civil war - the murder of the Red Army Commissar Shepelev by the Red Army. The folders would certainly have been destroyed during the next historical purge of the archives, but they were considered monuments - on some pages the signatures of Voroshilov and Budyonny remained.

Even before the murder of Shepelev, the military commissars and special officers flooded the headquarters with reports that the Red Peasant Army was “playing tricks” and that the military commanders themselves were no longer able to cope with gangster moods.

“We, the military commissars, are not turning into political workers, we are not becoming fathers of units, as the instructions say, but gendarmes ... There is nothing surprising that we were beaten and continue to be killed, I am sure they will be killed ...”

But it was Shepelev's death that became the last straw that overwhelmed the patience of the Revolutionary Military Council.

1.

Secretary of the Military Commissariat of the 6th Cavalry Division

1st Cavalry IN REV. MILITARY. OWL.

1st CON. ARM.

REPORT

On September 28 of this year, in the morning, after the speech of Poleshtadiv 6 from the Polonny metro station in the direction of Yurovka, I, Secretary of the Military Commissar and Military Commissar 6 comrade. SHEPELEV remained in Polonny in order to expel the stragglers of the Red Army from the town and stop the robberies of the civilian population. A verst from Polonny there is a new place, the center of which is inhabited exclusively by Jews, when we drove there, screams were almost heard from every house.

Entering one of the houses in front of which there were two saddled horses, we found an old man, about 60 years old, an old woman and a son on the floor, terribly disfigured by blows from broadswords, and opposite a wounded man lay on the bed. Right there in the house, in the next room, some Red Army soldier, accompanied by a woman who called herself a sister of mercy of the 4th squadron of the 33rd regiment, continued to load stolen property into bags. When they saw us, they ran out of the house. We shouted to those who jumped out to stop, but when this was not done, the military commissar comrade. SHEPELEV killed the bandit at the scene of the crime with three shots from a revolver. The sister was arrested and, together with the horse, they led the executed man behind them.

Driving further along the town, we now and then came across individuals along the street who continued to rob. Tov. SHEPELEV convincingly asked them to disperse in parts, many had bottles of moonshine in their hands, under the threat of being shot on the spot, such was taken away from them and immediately poured out ...

They stop us and shout “Here is the military commissar who wanted to shoot us in the town.” A man of 10 Red Army soldiers of the same squadrons ran up, the rest gradually began to join them, leaving the ranks and demanding immediate reprisals against SHEPELEV ...

At this time Comrade arrives. BOOK, together with the arrested sister, who managed to pass on the regiment that Comrade. SHEPELEV killed the fighter. Just then, the noise of the entire regiment arose, with a cry at all costs to shoot the military commissar, who is killing honest soldiers ... Before we had time to drive off and 100 sazhens, 100 Red Army men separated from the 31st regiment, catching up with us, jumping up to the military commissar and tearing off his weapon…

A shot rang out from a revolver, which wounded Comrade. SHEPELEVA in the left shoulder right through ... We are again surrounded by a crowd of Red Army soldiers, pushing me and the BOOK away from comrade. Shepelev, and with a second shot they mortally wounded him in the head. The corpse of the murdered comrade. SHEPELEV was besieged for a long time by a crowd of Red Army soldiers, and at his last breath they shouted "the bastard, he is still breathing, chop him with checkers." Some tried to pull off their boots, but the military commissar of the 31st regiment stopped them, but the wallet, along with documents, including the code, was pulled out from Comrade. SHEPELEV from his pocket... About half an hour after his murder, we managed to put his corpse on a wagon and take him to Poleshtadiv 6.

Secretary of the Military Commissariat of the 6th Hagan (signature).

2.

RSFSR

To the political department of the 6th Cavalry Division

military commissar commander

33rd Cavalier. a shelf

5th Kaval. divisions

REPORT

On September 28, as soon as it got dark, the Red Army soldiers of the 3rd squadron and part of the first squadron and individuals of the remaining squadrons went on foot in groups to the place where the pogrom of the Jewish population began ... The military commissar of the squadron comrade. Alekseev reported that the crowd was half drunk and in an excited state and the patrol could not cope ...

After that, the former commander of the 3rd squadron, comrade. GALKA is drunk and a crowd of 15-20 people is also in this condition, all are armed, GALKA starts shouting at the commanders of the regiment and hitting the floor with a butt, threatening that I will kill everyone who dares to go against me and adding: I am no longer a soldier of the Red Army, but "BANDIT". The commander began to persuade him, but I did not consider it necessary to enter into explanations with the drunken crowd, which came deliberately to make a brawl, which found fault with every word ... We were looking for the chairman of the 4th squadron comrade. KVITKA, who detained two robbers of the 3rd squadron and took away the stolen things from them, GALKA definitely shouted: I will kill KVITKA ...

We learned from the Commander of 34 that their situation was monotonous and the squadron did not come and the whole night there was wholesale robbery and murder ...

By 12 o'clock 29 the regiment was built on the eastern side of the N. Place ... A bunch of throat-huggers began to ask for the floor one after another ... All their speeches boiled down to this: immediate rest, expel all Jews from Soviet institutions, and some spoke in general from Russia, as well as expel all officers from Soviet institutions, to which they proposed to send representatives from themselves to the Revolutionary Council of the 1st Cavalry Army ...

The leaders of the robberies, pogroms of the Jewish population are still in place, in squadrons, and continue to do their job, and the former commander of GALKA, as if, will be the commander of his old squadron, this was told to me by the commander of 33 that the Head of Division and Kombrig 2.

While the slogans “Beat the Jews and Communists” remain, and some glorify Makhno ...

VOEKOM (signature)

3.

After the murder of Shepelev, Lenin and Trotsky sent "landing troops" of the first persons of the party to the 1st Cavalry. At a meeting of the Revolutionary Military Council, Voroshilov could no longer turn a blind eye to the "pranks" of his Red Army soldiers and "admitted mistakes" ...

FROM THE TRAFFIC

JOINT SESSION

REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PARTY CC

AND MEMBERS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY COUNCIL

1st cavalry army

Present: tt. Kalinin, Budyonny, Kamenev, Voroshilov, Minin, Semashko, Evdokimov, Lunacharsky, Kursky, Preobrazhensky, Gorbunov, Guryev, Ganshin.

VOROSHILOV: - ... As you know, the 1st cavalry was moved to the Polish front from Maikop, by order of the Commander-in-Chief and the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic; comrade Budyonny and I were summoned to Moscow ... We had very little time in Moscow, not counting, of course, personal pleasures, but when we returned back, we noticed that not everything was safe in the army ...

It was announced that we were going to the front to fight the Poles, to take "Paris", as some put it ... The Red Army began to ask for a vacation. A whole pilgrimage began to let them go home. The interim command failed to cope with the situation; the fighters, not receiving vacations, began to release themselves ... The rest were indignant both at those who released themselves and at those who did not let go ...

When we arrived in Rostov, there, under the general mood, the slogan was put forward by negative elements: “the release of Dumenko, who was sitting in prison at that time” (creator of the First Cavalry Army. - V. M.) ...

There is no need to talk about the battles on the Polish front ... In addition, along the way there was a replenishment of volunteers, of which, as it turned out, there was a lot of rubbish. Especially the 6th division, consisting of volunteers from the Stavropol province. - in themselves small-ownership elements, at the beginning of the retreat, a core of bandits turned out ...

It took about 2 weeks of preparatory work, during which terrible outrages were happening in the 6th division ... It was a guillotine; we knew that a purge was needed, but for this purge behind us it was necessary to have strength, it was necessary to have units that, if necessary, began to shoot. The division by this time was two-thirds of the bandits ... As you know, the division commissar was killed. Having prepared, on the 9th an order was issued from the Revolutionary Military Council, and on the 11th an operation was carried out on the division.

The division was concentrated in the village of Olshaniki. It was ordered to build a division at the railway line. roads ... Despite the order of the Revolutionary Military Council to line up on foot, they arrived on horseback, and some even remained on horseback under the guise of horsemen. But we immediately saw that there were too many grooms. When we arrived, it was immediately ordered to cover the division from the flanks and rear, and two armored trains stood along the railroad track. Thus, the division was in the ring. It made an amazing impression. All the fighters and command staff did not know what would happen next, and the provocateurs whispered that there would be executions ...

There was a moment here when the thought flashed that the whole division would rise up, but we all still had the confidence that things would not come to this. We arrived in rows of clean regiments. Tov. Budyonny and I said a few comradely words to them, they said that honest fighters should not be afraid of anything, that they know us, we know them ... The clean brigades were opposed to the dirty ones. The command was given to "attention". After this Comrade. Minin read artistically the following order:

"ORDER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY

Military Council

24 hours, Art. Rocket.

We, the Revolutionary Military Council of the First Cavalry Red Army, declare in the name of the Russian Socialist Soviet Workers' and Peasants' Republic:

Listen, honest and red fighters, listen to the commanders and commissars devoted to the end of the labor republic:

The 1st Cavalry Army for almost a whole year on different fronts defeated the hordes of the most fierce enemies of the worker-peasant power ... Red banners proudly fluttered, sprinkled with the blood of heroes who fell for the holy cause, stained with joyful tears of liberated workers. And suddenly a dirty deed was committed, and a whole series of crimes unheard of in the workers' and peasants' army. These monstrous atrocities were committed by units of one of the divisions, once also fighting and victorious. Leaving the battle, heading to the rear, the regiments of the 6th cavalry division, 31st, 32nd and 33rd, committed a series of pogroms, robberies, violence and murders. These crimes appeared even before the departure. So on September 18, there were 2 bandit raids on the civilian population; September 19 - 3 raids; September 20 - 9 raids; On the 21st - September 6th and 22nd - 2 raids, and in total during these days more than 30 robbery attacks were committed ...

In the town of Lyubar on 29/IX, a robbery and pogrom of the civilian population was carried out, and 60 people were killed. In Priluki, on the night of 2/3/X, there were also robberies, and 12 civilians were wounded, 21 were killed and many women were raped. Women were shamelessly raped in front of everyone, and the girls, like slaves, were dragged by bandits to their wagon trains. In Vakhnovka 3/X, 20 people were killed, many were wounded, raped, and 18 houses were burned. During the robberies, the criminals did not stop at nothing, and even kidnapped children's underwear.

Where the criminal regiments of the recently still glorious First Cavalry Army marched, the institutions of Soviet power were destroyed, honest workers quit their jobs and scatter at the mere rumor of the approach of bandit units. The working population, who once greeted the 1st cavalry with jubilation, now sends curses after it ... "

The order made a huge impression. The guilty were despondent, but the unsullied straightened up, and it was evident from their physiognomy that they condemned their comrades. We felt that we could rely on them. Although we, of course, knew that the real culprits did not come here.

After reading the order, they began to carry it out. One of the regiments had a combat banner from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, brought by comrade. Kalinin. On behalf of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, I announced that the banner handed over from the highest body was being taken away and handed over to a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, comrade. Minin. The commander orders the banner to be taken away. This makes an even more amazing impression. Many fighters start crying, straight up sobbing. Here we already felt that the audience is all in our hands. We ordered to lay down their arms, step aside and hand over the instigators. The weapons were laid down unquestioningly, but they hesitated with the issuance. Then we called the command staff aside and ordered to name the instigators. After that, 107 people were handed over, and the fighters promised to present the fugitives. Of the extradited 40 people have already been shot. After that, the regiments were declared disbanded, their weapons were returned to them and it was announced that they were being reduced to a separate brigade. When the fighters got their weapons back, there was no end to the jubilation...

So here's the position. Of course, there was nothing dangerous and terrible, but, of course, the 6th division did a lot of disgrace. We do not know much, because we could not go there. Now, I repeat, the army is absolutely healthy. Her combat capability, even in the state that was in the 6th division, was not lost, all operational orders were carried out, because they did not put the slaughter of the Jews in any connection with military discipline.

MININ (member of the Revolutionary Military Council): - A turning point has already been outlined, we already have 270 people who have been issued as fighters, and cleanup work should begin now. We propose to hold a number of non-partisan conferences and several days of party work so that the army is washed and perfumed...

ORAL PRESENTATION

TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE VTsIK

TOV. KALININ

REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SPECIAL DEPARTMENT

FIRST cavalry army.

NOVITSKY

Now, after the disarmament of the 6th cavalry division, the dark element in the division still remains, and is campaigning for the release of the bandits issued by the division. We have very few forces, and if these remaining bandits want, they will be able to recapture the arrested.

It should also be noted that our departments must be given the opportunity to deal with the bandits on the spot. We are just on the territory of Makhno ... ... In the Yekaterinoslav province. 2 prisons were unloaded by the 1st Cavalry. The bandits, knowing that their comrades were in prison, ran ahead and whispered in the army that Budennovites were in such and such a prison. Budennovites came and opened prisons...

On the 28th, the Berdichevsk prison was unloaded. It was done the same way as before - under the slogan that the Jews and the Communists are imprisoning the Budyonny people ...

On September 30, at the station where we were standing, the arrested from the special department were released by separate bandit-minded units. When we took measures and drove the bandits away, after some time we received information that the regiments of the 2nd brigade of the 11th division were coming at us. A delegation came and said that the Jews had arrested the Budennovites, and when they wanted to release them, they were fired upon. We explained what was the matter and told them to stop the shelves. But at that time they had already approached the station and were in great perplexity when they saw us instead of the Jews.

VARDIN: - ...BANDITISM. The question that our cavalry was fooling around was all the time ... It was found that this is quite natural, because we do not have organized supplies, and it was necessary to organize the necessary robbery, from which, of course, it is easy to go to robbery, and not necessary.

ANTI-SIMITISM. The most painful place for us is the squadron commissars. They are usually ordinary fighters, communists, but the communists are very weak, and who are sometimes not averse to shouting along with the fighters: “beat the Jews ...”

Anti-Semitism, as in any peasant army, took place. But anti-Semitism is passive... For us, there was a serious question - the attitude towards the prisoners, who were mercilessly killed and stripped. But it was difficult for the political department of the Revolutionary Military Council to fight this ...

In this situation, our army did not receive even a 10th share of the number of workers it needed. The first batch of workers - about 200 people, arrived at the end of June ... The second serious detachment - 370 people, led by Comrade Melnichansky. We celebrated the arrival of this party, but when they began to distribute them, only an insignificant part turned out to be fit, some two or three dozen, and the rest were either completely unsuitable for the army, or completely sick, deaf, lame, etc.

LUNACHARSKY: - Thus, 300 deaf and dumb agitators...

VARDIN: - The other day a party conference was convened, at which anti-Semitic notes were submitted. They ask why the Jews are in power, we simply deprived them of their mandates and allowed them to remain with an advisory vote ...

BUDENNY: - ... And here, back when we passed through this idiotic Ukraine, where the slogan “beat the Jews” is everywhere, and, besides, very dissatisfied fighters always return from infirmaries. They are treated badly in the infirmaries, there is no help at the stations when returning. And so, turning to one Jewish commandant, to another and not receiving help, or instead of help - abuse, they see that they are abandoned without any contempt, and, returning to the ranks, they bring decay, talking about insults, they say that we fight here, we give our lives, but no one does anything there ...

4.

The meeting of the Revolutionary Military Council was secret, so the naive special officers continued to write - now that even after the execution of more than two hundred bandits and instigators of unrest in the 1st Cavalry, nothing has changed, because the main patron of the semi-bandit traditions of the 1st Cavalry is a member of the Revolutionary Military Council Comrade Voroshilov.

TO THE PRESIDIUM

ALL-RUSSIAN EXTRAORDINARY COMMISSION.

REPORT

In the Army, banditry will not get rid of as long as such a person as VOROSHILOV exists, for a person with such tendencies is clearly the person in whom all these half-partisans, half-bandits found support.

VOROSHILOV, a petty tyrant by nature, decided that the further strengthening of the Special Department could have bad consequences personally for many high-ranking "junkers ..."

Demobilization has begun. A special triumphal, demobilization-festive mood was created, which resulted in wholesale drunkenness and the complete collapse of the work of the Headquarters and institutions, which reached the point that when MAKHNO was 20 miles from Yekaterinoslav, and only by chance did not turn to rob, in the city there was not only no actual strength, but positively no precautionary measures were taken ...

At the same time, in the Revolutionary Military Council, both members (MININ was more careful and was not noticed) and secretaries were drinking wine brought from the Crimea and the Caucasus by DIZHBIT. Things reached such cynicism that the public, drunk, went to various charity evenings, pumping hundreds of thousands there, and demanded the obligation to be present to serve a young communist to the table ...

It has been established that among the drunken brethren, from close knights, there are politically rather obscure persons, like VOROSHILOV's secretary - KHMELNITSKY, a former officer, a former communist, who went over from the Red Army to Denikin, who was there in a command post ... In the Red Army he became beloved Voroshilov's favorite. Some of the drivers of VOROSHILOV and BUDENNY, brought from the Crimea, with officer faces turned out to be quite suspicious as well...

Department of the Department (Zvederis).

The fate of the special officer Zvederis, who in his report tried to open his eyes to the legendary commander, is indicative: the report was attached to the case, and Zvederis himself was eliminated. Indeed, it’s not the hero of the civilian Voroshilov to be eliminated ?!

The editors express their gratitude to the leadership of the Central Administration of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for the materials provided.

Spelling and punctuation of documents are preserved. Author's italics.

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The maneuverable nature of the hostilities and the expansion of the cavalry into a wide operational space were the most important prerequisites for the revival of the shock role of the cavalry in the Civil War, the cavalry, which often became a battering ram in breaking through the enemy front and a locomotive pulling combined arms formations and formations. The cavalry turned into the kind of troops that, under the conditions of a highly maneuverable Civil War, could bring the greatest operational and strategic results in the shortest possible time.

The theorist and practitioner of cavalry M. Batorsky noted: “... modern conditions of warfare have transferred the activity of cavalry from the battlefield to the theater of operations; the cavalry, acting primarily in masses, will work strategically, tactical work will become the lot of the military cavalry, used in small units and on a narrower scale. But with such a formulation of the question, i.e., the wide strategic use of cavalry masses, I would like to once again emphasize the enormous importance of the personality of the cavalry commander, on the one hand, gifted with strong-willed principles and flair, and the adamant desire of the cavalry to reach the enemy. This seems to sound strange, but it is precisely because the cavalry will have to operate in isolation from other troops in most cases. Here you need a manifestation of great stamina, great confidence, born of faith in the boss and one's own strengths ”[Batorsky M. Service of the cavalry. M., 1925. S. 66].

The specialist turned out to be right - both in assessing the role of the cavalry and its command. The 1st Cavalry Army had an outstanding leadership in the person of the "red Murat" - S. M. Budyonny.

The above author also pointed out the forms of activity of the strategic cavalry, which “can be used to perform the following tasks: 1) providing cover for certain operational areas in a maneuver war, whether in the form of a curtain, raids, invasion or advancement, with the ensuing 2) strategic reconnaissance; 3) actions on the flanks; 4) persecution; 5) retreat cover; 6) performance of special tasks: in positional warfare, in the fight against banditry and small war; maintenance of the rear, filling gaps in the common battle line and direct assistance to other branches of the military on the battlefield" [Ibid. S. 67].

The Civil War favored the wide maneuvering of large masses of cavalry both in the theater of operations and directly on the battlefield. Strategic cavalry was used: 1) as a strike maneuver group in the hands of the high command - to strike in the most important operational direction; 2) to carry out cavalry raids in the rear and on enemy communications - moreover, these raids were supplemented by frontal attacks and were supposed to demoralize the enemy rear, cut off his communications, and disrupt the work of the headquarters apparatus.

The White Guard command took the initiative in creating the strategic cavalry. Firstly, the whites were based, especially initially, on the Cossack regions, and the Cossacks - natural cavalrymen - became the basis of the white cavalry; secondly, almost the entire officer cavalry of the Russian army turned out to be on the side of the whites.

At the same time, poorly trained and poorly cohesive Red Army units in the vast majority of cases proved unable to withstand a cavalry attack. White cavalry raids in the rear of the Red troops became a particularly serious problem. The Soviet government was forced to oppose the white cavalry to the red, the formation of which began with a great delay.

In the first year of its existence, the Soviet Republic formed almost exclusively infantry units. Cavalry units, as a rule, without special support from the state apparatus, were formed at first on an individual commander's initiative.

So it was before the raid of the 4th Don Corps by Lieutenant General K. K. Mamontov, who showed what a massive, well-trained and organized cavalry could do.

Horse corps appear. They were a successful form of organizing strategic cavalry, giving the right proportions in the ratio of sabers, bayonets and guns. The massing of the cavalry in the cavalry corps gave many advantages - the corps had flexible control, and at the same time sufficient strength to deliver a powerful blow.

By the end of 1919, several tens of thousands of horsemen fought on the Southern Front on both sides, with some large units reaching up to several thousand cavalry.

Due to their numbers, morale and weapons, the red cavalry played a key strategic role during the Civil War, seriously influencing its outcome. As a result of victories over the troops of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, the red cavalry turned out to be superbly equipped with machine guns. It was not uncommon to meet up to 100 (!) machine guns in a cavalry regiment. A special role in the battle was played by carts, which, before the attack, went forward and prepared a cavalry attack with powerful fire, and after an unsuccessful battle they covered the retreating cavalry. Detachments of armored cars, aviation and powerful artillery gave the cavalry formations of the Red Army at the end of the Civil War a completely new quality, turning them into a real elite of the armed forces.

The highest operational and most powerful formation of the cavalry of the Red Army - the 1st Cavalry Army - was created at the suggestion of a member of the Revolutionary Military Council (RVS) of the Southern Front I.V. Stalin by the decision of the RVS RSFSR of November 17, 1919.

The 1st Cavalry Army was formed on the basis of three cavalry divisions (6th, 4th, 11th) of the 1st Cavalry Corps under the command of S. M. Budyonny in accordance with the order of the RVS of the Southern Front of November 19, 1919.

In January 1920, the 14th Cavalry Division also became part of the army. The army structure included an armored detachment, four armored trains and other units. In a number of battles, 2-3 rifle divisions were transferred to the operational subordination of the Cavalry Army, and in March 1920 - the 2nd Cavalry Corps.

Other cavalry formations were periodically transferred to the army: 1st Cavalry Division (April 1920), 2nd Cavalry Division (April - May 1920), 8th Cavalry Division of the Red Cossacks (August 1920), 9th Cavalry Division (April - May 1920), Yekimov Cavalry Division (April - May 1920).

After the end of the Civil War, the red cavalry was written about in Berlin, Constantinople, Paris and Warsaw. It was noted that "The whole world with undisguised interest followed and is following the successes of the Bolshevik cavalry in the Polish theater of operations and, especially, the cavalry commanded by Budyonny."

The following were cited as reasons for the tactical successes of the red cavalry: “1) Skillful reconnaissance by a series of strong reconnaissance units of 1-3 squadrons in each direction ... as well as machine-gun units; 2) skillful maneuvering by the vanguard (or vanguards), which crumbled into lava and covered the forward advance of artillery, armored cars and machine-gun units in order to disrupt enemy advance units with fire and to cover and deploy their main forces; 3) skillful leading of the main forces on a broad front and their approach to the battlefield in flexible and easy-to-maneuver regimental platoon or double platoon columns; 4) the warheads quickly line up a deployed front and conduct an attack with complete determination against the advanced units of the enemy; 5) completing the strike with the best flank units and using the failure of the head (usually the worst) units as a means to lure and strike at the flank or encircle the enemy's cavalry; 6) the use of infantry as a means to cover the rest of the cavalry units and for an unexpected strike from behind the flanks of its retreating battle order; 7) the use of merciless pursuit, first by fresh units with auto-armored cars, and then by these last and separate squadrons; 8) skillful use of the forces of people and horses ”[Enemies about our cavalry army // Military Bulletin. 1921. No. 10. S. 28].

The French military magazine “Review of the Cavalry”, having examined the actions of the red cavalry in the Polish theater of operations, came to the following conclusions: “The use of the Bolshevik cavalry in 1920 is characterized by: 1) From a strategic point of view, the intensive use of the capabilities of the cavalry in the sense of movement for formations of maneuverable masses which the Russian command puts into action now on one front, now on the other, and which it uses to achieve decisive results; 2) From a tactical point of view - by combining fire and movement - on the one hand, to pin down the enemy, and on the other, to act on his lines of communication and force the enemy to stop resistance either by enveloping or infiltrating inside his location; 3) The flexibility of the methods of combat, the predominant use of firearms for combat over cold. The Bolshevik cavalry played a major role in the battles against Poland. It was she who achieved the decisive results” [ibid.].

The 1st Cavalry Army fully confirmed these estimates.
During the fighting from October 24 to November 16, 1919 in the Zemlyansk - st. Kastornaya parts of the 1st Cavalry Corps captured about 2 thousand prisoners, 3 armored trains, a large number of artillery and machine guns [Tyulenev I.V. The defeat of Denikin's cavalry near Voronezh and Kastornaya on October 16 - November 15, 1919 // Military History Bulletin . 1935. No. 1. S. 45]. On November 10, when a threat was created to the right flank of the corps, S. M. Budyonny, having suspended the offensive and covered from the south, transferred the main forces against the advancing infantry and repelled the White offensive. On November 15, the Cavalry Corps, covering itself with one brigade from the flanks, overturns the cavalry with the main forces, suddenly captures Art. Sukovkino, and cuts off parts of the whites operating north of Kastornaya. Then, sweeping them with his right flank, he defeats them with the actions of the main forces and the fettering group.

Attention is drawn to the interaction of the units of the Cavalry Corps both on a tactical and operational scale. Worthy of attention is the management of the corps by the commander. The dispatch of staff commanders directly to the cavalry divisions on November 15 to carry out the implementation of the general corps task is an example of flexibility in command and coordination in the interaction of the efforts of all divisions at the decisive moment of the operation.

1. RVS 1st Cavalry: K. E. Voroshilov, S. M. Budyonny, E. A. Shchadenko. 1920

2. S. A. Zotov, Chief of the Field Staff of the 1st Cavalry Army.

The capture of the Kastornensky positions became a springboard for further pursuit of the retreating troops of the All-Union Socialist League.

Moreover, the main successes came to the Cavalry Army during the winter campaigns. In the first half of November 1919 it was sleet, there was ice, and the cavalry moved forward with difficulty. And on November 13 - 15, during the preparation of the attack, Art. Kastornaya raged a terrible snowstorm. And as soon as it stopped, S. M. Budyonny defeated the opponent with a concentric offensive and occupied Kastornaya. Up to 3,000 prisoners, 22 guns, 4 armored cars, 4 tanks, more than 100 machine guns, a large number of shells, cartridges, rifles and more than 1,000 horses were captured.

On January 8, 1920, the 1st Cavalry Army captured Rostov-on-Don - again in difficult winter conditions, in a concentric offensive north of the city. Up to 12,000 prisoners were captured, about 100 guns. 200 machine guns, tanks.

In February 1920, the 1st Cavalry Army finally defeated the white cavalry of Generals V.V. Kryzhanovsky, A.A. Pavlov and Ya.D. Yuzefovich.

The 1st Cavalry Army played a special strategic role in the events of the Soviet-Polish war.

The army's operations in the period May 25 - June 18, 1920 showed what a key influence a large cavalry mass has on the course of combat operations. Later, operating in the wooded-swampy and rough terrain of the western Kiev region and Volhynia, waging a combined battle on foot and horseback formations, the cavalry successfully knocked out the enemy from fortified zones reinforced with barbed wire.

The massing of cavalry during the Civil War led to the creation of powerful cavalry formations and formations performing strategic tasks, and the 1st Cavalry Army was the crown of this organizational evolution.

Il. 3. 1st Cavalry Army 1919

Il. 4. 1st Cavalry Army 1920

Il. 5. Trumpeters of the 1st Cavalry Army.

The cavalry army was also good as a large cavalry reserve in the hands of the high command. But almost all the time she had to operate in the narrow corridors of the dividing lines of the combined arms armies. And sometimes, thanks to these corridors, she had to lose a significant part of her effectiveness. It became obvious that the actions of the horse masses, connected with the demarcation lines and the boundaries established by them, often lead to failure. An example is the operations of the army of S. M. Budyonny in the Brod area.

Cavalry corps and armies carried out independent operations behind enemy lines, as well as on the battlefields of the Civil War. They became the real elite of the new army. An elite that was distinguished not only by high morale, good equipment and a halo of victories - but which could operate in the most diverse tactical conditions in terms of severity, and act as successfully as possible.

The strategic importance of the cavalry during the Civil War increased significantly. She got the opportunity to force the enemy to retreat along the entire front. With cavalry formations in their rear, the enemy felt insecure and, as a rule, retreated.

In the Civil War, the cavalry played an important strategic role, influencing the fate of not only the campaigns, but the entire war as a whole. It was the 1st Cavalry Army, one of the largest operational formations in terms of numbers that world history has ever known, that played a key role in this.

Overdue needs

The first cavalry army of Budyonny was created on November 17, 1919 on the Southern Front of the Civil War. By order, it included three divisions of the first cavalry corps of Budyonny. Subsequently, the army grew and was supplemented by various military formations, until the number of personnel reached nineteen thousand sabers, which was quite a lot by those standards. The Red Army urgently needed to create a powerful, maneuverable unit that would quickly strike and carry out strategic tasks. And then Anton Denikin was rapidly approaching Moscow from the southern lands. On September 7 of the same year, Kursk was taken by the White Guards, on September 23 - Voronezh, four days later - Chernigov, and at the very end of the month - Orel. The commander of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia planned to go to Tula, and from there to the stronghold of the Bolsheviks to Moscow. The Reds were threatened with complete defeat, and therefore, on the initiative of Kliment Voroshilov and Alexander Yegorov, just such an army was born in this theater of operations, capable of crushing Denikin.

Military uniform of Budyonny

Initially, it was assumed that the leader of the First Cavalry Army would be Boris Dumenko, under whose command was Semyon Budyonny. However, then Dumenko was seriously wounded, and therefore his assistant was put in the place of the commander. Subsequently, Dumenko will be shot on charges of murdering his own red commissar, and Budyonny will survive the flywheel of repressions of the thirties intact thanks to his friendship with Joseph Stalin. And before that, both of these people led the aforementioned first cavalry corps, which then became the backbone of an entire army.

Initially, Boris Dumenko was to become the leader of the First Cavalry Army.

Baptism of fire

This first corps also appeared in the active phase of the Civil War as a necessary unit capable of repulsing the White Guards. So, in May 1919, Budyonny's cavalry corps entered into a heavy battle near Tsaritsyn. Then, on May 13, in a bloody battle near the village of Grabbaevskaya, the forces of the Red Cavalry and the Kuban Cavalry Corps clashed. And the Reds emerged victorious from this battle. A few days later, the cavalry corps made a successful maneuver behind enemy lines and managed to forcibly drive the white units across the Manych River.

In May 1919, Budyonny's cavalry corps entered into a heavy battle.

Then Budyonny's cavalry won another number of victories, thanks to which they managed to stabilize the situation on this sector of the front and prevent the White Volunteer Army from seizing the crossings across this river. And even then, the fighting showed how powerful such military formations can be. But ahead was the defense of Tsaritsyn.

Painting by Mitrofan Grekov “Trumpeters of the First Cavalry Army

The first cavalry formations were immediately put into motion on the most important sectors of the front. Through Tsaritsyn, for which fierce battles were fought, the forces of Kolchak and Denikin could unite. In the event of a victory, the Whites would have surrounded the Reds in a tight ring. But the counter-attacks, interspersed with swift attacks, by the Budyonnovists against the Whites in June-July 1919 more than once saved the situation. The Budennovites took hundreds of prisoners, captured enemy carts and warehouses, and destroyed entire divisions. So, the First Cavalry swept away the Khopersky division of General Mamontov, the Astrakhan infantry division and the third and fourth divisions of Pokrovsky. The White Guards tried to resist the red sabers of their cavalry in the form of Cossacks, but they could not provide adequate resistance.

Strikes of the first cavalry army

In October, when Denikin's Volunteer Army stopped briefly, the Reds went on a decisive offensive. Their goals were to push back Denikin beyond Voronezh and crush the White front as part of the Voronezh-Kastornenskaya operation. The shock group of the Red Army included, of course, the First Cavalry Army of Budyonny; he was to lead a general attack on the Don and Kuban corps, defeat them and clear the way for the Red infantry.

The strike group of the Red Army included the First Cavalry Army of Budyonny

This time Budyonny came across the same enemy - General Mamontov, who had already managed to feel the full power of the cavalry army. And now he acted more cautiously: throughout October, the Budennovites were forced either to engage in defense, losing the initiative, or to make sorties again. The Whites stubbornly advanced towards Voronezh, occupying important settlements, but from November 5 to 15, the Red cavalrymen delivered a number of unexpected attacks on enemy positions. Soon all the forces of the Whites melted away, and the first cavalry corps was transformed into an army.

Cavalry served to carry out important strategic tasks

Further history

After the Voronezh-Kastorno operation, the First Cavalry took part in the Kharkov winter offensive. And again, the Budennovites delivered the main blows jointly with the 14th Army of the Red Army on the positions of the Whites. During these attacks, it was possible to separate the forces of the Volunteer and Don armies. Later, the Reds managed to oust the Whites from the south of Russia as a result of the Donbass and Rostov-Novocherkassk operations with the help of cavalrymen. Already in January 1920, after the rapid capture of Rostov, the Cavalry drove the Whites to the opposite bank of the Don.

Cavalry served to carry out important strategic tasks

The real test was the Battle of Yegorlyk, which lasted from February 25 to March 2, when Budyonny and his soldiers met with the battle-hardened cavalry of Pavlov, Kutepov and Yuzefovich. It was there that the largest oncoming cavalry battle in the Civil War took place: twenty-five thousand sabers participated in the battle in total. And again, Budyonny emerged victorious from this fight, and the Reds developed success and promptly drove the Whites out of the North Caucasus.

The Yegorlyk battle was a triumph for the First Cavalry Army

The first cavalry came in handy for the Red Army in further hostilities: it fought the Poles during the Soviet-Polish war, the Makhnovists and the Wrangel troops. Despite numerous victories, the Budennovites staged numerous pogroms of the Jewish population. This was described in detail by Isaac Babel in the Cavalry series of stories, which was sharply criticized by Semyon Budyonny. In general, there are many cases when loyal fighters of the revolution engaged in looting and committed crimes.

The 1st Cavalry Army saved the position of the Bolsheviks

We can say that the 1st Cavalry Army saved the position of the Bolsheviks. Thanks to its swift attacks, it was possible to turn Denikin's Volunteer Army back and generally defeat the Whites on the entire Southern Front. The command of the Reds at the time felt the need to create such a large formation, and even more so immediately let it into battle. The cavalry existed until 1921 and was disbanded.