GER-VOLGA-L Archives

From: Vera Beljakova <>
Subject: [GV] General Mamontov and his Daring Raid
Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2002 21:11:20 +0200

Before you read the Mamontov Raid extracts below - (see urls)
let me ask how it was possible for the airforce reccies to pass on information
to Mamontov ?
Were "real" photos taken, or was it verbal information ?
and how did the 'word' reach the general on the ground ?
In times of revolution, isn't it a little difficult to find a photo-studio which
would develop the photos ?

More on Mamontov and his Daring Raid.
Here is the book : and the archives in Moscow,
but other papers are probably with the Wrangel collection at Stanford.

http://call.army.mil/fmso/fmsopubs/issues/redopart.htm#57a

author: M. Ryshman, (probably /German Reischmann)
" Reid Mamontova, August-sentiabria' 1919 g. (Moscow: Gosvoenizdat, 1926), pp.
16-29.

The raid mounted by General K. K. Mamontov's cavalry in August-September 1919
provided the stimulus for the
creation of the First Red Cavalry Army, Budennyi's legendary Konarmiia. In order
to take pressure off Denikin's forces,
Mamontov's IV Don Cavalry Corps (7,500 satires) undertook an independent raid
deep into the rear of the Southern Front.
The 36th and 40th divisions which held the 100 km section of the line through
which Mamontov's corps passed were widely
dispersed, and Mamontov used air reconnaissance to find a sector where his
cavalry could slip through without serious
opposition. Using his air reconnaissance to avoid contact with Bolshevik units,
Mamontov struck deep into six gubernias,
wrecking the rail lines and destroying military stores as they advanced.57 The
Revvoensovet of the Republic took this threat
seriously and created an internal front under the command of M. M. Lashevich to
deal with Mamontov's corps. On its return to
Denikin's lines the corps' pace slowed under the weight of booty and Lashevich
was able to concentrate Red forces against its
strungout columns. Mamontov reached Denikin's lines but suffered serious losses
on the retreat south from Kozlov to
Voronezh.58 The use of air assets to provide effective reconnaissance for
large-scale cavalry raids was noted by the Red Army
and became an important part of its own concept of strategic cavalry.59


------ I also like this site :

http://euphrates.wpunj.edu/courses/hist429-60/Supplementary%20Material/HTML/Tambov.html

W see that peasants are not above joining the Cossacks in a bit of rampage,
looting, destruction, esp.
to payback those that they did not like + revenge motif.

Qquote: ....

from this book:

Vladimir Brovkin, ed.,
" The Bolsheviks In Russian Soviety: The Revolution And The Civil Wars"
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 154-76.

In July 1919 a new danger threatened Communist control of the province as
General Anton Denikin's army began to advance
north. As Red Army forces fell back, Tambov sent several drafts of party members
and Food Supply soldiers to help stiffen
resistance, but the Communist forces continued to retreat. Borisoglebsk fell to
the Whites on 8 July 1919, and on 10 August a
White cavalry corps commanded by General Kontantin Mamontov broke through the
Red Army lines and headed straight for
Tambov. [20]

Most of the provincial government fled from Tambov to Morshansk, leaving the
defense of the city to a motley, poorly armed
force of recaptured deserters, officer candidates, and mobilized Communists. D.
E Sokolov, the commander of this brigade,
went over to the Cossacks with some of his troops during the White assault on
the city, and the rest of his command retreated
in great disorder to the north. The Cossacks occupied Tambov for several days,
destroying government offices and looting
warehouses and homes. They then turned northwest toward Kozlov, captured and
looted that town, and finally broke through
the Red Army lines again near Voronezh. [21]

The raid was especially destructive to government in the countryside. Most
reports show that peasants took advantage of the
Cossacks to elim╜inate irritants like Food Supply requisitioning agents and
detachments. Even village and district soviets often
arrested, disarmed, and robbed Food Supply officials and then turned them over
to the Cossacks to be beaten or killed. Those
Soviet officials who attempted to act differently usually became targets for
attack themselves, especially if they were Communist
Party members. Cossacks or peasants alone or in combined groups attacked and
looted collective and state farms, warehouses
of goods set aside to barter for grain, and destroyed railroad tracks and
telegraph lines. Cossack bands trampled crops and
requisitioned horses as remounts. Soviet troops in pursuit of Mamontov added to
the destruction, trampling crops themselves
and requisitioning grain on their own. As pro?Communist authority evaporated in
the countryside in Mamontov's wake,
moonshining and illegal grain smuggling reached new heights. [22]

Furious that local peasants had contributed to this destruction, the provincial
government decided to make them pay for it. Just
as the Food Supply Committee announced new, larger procurement quotas for the
new harvest, the provincial government
announced that peasants would also be assessed a 10 million ruble fine to
rebuild Soviet property destroyed in the raid. [23]
After Mamontov's raid, the provincial food supply organiza╜tion had to be
reorganized almost from scratch, but Moscow
immediately demanded enormous amounts of grain and fodder. Iakov Gol'din, newly
appointed Food Supply Commissar,
began to exert enormous pressure to ensure that grain was collected. He ordered
the heads of grain collection points shot if
they allowed grain to rot. In the 1918?19 procurement cam╜paign, the government
had threatened chairmen of local soviets
with fines or imprisonment if their villages did not meet procurement norms.
Now, entire village soviets were arrested for this
reason, soviet members were threatened with execution, and all of their grain
and livestock was confis╜cated.

recommended reading:

http://euphrates.wpunj.edu/courses/hist429-60/

The Civil War In Retrospective
Articles:
Fitzpatrick, "The Legacy Of The Civil War" SEE BLACKBOARD
Levin, "The Civil War: Dynamics And Legacy" SEE BLACKBOARD

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• [GV] General Mamontov and his Daring Raid by Vera Beljakova <>