alternatehistory.com

I've wanted to write a TL featuring an alternate Russian Civil War for a while now and, with my uni work for this term finishing, I've finally been able to start.

All quotes are OTL.

Comments very welcome!

The Locomotive of History


Section 1: From Tsaritsyn to the fall of Petrograd

17th June 1919
General Wrangel captures Tsaritsyn.

20th June 1919
After the capture of Tsaritsyn, General Denikin issues the ‘Moscow Directive’. It calls for the start of an immediate three-pronged attack towards Moscow. General Mai-Maevsky is ordered to advance onto Kursk, Orel and Tula, General Sidorin to split his force and attack a) Veronezh, Kozlov and Riazan and b) Novyi Oskol, Elets, Volevo and Kashira. Finally, General Wrangel is told to move towards Pensa, Ruzaevka, Arzamas, Nizhii-Novgorod, Vladimir and ultimately Moscow.

4th August 1919
Eight thousand Don Cossack cavalry under General Mamontov break through the Bolshevik front line and proceed to attack depots and lines of communication.

8th August 1919
Polish troops capture Minsk.

10th August 1919
Odessa, previously occupied by the French but now under Bolshevik control, is captured by White forces. The port enables further supplies of military materiel to reach the men under Denikin’s command.

Lenin sends a telegram to the Revolutionary Military Council, nervously ordering an immediate counteroffensive; “Denikin’s successes are enormous … It is utterly unthinkable to delay with the offensive, as such a delay will deliver all of the Ukraine to Denikin and destroy us.”

17th August 1919
White troops take the important city of Kiev.

7th September 1919
General Kutepov’s First Army Corp, enters Kursk.

30th September 1919
The Communist Central Committee issues orders for the defence of Moscow. A fresh campaign of terror begins in Bolshevik regions, with tens of thousands of those whose loyalty is ‘suspect’ being murdered.

2nd October 1919
Polish troops reach the Daugava River.

6th October 1919
General Sidorin’s men reach Voronezh.

13th October 1919
Denikin’s soldiers take Orel.

16th October 1919
Admiral Kolchak bows under pressure and agrees to acknowledge Finnish independence*. In return, Marshal Mannerheim convinces the President of Finland, Kaarlo Stahlberg, to intervene military against the Bolsheviks.

18th October 1919
Finnish White Guard units cross the border into Russia, reaching Pargolovo.

An uprising of White sympathisers in Tula, which contains the main Soviet armaments factory, is crushed.

19th October 1919
General Yudenich’s Army reaches the outskirts of Petrograd.

20th October 1919
Krasnoye Syelo, a suburb of Petrograd is captured by White forces in a bitter battle.

A Bolshevik counterattack is launched but, with the White Army now almost equal in terms of numbers with the Reds, it is halted and reversed after making some initial gains.

21st October 1919
Finnish troops reach the Finland Station, scene of Lenin’s arrival in Russia two and a half years before.

In another region of the city Leon Trotsky, People’s Commisar for Army and Navy Affairs, is shot attempting to stem the flow of retreating Bolshevik soldiers. Unconfirmed rumours suggest he is killed by a former communist soldier – one of many who now turn their backs on the regime in the panic of withdrawal.

22nd October 1919
Bolshevik resistance is pushed back to a small area of Petrograd, with the centres of resistance concentrated around the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Hermitage Museum and the Winter Palace. White artillery begins a bombardment of the last entrenched communist positions.

The Finnish units of the White Guard cross the Neva.

24th October 1919
General Mamontov’s cavalry clashes with Bolsheviks under Tukhachevsky at Voronezh. The outcome is inconclusive, but the communists withdraw north towards the Petrograd Front, leaving the front clear for further advances by Denikin’s men.

26th October 1919
Journalists across the world await the result of the Battle of Petrograd. The New York Times writes that “If Yudenich is successful in taking Petrograd it will mean the downfall of the Bolsheviki. The next move will be toward Moscow. Once that is captured the reign of the Red Peril will be done.”

A White assault on Nizhii-Novgorod by Wrangel’s vanguard is repulsed with heavy casualties.

Kazan Cathedral is captured, completing the encirclement of Bolshevik forces within Petrograd.

27th October 1919
The Peter and Paul Fortress falls after a heavy bombardment. The White troops assaulting the Fort lose many men, but are able to breach the walls. The action effectively ends mainstream Bolshevik resistance in the city, although skirmishes continue for the next fortnight.



[*] POD
Top