Russian Question (1919)

Does anyone have any information on these Russian cinderellas from
1919?
They appear to be Tsarist generals from the Don Campaign.

I believe the first image shows Gen. Alexiev (Note 1); the second
shows
Gen. Mai-Maevsky (Note 2) ; and the third shows Gen. Kornilov (Note
3).

http://cjoint.com/data/ezuY5fIKps.htm

Blair


Note 1:
General Alexiev, Chief of Staff (Commander in Chief) , and undoubtedly
a valuable officer, had, I soon learned, been drawn into the plot. The
Emperor suspected him to be in correspondence with the traitor
Guchkov, but when questioned General Alexiev denied this vehemently.
He was soon, however, to prove his treachery to the Emperor. There was
in attendance on his Majesty at the Stavka an old officer, General
Ivanov, a St. George Cross man, who formerly had held command of the
Army of the South. This devoted and loyal old soldier General Alexiev
knew he must get rid of, and this, had he been honest, he might have
done by pleading age or decreased usefulness. Instead, he merely
summoned General Ivanov and informed him that to the regret of the
whole staff he was removed. The Chief of Staff was not responsible for
this, he declared, the order having come from the Empress and her
accomplices, Rasputin and Mme. Vyrubova. What General Alexiev said to
the Emperor on the subject I do not know, but when next the two met
the Emperor turned his head aside. This sudden coldness on the part of
the Emperor, whom old General Ivanov loved dearly, made it impossible
for him to seek an audience, and yet the general was valiantly
determined not to leave the Stavka without presenting his case to the
Sovereign. Calling on me that same day, he repeated to me, while tears
rolled down his white beard, the lying words of General Alexiev
against the Empress. Feeling it against reason and justice that the
Emperor should remain in ignorance of this insult to his wife, I
promised to speak to him about it, and this I did, but to little
purpose. The Emperor's wrath against Alexiev was indeed kindled but he
evidently felt that he could not, at that critical hour, dismiss an
officer whose services were so urgently in demand. Afterwards,
however, his manner towards old General Ivanov became conspicuously
kind.

Note 2:
General Mai-Maevsky. A great General, but an incurable alcholic.

THE ARMED FORCES OF SOUTH RUSSIA
In the summer of 1918, with Moscow's attention focused onthe eastern
front, the White and Cossack forces in the Kubanregion, under the
overall command of General Denikin, suc-ceeded in establishing a
secure White base for future offensiveaction. Denikin was heavily
outnumbered, but the Red forcesin the northern Caucasus were poorly
trained and demoral-ized.

In a campaign lasting into early 1919, the Reds sufferedthe
annihilation of an entire army group, while the White Vol-unteer Army
grew to a strength of 40,000 men.While Denikin cleared the north
Caucasus, between June 1918and February 1919 the Don Cossacks launched
three failedoffensives against the city of Tsaritsyn (later
Stalingrad), whichoccupied a key strategic position on the Volga. The
failure oftheir attacks on the "Red Verdun," brought the Cossack
armiesto the brink of ruin. The end of the world war and the with-
drawal of the Germans from the Ukraine now exposed them toattack from
the northwest. The Reds brushed aside the Cossackunits screening the
Ukraine and in two months advanced 250miles into the northern Don
Region.Defeat forced the Cossacks to turn to Denikin's Whites for
help.On 8 January the Don Army joined with Denikin's VolunteerArmy to
form the Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR). Offi-cially, though
often not in practice, the Don Cossacks were nowsubordinate to
Denikin's orders.Denikin recognized the collapse of the Don Army
endangeredhis own base in the Kuban, above all the Black Sea port
ofNovorossiisk, through which the British had agreed to supplyhis
troops. In February, Denikin reluctantly halted his offensivealong the
Caspian and turned his forces to the northwest.

The Reds in the Don outnumbered the AFSR 80,000 to 50,000but they
proved no match for Denikin's more experienced troops.Now organized
into the Volunteer Army under General Mai-Maevsky, the Caucasus Army
under Baron Wrangel, and theCossack Don Army, the AFSR soon went over
to the offensive.While the Volunteer Army defended Rostov, the Don
Army, itsmorale revived, pushed northward into the Don Bend. In
lateMay, Wrangel's army sent the Red 10th Army reeling back to-wards
Tsaritsyn. On June 30, supported by British tanks, theWhites finally
took the city.Mai-Maevsky meanwhile drove a wedge between the Red
South-ern and Ukrainian Army Groups. Pushing aside the AnarchistArmy
of Nestor Makhno, the Volunteer Army drove northwestalong the Donetz
River, capturing Kharkov on 25 June.

By December 9 (1919) Gen. Wrangel - to whom Gen. Denikin had at last
been reluctantly compelled to give the command in the centre in place
of the drunken Gen. Mai-Maevsky
was forced to report: "The bitter truth is that there is no longer an
Army." . . .

Note 3:
General Kornilov. Another former Commander in Chief.

In the Don Region, Generals Alexeyev and Kornilov, former commanders
in chief of the Russian Army, organized a White Army. In January 1918
their forces numbered 3,000 men. To crush this force, the Bolsheviks
sent an army of 10,000. Since the peasant population of the region was
not in sympathy with the programme of the generals, their troops were
forced to retreat to the steppes. General Kornilov himself was killed
in action.

[Trotsky ordered the Bolshevik army to recapture Ukraine first. This
they did in a quick campaign in the winter-spring of 1919. The
Cossacks had been unable to organize and capitalize on their successes
at the end of 1917. Consequently, when the Soviet counter-offensive
began in January 1919-under the Bolshevik leader Antonov-Ovseenko-the
Cossack forces rapidly fell apart. The Red Army captured Kiev on
February 3 1919 and ten days later, with his army in chaos, General
Kaledin committed suicide. Rostov was captured in March 1919. The
Cossack Volunteer Army was evacuated to the Kuban, where they joined
with the Kuban Cossacks to mount an abortive assault on Ekaterinodar.
General Kornilov was killed in the fighting on April 13, Operational
command passed to General Denikin who spent the next few months
rebuilding his Cossack army. In October, General Alekseev died of a
heart attack and General Denikin was (in theory at least) now the top
political leader for the White armies in Southern Russia.]

Two months later the remnants of the volunteer army, numbering only
about one thousand men, organized a new offensive and this time found
recruits among the Cossacks. In June their number increased to 12,000;
in July to 30,000. By October 1918 this Army swelled to 100,00 and
occupied a front of two hundred miles, under the command of General
Denikin.

"Blair (TC)" wrote in message
oups.com...
Does anyone have any information on these Russian cinderellas from
1919?


G'day Blair,
supposedly printed in Italy 1920's

see more from the set and answers he
http://www.rossica.org/Samovar/viewthread.php?tid=887

HTH

On Apr 29, 10:15 am, "Rod" wrote:
"Blair (TC)" wrote in message

oups.com...

Does anyone have any information on these Russian cinderellas from
1919?

G'day Blair,
supposedly printed in Italy 1920's

see more from the set and answers hehttp://www.rossica.org/Samovar/viewthread.php?tid=887

HTH



Thank You, Rodney.

Blair