| Asiatic Cavalry Division | |
|---|---|
 Flag | |
| Active | 28 May 1919 – August 1921 |
| Country | White Russia (until 29 September 1920) Bogd Khanate of Mongolia (after 29 September 1920) |
| Size | 8,000 (May 1919) 900 (October 1920) 3,500 (June 1921) |
| Engagements | Russian Civil War |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Roman von Ungern-Sternberg Grigory Semyonov |
TheAsiatic Cavalry Division (Russian:Азиатская конная дивизия,romanized: Aziatskaya konnaya diviziya) was aWhite Armycavalrydivision during theRussian Civil War.[1] The division was composed ofBuryats,Tatars,Bashkirs,Mongols of different tribes,Chinese,Manchu,Cossacks,Polish exiles and many others.[1][2]
The division was formed inTransbaikal by BaronRoman von Ungern-Sternberg on 28 May 1919.[3] It consisted of the remnants from theWhite Army's disbanded Native Horse Corps.[3] It was 8,000-man strong.[3]
Since 18 March 1920, it was directly subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief of all theRussian Eastern Regions' armed forces,Ataman Semenov, and from 21 May 1920, in the Far Eastern Army.[3]
After Kolchak's defeat at the hands of theRed Army and Japan's subsequent decision to withdraw itsexpeditionary troops fromTransbaikal, Semyonov, unable to withstand the pressure of Bolshevik forces, planned a retreat to Manchuria.[3][4]
Ungern, however, saw it as an opportunity to implement his monarchist plan. On 7 August 1920, he broke his allegiance to Semyonov and transformed his Asiatic Cavalry Division into a guerrilla detachment.[5][page needed] Later that same month, the unit crossed theMongolia–Russia border due to theRed Army's and theFar Eastern Republic's People's Revolutionary Army's attacks.[3] This move toMongolia was unauthorized by Semenov.[4] In Mongolia, the detachment united with other White Army forces, e.g. the units of Colonels N. N. Kazagrandi and A. P. Kaigorodov, in order to combat the Chinese and Red forces.[3] On September 29, the division was excluded from Semenov's Far Eastern Army.[4] During the evacuation of the Far Eastern Army from Transbaikal toPrimorye along the CER, the division went a different route.
On 2 October 1920 the division, totalling 900 men,[6] with its four regiments and artillery,[7] entered Mongolia whenBogd Khan agreed to von Ungern-Sternberg's offer to liberate Mongolia from the Chinese occupiers.[8][9] The division's fighting core were eightTransbaikal Cossack squadrons.[7][9] The division freed the Mongolian capitalUrga from the Chinese and tried twice to break through in Transbaikal, but suffered heavy losses.[3] In June 1921, the division consisted of 3,500 men, but lost up to 66% of them in the battle of Troitskosavsky.[3] In the final clash, von Ungern's forces numbered about 1,000 soldiers.[10] During the retreat, outraged by their commander's cruel treatment, the officers expelled Ungern, and the division, in 2 brigades under the command of Esaul Makeev and then Colonel Ostrovsky (under the actual leadership of Colonel M.G. Tornovsky), moved toManchuria where in August 1921 the division was disarmed.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)