| Spring Offensive of the Russian Army | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theRussian Civil War | |||||||
 Map of the Spring Offensive of the Russian Army | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Red Army |  White Army | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Gaya Gai (1st Army)Vasilii Shorin (2nd Army)Mikhail Lashevich (3d Army)Mikhail Frunze (4th Army)Jan Blumberg (5th Army)Grigory Zinoviev | Alexander KolchakRadola Gajda[citation needed]Mikhail HanzhinAlexander Dutov | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 111,000 men 379 guns | 113,000 men more than 200 guns | ||||||
TheSpring Offensive of the Russian Army was an offensive of theWhite Army of theWhite movement led byAlexander Kolchak on theEastern Front of the Russian Civil War, between March and April 1919.
At the end of1918, the situation on theEastern Front of the Russian Civil War was unclear. Both sides fought for theKama River. The Supreme Command of theRed Army prepared for major offensives on the Southern and Western fronts, hence there were no supplies available for the Eastern front. At the end of December, theWhitesconquered Perm on the northern flank, but the Reds capturedUfa on the southern flank. On 22 January 1919 theRed 1st Army connected with the Army of theTurkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which had advanced from Middle Asia. On 24 January theRed 4th Army capturedUralsk.
At the beginning of1919, the Supreme Command of theWhite Army decided to advance in two directions. The purpose of the northern advance was to connect with theNorth Russia Front and to strike atPetrograd; the purpose of the southern advance was to crush the Red front on the middleVolga river and to advance toMoscow.
The Whites had three[clarification needed] armies:[1]
The Reds had three armies in the south:[1]
and three armies to the north of them:
Therefore, on the northern flank both sides were equal, the Whites were stronger in the center (49,000 of Hanzhin's soldiers against the Red 5th Army's 10,000), and the Reds had an advantage on the southern flank (52,000 against 19,000). Both sides decided to strike on the right flank (the Whites on the right flank and in the center) and to cut the communication lines of their opponent's left flank. At the end of February, the Whites pushed back the left flank of the Reds' 2nd Army, forcing it to retreat.
On 4 March, the Siberian Army of the Whites began its advance. On 8 March it capturedOkhansk andOsa and continued its advance to the Kama River. On 10 April they capturedSarapul and closed in onGlazov.[1] On 15 April soldiers of Siberian Army's right flank made contact with detachments of theNorthern Front in a sparsely populated area near thePechora River.
On 6 March Hanzhin's Western Army stroke between the Red 5th and 2nd Armies. After four days of fighting the Red 5th Army was crushed, its remains retreated onto Simbirsk and Samara. The Reds had no forces to coverChistopol with its bread storages. It was a strategical breakthrough, the commanders of Red's 5th Army fled from Ufa and the White Western Army captured Ufa without a fight on 16 March. On 6 April they tookSterlitamak,Belebey the next day andBugulma on 10 April.[1]
In the South, Dutov's OrenburgCossacks conqueredOrsk on 9 April and advanced towards Orenburg.[1]
After receiving information about the defeat of the 5th Army,Mikhail Frunze, who had become commander of the Red Southern Army Group, decided not to advance, but to defend his positions and wait for reinforcements. As a result, theRed Army was able to stop the White advance on the southern flank and to prepare its counteroffensive.
The White Army had made a strategic breakthrough in the center, but the Red Army had been able to prepare its counteroffensive on the southern flank.
On April 22,Mikhail Frunze launched his successfulEastern Front counteroffensive against the over-extended Western Army.[1]