Steppe March
Part of theSouthern Front of theRussian Civil War
Steppe March medal
Date February 25, 1918 – May 18, 1918 Location Don Host Oblast, Southern Russia Result Survival of theDon Army
Belligerents
Don Army	Red Army
Commanders and leaders
Piotr Popov Ivan Popov	Boris Dumenko Fedor Podtieklov
Strength
1,727	Unknown
Casualties and losses
81 men	Unknown

TheSteppe March (Russian: Степной поход) was a successfulmilitary withdrawal by theDon Cossacks in Spring 1918, towards the steppe around theSal River, to ensure their survival under attack from theRed Army.

In January–February 1918, the Red Army had conducted the successfulDonbass-Don Operation in whichRostov-on-Don was occupied on February 23, and the Cossack capitalNovocherkassk on February 25. TheDon Cossack AtamanAlexei Kaledin committed suicide on 11 February 1918.

TheVolunteer Army under the command of GeneralsMikhail Alekseev and GeneralLavr Kornilov retreated during theIce March to theKuban. Field Ataman Popov's Don Cossacks didn't want to leave the Don and instead departed toward the river Sal on 26 February. Popov's force included 1500 Cossacks, five guns, and 40 machine guns. On 23 April, Popov's force, now diminished to 1000, linked up with K. S. Poliakov's Zaplavskaia army at Konstantinovskaia. From the combined force, Popov organized Southern, Northern and Trans-Don army groups, under S. V. Denisov, Semiletov, and Semenov respectively. On 6 May, the Southern group helped captureNovocherkassk, which coincided with the German advance, and the arrival ofMikhail Drozdovsky's men from Romania.^[1][2]

• History of the Don Cossacks
• White movement
• Military operations of the Russian Civil War in 1918
• History of Donetsk Oblast
• May 1918
• April 1918
• March 1918
• February 1918
• Military withdrawals

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata