West Russian Liberation Army

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The West Russian Liberation Army (also Voluntary Russian West Army or Bermondt Army ) was a White Army in the western Baltic region during the Russian Civil War and the Latvian War of Independence . The commander Pawel Bermondt-Awaloff had troops of about 30,000 soldiers of Russian, Baltic German and Reich German origin. The army fought in the autumn of 1919 against the Republic of Latvia, which had been proclaimed a year earlier .

Flag of the West Russian Liberation Army

Emergence

In the summer of 1918 the German army was planning to advance on St. Petersburg . At Pleskau the beginnings of an anti-Bolshevik western army were formed, which were recruited from Russian prisoners of war in Germany. After the end of the First World War , there was a skirmish with the Bolsheviks on November 26, 1918 , which led to the extensive dissolution of the association. A division under Colonel von Neff withdrew to Estonia and later formed the basis of General Yudenich's northern army . From a smaller group around Prince Lieven , the Lieven division of the Baltic State Armed Forces was formed in Courland , which received wages and equipment from Germany. In 1919, by order of the Entente Powers, regular German troops , the Baltic State Armed Forces and Freikorps under the command of Count von der Goltz fought against the Bolsheviks in the Baltic States .

Negotiations on the enlargement of the Russian units in Courland did not come to a conclusion until May 1919, after the Entente first demanded the repatriation of the German troops on the basis of Section 12 of the Compiegne Armistice . The mixed divisions of the Upper Bermondt and Wirgolitsch were assigned to Prince Lieven . In July 1919, Lieven resigned as commander after his division had been deported to the Northern Army by Judenitsch. Since no well-known Russian general could be found to succeed him, Bermondt was finally confirmed as commander in chief of the Russian troops remaining in Courland.

After the start of the evacuation of German troops in July 1919, many Germans joined the Russians in order to be able to stay in the east. These were often people who had been dismissed from their associations for some offense. The discipline and morale of the Russian soldiers were also in part poor.

The aim of the Liberation Army was to proceed, depending on the political situation, via Dünaburg to Moscow or St. Petersburg, in order to end the Bolshevik rule in Russia together with the other white armies. Negotiations were held in August with the German Reich, the Entente, Lithuania and Latvia. After the Entente refused to allow the maintenance costs to be offset against Germany's reparations payments, the financing of the army was in the air. General von der Goltz's negotiations with private investors from industry failed. Also, Estonia and Latvia saw the Bermondt Army as a threat to their existence. Nevertheless Major Bischoff refused the order to evacuate his Iron Division on August 23 and transferred his unit to Russian service. Other volunteer corps followed.

structure

The army included:

  • Corps Graf Keller (Colonel Potozki): about 10,000 / 7000 soldiers, near Jelgava
  • Corps Virgolitsch (Colonel Virgolitsch): about 5,000 / 3,500 soldiers, stationed in Northern Lithuania
  • Iron Division (Major Bischoff): around 18,000 / 15,000 soldiers, near Jelgava, joined in August
  • German Legion (captain z. S. Siewert): about 12,000 / 9,000 soldiers who had come together from various independent volunteer corps.
  • Freikorps Plehwe (Captain von Plehwe ): about 3000 soldiers (the former 2nd Guard Reserve Regiment), in front of Libau
  • Freikorps Diebitsch : about 3000 soldiers, for railway protection in Lithuania.
  • Freikorps Roßbach : about 1000 soldiers, appeared at the end of October after a march over 1,200 km from Riga.

Confrontation with the Republic of Latvia

The political situation continued to deteriorate. A new government in Lithuania refused to allow entry into Russia and a base. After initially supporting the Russian company, the Weimar government, under pressure from the Entente, banned the conversion of German soldiers to the Russians and ordered the Reichswehr to close the East Prussian border to supplies. General von der Goltz was finally recalled on October 4th. Nevertheless, Bermondt launched an offensive with the Freikorps up to the Daugava river in order to force the Republic of Latvia to negotiate. With the support of British naval artillery and Estonian armored trains , a Latvian counter-offensive followed in November, which forced Bermondt's army to retreat. Also Mitau was lost under heavy losses fighting. Bermondt left for Denmark . The German remnants of the Freikorps assembled in his army were given to the German Lieutenant General von Eberhardt , successor of von der Goltz 'as commander of the VI. Reserve Corps in Allenstein , which organized the evacuation of the remaining German Freikorps via Lithuania to East Prussia. This was completed by mid-December 1919.

literature

Contemporary representations

  • Pawel Bermondt-Awaloff: In the fight against Bolshevism. Memories. Berlin 1925.
  • Josef Bischoff : The last front. History of the Iron Division in the Baltic States 1919. Berlin 1935.
  • Representations from the post-war battles of German troops and Freikorps. Vol. 3: The fighting in the Baltic States after the second capture of Riga. June to December 1919. Berlin 1938.

Newer literature

  • Inta Pētersone (ed.): Latvijas Brīvības cīņas 1918–1920. Riga 1999, ISBN 9984-00-395-7 .
  • Bernhard Sauer: The Myth of Eternal Soldierhood. The campaign of the German Freikorps in the Baltic States in 1919. In: Journal of History , Volume 43, 1995, Issue 10 ( PDF , 7.4 MB).
  • Wilhelm Lenz: The Bermondt Affaire 1919. In: Journal of Baltic Studies 15 (1984/1), ISSN  0162-9778 , pp. 17-26.

Individual evidence

  1. Inta Pētersone (ed.): Latvijas Brīvības cīņas 1918–1920. Enciklopēdja. Preses nams, Riga 1999, ISBN 9984-00-395-7 , page 78.