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Abstract. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate the unrealized potential of the White movement in the South during the Civil War, the opportunity of the Cossacks and peasants union, and to identify the reasons of failure of the relevant undertakings. For implementation of the challenging task unpublished sources, extracted from the central archives were involved. These materials include both White and Red compounds and instances. The article deals with the opportunities and conditions of the formation of a White non-Cossack compound in the Don Province. These “Kharkov corps” would be established on the basis of local officers and volunteers mobilized peasants. This compound was typologically similar to the South, Astrakhan and Russian People’s armies, which were formed on the Don. The author shows how difficult the situation was in the Starobelsk district in Autumn 1918 as being turned out between Ukrainian, German and Cossack power. At the same time Don and Volunteer commanders remained at loggerheads. This circumstance prevented the rapid call for human resources in the large Kharkov province. As a result, the village was occupied by separatist and Bolshevik elements. In the fast dynamics of the Civil War it was not possible to create another formation of the anti-Bolshevik population of the Kharkov province in case of disagreement of the Don and the Volunteer commanders.
Keywords: the Civil War, the White movement, Don Province, Starobelsk district, Cossacks, peasants.