The Last Battles of the Tersk Divisions of the South Russian Army (the end 1919 – the beginning 1920s) based on Memoirs

Abstract. This paper is the first attempt to reconstruct the path of Terek military detachments during the mass retreat of The South Russian Army, which ended with evacuation of the White Army from Novorossiisk to Crimea, to clarify the number of the Terek Cossack detachments of The South Russian Army. The military history of Terek Cossacks during the Civil War is not clearly explored, and the battle path of Terek Cossacks during the retreat from Voronezh to Novorossisk is much less explored even in general. Due to the small amount of sources about the Terek detachments, the main sources for reconstruction are memoires and diaries of participants. The research is to clarify the number of Terek Cossacs in the South Russian Army during the retreat beginning, to track the main battles, in which Terek forces took part, and to describe them. The paper concludes that regarding its military power Terek Cossack and Don Cossack detachments in contrast to Cuban Cossacks saved their military strength, but due to their small numbers were unable to turn the war around. Also the Cossack cavalry was more effective than infantry (plastuny).

Keywords: Armed Forces of the South Russia, Cavalry, Civil War, military history, Northern Caucasus, sources of personal origin, Terek Cossacks.