On the Front Line: The White Army and the Population

Abstract

The article considers the interaction of the White Army and the population in the South and East of Russia. It evaluates the specifics of combat operations and recruitment in the conditions of civil war and emphasizes the importance of interaction with the civilian population. The author analyzes the areas of large-scale confrontation of the population and the causes of this phenomenon, and explains the reasons behind the blurring of the boundaries between combatants and non-combatants in internecine struggle. The author draws attention to the restoration of law enforcement and other forms of infrastructure in the areas occupied by the White Army, to the phenomenon of self-defense on a territorial or ethnic basis. The conclusion made concerns the decisive interaction between the army and the population on the front line in the conditions of a large-scale civil war. The article provides numerous examples of support of the white units by the population; analyses successful and unsuccessful examples of the demand for such support by the command of White formations. For this purpose, various sources are used, primarily memoirs, both published and stored in the archives of the Russian Federation. The author concludes about the utmost importance of contact with the population on the front line for the victory in the civil war and highlights a high potential for the support of white formations and the areas where this was manifested most prominently. The article proposes to distinguish between the willingness to surrender or to be legalized with the approach of the Whites and the willingness to actively support the troops with military participation. This phenomenon was also evident on the red side of the confrontation, which had its own specifics and is worthy of independent study.