3 Tsaritsyn taken by units of the South-Western front. Dvinsk [Dvinsk (Daugavpils) was taken by a combined operation of Polish and Lettish forces. Its loss cut Soviet Russia off from direct contact with Lithuania.] taken by the Poles.
5 Guryevt taken by units of the 4th Army of the Turkestan front [Guryev was a stronghold of the Cossacks of the Yaik, or River Ural, where the reiver enters the Caspian Sea.].
7 Krasnoyarsk taken by units of the 5th Army.
8 Rostov-on-Don taken by Comrade Budyonny’s First Mounted Army.
15 Kansk taken by units of the 5th Army. [¤ Kansk is on the Trans-Siberian line, about 180km. east of Krasnoyarsk. Not to be confused with Kainsk, also on the Trans-Siberian, but further west, between Omsk and Novo-Nikolayevsk (now Novosibirsk).]
16 Decree of the Supreme Soviet on the lifting of the blockade of the Soviet Republic.
22 Under pressure from the White Poles and Letts, Drissa and Rechitsa abandoned by Red Army units.
30 Armistice agreement concluded with Latvia.
2 Peace signed with Estonia.
5 Beginning of the operation by the 6th Army of the Northern front to liquidate the Whites.
6 Odessa taken by units of the 12th Army.
7 General [sic] Kolchak [Kolchak was, of course, not a General but an Admiral.] shot by decision of the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee.
12 Agreement concluded between Litvinov and O’Grady for exchange of prisoners-of-war.
17 The remnants of Denikin’s Ukraine group liquidated by units of the Southern front.
21 Archangel taken by units of the 6th Army.
23 Rostov-on-Don taken a second time by units of the 13th Army and the counter-offensive of Denikin’s Don Corps liquidated.
24 Khiva taken by Red units of the 1st Army of the Turkestan front.
25 Onega taken by units of the 6th Army.
6 Mozyr, Kalinkovichi and Ovruch taken by the Poles, renewing their active operations on our Western front. [Mozyr was of particular importance strategically, as possession of it gave control of all traffic through Polesia into Russia and also of the transverse line connecting Vitebsk with Zhitomir – and linking the two Soviet armies of the Western front. Kalinkovichi is about 20km. north of Mozyr, on the railway from Brest-Litovsk to Gomel.]
7 Irkutsk taken by units of the Red Army.
8 Yeysk and Tikhoretskaya taken by units of the Caucasian front.
12 Beginning of General [sic] Kapp’s revolt in Germany. [¤ Kapp was not a military man but a civil servant. The General associated with him in his putsch was named Luttwitz. This outburst of German nationalism, and the Communist revolt in the Ruhr which followed it, may have influenced Pilsudski’s decision to push the Red Army further back from Germany, owing to the Polish fear of a possible alliance between Soviet Russia and a Germany that had revolted against the Versailles Treaty.]
13 Murmansk taken by units of the Red Army.
17 Yekaterinodar taken by units of the 9th Army. Twenty thousand prisoners and a large quantity of materiel captured.
23 Pechenga [Pechenga (in Finnish, Petsamo) is on the Barents Sea.] taken by our units. Liquidation of the White-Guard front in the North concluded.
24 Grozny taken by units of the 10th Army.
26 Baron Wrangel appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of South Russia.
27 Novorossiisk taken by units of the 9th Army.
30 Vladikavkaz and Petrovsk taken by our forces. [Vladikavkaz is now called Ordzhonikidze, and Petrovsk Makhachkala.]
6 Fort Aleksandrovsk taken by a landing-party of Red sailors. [Fort Aleksandrovsk (now Fort Shevchenko) is on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.]
16 Peace conference between Russia and Latvia opens in Moscow.
25 The Poles begin an offensive against Right-bank Ukraine.
27 Baku taken by units of the 11th Red Army.
29 Armistice with the Japanese occupation forces in the Far East.
2 Creation of the Special Advisory Board for the struggle against Poland, with participation by Brusiov, Polivanov and other prominent workers, both military and political.
6 Kiev taken by Polish forces.
9 Russo-Lithuanian negotiations begin in Moscow.
14 Offensive on the Western front begins. Units of the 15th Army break through Polish positions in the Polotsk area.
15 Formation of the Far-Eastern Republic.
18 Enzeli taken by our fleet. [Enzeli (later Bandar Pahlavi, now Enzei again) is on the Persian shore of the Caspian Sea. Some White naval vessels had taken refuge there after the capture of their bases on the Russian shores of the Caspian, and a small British-Indian force was stationed there.]
25 Our units take Borisov.
26 Beginning of the First Mounted Army’s offensive on the South-Western front.
6 General Wrangel’s units land on the coast of the Sea of Azov. Beginning of General Wrangel’s first offensive.
8 Berdichev and Zhitomir taken by units of the First Mounted Army.
12 Kiev taken by units of the 12th Army. Russo-Finnish negotiations begin at Yuriyev. [Yuriyev is the Russian name of the town called by the Germans and Swedes Dorpat and by the Estonians Tartu.]
11 Minsk and Molodechno taken by units of our Western front. I Kamenets-Podoisk taken by our units.
14 Gay’s cavalry corps takes Vilna.
17 Lida taken by units of the 3rd Army.
19 Baranovichi taken by units of the Mozyr group. Grodno taken by units of Gay’s cavalry corps. Wrangel’s forces land in the Kuban.
20 The British Government demands that we cease advancing further against Poland.
20-2l Stubborn fighting by the armies of the Western front for the crossings over the rivers Niemen and Shchara. [The river Shchara runs north-west into the Niemen, north-east of Volkovysk.]
26 Tarnopol taken by our units.
27 The fortress of Osowiec taken by units of our cavalry. [Osowiec is about 50km. north-north-west of Bialystok,where the railway crosses the river Biebrza. The Red Army had crossed the ‘Curzon line’ and entered ‘ethnic’ Poland on July 24, at Nowy Dwor, between Grodno and Bialystok.]
31 Formation of the Revolutionary Committee of the Polish Republic. [This committee was set up in the first large town, Bialystok, which the Rd Army captured in ‘ethnic’ Poland.]
1 Brest-Litovsk taken by our units.
2 Formation of the Revolutionary Committee of Soviet Galicia.
3 Lomza and Kovel taken by our forces.
8 Crossing of the Western Bug forced by units of the Western Front.
9 Wrangel’s forces land on the coast of the Sea of Azov.
11 Peace signed with Latvia. Hrubieszow taken by units of the 12th Army.
13 Soldau (in East Prussia) taken by our units. [Soldau (in Polish, Dzialdowo), 20km. north-west of Miawa, had been ceded to Poland by the Treaty of Versailles.]
14 Wrangel’s forces land in Caucasia, south of Yeysk.
15 The Polish Army goes over to the counter-offensive. Under Polish pressure, Ciechanow abandoned by our units. [Ciechanow is on the railway between Warsaw and Mlawa.]
16 Units of Gay’s cavalry corps, after forcing a crossing of the Vistula, cake Wloczlawek. [Wloczlawek is on the Vistula, below Plock, about 130km. West-north-west of Warsaw.]
17 Stubborn fighting before Warsaw. Russo-Polish negotiations begin in Minsk. Siedice taken by the Poles.
18 Strassburg taken by units of the 4th Army. [This ‘Strassburg’ is Strasburg (now Brodnica), a town in West Prussia which had been ceded to Poland under the Treaty of Versailles. It lies about 30 miles west of Soldau (Dzialdowo).]
20 Brest-Litovsk abandoned by our units. Hasty withdrawal eastward begun by our forces.
22 Lomza taken by the Poles.
1 Old Bukhara taken by units of the 1st Army of the Turkestan front. Revolution in Bukhara, overthrow and flight of the Amir.
5 Liquidation of Wrangel’s landing on the coast of the Sea of Azov completed.
12 Kovel taken by the Poles.
14 Wrangel’s units take the offensive in the sector Bolshoy Tokmak-Nelgovka Station (Wrangel’s second offensive). [Bolshoy Tokmak is 50km. north-east of Melitopol: Nelgovka is 50km. south-southeast of Bolshoy Tokmak, on the line from Berdyansk. (Berdyansk was renamed Osipenko in 1939, but reverted to its original name in 1958.)]
18 Rovno taken by Polish units.
19 Aleksandrovsk taken by Wrangel’s units.
21 Russo-Polish negotiations begin in Riga.
23 Sinelnikovo taken by Wrangel’s units. [Sinelnikovo is about 30km. south-east of Yekaterinoslav (now Dnyepropetrovsk).]
25 Grodno abandoned by our forces.
26 General retreat continues on the Western front. Volkovysk taken by the Poles.
2 Our retreating units abandon Luninets.
12 Preliminary peace treaty signed with Poland.
14 Peace treaty signed with Finland. Fighting with Wrangel’s units in the Kakhovka bridgehead.
20 Beginning of an offensive by the armies of the Southern front, to liquidate Wrangel.
21 Chita taken by the People’s Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic.
30 Perekop taken by our units
2 Genichesk taken by our units. Wrangel’s army withdraws into the Crimean Peninsula.
9 The Isthmus of Perekop forced by troops of the Southern Front.
14 Simferopol and Feodosiya taken by units of the Southern Front
15 Sevastopol taken by our units. Kerch taken and Wrangel completely liquidated.
16 Kamenets-Podolsk taken by Red units.
17 Work resumed at the Russo-Polish peace conference in Riga,
21 Liquidation of the Petlyurist movement and of Bulak-Bulakhovich completed.
26 Makhno’s revolt in the Crimea liquidated.
Last updated on: 27.12.2006