Translator notes: My comments are marked in the text by T.H. and the authors by A.D. This book centers on the colorful patron/named units, Kuban Cossacks, Bermondt and Annenkov's units. This was a small part of the White Army, but the most exotic. The majority of units wore standard uniforms or civilian clothes. The International and Intervention books, by AST, as well as Osprey's White Army book help to close the loop on this subject. Also, the captions for all the pictures are included at the end (except for the color plates). "WHITE ARMIES" By A.I Deryabin INTRODUCTION Boldly we go to battles…towards it we go. These words begin the story, which in the Civil War years of 1917-1922 tell the story of the Whites, as well as Reds. This war was very terrible, which our Mother country has lived with all its history – erupting in 1917 to break the people's souls and minds, and end the royal family. For long time it divided Russian society. A split that up to now still exists... The White and National Armies for six years conducted an embittered armed struggle with the Red Army and in the end sustained defeat. Causes of this are many and we will not bear upon them in our work, because this is a subject of a separate deep research. How presumably right was White General Von Lampe, when already emigrated he wrote, "White could have triumphed over the Reds, if only they realized their methods, their activity... being used also by the Reds", ie Displaying such a mercilessness and acting with such atrocious methods; but then they claimed to be WHITE… The main aim of our labor is to reflect on the system of uniform and also on equipment and armament of the armies of the opposing sides and on the background with short historical essays and organization of armed forces of the Whites. The White and National Armies, as well as Red Army, primarily arose as purely volunteer formations – this was an enthusiastic time of self-sacrifice, military successes, and successful offensives... But for the whites victories were, on the most part, pyrrhic victories: in continuous battles perished the better volunteers, "veterans". To compensate for these losses, they had to resort to mass mobilizations, i.e. forced conscription. The White Armies grew in number, but their battle quality lowered, because they stopped being volunteers. This measure was also true for the Red Army. Regarding the uniforms in the civil war, there existed a separate theme for uniforms, because of intra-state contradictions, ideological and political disagreements intensifies to the utmost, and each of sides endeavored to expressed its positions, that in any event resulted in symbolism and marking system on uniforms. In point they created other regulations than those that existed in the government (i. 1077; . "Usual"), because in time of civil wars formations of the combatant sides wore like uniforms. However, the enemies attempted sharply to differ one from another, mainly in prevailing symbolism, because distinctly visible emblems was the basic form that an army could make uniforms unique for participants of the civil war. The marking system for uniforms was to declare its ideological and political positions. In our Civil War they were: For whites - orthodoxy and national-state unity of Russia; for national state education - political and economic independence from the Soviets as heirs of the former Russian Empire; for Bolsheviks - breaking away of all old and construction on its ruins "a communist paradise" for the proletariat and above all things for oneself. Therefore the Whites aspired to preserve all former symbolism on uniforms with minimal addition of new items. Making their appearance in the struggle period with the Bolsheviks; "nationalism" affected the marking system of uniforms in the form of independence. Reds - mostly went away from all Russian symbolism, so new uniforms had to be created by them with an absolute elimination of Russian tradition, wherein they succeeded on first phases... Besides, keeping in mind, that the making of uniforms in the period of the Civil war was extraordinarily difficult. Examining the situation, the uniforms had to be worn in whole or mixed with other parts or combinations for a long time. The necessity for a permanent uniform to distinguish them from the enemy brought about that. The best uniforms were kept for non-battle activities and only in short rest moments could they give attention to uniforms and to its elements. Uniforms changed due to the lessons learned in the First World War, (i. 1077; .) a war of positional tactics caused the re-examination and uniforms took a new role as a masking means of camouflage. In this Civil war already symbolic or colourful combinations were to reappear, articles of uniform that obviously were to influence the enemies' psyche by glory and military elegance of their uniforms. It is known that all elements of the uniform had changed due to the nature of battle - wars of position or maneuver. A similar phenomenon had already affected the Russian Imperial Army - in 1915-1916 she practically gave up colored and metallized elements of uniforms and distinctive symbols. In 1917 the forming of the new shock units ("units of death" and etc.) there again appeared the multicolored symbolism, used for psychological suppression of the enemy, which we will see already in use by the renowned and elite battle quality units. In the years of the Civil War colorful uniforms had their logical development: stationary warfare was forgotten, this was a war of mobility in vast open battlefields. So, Whites frequently came to battle with many glorious uniforms and attempted to teach the Red Army units that battles were decided not so much by fire superiority and enemy quantity, but by morals and righteousness. Smart looking units with flowing banners could influence the battle. To prove themselves in battle the Reds also aspired to have its own distinctive uniforms to influence psyche of its enemies. Eternal memory to falling heroes... More White Armies Introduction Uniforms of the White Armies: 1917-1922 Shock Units 1917 Kornilov's Shock Division 1918-1920 General Markov's Officers Division 1919-1920 Partisan Alekeev General Infantry Division 1918-1920 Officer's Rifle General of Drozdovsky Division 1918-1920 Back to The Gauntlet No. 21 Table of Contents Back to The Gauntlet List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Craig Martelle Publications This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com