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Western Front (RSFSR)

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Western Front (RSFSR)
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This article is about the Russian Civil War formation. For the World War II formation, see Western Front (Soviet Union).

The Western Front (Russian: Западный фронт) was a front of the Red Army during the Russian Civil War and Polish–Soviet War, which existed between 12 February 1919 and 8 April 1924. The Western Front was first established on the basis of the administration of the disbanded Northern Front. The Front headquarters were located consequently in Staraya Russa, Molodechno, Daugavpils, Smolensk and Minsk.

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Russian Civil War - Military positions in the March of 1919
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Operations

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At the time of the formation of the Western Front, Soviet troops were fighting on a front some 2,000 km long, stretching from Murmansk (against the White Northern Army and the North Russia intervention), over the Karelian Isthmus (against Finland), and the Baltics to the Belorussian Front (against Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian formations and Russian White Guards, supported by German and Polish troops).

By July 1919, the Soviet Armies of the Western Front had retreated from the Baltic area under the onslaught of the enemy. In Belarus, the Polish offensive was stopped in August on the Berezina River. In August 1919 the Front forces were on the line of the Gulf of Finland-Pskov-Polotsk-Berezina river.

In June-August and October-November 1919, the 7th and 15th Armies, supported by the ships of the Baltic Fleet, repelled two offensives of the White Northwestern Army under Nikolai Yudenich against Petrograd and defeated it, which allowed the concentration of the main efforts of the Red Army in the fight against the armies of Denikin and Kolchak.

In 1920, the Western Front became the main front of the Soviet Republic and it participated in repelling the offensive of the Polish Army during the Polish–Soviet War. The May operation (1920) of the Western Front, although it did not achieve its goals, created favorable conditions for a successful counteroffensive of the troops of the South-Western Front in Ukraine.

As a result of the July operation (1920) of the Western Front, Belarus and parts of Lithuania were occupied, and in August 1920 the troops of the Western Front approached Warsaw. However, the reassessment by the Soviet command of its forces and the underestimation of the enemy's forces, as well as bad coordination between the Western and South-Western Fronts, led to the defeat of the Soviet troops of the Western Front in the Battle of Warsaw (1920) and their withdrawal.

Despite the defeat of the Red Army, Poland didn't continue the war and a truce was signed on 12 October, which enabled the Red Army to concentrate its main forces against Wrangel's troops around the Crimean Peninsula.

The Western Front and its administration continued to exist after the end of hostilities, until it was transformed into the Western Military District on April 8, 1924.

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Composition

Composition of the Western Front in August 1920

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Commanders

Commander :

Chief of Staff :

  • Nokolai Domogyrov (19.02.1919 — 26.05.1919),
  • Nikolai Petin (26.05.1919 — 17.10.1919),
  • Alaksei Peremytov (17.10.1919 — 13.11.1919),
  • Vladimir Lazarevich (13.11.1919 — 09.02.1920),
  • Nikolai Schwartz (25.02.1920 - 30.09.1920)
  • Nikolai Sollogub (01.10.1920 - 06.12.1920)
  • Pavel Ermolin (06.12.1920 - 07.06.1921)
  • Mikhail Batorsky (07.06.1921 - 23.11.1921)
  • Sergei Mezheninov (23.11.1921 - 06.07.1923)
  • Ivan Gludin (06.07.1923 - 30.09.1923)
  • Alexander Kuk (30.09.1923 - 08.04.1924)

Members of the Revolutionary Military Council include :

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