A territorial-political entity that existed within the borders of the former Ural Region of the Russian Empire where the Ural Cossacks lived (a military-agricultural and service class with autonomism traditions).

 

In December 1917, the congress of delegates of the Ural Cossack Host did not recognize the power of the Bolsheviks. On March 29, 1918, in Uralsk, Host officers allied with Alash party representatives, carried out a coup, and overthrew the Soviet government. By April, the power of the Reds had been liquidated throughout the Ural region, and control was transferred to the Host Government, which formed the Ural Army.

 

In the summer of 1918, the Ural Army was subordinate to the command of the Siberian Army (commanded by Aleksey Grishin (Almazov)), in August–September, it was subordinate to the People’s Army of Komuch and then to the Western Front of the anti-Bolshevik forces. From December 1918 to July 1919, the Ural Army (since January 1919, the Ural Separate Army) was in operational subordination to Aleksander Kolchak, then it was transferred to the Armed Forces of the South Russia (AFSR) under the command of Anton Denikin. Spring–summer 1919, it fought on a wide front from Iletsk to the northern coast of the Caspian Sea. July 8, 1919, the army took Uralsk and Iletsk, forced the Reds out of significant territory in the south of the Urals from the Caspian Sea (Guryev) to Syzran and Samara. In January–March 1919, the Red Army units achieved success and occupied most of the Ural region. In April, amidst the Red terror and the policy of decossackization, the Cossacks resumed their active struggle against the Bolsheviks.

 

In April 1919, Commander of the Southern Group of the Red Army Eastern Front Mikhail Frunze redeployed the units from the Ural and Orenburg directions to counter the Western Army of Kolchak. Taking advantage of this, the Ural Army under the command of General Vladimir Tolstov joined the spring offensive of the Russian Army. By May 9, the Cossacks had surrounded Uralsk, but after the Red counteroffensive on July 11, they retreated to Lbishchensk. As a result of the Ural-Guryev operation of the Red Army from November 1919 to January 1920, the Cossacks retreated along the entire front. The Ural Cossack Host was liquidated. The headquarters of the Ural Separate Army fled to Guryev and from there to Krasnovodsk on British ships. In the most difficult conditions, with a baggage train and the civilian population, remnants of the Ural Separate Army headed to Fort Aleksandrovsky (the journey lasted until March; out of 15 thousand people, only 2 thousand reached the destination). After that, a small part of the Cossacks led by Tolstov went to Iran.