The offensive operation of the Red Army’s Southern Front (Сommander Aleksander Egorov, member of the Revolutionary Military Council Joseph Stalin) against the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (AFSR), as part of the general offensive of the Red Army’s Southern and South-Eastern fronts against the Whites’ forces in southern Russia.
Following the successful counter-offensive of the Red Army in October – November 1919 and victories over AFSR near Oryol, Voronezh, and Kursk, the Southern Front troops launched an offensive against Kharkov. The main blow was inflicted by the 14th (Commander Ieronim Uborevich) and 13th armies (commander Anatoly Gekker) in cooperation with the First Cavalry Army (Commander Semyon Budyonny).
On November 25, the First Cavalry Army took Novy Oskol. AFSR troops used equestrian corpses of Konstantin Mamantov and Sergey Ulagay for a counterstrike. In persistent battles, the 13th Army and the 1st Cavalry Army managed to stop their advance to the north and inflict a heavy defeat on the enemy in the area of Biryuch and Novy Oskol. Pursuing the enemy, on December 7, the Red troops captured Belgorod. The Soviet command developed and implemented a plan to encircle the group of AFSR forces in Kharkov. On the night of December 12, the Latvian Rifle and 8th Cavalry Divisions of the 14th Army entered Kharkov. During the day, the encircled White troops surrendered.
The Red Army’s Kharkov operation opened the way to the Donbass, laid the foundation for the split of AFSR into two isolated parts, which was completed during the Rostov-Novocherkassk operation of the Red Army in January 1920.
The units of the Latvian Rifle Division in Kharkov.
December 12, 1919.
SMPHR. F.III-23814
Kharkov is occupied by the Red Army. A leaflet of the political department of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Western Front.
December 13, 1919. Photocopy.
SMPHR. F.IX Vs-1989
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