The Alekseyev’s Officer Organization was a military-political organization established by General Mikhail Alekseyev in October 1917 in Petrograd. It recruited officers to create the “cadre of a new army” on volunteer principles to counter the country’s collapse, fight against the Bolsheviks, and continue the war with Germany. At the end of October 1917, the organization consisted of several thousand officers. Later, this military volunteer formation became the basis of the Volunteer Army, the most famous and combat-ready operational and tactical unit of the White Movement during the Civil War in Russia.

After the October Revolution, on October 30, 1917, guided by an agreement with the Don Ataman [commander] General Aleksey Kaledin, Alekseyev gave the order to transfer the organization to Novocherkassk. On November 2, 1917 (later on, this day was considered the Volunteer Army foundation day), Alekseyev arrived in Novocherkassk and began to create a military volunteer formation. He also appealed to the officers and junkers to save the Motherland and go to the Don region to participate in the fight against the Bolsheviks.

The basis of the organization’s personnel were counter-revolutionary officers, junkers, cadets, Don Cossacks, and a few volunteer soldiers. In the second half of November 1917, the number of volunteers was over 600 people, in mid-December, it grew to about 1.5 thousand, while in January 1918, it reached nearly 4–5 thousand. On November 26, 1917, the first participation in the battles against the Reds occurred, when volunteers supported the Don military units marching on Rostov-on-Don, where Soviet power had been established shortly before.

On December 6, General Lavr Kornilov arrived in Novocherkassk. Other generals and officers from Bykhov also came to the Don region (Anton Denikin, Sergey Markov, Ivan Romanovsky, etc.), where they were under arrest after the Kornilov affair. On December 24, a secret order on Kornilov’s joining the command of the Organization’s forces was issued. Since December 27, the Alekseyev’s Officer Organization was renamed the Volunteer Army, which formally became part of the troops of the Rostov District of the Don Host Oblast. Mikhail Alekseyev became the supreme leader of the army, and Lavr Kornilov became the commander.

On the same day, December 27, 1917, the leaders of the Volunteer Army published a proclamation saying that after the victory over the Bolsheviks, the army would submit to the newly elected Constituent Assembly on the issue of the state system. Members of the Right Center, Pyotr Struve, Vasily Shulgin, and others participated in determining the political program of the Volunteers. Under the military leadership of the Volunteer Army, the Don Civil Council was formed with advisory functions for organizing economic life, external relations, etc. Initially, the Council consisted of Pyotr Struve, Pavel Milyukov, Afrikan Bogaewsky, Boris Savinkov, and others. The Council existed until mid-January 1918. From May to June 1918, the leadership of the army maintained close contact with the All-Russian National Center (an anti-Bolshevik organization that supported the White military command).