Soviet Forces of the North Caucasus mid-1918
The original is from Central State Archives of the Red Army (TsGAKA)and can be found at the Electronic Library of Historical Documents in the three volumes on documents from the civil war period.
North Caucasus Military District
1 August 1918
All figures given are noted as approximate. Independent units have been omitted.
While lumped together as in the North Caucasus military districts, these units were separated from each other by massive distances – over 1,000 km separate Baku from Tsaritsyn – and did not operate together.
| Unit | Commander | Bayonets | Sabres | MGs | Guns | Men |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ust-Medveditsa district | Mironov | 6 826 | 460 | 51 | 13 | 7 301 |
| Tsaritsyn District | Kharchenko | 20 935 | 2 735 | 162 | 82 | 26 966 |
| Salsk Group | Shevkolyasov | 9 180 | 1 700 | 86 | 17 | 11 640 |
| Reserve (Tsaritsyn Garrison) | Teplitskii (temp.) | 1 298 | 499 | 47 | 8 | 2 490 |
| Kuban-Black Sea District | Kalnin | 44 400 | 1 211 | 45 | 4 | 46 200 |
| Black Sea Coast | Gorbatovskii | 12 000 | – | 64 | 12 | 13 000 |
| Terek Oblast | Egorov | 3 500 | – | 12 | 24 | 3 500 |
| Baku Garrison | Korganov | 5 000 | – | – | – | 8 000 |
| Bicherakov's Detachment | Bicherakov | – | – | – | – | 600 |
| Approximate Total | 103 139 | 6 605 | 467 | 160 | 119 697 |
Starikov and Medvedev in "Philip Mironov and the Russian Civil War" state that the Ust-Medveditsa units were now officially a brigade – of seven rifle battalions, six cavalry squadrons (largely Cossacks), an artillery battery, an MG company and an engineer company. They give it as 4,520 men, with 9 guns and 20 MGs. They were in a bad way, retreating from Krasnov's Don Cossacks towards Saratov province at this time.
Tsaritsyn is now Volgograd, previously Stalingrad.
The Taman Army formed soon after this, presumably from the two Black Sea groups.
Bicherakov was an Ossetian who led a force of Terek and Kuban Cossacks that had been serving in Persia during WWI. He lied to the Soviets about his intentions so that he had a free hand in Azerbaijan. At this time he was working with the British in Baku and he later joined forces with the Whites. While they did not know this, his men should not be factored into Soviet forces.