Anton Denikin

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(b. 4 Dec. 1872; d. 8 Aug. 1947) Russian; leader of White armies in the south 1918 – 20 Denikin was the son of a former serf who joined the Tsarist army at the age of 15. He served in the Russo-Japanese War and the First World War. He was critical of the incompetence and corruption at Nicholas II's court. After the February Revolution of 1917 he served the provisional government as commander first of the western then the south-western fronts. He took to arms against the Bolsheviks in 1918 as commander of the White "Armed Forces of the South". He initially had great success, advancing to within 250 miles of Moscow by the end of August 1919. But in December 1919 the Red Army defeated him at Orel and pushed his army back into the Caucasus, where it collapsed at the end of March 1920. Denikin was outnumbered by the Bolsheviks, who enjoyed superior communications. But he was also weakened by his determination to maintain the unity of the Russian empire, which meant he would not ally with the Ukrainians, Poles, or Caucasians. Denikin lived in France until 1945, when he settled in the United States.

Denikin, Gen Anton Ivanovich (1872-1947), leading White Russian general, and one of the principal opponents of the communists in the 1917-20 Russian civil war along with Kolchak and Wrangel. He graduated from the general staff academy in 1899 and became a lieutenant general in 1916. From April 1918 he led the ‘White Guard’, and from January 1919 commanded all anti-Soviet forces in southern Russia. His sometimes brutal regime, known as ‘Denikinshchina’ in the north Caucasus and Ukraine, was supported by the WW I Allies, Churchill directing to him much of the aid given to the Whites. Defeated in March 1920, he escaped abroad to lifelong exile.

— Christopher Bellamy

Anton Denikin (1872-1947) led the White Volunteer Army which in nearly succeeded in defeating the "Red" Bolshevik forces in 1919, during the Russian civil war.

Anton Ivanovich Denikin was born on December 7, 1872, in Shpetal Dolnyi village near the city of Wloclawek, in Warsaw Province, a section of Poland that had been absorbed by the Russian Empire in the 18th century. His father, Ivan Denikin, had been born a serf in the Russian province of Saratov, yet had worked himself up to the rank of major in the Russian frontier guards. Two years after retiring, in 1869, Ivan married a poor Catholic seamstress, Elizaveta Vrjesinski, who was supporting her aged father.

The pension of a retired major was not sufficient to support a family in circumstances other than abject poverty. Yet Ivan Denikin always had a charitable hand for others in need. Anton, an only child, was technically a Russian Polish "half-breed," but his father's commitment to Russian patriotism and the Russian Orthodox Church provided the boy with a path eagerly followed. Indeed, at the age of 70, Denikin's father volunteered to fight in the Russo-Turkish War, and it seems clear that, from an early age, young Denikin had determined to become a soldier.

As a student, Denikin was capable, if not brilliant. He was admitted to secondary school at the age of nine. Four years later, after the death of his father, Denikin began tutoring younger boys so that the family could earn a tiny additional income. He became a proficient swimmer and local soldiers taught him how to use a rifle.

At the age of 18, Denikin began a course at the Kiev Junker School, a military college from which he graduated in 1892. As a newly commissioned officer, he was posted to the 2nd Field Artillery Brigade. During this initial assignment, Denikin prepared to take the entry examinations for the Academy of the General Staff, which he passed in 1895.

Life at the Academy in the Russian capital of St. Petersburg opened new vistas for this provincial young man in his early 20s. He met members of the intelligentsia, had occasion to read politically "subversive" left-wing material, and was able to make contact with persons from most walks of life and from all social classes. So much interested him outside the Academy that he graduated at the bottom of his class.

Due to an injustice in bureaucratic procedure, over which he petitioned Tsar Nicholas II, Denikin was not able to become an officer of the General Staff until 1902. Therefore, in 1900, he returned to his old artillery brigade in Warsaw Province and waited.

Two years later Denikin was transferred to the General Staff and was rotated through a series of positions considered beneficial for the development of his career. Serving at the lowest level as a squad leader in an infantry regiment, he was then attached to the headquarters of the 2nd Cavalry Corps, acquiring experience in each of the main branches of the army: artillery, infantry, and cavalry.

In 1904, when the Japanese staged a surprise attack on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur in the Far East, Denikin immediately volunteered for frontline duty and, according to Dimitry Lehovich, in White Against Red: The Life of General Anton Denikin, soon "acquired a reputation for personal bravery and for the ability to make a quick assessment of combat situations." Action suited him better than staff work. In November, he distinguished himself during hand-to-hand attacks at Tsinchentchen and again the following year during a large cavalry raid behind enemy lines. In the course of the Russo-Japanese War, Denikin served with the border guards, the Trans-Baikal Cossacks, the Ural Trans-Baikal Division, and with the mounted troops of 2nd Army, rising to the rank of colonel.

Despite Denikin's personal success, the fate of the Russian military was tragic. Inadequate logistics and incompetent leadership robbed the gallant Russian soldiery of victory. Political unrest among soldiers and workers spilled over into the Revolution of 1905. After the war, it took Denikin one month to cross Russia from the Far East to St. Petersburg via the Trans-Siberian Railroad. At times, he and his traveling companions exchanged fire with revolutionary mobs as he made his way back to the 2nd Cavalry Corps near Warsaw.

By spring 1906, order had been restored in Russia. Before the close of the previous year, Tsar Nicholas II had proclaimed his October Manifesto which attempted to compromise with political dissidents by providing Russia with a parliament, or duma. For a military officer, Denikin's political views were atypical; he welcomed the Manifesto and a constitutional monarchy and advocated major political reforms.

From a military standpoint, this was a time for self-examination. From 1906 to 1913, Russian authorities replaced over half of the officer corps with abler men. Denikin introduced reforms while a member of the 57th Reserve Brigade at Saratov and as commander of the 17th Arkangelogorodsk Regiment near Kiev. While progress was measurable, domestic discontent and the pressure of international events conspired against the Tsar's government, which was never able to achieve a working relationship with the Duma. Radical left-oriented parties continued to grow, including the Social Revolutionaries, the Mensheviks, and the Bolsheviks. In 1911, terrorists assassinated the Russian premier, Peter Stolypin, thereby ending perhaps the best opportunity for a compromise between Duma and Tsar. Two wars broke out in southeastern Europe in 1912 and 1913, and Russia was embroiled more deeply in the dangerously entangled web of European diplomacy. Finally, in 1914, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, pushed Europe into the First World War.

During the course of the four-year-long cataclysm, the Allies (Russia, France, Britain, Belgium, and Serbia) fought against the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire). Italy, Rumania, and the United States would join the Allies, respectively in 1915, 1916, and 1917, and Bulgaria would follow the Central Powers in 1915. The Russians found themselves fighting each of the Central Powers along the length of the Eastern Front.

Despite a few glorious moments, the Russian road was one of successive defeat - from the 1914 disaster at Tannenburg to the 1917 revolutions and the 1918 civil war. The personal record of Anton Denikin, however, was laudable. In 1914, he was promoted to major-general and reorganized the staffs of 3rd and 5th Armies. Briefly attached to Alexei Brusilov, as deputy chief of staff in August, he volunteered for and received a frontline assignment as commander of the 4th Rifle "Iron" Brigade, which was expanded to a division in April 1915. Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, Denikin would say that his two years with the "Iron" Division were his most fulfilling. In the first months of war, he won both the Sword of St. George and the Cross of St. George, 4th Class, for bravery.

Throughout the first winter of World War I, Denikin's troops were deployed against the Austro-Hungarians in the snowy passes of the Carpathian Mountains. Not only was he able to maintain unit cohesion when so many other Russian units were breaking down, he also succeeded in invading Hungary, a feat which produced accolades from every corner of the Russian army.

In spring 1915, Russian morale was still high, but severe munitions shortages were threatening to make it impossible to continue the war. Sensing a military opportunity, the Germans threw their main offensive against Russian Poland and the "great retreat" of 1915 began. The Tsar, contrary to the advice of his chief counselors, assumed personal command of the armed forces. The talented and respected General M.V. Alexeev was appointed his chief of staff. By the end of 1915, however, many of the original and experienced Russian soldiers had been killed and the army primarily consisted of uniformed civilians who were already showing the strains of war. Denikin had fought two exemplary engagements at Lutsk and Chartoryisk, rising to lieutenant-general in the process.

1916 was a year of decision for the Russian military. In May, Brusilov led four armies in Russia's most famous offensive of the entire war. Denikin's "Iron" Division participated under General A.M. Kaledin's 8th Army and was instrumental in the breakthrough at Lutsk. In fact, Denikin was first into the town, an act of gallantry for which he would be awarded the rare Sword of St. George with Diamonds. In September, he was promoted to the command of 8th Corps and sent to help Russia's ally, Rumania. After spectacular gains, the Brusilov offensive lost momentum and suffered major reverses by the end of the year.

The fatal crucible for Russia and Denikin was 1917. The Royal Family had discredited itself through ineptitude and scandal so that political chaos and military defeat combined to herald the downfall of Tsar Nicholas. By February, a Provisional Government was established in the capital of St. Petersburg, the name of which had already been changed to Petrograd.

Appointed Chief of Staff

While taking a decidedly left-wing political turn, the Provisional Government, under Alexander Kerensky as minister of war, nevertheless sought to continue the war and fulfill treaty obligations previously contracted with the Allies. Denikin was appointed chief of staff to the supreme commander, a position he would hold for two tumultuous months. This elevation was sudden and unexpected. The government sought a talented combat general who had been critical of the old regime and who had welcomed the February Revolution. The government also reasoned that Denikin's peasant origins would endear him to the people.

Summer saw the end of the Russian army. A fresh offensive, carried out with more rhetoric than energy, was bathed in blood. Discipline and morale, already at a low point, vanished. Soldiers shot their own officers and entire regiments threw down their weapons and marched home to the Bolshevik rhythm of "peace, land and bread." V.I. Lenin's Bolsheviks (Communists) were already undermining the Kerensky government from within.

During these unhappy months Denikin served under a succession of supreme commanders: Alexeev, Brusilov, and finally, Lavr G. Kornilov. Denikin and Kornilov were in full agreement that discipline had to be restored in the army and civil order established in Russia. From July to October, a series of intricate political maneuvers unfolded wherein Kornilov was pitted against Kerensky, who was simultaneously at odds with members of his own government.

At the end of August, after a brief, abortive coup, Kornilov and his sympathizers, including Denikin, were arrested and imprisoned. In order to defeat Kornilov, Kerensky had armed Lenin's Bolsheviks. This act was the prelude to the end of Kerensky's reign as head of state. In October, Lenin - aided by Leon Trotsky and assorted bands of workers, soldiers, sailors, and politicos-succeeded in toppling the remnants of governmental authority in that epoch-turning event known to history as the Russian Revolution.

In December 1917, by escaping from prison or eluding capture altogether, Denikin and several key army officers - including Kornilov and Alexeev-managed to meet in Don Cossack territory in southern Russia. There, painstakingly, the first small units of the White Volunteer Army were born. Three years of civil war ensued, during which Lenin's followers became known as "Reds," while Denikin and other opponents were called "Whites."

Commanded White Volunteer Army

The original plan of the White Volunteer Army had been to unite with the Don Cossacks and liberate Russia. Unfortunately, the Reds overran the Don so that the Whites had to retreat south into the lands of the Kuban Cossacks in the hope of obtaining allies. For several weeks during the frozen winter and early spring of 1918, the Volunteer Army fought their "campaign of ice" against vastly superior numbers. When Kornilov was killed in the desperate siege of Ekaterinodar in April, Denikin assumed command and led the brilliantly successful Second Kuban Campaign that summer and the North Caucasian Campaign in the autumn. By the end of the year, the Volunteer Army had grown significantly, despite its extremely heavy casualties. When the Kuban and Don Cossacks agreed to participate under a joint leader, Denikin became the commander in chief of the Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR).

The tide of international events also had been swift. In March, the Bolsheviks had surrendered much of Russia to the Germans in the humiliating Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and the Central Powers, in turn, had surrendered to the Allies in November. But if World War I had ended, the Russian civil war was set to enter its most virulent phase. White armies had sprung up in northern and western Russia and in Siberia. Several of the Allies advocated limited aid to the various disparate and disunited White groups; the British and French offered military assistance to Denikin.

In the spring of 1919, Denikin decided to launch one of the most spectacular advances in military history. For six months, from May to October, the world watched, breathless, as the fate of Russia and the Communist Revolution hung in the balance. In the first weeks, the Whites captured several hundred square miles of enemy territory. Other units of the AFSR took the critical city of Tsaritsyn (later called Stalingrad).

Encouraged, Denikin issued his famous "Moscow Directive" in June. Three wings of the AFSR were to move in a massive fan-shape up the Volga in the east and to the Polish border in the west, then shift in unison toward the common goal of Moscow - the ancient capital of Russia and contemporary seat of the Red Bolshevik government. It was an ambitious thrust, yet by October, Volunteer units had reached Orel, only 200 miles south of Moscow.

That summer, Lenin had ordered the concentration of every resource against Denikin, including a special Red cavalry army led by S.M. Budenny. In October, at the critical point of Denikin's offensive, the Red cavalry struck the AFSR in flank at Voronezh and drove a deep wedge between the Volunteers and the Don Cossacks.

The White defeat rapidly became a retreat and then a rout. Disease and winter snows ravaged the remnants of Denikin's armies. Survivors were evacuated by ship from Novorossiisk to the Crimea in southern Russia in March 1920. What had begun with so much hope and promise had ended in failure. Physically and emotionally exhausted, Denikin resigned in favor of his sharpest critic, General Baron P. N. Wrangel, who reconstructed a White Russian army. After a remarkable comeback, however, the Whites were decisively defeated in November 1920 and were forced to leave Russia. Denikin's involvement in Russian public affairs ended; he would spend his final 27 years in exile.

Early in his military career Denikin had established a reputation as a skilled orator and writer, qualities that were not wasted. His earliest publications were vignettes of military life. In particular, he attacked harsh punishments and the lack of progressiveness in the officer corps. When he went into exile and retirement, he applied himself to a five-volume work concerning Russia in the First World War, the Revolution, and the Civil War. Translated into English, Volume I has been published as The Russian Turmoil, while Volumes II-V have been substantially abridged into one book, The White Army. These comprise his most valuable work, but his The Career of a Tsarist Officer: Memoirs, 1872-1916, published after his death, provides significant insights into the Russian imperial army.

As commander in chief, Denikin had worn tattered uniforms. In exile, his only revenue came from his many books and lectures, but this was not enough to save his family from penury. (In 1918, he had married Xenia Vasilievna Chizh; their daughter was born the following year.) During these years, the Denikins lived in England, Belgium, Hungary, and France. When the Nazis invaded Soviet Russia during World War II, he warned expatriate White Russians not to participate alongside the Germans.

After the war, the Denikins emigrated from France to the United States and lived in New York City. On August 7, 1947, at the age of 74, Denikin died while vacationing near Ann Arbor, Michigan. Originally buried in Detroit, his remains were transferred to St. Vladimir's Cemetery in Jackson, New Jersey.

Communist propagandists have claimed Denikin was a dictator and an enemy of the Russian people who was born into a family of wealthy estate-owners near Kursk. His memoirs, backed by the historical facts, prove these accusations false. On the contrary, according to Dimitry Lehovich: "In some ways Denikin invites comparison with Robert E. Lee, who in a different period and country, also suffered defeat in a civil war and emerged from it with his honor intact and with the respect of his contemporaries and of future historians." Indeed, until the end of his life Denikin hoped and believed that the Russian people would one day rise up and overthrow communism. In 1991, 44 years after his death, the Communist Party was outlawed in Russia.

Further Reading

Denikin, Anton I. The Career of a Tsarist Officer: Memoirs, 1872-1916. Translated by Margaret Patoski. University of Minnesota Press, 1975.

Denikin, Anton I. The White Army. Translated by Catherine Zvegintsov. Jonathan Cape, 1930.

Footman, David. Civil War in Russia. Faber and Faber, 1961.

Kenez, Peter. Civil War in South Russia, 1918: The First Year of the Volunteer Army. University of California Press, 1971.

Kenez, Peter. Civil War in South Russia, 1919-1920: Defeat of the Whites. University of California Press, 1977.

Lehovich, Dimitry V. White Against Red: The Life of General Anton Denikin. Norton, 1974.

Luckett, Richard. The White Generals: An Account of the White Movement and the Russian Civil War. Longman, 1971.

Mawdsley, Evan. The Russian Civil War. Allen & Unwin, 1987.

Stewart, George. The White Armies of Russia: A Chronicle Counter-Revolution and Allied Intervention. Macmillan, 1933.

(1872 - 1947), general, commander of White armies in Southern Russia during the Russian civil war.

Anton Denikin was born the son of a retired border guard officer in Poland. His own military career began in the artillery, from which he entered the General Staff Academy. He served in the Russo-Japanese War and the World War I, where he commanded the Fourth, or "Iron," Brigade (later a division). Beginning the war with the rank of major general, following the February 1917 Revolution, he received a rapid series of promotions, from command of the Eighth Corps to command of the Russian Western, and then Southwestern, Fronts. In September 1917, however, he and a number of other officers were arrested as associates of Commander-in-Chief General Lavr Kornilov in the latter's conflict with Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky. Denikin was released from prison following the Bolshevik coup. He headed to Novocherkassk, where he participated in the formation of the Anti-Bolshevik (White) Army together with Kornilov and General Mikhail Alexeyev. Following the death of Kornilov in April 1918, Denikin took command of the White Army, which he led out of its critical situation in the Kuban Cossack territory. General Alexeyev's death in September of that year left him with responsibility for civil affairs in the White regions as well. With the subordination to him of the Don and Kuban Cossack armies, Denikin assumed the title Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of South Russia (December 1918).

By early 1919, the White Army controlled a territory encompassing the Don and Kuban Cossack territories and the North Caucasus. During the spring and summer, the army advanced in all directions, clearing the Crimea, taking Kharkov on June 11 and Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd) on June 17. On June 20, 1919, Denikin issued the Moscow Directive, an order which began the army's offensive on Moscow. After taking Kiev on August 17, Kursk on September 7, and Orel (some two hundred miles south of Moscow) on September 30, the overextended White Army had reached the limits of its advance. A Bolshevik counteroffensive initiated a retreat that ultimately resulted in the army's evacuation of all its territory with the exception of Crimea. This retreat was accompanied by epidemics of typhus and other diseases, which decimated the ranks of soldiers and the civilian population alike. Denikin handed over command to General Pyotr Wrangel on March 22, 1920, and left Russia for Constantinople (Istanbul), and then France, where he lived until November 1945. His final year and nine months were spent in the United States. He died on August 7, 1947, in Michigan.

The ill-fated Moscow offensive has colored Denikin's reputation, with some, such as General Wrangel, arguing that the directive initiating it was the death knell of the White movement in South Russia. Wrangel advocated a junction with Admiral Kolchak's forces in the east. Denikin himself felt that the conditions of the civil war were such that only a risky headlong rush could unseat the Bolsheviks and put an end to the struggle.

Bibliography

Denikin, Anton I. (1922). The Russian Turmoil: Memoirs, Military, Social, and Political. London: Hutchinson.

Denikin, Anton I. (1975). The Career of a Tsarist Officer: Memoirs, 1872 - 1916. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Lehovich, Dimitry V. (1974). White Against Red: The Life of General Anton Denikin. New York: Norton.

—ANATOL SHMELEV

Anton Ivanovich Denikin
Anton Denikin in 1918
Born	December 16, 1872(1872-12-16) Włocławek
Died	August 8, 1947 (aged 74) Ann Arbor, Michigan
Spouse(s)	Xenia Vasilievna Chizh
Children	Marina Denikina

Anton Ivanovich Denikin (Анто́н Ива́нович Дени́кин; December 16, 1872 – August 8, 1947) was Lieutenant General of the Imperial Russian Army (1916) and one of the foremost generals of the White Russians in the civil war.

Contents 1 Childhood 2 World War I 3 Civil War 4 Exile 5 References 5.1 Denikin's works 5.2 External links

Childhood

Denikin was born in Szpetal Dolnyj village, now a part of the Polish city Włocławek (then part of the Russian empire). His father, Ivan Efimovich Denikin, had been born a serf in the province of Saratov. Sent as a recruit to do 25 years of military service, Ivan Denikin became an officer on the 22nd year of his army service, in 1856. He retired from the army in 1869 with the rank of a major. In 1869 Ivan Denikin married a poor Polish seamstress, Elżbieta Wrzesińska - his second wife. Anton Denikin, the couple's only child, learned to speak two languages (Russian and Polish) at the same time. His father's commitment to Russian patriotism and the Orthodox religion was crucial for Anton Denikin's decision to become a soldier.

The Denikins lived very close to poverty, the retired major's small pension being their only source of income. After his father's death in 1885, Denikin's family financial situation got even worse. Anton Denikin began tutoring younger schoolmates so that the family could earn an additional income. In 1890 Denikin began a course at the Kiev Junker School, a military college from which he graduated in 1892. Twenty-year-old Denikin joined an artillery brigade, in which he served for three years.

In 1895 he was first accepted into General Staff Academy, where he did not meet the academic requirements in the first of two years. After the disappointment, Denikin attempted to attain acceptance again. On his next attempt he did better and ended up fourteenth in his class. However, to his misfortune, the Academy decided to introduce a new system of calculating grades and as a result Denikin was not offered a staff appointment after the final exams. Denikin protested the decision to the highest authority (The Grand Duke), and after being offered a settlement which he would rescind his complaint in order to attain acceptance into General Staff school again, Denikin declined, feeling insulted at the lack of integrity presented by the offer.

Denikin first saw active service during the 1905 Russo-Japanese War. In 1905 he was promoted to the rank of colonel. In 1910 he was appointed commander of the 17th infantry regiment. A few weeks before the outbreak of the First World War, Denikin reached the rank of major-general.

World War I

By the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 Denikin was a Chief of Staff of the Kiev military district with the rank of Major-General. He was initially appointed Quartermaster of General Brusilov's 8th Army. Not one for staff service, Denikin petitioned for an appointment to a fighting front. He was transferred to the 4th Rifle brigade. His brigade was transformed into a division in 1915. It was with this brigade Denikin would accomplish his greatest feats as a General.

In 1916 he was appointed to command the VIII Corps and lead troops in Romania during the last successful Russian campaign of the war, the Brusilov Offensive. Following the February Revolution and the overthrow of the Czar he became Chief of Staff to Mikhail Alekseev, then Aleksei Brusilov, and finally Lavr Georgevich Kornilov. Denikin supported the attempted coup of his commander, the Kornilov Affair, in September 1917 and was arrested and imprisoned with him. After this Alekseev would be reappointed commander-in-Chief.

Civil War

Following the October Revolution both Denikin and Kornilov escaped to Novocherkassk in southern Russia and, with other Tsarist officers, formed the Volunteer Army, initially commanded by Alekseev. Kornilov was killed in April 1918 near Ekaterinodar and the Volunteer Army came under Denikin's command. There was some sentiment to place Grand Duke Nicholas in overall command, but Denikin was not interested in sharing power. In the face of a Communist counter-offensive he withdrew his forces back towards the Don area in what was known as the Ice March. Denikin led one final assault of the southern White forces in their final push to capture Moscow in the summer of 1919. For a time, it appeared that the White Army would succeed in its drive; Leon Trotsky, as commander of Red Army forces hastily concluded an agreement with Nestor Makhno's anarchist Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine or 'Black Army' for mutual support. Makhno duly turned his Black Army east and led his troops against Denikin's extended lines of supply, forcing him to retreat. Denikin's army was decisively defeated at Orel in October 1919, some 400 km south of Moscow. The White forces in southern Russia would be in constant retreat thereafter, eventually reaching the Crimea in March 1920. The Soviet communist government immediately tore up its agreement with Makhno and attacked his anarchist forces. After a seesaw series of battles in which one side or the other gained a victory, Trotsky's Red Army troops, more numerous and better equipped, defeated and dispersed Makhno's Black Army.

In the occupied territories, Denikin's regime carried out mass executions and plunder. The press of the Denikin regime regularly incited violence against Jews. For example, a proclamation by one of Denikin's generals incited people to "arm themselves" in order to extirpate "the evil force which lives in the hearts of Jew-communists." In the small town of Fastov alone, Denikin's Volunteer Army murdered over 1500 Jews, mostly elderly, women, and children. An estimated 100,000 Jews were killed in pogroms perpetrated by Denikin's forces and other anti-soviet armies. ^[1]

Under Denikin's regime, former landowners seized peasants' property and labor groups were persecuted, provoking mass resistance. The partisan movement in the Northern Caucasus diverted a considerable portion of Denikin’s forces and helped the Red Army foil the offensive against Astrakhan. In the Novorossisk region, a 15,000-man Red and Green army fought successful battles against the White Guards. Partisans liberated a number of cities such as Poltava and Kremenchug.

General Anton Denikin's Volunteer Army and regional Armed forces after Armistice of Mudros

Facing increasingly sharp criticism and emotionally exhausted, Denikin resigned in April, 1920 in favor of General Baron Pyotr Wrangel. Denikin left the Crimea by ship to Constantinople and then to London. He spent a few months in England, then moved to Belgium, and later to Hungary.

Exile

From 1926 Denikin lived in France. Although he continued to remain bitterly opposed to Russia's Communist government, he chose to remain discreetly on the periphery of exile politics, spending most of his time writing and lecturing. However, this did not prevent the Soviets from unsuccessfully targeting him for abduction in the same effort that snared exile General Alexander P. Kutepov in 1930 and later General Evgenii K. Miller in 1937. White Against Red - The Life of General Anton Denikin gives possibly the definitive account of the intrigues during these early Soviet "wet-ops."

Denikin was a talented writer, and even before World War I had written several pieces in which he analytically criticized the shortcomings of his beloved Russian Army. His voluminous writings after the Russian Civil War (written while living in exile) are remarkable for their analytical tone and candor and are a "must read" to anyone interested in the Russian Civil War. Since he enjoyed writing and most of his income was derived from it, Denikin started to consider himself a writer and developed close friendships with several Russian émigré authors--among them Ivan Bunin (a Nobel Laurate), Ivan Shmelev, and Aleksandr Kuprin.

Although respected by most of the community of Russian exiles, Denikin was disliked by émigrés of both political extremes, the right and the left.

With the fall of France in 1940, Denikin left Paris in order to avoid imprisonment by the Germans. Although he was eventually captured, he declined all attempts to co-opt him for use in Nazi anti-Soviet propaganda. The Germans did not press the matter and Denikin was allowed to remain in rural exile. Although not formally part of the resistance, his activities would certainly have been sufficient to cause his arrest had they been fully known to the Nazi authorities.^{[citation needed]} Diary entries kept by his wife during this period also make it clear that he was appalled by Nazi anti-Semitism,^{[citation needed]} a fact that may shed light on his actual attitude towards the pogroms of the Russian Civil War.

At the conclusion of the war, correctly anticipating their likely fate at the hands of Stalin's Soviet Union, Denikin attempted to persuade the Western Allies not to forcibly repatriate Soviet POWs. He was largely unsuccessful in his effort.

From 1945 until his death in 1947, Denikin lived in the United States, in New York City. On August 8, 1947, at the age of 74, Denikin died while vacationing near Ann Arbor, Michigan.

General Denikin was buried with military honors in Detroit. His remains were later transferred to St. Vladimir's Cemetery in Jackson, New Jersey. His wife, Xenia Vasilievna Chizh, was buried at Saint Genevieve de Bois cemetery near Paris.

His daughter Marina Denikina applied for and was granted Russian citizenship in 2005. On October 3, 2005, in accordance with the wishes of his daughter and by authority of President Vladimir Putin of Russia, the remains of General Denikin were transferred from the United States and buried at the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow. Marina Denikina died November 17, 2005, at her home in Versailles, near Paris.

References

1. ^ Arno Mayer, The Furies

1. Anton Ivanovich Denikin. Biographies. Answers Corporation, 2006. Answers.com 1 May. 2007. http://www.answers.com/topic/anton-ivanovich-denikin
2. The standard reference is Dimitry V. Lehovich, White Against Red - the Life of General Anton Denikin, New York, W.W. Norton, 1974. This book is also available in Russian in two versions: then abridged text is Belye Protiv Krasnykh, Moscow, Voskresenie publishers, 1992. The second, unabridged, is Denikin - Zhizn' Russkogo Ofitsera, Moscow, Evrasia publishers, 2004.
3. Grey M. Bourdier J. Les Armes blanches. Paris, 1968
4. Grey M. La campagne de glace. Paris. 1978
5. Grey M. Mon père le géneral Denikine. Paris, 1985
6. Kenez P. Civil War in South Russia. 1917-1920. The defeat of the Whites. Berkeley, 1972
7. Kenez Peter Civil War in South Russia. 1918. The first Year of the Voluntary Army. Berkeley,Los Angeles, 1971
8. Luckett R. The White Generals: An Account of the White Movement in the South Russia. L., 1971
9. Additional reference: Ukraine: a History by Orest Subtelny
10. (Russian) Ипполитов Г. М. Деникин — М.: Молодая гвардия, 2006 (серия ЖЗЛ) ISBN 5-235-02885-6
11. Denikin, Anton I. The Career of a Tsarist Officer: Memoirs, 1872-1916. Trans. Margaret Patoski. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota P, 1975.

Denikin's works

Denikin wrote several books, including:

• Russian Turmoil. Memoirs: Military, Social & Political. Hutchinson. London. 1922.
  • Republished: Hyperion Press. 1973. ISBN 9780883551004
• The White Army. Translated by Catherine Zvegintsov. Jonathan Cape, 1930.
  • Republished: Hyperion Press. 1973. ISBN 9780883551011.
  • Republished: Ian Faulkner Publishing. Cambridge. 1992. ISBN 9781857630107.
• The Career of a Tsarist Officer: Memoirs, 1872-1916. Translated by Margaret Patoski. University of Minnesota Press. 1975.

External links

• Pogroms in Southern Russia; Massacres of Jews in Several Towns Follow Retreat of Denikin's Army; New York Times (February 26, 1920)
• Berkman, Alexander; "FASTOV THE POGROMED" from The Bolshevik Myth, New York: Boni and Liveright, 1925

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