The Caucasus Front (russian: Кавказский фронт) was a major formation of the army of the Russian Republic (the successor to the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian Ar ...

) during the First World War. It was established in April 1917 by reorganization of the Russian Caucasus Army and formally ceased to exist in March 1918.

Creation

The reorganization of the Caucasus Army into the Caucasus Front was undertaken by the Russian Provisional Government as part of the military reforms following the

February Revolution The February Revolution ( rus, Февра́льская револю́ция, r=Fevral'skaya revolyutsiya, p=fʲɪvˈralʲskəjə rʲɪvɐˈlʲutsɨjə), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and somet ...

. During its entire year of existence, the Front was in a process of disintegration as revolutionary propaganda, the weakening of military discipline, desertion, and disease sapped the Front's strength. General

Yudenich Nikolai Nikolayevich Yudenich ( – 5 October 1933) was a commander of the Russian Imperial Army during World War I. He was a leader of the anti-communist White movement in Northwestern Russia during the Civil War. Biography Early life Yuden ...

was the commander of the Front at its creation. On May 31, 1917, he was removed for refusing to obey the Provisional Government's orders to resume offensive operations against the Turks, and was replaced by General Przhevalsky.

Composition

* Caucasus Army **5th Caucasian Army Corps ***other separate formations **2nd Turkestani Army Corps ***other separate formations **1st Caucasian Army Corps ***other separate formations **6th Caucasian Army Corps ***other separate formations **4th Caucasian Army Corps ***other separate formations **2nd Caucasian Horse Corps ***other separate formations **1st Caucasian Horse Corps ***other separate formations * Additional Front components ** Trapezund Fortified District ***other separate formations ** Kars Fortress ***other separate formations ** Alexandropol Fortress ***other separate formations ** Reserve ***other separate formations

Truce and dissolution

On December 5 1917 the

Armistice of Erzincan The Armistice of Erzincan (also spelled Erzindzhan or Erzinjan) was an agreement to suspend hostilities during World War I signed by the Ottoman Empire and Transcaucasian Commissariat in Erzincan on 18 December 1917 (5 December O.S.).Tadeusz Swieto ...

was signed between the new Soviet government of Russia and the Turkish Third Army, formally ceasing fighting in the Caucasus. Nevertheless, the Turks continued some offensive operations, taking advantage of the fact that the Caucasus Front had effectively ceased to exist as a cohesive military force. Such resistance as the Turks met was offered by Armenian volunteer militia units. This was followed on March 3, 1918 by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ending all hostilities with the Turks. Since the Caucasus Front dissolved, it did not have a true successor organization. The Army of the North Caucasus, which was renamed 11th Army on October 3, 1918, constituted the main Soviet army in the area during the Russian Civil War.

Creation

Composition

Truce and dissolution

Sources

See also

See also