The Iași–Don March, also known in Russia as Drozdovsky's March or the Romanian March, was a march of a Russian Volunteer detachment, led by Staff Colonel

Mikhail Drozdovsky Mikhail Gordeevich Drozdovsky (; ; October 7, 1881 – January 1, 1919) was a Russian army general and one of the military leaders of the anti-Bolshevik White movement during the Russian Civil War. In early 1918 he led a regiment of volunteers ...

during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

. The detachment marched from

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the Cities in Romania, third largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical ...

on the Romanian front to the Don, to join the White Russian

Volunteer Army The Volunteer Army (; ), abbreviated to (), also known as the Southern White Army was a White Army active in South Russia during the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1920. The Volunteer Army fought against Bolsheviks and the Makhnovists on the ...

of General

Lavr Kornilov Lavr Georgiyevich Kornilov (, ; – 13 April 1918) was a Russian military intelligence officer, explorer, and general in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I. He served as Supreme Commander of the Russian Army and as the military leade ...

and fight the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

enemy together. It took place between February 26 (New Style March 11) and April 24 (New Style May 7), 1918. This March, as well as the First Kuban Campaign, was a milestone in the formation of the White movement in Southern Russia.

The March

Colonel Drozdovsky, a staunch monarchist, had gathered around him in Iași after the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

a detachment of between 800 and 1500 men, most of whom were young officers. Cut off from the rest of Russia after the signing of the

Brest-Litovsk Treaty The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria), by which Russia withdrew from World War I. The treaty, whi ...

, the formation of an independent

Ukrainian People's Republic The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) was a short-lived state in Eastern Europe. Prior to its proclamation, the Central Council of Ukraine was elected in March 1917 Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, as a result of the February Revolution, ...

and the destruction of the

Odesa Soviet Republic The Odessa Soviet Republic (OSR; ; ) was a short-lived Soviet republic formed on from parts of the Kherson and Bessarabia Governorates of the former Russian Empire. Brief description The republic was proclaimed during the Bolshevik invasio ...

by the advancing Germans, he decided to march to

Novocherkassk Novocherkassk () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located near the confluence of the Tuzlov and Aksay Rivers, the latter a distributary of the Don (river), Don River. Novocherkassk is best known as the ...

on the Don to join the White Russian

. According to

Peter Kenez Peter Kenez (; born 1937) is a Jewish Hungarian-American historian specializing in Russian and Eastern European history and politics. Life Kenez was born and grew up in Pesterzsébet, Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary. His father was arrested in Ma ...

, "Drozdovskii and his men challenged the Romanians to disarm them. The Romanian parliament was in session and Drozdovskii aimed his cannons at the parliament building; he threatened to fire at the first hostile action. It was not necessary. Under pressure, the Romanians even gave trains to transport the troublesome army to Kishinev in order to get rid of them as soon as possible. The small army moved quickly through the Ukraine; at time the soldiers covered 40 to 45 miles a day. The German advance and Drozdovskii's march coincided. In fact, for all practical purposes the Germans and Drozdovskii collaborated." On 4 May, Drozdovsky's force arrived at

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

, and on 6 May helped capture

from the Bolsheviks. The detachment consisted of a skirmisher regiment, a cavalry division (commanded by Chief of Staff Colonel Voïnalovitch), a mounted mountain battery, a light battery, a mortar company, a technical unit, a hospital and the train. This detachment, reinforced along the way by other small groups including Colonel Jebrak, marched 1,200 kilometers from March to May 1918 from Iași to Novocherkassk. The detachment suffered some 100 casualties, including Colonel Voïnalovitch. Leaving Rostov, Drozdovsky's men helped the Don Cossacks, in rebellion against Bolshevik power, to retake Novocherkassk. On the evening of May 7, 1918, the "Drozdovsky" detachment arrived in Novocherkassk under the acclamation of the inhabitants, bringing an end to the "Romanian march".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iasi-Don March History of Iași Military operations of the Russian Civil War in 1918 1918 in Romania 1918 in Russia Romanian involvement in the Russian Civil War Battles involving the Volunteer Army