This Soviet propaganda film recounts the crucial events of 1919 with the White Army battling the Red Army for control of Russia.
Narrator: In the summer of 1919, the Soviet Republic was threatened by a new military power. General Denikin formed an army of 200,000 people out of officers, Cossacks, and groups of local nationalists in the south. In July 1919, in Tsaritsyn, general Denikin issued a directive ordering the forces to take over Moscow. (01.00) An offensive was launched. In October 1919, Denikin occupied Oryol, his troops were threatening Moscow. That was one of the most critical moments of the Socialist Revolution according to Lenin’s opinion. (01.46) ‘There should be no indifferent people among us! Everyone should fight Denikin!’, the Pravda newspaper appealed. Forces of the Red Army of peasants and workers left from Moscow to fight the white guards. (02.27) Denikin’s army was stopped near Oryol, parts of the Red Army launched a counter attack. The Whites left Oryol on October 20. Soon, Voronezh and Kursk were liberated from the Denikin’s army. (03.16) In December 1919, the Red Army was succeeding in battles in Ukraine and entered Kiev. In January 1920, the Donets basin was taken over. Rostov, the center of the counterrevolutionary movement, was occupied. The White army of Denikin was defeated.
Anton Ivanovich Denikin (16 December 1872 – 8 August 1947) was a Lieutenant General in the Imperial Russian Army (1916) and afterwards a leading general of the White movement in the Russian Civil War.
This film recounts how 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, but Denikin’s army would be 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.
During the Russian Civil War, an estimated 100,000 Jews perished in pogroms perpetrated by the forces of the Ukrainian People’s Republic of Symon Petlyura and also at the hands of Denikin’s Whites and other anti-Soviet armies.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
