White Army

The White Army, also called the White Guard or simply the Whites, was the collective name for the armed formations of the White movement and the anti-Bolshevik governments during the Russian Civil War, in which they fought the Red Army of Soviet Russia. It was never one organization. The White armies, among them the Volunteer Army, the Don Army, the People's Army formed at Samara in June 1918, the Siberian Army and the Northern and Northwestern armies, operated independently under conservative or moderate generals and political leaders with differing aims, and most did not coordinate their actions. After Alexander Kolchak was proclaimed Supreme Ruler of Russia in November 1918, commanders including Denikin, Miller and Yudenich submitted to his supreme command and the fronts operated as a single Russian Army, a name that General Wrangel's forces in Crimea inherited in 1920. They drew on volunteers, mobilization and captured Red soldiers and included infantry, cavalry, tank, air and railway units. Intelligence estimates put their strength at about 683,000 by June 1919.