A Civil War Episode: General Mamontov in Tambov, August 1919

Abstract

“Up until the 14th of August 1919, despite the number of military fronts connected with the civil war, for us in Kozlov, everything was more or less calm, at least, as calm as it gets behind the front lines.” These words introduce a brief set of reminiscences, published in the local Communist Party newspaper, Our Truth (Nasha Pravda), in the town of Kozlov, located in the central Russian province of Tambov. The occasion was the tenth anniversary of one of the most brutal episodes of the Russian civil war to take place in the province, namely “Mamantov’s Raid,” in which a force of Don Cossack cavalry, active in the anti-Bolshevik struggle in the south of Russia, advanced deep into Soviet territory, disrupting vital Red Army supply and communications links with the front line.