Chapter 5 - Restore, ransack or reform? June - July 1919
By the end of June 1919, the White leadership faced three increasingly urgent questions:*
1. How would it treat the population in its greatly increased territory?
2. How would it deal with the nations that had recently declared their secession from the Russian Empire?
3. Should the offensive north be continued?
All these questions were inseparably connected. Soon three different positions emerged, each led by influential military commanders.
Denikin had the majority of the old elite behind him when he proclaimed that three simple principles should guide the Volunteers: autocracy, orthodoxy and nationalism. In other words the goal was to restore the old order and privileges. He refused adamantly to consider reforms at this stage. First the war had to be won, politics should be left for later. Surely the population would willingly contribute to Russia's salvation from the Bolsheviks. If it refused, it should be forced for its own good.
Even the thought of recognizing newly created nations like Poland, Finland or the Baltic states revulsed these Russian nationalists. Separatist movements couldn't be tolerated, the rodina had to be preserved in all its greatness.
Concerning the third question however, Denikin had far fewer supporters for his position: while he wanted to push onwards and conquer Moscow before the winter. Many generals realized that this would overextend the Volunteer Army.
Shkuro**, the conqueror of Belograd and Kursk, became the voice of the Cossacks when he demanded special rights for Cossacks and a degree of autonomy that amounted to de facto independance. For the Russian population in the newly acquired territory he had little regard. He demanded his Cossack troopers should be allowed to plunder at will. This - so Shkuro - would sway more cossacks to volunteer for the fight against bolshevism.
The next military objective was of little importance to Shkuro as long as it brought the opportunity for plunder. Only standstill was inacceptable to the Cossack faction.
Wrangel led a small group of officers and politicans that proposed a radically different course of action:*** Bolshevism could only be defeated if the Russian people believed White rule would lead into a better future than the current Bolshevik terror. Their only chance to foster support was to promise a better life to all Russians, not just their own class. However the White leaders were all people of the past, peasants and workers would need proof before they started to believe in these promises. Therefore, Wrangel demanded immediate social and agrarian reforms. Plundering on the other hand should be strictly prohibited and mercilessly sanctioned. Instead the population in newly conquered territories would enjoy months of reforms. Only once their trust and loyalty were gained would the Volunteers ask for contributions to the war effort.
Such a program needed time however. Short term, the White forces would fall behind an aggressively recruiting Red Army. But in the long run the Volunteers would make up for it. As a consquence, the Southern Whites would have to abandon the offensive against Moscow and rather consolidate their territory.
Concerning the newly independant nations, Wrangel's stand-point was of exquisite cynism: "Let them fight against the Communists! Every Bolshevik killed by a Pole, Balt or Finn is a Bolshevik we don't have to kill ourselves." Once Communism was vanquished, restoration of the Russian Empire would be all the easier since the seperatist people would be weakened from their fight against the Reds.
Only
Mai-Maeivski didn't contribute to the discussion. While his peers decided upon the future of Russia, this talented general left for an urgent inspection tour of the bordellos in Kursk province.
Initially it seemed as if Denikin would determine White strategy once more but on the 27th June of 1919 news arrived that Voroshilov had occupied Donetsk and was now advancing on Rostov. With a Red army on their doorstep, any further offensive against Moscow was out of the question. Even help from the newly independant nations suddenly didn't seem as reprehensible as before. Once Wrangel's opinions had gained momentum he managed to sway the discussion entirely in his favour. Within the next week a series of agrarian and labour reforms was implemented that were copied directly from the political program of the social-revolutionaries.
But Denikin wouldn't give up completely. While he swallowed the need for social reforms to better the life of the common Russian, diminishing Russia's territorial greatness was out of the question. Strengthened by his victory over Voroshilov, he slowly but surely managed to turn opinion against any cooperation with Russia's new neighbours. Future Southern White policies were thus a compromise between reformers and Russian nationalists.
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* Obviously this is a fictional AAR. Compared to history, the positions represented here are over-simplified, sometimes even distorted. Still there are some grains of truth to be found.
** Historically Shkuro was only a corps commander, certainly not the voice of the Cossacks. But in this game, no other cossack general will be more frequently in the midst of important battles.
By the way, this man really should have the
Cossack Commander special ability, not only was he a Cossack but he almost exclusively commanded Cossacks during his military career in the Tzarist as well as the Southern White army.
*** In reality, these reforms were only instigated when it was already far too late. But Wrangel seems to have opposed at least some of the fatal mistakes the Volunteers made.
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Translation into game terms:
The Southern White command very little loyalty at the beginning of this scenario. They control only two provinces where requsition/conscription can be used safely: Terek and the Kuban. In other parts of the supposed White heartland loyalties are abysmally low. On the Krim only 24% of the population is pro-White, on the Kherson the value is as low as 3%.
A similar situation presented itself in the territory the White conquered in the first two months of this game. Usually pro-White loyalists made up for less than 5% of the population. Without at least two rounds of reforms neither requisition nor conscription is possible under these circumstances.
RUS' economic part is thus quite realistic; it forces players to adopt the kind of policies that might have saved the Southern White.
My rule for this game was simple: I wouldn't risk any Green uprisings. Almost everywhere, I have managed to raise loyalties above 60% and keep them at that level. Only once this threshold was reached would I use requisitions/conscriptions in a province. It took some time, but eventually, the Southern White army became quite big in this game.
Initially, my strategy was to expand the Southern White territory in one swift land-grab (see
Chapter 1). In a second stage I would then shift to defense. This left the Reds with two possible choices: wait or counter-attack. In the latter case, the Red Army would be bled in defensive battles. In the former, Polish intervention could be triggered. If only few battles occurred my NM would be slowly but steadily decrease due to the amount of reforms I was running (usually as much as six at a time). If Southern White NM falls under 90, the possibility of Polish intervention opens up in 1920. It would have been quite elegant. While gaining time to build up my army, I could have tricked the game into spawning the massive Polish Army and then gone onto the offensive with superior forces in 1920.
But Highlandcharge is a very patient player, not easily spurred into offensive actions. Thus a waiting game ensued. Eventually, Southern White NM sunk below the magic threshold of 90 points. But finally the waiting got too broing for me. Moreover a very sweet opportunity presented itself ...
Concerning the other possible foreign interventions, I proposed a house rule later in the game: I passed voluntarily on using the options that trigger interventions from Finland, the Baltic states and Caucasian nations.