Editing Russian Civil War (section)

===Ukraine, South Russia, and Caucasus (1918)===
{{Main|Ukrainian People's Republic|Kiev Arsenal January Uprising|Ice March|26 Baku Commissars|German Caucasus Expedition|Battle of Baku|Central Caspian Dictatorship|Romanian military intervention in Bessarabia}}
[[File:Dismembered Russia — Some Fragments (NYT article, Feb. 17, 1918).png|thumb|February 1918 article from ''[[The New York Times]]'' showing a map of the Russian Imperial territories claimed by the [[Ukrainian People's Republic]] at the time, before the annexation of the Austro-Hungarian lands of the [[West Ukrainian People's Republic]]]]

In Ukraine, the German-Austrian Operation Faustschlag had by April 1918 removed the Bolsheviks from Ukraine.<ref name="30076britbrit">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Ukraine – World War I and the struggle for independence |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-30076/Ukraine |access-date=2008-01-30 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080615144832/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-30076/Ukraine |archive-date=15 June 2008}}</ref><ref name="UkrainianWeek16042018UwIbbb">{{Citation |last=Tynchenko |first=Yaros |title=The Ukrainian Navy and the Crimean Issue in 1917–18 |date=23 March 2018 |work=[[The Ukrainian Week]] |url=http://ukrainianweek.com/History/105648 |access-date=14 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191111180649/https://ukrainianweek.com/History/105648 |archive-date=11 November 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="retrospective2014031918b">[https://iht-retrospective.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/29/1918-germany-takes-control-of-crimea/ Germany Takes Control of Crimea] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190930205920/https://iht-retrospective.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/29/1918-germany-takes-control-of-crimea |date=30 September 2019}}, [[New York Herald]] (18 May 1918)</ref><ref name="harvard11181181bbb">[https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/11181181 War Without Fronts: Atamans and Commissars in Ukraine, 1917–1919] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403174842/https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/11181181|date=3 April 2019}} by Mikhail Akulov, [[Harvard University]], August 2013 (page 102 and 103)</ref> The German and Austro-Hungarian victories in Ukraine were caused by the apathy of the locals and the inferior fighting skills of Bolsheviks troops to their Austro-Hungarian and German counterparts.<ref name="harvard11181181bbb" />

Under Soviet pressure, the Volunteer Army embarked on the epic Ice March from [[Krasnodar|Yekaterinodar]] to [[Kuban]] on 22 February 1918, where they joined with the Kuban Cossacks to mount an abortive assault on Yekaterinodar.{{Sfn|Mawdsley|2007|p=29}} The Soviets recaptured Rostov on the next day.{{Sfn|Mawdsley|2007|p=29}} Kornilov was killed in the fighting on 13 April, and Denikin took over command. Fighting off its pursuers without respite, the army succeeded in breaking its way through back towards the Don by May, where the Cossack uprising against the Bolsheviks had started.{{Sfn|Kenez|2004a|pp=115–118}}

The Baku Soviet Commune was established on 13 April. Germany landed its Caucasus Expedition troops in [[Poti]] on 8 June. The Ottoman [[Army of Islam (Ottoman Empire)|Army of Islam]] (in coalition with [[Azerbaijan Democratic Republic|Azerbaijan]]) drove them out of Baku on 26 July 1918. Subsequently, the [[Armenian Revolutionary Federation|Dashanaks]], Right SRs and [[Menshevik]]s started negotiations with Gen. [[Lionel Dunsterville|Dunsterville]], the commander of the British troops in [[Persia]]. The Bolsheviks and their [[Left SR]] allies were opposed to it, but on 25 July the majority of the Soviets voted to call in the British and the Bolsheviks resigned. The Baku Soviet Commune ended its existence and was replaced by the Central Caspian Dictatorship.

In June 1918 the Volunteer Army, numbering some 9,000 men, started its [[Second Kuban campaign]], capturing Yekaterinodar on 16 August, followed by [[Armavir, Russia|Armavir]] and [[Stavropol]]. By early 1919, they controlled the [[Northern Caucasus]].{{Sfn|Kenez|2004a|pp=166–174, 182, 189–190}}

On 8 October, Alekseev died. On 8 January 1919, Denikin became the Supreme Commander of the [[Armed Forces of South Russia]], uniting the Volunteer Army with [[Pyotr Krasnov]]'s [[Don Army]]. [[Pyotr Wrangel]] became Denikin's Chief of Staff.{{Sfn|Kenez|2004a|pp=195, 204, 267–270}}

In December, three-fourths of the army was in the Northern Caucasus. That included three thousand of [[Vladimir Liakhov]]'s soldiers around [[Vladikavkaz]], thirteen thousand soldiers under Wrangel and Kazanovich in the center of the front, Stankevich's almost three thousand men with the Don Cossacks, while [[Vladimir May-Mayevsky]]'s three thousand were sent to the [[Donets basin]], and de Bode commanded two thousand in Crimea.{{Sfn|Kenez|2004b|pp=28–29}}