Great Siberian Ice March

This article is about the White Army's retreat across Lake Baikal. For the 1918 retreat towards the Kuban, see Ice March.

Great Siberian Ice March
Part of Russian Civil War
Retreat of the White Army (Nov. 1919 - March 1920).
Date 14 November 1919 - March 1920 Location East Central Siberia Result Red Army victory. Retreat of the White Army to Chita with heavy losses. Failure of the Red Army to encircle General Kappel’s Army.
Belligerents
Red Army	Siberian Army
Commanders and leaders
Sergey Kamenev Vladimir Olderogge Genrich Eiche	Alexander Kolchak  Vladimir Kappel † Sergei Wojciechowski

The Great Siberian Ice march (Russian: Великий Сибирский Ледяной поход, Velikiy Sibirskiy Ledyanoy pokhod) was the name given to the 2000-kilometer winter retreat of Admiral Kolchak's Siberian Army from Omsk to Chita, in the course of the Russian Civil War between 14 November 1919 and March 1920.

General Vladimir Kappel, who was appointed to this position in mid-December 1919, led the retreat. After his death from pneumonia on 26 January 1920, General Sergei Wojciechowski took command of the troops. Admiral Kolchak traveled by train to Irkutsk but was halted by Czechoslovak troops in December and handed over to Left SR troops in Irkutsk on 14 January, which executed him on 7 February 1920.

Order of the Great Siberian Ice March

Prelude

In the summer of 1919, the Red Army had gained a great victory against Kolchak's Army. The White forces re-established a line along the Tobol and the Ishim rivers to temporarily halt the Red Army, which was faced by an Advance on Moscow from the South by Anton Denikin's White Army. by the autumn, Denikin had been defeated and the Red Army was able to direct reinforcements to the Eastern Front. The Reds broke through on the Tobol River in mid-October and by November the White forces were falling back towards Omsk in a disorganised mass.

the retreat from Omsk to the Baikal Lake

The retreat began after the heavy defeats of the White Army in the Omsk operation and in the Novonikolayev operation in November-December 1919. The army, led by General Kappel, retreated along the Trans-Siberian Railway, using the available trains to transport the wounded. they were followed on their heels by the 5th Red Army under the command of Genrich Eiche.

The White retreat was complicated by numerous insurgencies in the cities where they had to pass and attacks by partisan detachments, and was further aggravated by the fierce Siberian frost. After the series of defeats, the White troops were in a demoralized state, centralized supply was paralyzed, replenishment not received, and the discipline dropped dramatically.

In these circumstances, the appointment as commander of the Army of General Kappel, who enjoyed unlimited trust and prestige amongst Kolchak's troops, was the first step towards an attempt to avoid the disintegration of the entire Kolchak army. Only the 2nd Army came under his command, as communication with the 1st and 3rd armies had been lost. Control of the railway was in the hands of the Czechoslovak Corps, as a result of which parts of General Kappel's Army were deprived of the opportunity to use the railway.

The March accross the Baikal Lake

After Admiral Kolchak's White Russian Army retreated from Tomsk and Omsk and fled eastward along the Trans-Siberian Railway, they came to a halt on the shore of Lake Baikal near Irkutsk. With the Red Army in hot pursuit, the White Army under command of Vladimir Kappel (the Kappelevtsy), had to escape southward to China across the frozen Lake Baikal in sub-zero temperatures. About 30,000 White Army soldiers, their families and all their possessions as well as the Tsar's gold, made their way across the lake to Transbaikalia.

The bloodiest campaign battles occurred at the villages of Yakovlevka, Birulka, and Gruznovskaya, as well as the city of Barguzin.

As the Arctic winds blew unobstructed across the lake, many in the army and their families froze to death. Their bodies remained frozen on the lake in a kind of tableau throughout the winter of 1919–20. With the advent of spring, the frozen corpses and all their possessions disappeared in 5,000 feet of water. Kappel himself was struck by frostbite and pneumonia while leading his survivors along a frozen river in temperatures of -40 °C; he died on 26 January.