Ice March

On February 9 (22), 1918, the famous “Ice March” (1st Kuban) began from Rostov-on-Don to Ekaterinodar with brutal continuous battles.

From that day on, the epic of the White struggle, the struggle for national Russia, began, full of sacrifices and valor.

On the night of February 22-23, a handful of officers, military students and volunteers set out from Rostov-on-Don across the steppes - the future Volunteer White Army, the last warriors of the Empire who remained faithful to their oath and duty.

36 generals, 2103 officers and 1067 privates (including 467 cadets and senior cadets), 24 doctors and 122 nurses, a convoy with the wounded, sick and refugees. They went into the unknown, meeting people halfway and leaving behind them enemies and the indifferent. They had almost no ammunition, shells, medicine, or food. Generals and colonels with rifles on their shoulders walked next to officers, soldiers, boys, cadets and students.

“We are leaving for the steppes. We can return if only there is God's grace. But we need to light a torch so that there is at least one point of light among the darkness that has engulfed Russia...” General Alekseev wrote on that day.

They did not yet know that they were not alone, that in the Kuban and Don steppes the Cossacks were rising up against the Reds, that Dutov’s Cossacks were already fighting near Orenburg, and Semenov’s Cossacks were already fighting in Dauria. They did not go to take revenge or reclaim mythical estates and factories; they did not know then that their little light would turn into a powerful White movement that would reach Kursk, Petrograd, Kazan. They went to battle, to death, to live and die as the honor of an officer, the honor of a soldier, the honor of a Russian man, who became a warrior in the darkest and most troubled time for the Motherland, told them.

The Last Knights of Russia. The first fascists of Europe.

The mortal danger of Bolshevism was understood by them, or rather, felt in those days, not by professional politicians, not by scientists, not by thinkers, but by the simplest, ordinary, overwhelmingly very young Russian people who, under the leadership of their superiors, men of honor and duty, committed that unique, truly legendary campaign in Russian history, about which, of course, one day a real assessment will be given, in a true historical perspective.

As everyone knows, what these people accomplished was not at all a chain of some victorious marches, brilliant victories and triumphs. On the contrary, it was a deeply heroic way of the cross, full of grave suffering and torment, performed unselfishly, only for the sake of an idea, by those few who were guided by love for Russia and the consciousness of Russian honor.

Surrounded on all sides by a ruthless enemy, constantly under the threat of complete destruction, the first volunteers, in essence, did not achieve any strategic or other external successes. The significance of the first campaign is not military, not political, but purely spiritual. Ivan Sergeevich Shmelev wrote about the significance of the feat of the first volunteers: “This feat is related to the most wonderful moments of the human world, when phenomena of two orders were weighed on the scales of Conscience and Love: perishable and incorruptible, slavery and freedom, dishonor and honor. This feat is a manifestation of the great Russian citizenship: in this feat there was no difference of class, no age, no gender - everything was equal, one, everything was - the common sacrifice of life lasts forever, like the immortal soul in people.

General Krasnov in the novel “From the Double-Headed Eagle to the Red Banner” described the first volunteers as follows: “The campaign of the Volunteer Army to Ekaterinodar, in terms of the number of feats accomplished and suffering endured, has no equal in the entire military history. And primarily because the Volunteer Army was not an army .

Every army is always organized and organized according to certain principles of military science. It has a special ratio of the number of soldiers to the number of officers, it has cavalry - as its eyes and ears, as a force of moral influence, as a weapon for pursuing and destroying the enemy, it has infantry, there are different types of artillery, communications equipment, technical troops, pontoons, airplanes, etc. After the great war, not a single self-respecting general, much less a general of the General Staff, would allow himself to go on a campaign without everything that is needed for the army, without providing himself with shells and cartridges, without setting up a base behind with warehouses, shops, factories and factories, without setting up infirmaries, hospitals, flights, dressing stations and without supplying them with medical personnel, dressings, individual packages and surgical instruments.

During the campaign against Kuban, the Volunteer Army consisted almost exclusively of officers. In its ranks of soldiers there were colonels and captains who commanded battalions and regiments in the great war. In addition to the officers, the soldiers in it were young cadets and boy cadets, and only occasionally there were old soldiers who remained loyal to Russia. This made army strong in battles. No other unit could advance like this, could not solve the most complex tactical problems so brilliantly, so boldly make unstoppable frontal attacks and so mathematically accurately, by the clock, carry out the most difficult detours. It consisted of military professionals, moreover, more than half of these professionals completed a three-year practical course in the war. In this respect, it was similar to the regiments of old times, when soldiering was a craft and when the soldier fought all his life. The volunteers of this era in terms of combat were likened to the heroes of Frederick the Great, Suvorov's miracle heroes, Napoleonic old guard..."

The Whites, at the most difficult moment in Russian history, saved the honor of Russia and proved that under any circumstances the will of the Russian people is enough to resist any evil. The only slogan and the only volunteer program was the word “RUSSIA”. In this concept, for whites, freedom, honor, faith, and homeland merged. For this, they without hesitation walked under the fire of the Red machine guns, marching with their heads held high, not hiding from the bullets, laughing in the face of death.

From the Ice Campaign, despite the high mortality rate, an armed force of five thousand, hardened in heavy battles, returned. Subsequently, pioneer officers became the backbone of other white armies. Many books have been written about the Ice March; the title of “pioneer ” has become one of the most honorable in emigration. Because they were the first to start the White struggle.

Eternal glory and eternal memory to the warriors of the Ice March! Glory to the heroes!

Based on materials from an article in the publication "Bulletin of the Pioneer" (1962), as well as an article in the publication "White Warriors" (2007).