Volunteer Army in the context of "General Staff Academy (Russian Empire)"

Baron Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel (Russian: Пётр Николаевич Врангель [ˈpʲɵtr nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ ˈvranɡʲɪlʲ]; August 27 [O.S. August 15] 1878 – 25 April 1928) was a Russian military officer of Baltic German descent. A veteran of the Russo-Japanese War and World War I, he rose to become a commanding general in the anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army during the Russian Civil War. In 1920, he became the last commander-in-chief of the White forces in Southern Russia, which he reorganized as the Russian Army.

After graduating as a mining engineer, Wrangel volunteered for service in the Russo-Japanese War, where he decided on a military career. A graduate of the Imperial General Staff Academy, he distinguished himself during World War I, becoming one of the first Russian officers to be awarded the Order of St. George for heroism. He rose to the rank of major general.

The Ukrainian War of Independence, also referred to as the Ukrainian–Soviet War in Ukraine, lasted from March 1917 to November 1921 and was part of the wider Russian Civil War. It saw the establishment and development of an independent Ukrainian republic, most of which was absorbed into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic between 1919 and 1920. The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union between 1922 and 1991.

The war was fought between different governmental, political and military forces. Belligerents included Ukrainian nationalists, Ukrainian anarchists, the forces of Germany and Austria-Hungary, the White Russian Volunteer Army, and Second Polish Republic forces. They struggled for control of Ukraine after the February Revolution of 1917.

The Battle of Tsaritsyn was a military confrontation between the Red Army and the White Army during the Russian Civil War for control of Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd), a significant city and port on the Volga River in southwestern Russia.

The city, which had been an important center of support for the October Revolution and remained in the hands of the Reds, was besieged three times by anti-Bolshevik Don Cossacks under the command of Pyotr Krasnov: July–September 1918, September–October 1918, and January–February 1919. Another attempt to conquer Tsaritsyn was made in May–June 1919 by the Volunteer Army, which successfully captured the city. In turn, between August 1919 and January 1920, the Whites defended the city against the Bolsheviks. Tsaritsyn was finally conquered by the Reds in early 1920.

The Soviet invasion of Ukraine was a major offensive by the Ukrainian Front of the Red Army against the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) during the Soviet–Ukrainian War. The invasion was first planned in November 1918, after the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic annulled the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and was launched in the first days of January 1919, with the occupation of Kharkiv. Its aim was to join Ukraine to the RSFSR, as the country was of significant economic, demographic and strategic importance for the Bolsheviks. In the longer term, the capture of the Black Sea coast was to prevent an intervention by the Allies in support of the Volunteer Army. Finally, the Bolsheviks intended to extend the area they control as far as possible to the west, in order to be able to support the other revolutionary movements in Europe.

In the first days of January 1919, by joining forces with local workers' units, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Soviet Division [uk] took Kharkiv, which was announced as the seat of the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of Ukraine. Then they quickly captured most of northern and eastern Ukraine, and on 5 February 1919, they occupied Kyiv. The Directorate of Ukraine moved to Vinnytsia, then to Kamianets-Podilskyi. By spring, the Red Army had reached the Zbruch and repelled a counteroffensive by the Ukrainian People's Army (UPA) that threatened Kyiv.

The Battle of Peregonovka (Russian: Битва под Перегоновкой) or Battle of Perehonivka (Ukrainian: Битва під Перегонівкою) was a September 1919 military conflict in which the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine defeated the Volunteer Army. After retreating west across Ukraine for four months and 600 kilometers, the Insurgent Army turned east and surprised the Volunteer Army. The Insurgent Army reclaimed its capital of Huliaipole within ten days.

The Kiev pogroms of 1919 refers to a series of anti-Jewish pogroms in various places in and around Kiev carried out by White Volunteer Army troops and some other anti-Bolshevik forces during the Russian Civil War.