The Ice March
My interest in the Russian Civil War came about when I purchased a second-hand book on the topic entitled ‘The White Generals’, which is now nearly 50 years old. The accounts of the campaigns of the various White commanders resembled a tragi-comedy, none more so than the so-called ‘Ice March’ in early 1918. But no account of the Russian Civil War would be complete without an understanding of what Imperial Russia, and specifically its Imperial Army, suffered in World War I. Huge losses, incompetent leadership and privations on the home front swept the old order away and led to violent revolution and civil war. It is a story worth telling, not least because the millions of Russians who died in World War I and the civil war deserve to be remembered.
Set against the backdrop of World War I and the Russian Revolution, ‘The Ice March’ is the story of Mikhail Petrov, an impoverished peasant who is drafted into the Russian Imperial Army in 1914. He is soon caught up in tumultuous events as the Imperial Army suffers defeats, retreats and huge losses on the Eastern Front.
But Mikhail’s star rises as Russia’s falls and soon his fate is entwined with that of a young, beautiful princess. In the drama of the Russian Revolution both flee Moscow to seek sanctuary in the Cossack lands to the south. There Mikhail joins the Whites and their tiny Volunteer Army. But the Bolsheviks are determined to wipe out the ‘counter-revolutionaries’ and thousands of Red Guards are soon marching against them. The scene is set for a campaign that will determine whether Mikhail and the Whites will survive or perish on the icy steppe of the Kuban.
Maps of the Eastern Front in World War I and the Russian Civil War can be found on the maps page page of this website.
