You will never be alive again, never rise from the snow.

28 bayonet, five fire wounds, a bitter new garment, I sewed for my friend. It does love, does love blood, the Russian earth.

This is from Anna Akhmatova.

Welcome to Russian history retold.

Episode 187, the Russian Civil War. The end.

Last time we covered the White Army surge and subsequent fading from the picture.

Today we will cover the destruction of the AFSR, also known as the Armed Forces of southern Russia,

led first by Anton Dennekin, then Piotr Rangel.

We're heading back to 1920, which is the year of the last gasp of the White Army.

By this time the Red Army was so superior in numbers that whenever the White attempted in advance they were always flanked or attacked from the sides.

They had little choice to but to retreat, which they did into the Crimea.

A military man would tell you that this was a brilliant plan

as the roads into the Crimea from Ukraine and Russia

were very narrow and easily defensible.

The problem was, the White Army was running out of supplies,

fighting men and allies.

The British and the French were wary of helping as they thought that any aid would eventually be wasted and put into the hands of the Bolsheviks.

The only hope the AFSR had was another front in the war, a front that was Poland.

By this time Trotsky and Lenin thought that they had the Civil War in hand and that they only needed to keep pressing on and

they would eventually win out. They were in a mindset that since victory was in

reach, why not go for the ultimate goal, which was to spread communism throughout Europe?

Their natural target was Warsaw. From there they could head towards Berlin, which

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