Editing Pyotr Krasnov (section)

== Russian Civil War ==
Krasnov fled to the [[Don River, Russia|Don]] region. In May 1918, in [[Novocherkassk]], he won election as the ''Ataman'' of the [[Don Cossack Host]]. The American historian Richard Pipes described Krasnov as an "opportunist and an adventurer", primarily interested in using the Civil War to advance his own interests.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p=35}} Though the White movement was officially committed to overthrowing the Bolsheviks in order to resume the war with Germany, Krasnov entered negotiations with the Germans who were occupying Ukraine with the aim of securing their support, portraying himself as willing to serve as a pro-German warlord in the Don region, which made him the object of much distrust in the [[Allies of World War I|Allied]] governments.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p=35}} The Germans had set up the Ukrainian Zaporizhian Cossack Hetman [[Pavlo Skoropadskyi]] as the puppet [[Hetman of Ukraine|leader]] of [[Ukrainian State|Ukraine]] in April 1918, and Krasnov indicated his willingness to serve as a [[leadership|leader]] of a set-up similar to the Skoropadskyi regime.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p=35}} Through not willing to formally embrace Cossack separatism, Krasnov as the first elected ''Ataman'' of the Don Host for centuries favored more autonomy for the Don Host than the Host had enjoyed in the [[Russian Empire|Imperial]] period.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p=35}}
With support from [[German Empire|Germany]], Krasnov equipped his army, which ousted the [[Soviets]] from the Don region in May–June 1918. By the middle of June, a [[Don Army]] was in the field with 40,000 men, 56 guns and 179 machine-guns. On 11 July 1918 Krasnov wrote a letter to [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Wilhelm II]] declaring that the Cossacks had always been friends of the ''Reich'' and went on to say: <blockquote>"The glorious Don Cossacks have been engaging in fighting for their freedom for two months and the fight resulted in their complete victory. The Cossacks have fought with a courage only equaled by that displayed against the English by a people of Germanic stock, the Boers".{{sfn|Kenez|1971|p= 143}}</blockquote>Krasnov's relations with the [[Volunteer Army]] became strained on account of his pro-German views; furthermore, he was only willing to have the Don Cossacks serve with the Volunteer Army if he was made Supreme Commander-in-Chief of all the White forces, a demand that was rejected by Denikin and the other White generals.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p=35}} As the Don Cossack Host outnumbered the Volunteer Army until the summer of 1919, the Volunteer Army's commander, General [[Anton Denikin]] (in office 1918–1920), was at a disadvantage in his negotiations with Krasnov.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p= 35}} Members of the White movement generally saw Krasnov as a petty and self-interested [[warlord]], only willing to act if there was something of benefit to him on offer.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p= 35}} Throughout the Russian Civil War, the Don Cossack Host kept its own identity, with the Don Cossacks serving under their elected colonels in their own regiments, apart from the rest of the White armies.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p= 35}} Krasnov wanted Denikin to advance on and take the city of [[Tsaritsyn]] (modern Volgograd) on the [[Volga]] to end the possibility of the Soviet [[Red Army]] entering the Don region, a demand that Denikin opposed.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p= 35}} Krasnov so desperately wanted to secure Tsaritsyn that he even offered to have Don Cossacks temporarily serve under Denikin's command if he was willing to advance on Tsaritsyn, but Denikin had other plans.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p= 35}}

Viewing Krasnov as unreliable and untrustworthy, Denikin instead decided to launch the [[Second Kuban Campaign]] of June–November 1918, taking his army south to the territory of the [[Kuban Cossacks|Kuban Cossack Host]] to raise more men and to take on the Red [[Caucasian Front (RSFSR)|North Caucasian Army]] before turning north towards Moscow.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p=35-36}} Moscow become the Soviet capital in March 1918 as Lenin had decided that Petrograd (modern St Petersburg) was too exposed to the German Army, which had occupied what is now the Baltic states. Denikin viewed the Kuban Cossacks as more willing to help than Krasnov and his Don Cossacks, who tended to put their own interests first.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p= 35-36}} General [[Vyacheslav Naumenko]], the field ''ataman'' of the Kuban Host, was known to be more willing to work with the White generals.{{sfn|Kenez|1977|p= 118}} Denikin also believed that he needed to liquidate the 70,000-strong Red North Caucasian Army first before advancing on Moscow, arguing that an advance on Moscow would be impossible with a threat to his rear.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p= 35-36}} Denikin's decision to turn the Volunteer Army south to the Kuban rather than north to Moscow became one of the most controversial of the Russian Civil War - by not advancing north in 1918 Denikin missed his best chance of linking up with the White forces in Siberia under Admiral [[Alexander Kolchak]], who were advancing west along the [[Trans-Siberian Railway]] in the direction of Moscow.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p= 35-36}}

In the second half of 1918 Krasnov advanced towards [[Povorino]]-[[Kamyshin]]-[[Tsaritsyn]], intending to march on Moscow on his own, but was defeated.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p=36}} In the siege of Tsaritsyn in November–December 1918, Krasnov sent his Cossacks repeatedly to storm Tsaritsyn, only to see them cut down by Red machine-gun and artillery fire.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p=36}} Following his defeat at Tsaritsyn, Krasnov returned to the territory of the Don Cossack Host and refused all offers to co-ordinate with Denikin unless he was made Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Whites first. After Germany's defeat (November 1918) in World War I, Krasnov set his sights on the [[Triple Entente|Entente]] powers in his search for allies.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p= 38}} Under the terms of the armistice of 11 November 1918 ending World War One, Germany was required to pull out its forces out of all the territory gained by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
[[File:ДеникинНовочеркасск.jpg|thumb|Krasnov with general Anton Denikin in February 1919]]
The defeat of the [[Ottoman Empire]] in October 1918 allowed British, French and American naval forces to enter the [[Black Sea]] and for the first time allowed direct contact between the Allies and the Whites. Krasnov appealed to the French, offering to allow them to establish a protectorate over the Don Host in an effort to sow discord between the Allies as the territory of the Don Host had assigned beforehand during discussions among Allied leaders to the British sphere of operations.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p= 35}} However, Krasnov was informed by Allied diplomats that the Allies would not supply him with arms, arms would be supplied only to the Volunteer Army, which would then pass on arms to the Don Cossack Host if necessary.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p=38}} In January 1919 Krasnov was forced by the Allied arms embargo against the Don Host to acknowledge General Denikin's authority over the White movement, despite his animosity towards Denikin.{{sfn|Pipes|1993|p= 38-39}}

Krasnov was an organizer of the [[White Terror (Russia)|White Terror]] in the [[Don Host Oblast|Don Province]]; his troops executed between 25,000 and 40,000 people.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Manaev |first1=Georgy |last2=RBTH |date=2014-03-29 |title=Between a rock and a hard place: The Cossacks' century of struggle |url=https://www.rbth.com/arts/2014/03/29/between_a_rock_and_a_hard_place_the_cossacks_century_of_struggle_35465.html |access-date=2022-10-03 |website=Russia Beyond |language=en-US}}</ref>