Paris Peace Conference 861.00/585: Telegram
The Consul General at Constantinople (Ravndal) to the Commission to Negotiate Peace
[Received in Paris May 4, 1:10 a.m.]
Jenkins requests that following report from Vice Consul Burri just returned from the Kuban region be repeated to the Department:
“Military situation. Combatant force of Volunteer Army under Denikin numbers 80,000 men. The line of the active front begins immediately west of Mariupol (recently retaken from the Bolsheviks), swings slightly north of Taganrog, then on 40-mile radius around Novocherkassk down to a point some 13 miles west of Velikokniazheskaia; the Volunteer Army here numbers about 40,000, the pick of their forces. The arrival of British military supplies is making its position stronger and apparently secure. The Bolshevik regular forces on this [front?] are reported numerous, well equipped, well disciplined, and of good morale. In addition the peasants are reported friendly to the Bolshevists. The Volunteer Army strategy contemplates driving to Yekaterinoslav and thence to Charkov. The Bolshevist strategy is to take Bataisk thus cutting off Mariupol, Rostoff and Novocherkassk from the base at Yekaterinodar. The British mission under General Milne inspecting situation found Volunteer Army Government poorly organized, especially as regards protection and distribution of military supplies which they should only be [are] sending. Furthermore, request for British soldiers as well as supplies puts British in quandary because inconsistent with representations made previously by Volunteer Army Government and not contemplated in original British plans. Will probably result in their sending garrisons to Novorossiisk organizing and controlling shipment of supplies from Novorossiisk to Yekaterinodar and further furnishing specialists to operate tanks and aeroplanes though unwilling at this time to send troops to the front.
“Political situation. In view of recent French actions, sentiment is strongly against them everywhere, the newspapers openly accusing them of treachery. Denikin being inimical, the French are opening diplomatic offensive to have him replaced by some one more Francophile which would mean a weak man. The internal political situation is complex: Denikin is surrounded by old regimists whereas the Kuban Government is socialistically inclined. The workers are largely Bolshevik and the peasants are unsympathetic to the Volunteer Army mainly because of present mobilization. The financial situation is very bad. The so-called Don Government 100-ruble notes is the money in circulation with Romanoff’s and Kerenskie’s held for premium. Small money is not obtainable. Food is plentiful. Typhus, though on the decline, is still prevalent; cholera is appearing.”