Knights of the Thorny Crown: The Birth of the White Movement, the Formation of the Volunteer Army and the First Kuban (Ice) Campaign of 1918

The Civil War, truly fratricidal, remains one of the most terrible and bitter pages in the history of Russia. The main struggle was between the Bolsheviks and their supporters (the reds) and the anti-Bolshevik forces (the whites) who did not accept Soviet power, although other armed formations of various political forces intervened in the complex tangled web of military actions. The mad confrontation of different camps, which formed in what was once a unified Russian society, led to great bloodshed and mutual cruelty. The Civil War is a complex topic, and testimonies from eyewitnesses and participants in the fighting provide much food for thought. The memoirs book "Knights of the Thorny Crown" was written in emigration by Lev Viktorovich Polovtsov - a man who was at the origins of the White movement and the formation of the Volunteer Army, and who took part in the First Kuban (Ice) Campaign. Member of the State Duma L.V. Polovtsov did not accept the revolutionary transformations of 1917 and the new power. He found himself in the Don - the Don Army region did not support the Bolsheviks and declared its autonomy. Refugees from Central Russia, officers, politicians, and entrepreneurs began to flock to the Don. Without hesitation, L.V. Polovtsov joined the volunteers of the forming army and passed with them the combat path that was later called the Ice Campaign.