Volunteer Army

The Volunteer Army (Добровольческая армия in Russian, or Dobrovolcheskaya armiya) was an anti-Bolshevik army in South Russia during the Russian Civil War of 1918–1920.

History

The Volunteer Army began forming in November/December 1917 under the leadership of Gen. Mikhail Alekseyev in Novocherkassk and Gen. Lavr Kornilov and his supporters. Initially it included volunteering officers, cadets, students and Cossacks. Of the first 3,000 recruits just 12 were ordinary soldiers; the rest were officers, some of whom resented having to serve as privates. On December 27, 1917 (January 9, 1918), the creation of the Volunteer Army was officially announced. Alekseyev became its overall leader, Kornilov its Commander-in-chief, Gen. Alexander Lukomsky its Chief of Staff, Gen. Anton Denikin commander of the 1st Division and Gen. Sergey Markov commander of 1st Officers regiment. They also created the so-called Special Council at the headquarters, which included prominent civilian politicians such as Peter Struve, Pavel Milyukov, Mikhail Rodzianko, Sergey Sazonov and Boris Savinkov.

Volunteer Army (Poland)

The Volunteer Army (Polish: Armia Ochotnicza) was a military formation of the Polish Army, created at the height of the Polish-Soviet War. It was formed by the Council of National Defense on July 1, 1920. Composed entirely of volunteers, the formation did not enter combat as a single entity. Instead, its regiments were attached to other armies or used to replenish the manpower of battle-weary divisions. The army was commanded by Gen. Józef Haller.

By the end of September 1920 105,714 men volunteered for service. Out of them 16 regiments of infantry and seven of cavalry were created, in addition to other units. Out of infantry regiments only six took part in actual combat, the rest were used as reserves. Following the armistice most of the volunteers were demobilised.

Background

In late May 1920, after Polish forces had entered Kiev (see Kiev Offensive (1920)), the Red Army began its offensive, which resulted in fast advancing of the Soviets and retreat of Polish forces. On June 1920 in Warsaw, the government of Leopold Skulski was dismissed, and new cabinet of Wladyslaw Grabski was not created until June 23. New Prime Minister, well aware of the disastrous situation, created Council of National Defense (July 1, 1920), which was authorized to take decisions regarding the war.

Volunteer Force (Great Britain)

The Volunteer Force was a citizen army of part-time rifle, artillery and engineer corps, created as a popular movement throughout the British Empire in 1859. Originally highly autonomous, the units of volunteers became increasingly integrated with the British Army after the Childers Reforms in 1881, before forming part of the Territorial Force in 1908. Most of the regiments of the present Territorial Army Infantry, Artillery, Engineers and Signals units are directly descended from Volunteer Force units.

The British Army following the Crimea

Following the Crimean War, it was painfully clear to the War Office that, with half of the British Army dispositioned around the Empire on garrison duty, it had insufficient forces available to quickly compose and despatch an effective expeditionary force to a new area of conflict, unless it was to reduce the British Isles' own defences. During the Crimean War, the War Office had been forced to send militia and yeomanry to make up the shortfall of soldiers in the Regular Army. The situation had been complicated by the fact that both auxiliary forces were under the control of the Home Office until 1855.