Bolsheviks and the Cossacks

Cossack regions in the south, along the lower dawn river would become the original home base of the white armies. For centuries, the cossacks had enjoyed semi autonomy and special privileges from the czar in exchange for their fearsome military service. As lenin and the bolsheviks made plans to seize power in october 19 17, they harped on the counter revolutionary threat posed by cossack general alexey caladin. Caladin had been implicated in the cornelo affair, butt he refused an order to resign, and instead headed back to his home territory,. where he sat at the head of three armies and dared any one to tell him what to do.