Provisional Don Government

a counterrevolutionary body established on the Don River on Apr. 21, 1918, by White Guards with the support of German occupation forces during the outbreak of counterrevolutionary revolts (before the liquidation of the Soviet Republic of the Don). Assembling on May 11, 1918, in Novocherkassk, the Council for the Salvation of the Don, which was composed of counter-revolutionary officers, Cossack leaders, and leading city officials, created a new Provisional Don Government and transferred power to General P. N. Krasnov, electing him military ataman on May 16, 1918. The regime established by the Provisional Don Government and the German occupation forces was a military dictatorship. The Provisional Don Government rescinded all orders and decrees of the Soviet government and restored plants, factories, mines, and land to private ownership. In a declaration of June 5, Krasnov proclaimed the Don republic to be part of the Union of the Southeast, which united all the counterrevolutionary forces in southern Russia. For their aid in the struggle against the Soviet government, the Provisional Don Government placed all the resources of the region at the disposal of the occupation forces. On Aug. 28, 1918, there was established a Great Military Council, which created the next “government”— the Council of Administrative Departments. At the end of 1918 the German occupation forces had to evacuate the Don region. At the beginning of 1919 counterrevolutionary forces in the south were headed by A. I. Denikin. By a decree of Jan. 9, 1919, he established a unified military command for southern Russia, thereby depriving the Don government of its independence. In 1920 the counterrevolution in southern Russia was crushed and the White cossack governments were liquidated.