Shenkursk Operation of 1919

an offensive by the Soviet Sixth Army of the Northern Front and partisans from Jan. 19 to 25, 1919, against Anglo-American interventionist forces and White Guards during the Civil War.

In the fall of 1918 the enemy, chiefly American units with 2,800 men and 15 guns, had driven a deep wedge south of Shenkursk, threatening the flank and rear of the Sixth Army (commanded by A. A. Samoilo; members of the Revolutionary Military Council N. N. Kuz’min, A. M. Orekhov, and M. K. Vetoshkin), which was operating on the Arkhangel’sk axis. Soviet troops with 3,100 infantry, 48 machine guns, and 16 field guns, went over to the offensive in January 1919 with the objective of eliminating the Shenkursk salient. Three detachments, from Niandoma, Ust’-Padengskaia, and Kodima, attacked in converging directions. The Soviet forces smashed the interventionist troops at one strongpoint after another and reached the approaches to Shenkursk at the same time on January 24. The partisans took control of the village of Shegovary in the enemy rear by a surprise attack, thus cutting off the interventionists’ path of retreat to the north. During the night of January 24, the enemy garrison at Shenkursk, abandoning all its military equipment, fled to the north along forest trails. Soviet troops liberated Shenkursk on January 25, capturing large military supply depots, 15 field guns, 60 machine guns, and 2,000 rifles.

As a result of the Shenkursk operation, the enemy was driven back 90 km to the north and conditions were created for the complete liberation of the North.