The Kuban Offensive was an offensive operation launched by the White Army from June to November 1918 during the Russian Civil War, resulting in the White movement conquering the Kuban region from the Bolsheviks.
At the end of the Ice March, the White "Volunteer Army" had been formed, and, in April 1918, the Imperial German Army and Ukrainian People's Army had driven the Bolsheviks from Ukraine, taken Rostov-on-Don without a fight, and occupied the Crimea. The Red Army withdrew to the Kuban region, where the Bolsheviks terrorized Cossack towns and villages such as Ekaterinodar. On 22 June 1918, the Whites responded with a new offensive, defeating the Reds at Salsk, although the White general Sergey Markov was killed in battle on 25 June 1918. Afterwards, the White threat to Tsaritsyn forced Joseph Stalin to recall six Red Army regiments en route to Baku, sealing the fate of the 26 Baku Commissars and defending Tsaritsyn against an anticipated White attack. However, Anton Denikin instead marched his Whites south into the Kuban region. On 15 July, only seven units from Karl Kalnin's 30,000-strong Red Army survived a horrible defeat at Tikhoretskaia. The Volunteer Army lost a quarter of its men during the offensive, but they were replaced by Red prisoners-of-war, and the Whites came to have a strength of 13,000 troops. On 7 August 1918, the Reds' Western Army was destroyed at the Battle of Vyselki, a close win for the Whites. After this victory, the whole Kuban rose up against the Bolsheviks, and a wave of alternatively Red and White terror spread across the embattled region. The Cossacks of Terek rose up to join the White cause, cutting Red communications between Stavropol and Vladikavkaz and besieging Grozny. On 15 August, the Whites took Ekaterinodar without a fight, and Novorossiysk fell on 26 August. On 15 November 1918, the Whites took Stavropol, although their general Mikhail Drozdovsky was mortally wounded in the process.
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