The North Caucasus Operation was a Red Army offensive operation launched against the White movement in the North Caucasus from January to April 1920 during the Russian Civil War. The Bolsheviks continued their push into the Caucasus, with the White Army's morale declining as Anton Denikin's army withdrew southward. The Red plan was to capture Ekaterinodar and prevent the Whites from retreating into the Kuban, while another army would launch an offensive against Kizlyar and Svyatoy Krest; the combined Red forces would then defeat the White troops in the central and southern North Caucasus and capture Stavropol, Mineralnye Vody, the Grozny oilfields, and Dagestan. During the Red attack on Tikhoretsk from 14 February to 2 March, Denikin decided to retreat into the Kuban to avert a complete defeat, and Stavropol fell to the Reds on 29 February. The Soviets pursued the Whites, taking Tikhoretsk on 9 March before advancing on the Terek River. Denikin evacuated his 35,000-strong army to the Crimea from Novorossiysk on 26 March 1920, enabling the Reds to push south and capture Grozny on 24 March 1920, Vladikavkaz on 30 March, Dagestan in early April, and Terek Oblast, Kabardia, North Ossetia, and Chechnya shortly afterwards. On 7 April, the Reds eliminated the Don Army and captured Tuapse, and the Don Army's remnants linked up with the Kuban Army at Sochi, where their 31,000-strong army was joined by 30,000 refugees in a Red Army encirclement. By late April, about 12,000 Cossacks and 3,000 refugees managed to escape to the Crimea, while the remainder surrendered from 4 to 7 May 1920. By late April, the Red Army advanced to the border of Georgia and Azerbaijan from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea, enabling the Red Army invasion of Azerbaijan that same month. Additionally, over 163,000 White Army soldiers had been captured and the Armed Forces of South Russia nearly annihilated, and Denikin went into exile, leaving Pyotr Wrangel in command of the remnants of his army. The Soviet victory in the Caucasus enabled the Red Army to transfer units to the west to fight in the Polish-Soviet War.