The Northern Caucasus Operation was a White Army offensive operation which occurred in the North Caucasus region of Russia from December 11918 to March 1919 during the Russian Civil War. In the summer and autumn of 1918, the Red Army lost Ekaterinodar, Novorossiysk, Maykop, Armavir, and Stavropol to the White Army's Kuban Offensive, and Red Army general Ivan Sorokin was killed for rebelling against his cause. In December 1918, Mikhail Svechnikov consolidated the Bolshevik forces in the North Caucasus into the Caspian-Caucasian Front. On 19 December 1918, his front received orders from Moscow to attack Armavir and Tikhoretsk, while the Soviet 12th Army would attack Makhachkala and Derbent. The attack was launched on 2 January 1919, but the Soviet attacks were repelled, and the Whites launched a counterattack of their own. Kislovodsk and Piatigorsk were taken on 20 January, Grozny on 5 February, and Vladikavkaz on 10 February. The Red Army soon found itself decimated by a typhus epidemic which claimed the life of General Alexei Avtonomov, and the White offensive ended in March 1919 after it failed to capture Astrakhan.