DENIKIN, ANTON IVANOVICH ), Rus sian general, was born in humble circumstances on Dec. 4,1872. During the Russo-Japanese war he rose from captain to colonel, and in the World War became commander-in-chief of the South Western Front. After the Revolution he followed Kornilov and was arrested and imprisoned with him in Bykov. They escaped together and joined Alexeyev, who was forming in Rostov and Novocherkassk on the Don a small army of volunteers to fight the Bolsheviks. After Kornilov's death on March 31,1918, Deni kin became military commander of the army, whilst Alexeyev retained the political and financial leadership. They established contact with the Don Cossacks under Krasnov, and were further strengthened by the forces of General Pokrovsky and Colonel Drozdovsky. In June 1918 Denikin initiated a campaign in the Northern Caucasus; by September his army had grown from 9,00o to 4o,000; and by February 1919 he had driven a Bolshevik army of 15o,00c from the Northern Caucasus. Alexeyev died on Sept. 25, 1918, and early in 1919 Denikin took the name of commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of South Russia.
In the autumn of 1919 Denikin came within measurable dis tance of complete victory. His forces had grown to 15o,000; Kharkov, Poltava, Odessa, Kiev, and Orel were in his hands; his right wing had, through a force of Ural Cossacks, established con nection with Kolchak's left wing; some 400,000 square miles of territory had been wrested from the Bolsheviks; and a South Russian Government was in being, with a "special council" of twenty-four members. But his great military ability was not alone enough to ensure the fulfillment of Denikin's aims. The rapid turn in his fortunes from victory to defeat was due to a complex ity of causes, prominent among which were the general political bewilderment and diversity of purpose manifested by his sup porters both within and without the boundaries of the former Russian empire, and the consequent difficulty of maintaining the effective morale of his armies. Meanwhile, largely owing to the relentless discipline introduced by Trotsky, the Bolshevik re sistance had stiffened. At the beginning of Nov. 1919 Budenny's cavalry broke through the "white" lines at Kupyansk and a gen eral retreat set in. By promising a new Government on federal lines Denikin made a final, but fruitless, attempt to weld the vari ous Cossack units into cohesion. Early in 1920 the Bolshevik army retook Rostov and Ekaterinodar. Denikin, in face of great difficulties, transferred his army from Novorossiysk to the Crimea, and shortly afterwards resigned his command to General Wrangel and retired to England.