Monarchists from the Newspaper “Respublikanets”: The Monarchist Oganisation of the Romanian Front and M.G. Drozdovsky's Brigade in 1918

The first separate brigade of Russian volunteers headed by Colonel M.G. Drozdovsky, later reformed into the Drozdovsky Regiment, was one of the best-known and popular White divisions of the Civil War. Drozdovsky's monarchist views and a secret monarchist organisation in his brigade have already been discussed; however, this information was incomplete and fragmentary. The documents related to the Monarchist organization in the Romanian front we found in The Central State Archive of Supreme Bodies of Power and Government of Ukraine have never been introduced into scientific discourse before. They allow reconstructing the formation and ideology of this organisation as well as its ties with the Drozdovsky Brigade. A secret organisation among Russian officers of the Romanian front arouse in the city of Iasi in the late 1917. As its initial goal was to unite the officers and prevent the final decay of the front, it united both monarchists and republicans. Moreover, the monarchists avoided declaring their views, thinking of other members of the organisation as Republicans. It resulted in a paradox: the structure, formed mainly of monarchists, published the Republican newspaper “Respublikanets”. Only in the early 1918 were the monarchists able to communicate among themselves to form an exclusively monarchist organisation. At the end of the winter of 1918, the organisation split into two parts. The first, headed by M.G. Drozdovsky and D.B. Bologovsky, went to the Don, while the other, headed by N.S. Poznyakov, remained in Romania and began to forge relationships with the German Command. By the summer of 1918, Poznyakov and his adherents moved from Romania to Kiev and actively participated in the formation of the monarchist Astrakhan army supported by the Germans. The Monarchist organisation disbanded at the turn of 1918-1919, when Drosdovsky died and Kiev was taken by Petliura.

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