West Russian Volunteer Army (White Victory)

The West Russian Volunteer Army was an army of Russian volunteers raised by Germany in 1918 to fight in the Russian Civil War for Germany's interests. Numbering to some 85,000 soldiers, they were mainly Tsarist Russian troops released from German prison camps during World War I. They fought the Red Army on the Western Front, alongside foreign units like the Belarusian National Army and Ukrainian State Guard. Though officially part of the White forces, the Army was not part of the unified White military force, Russian National Army, nor did it subordinate itself to the Provisional All—Russian Government. After the Civil War ended with a White victory, most surviving members of the Volunteer Army either joined the National Army or escaped to nearby countries, like Belarus, Ukraine, and Lithuania.