from the Ukrainian Soviet capital of Kharkiv and then capturing Donbas, after several months of fighting. In May, Yegorov's 10th Army retreated in disarray towards the east, while in mid-June the Kuban Cossacks under the command of Pyotr Wrangel carried out a cavalry assault on Tsaritsyn, which was repulsed. However, the renovation of the railway from Kuban to Tsaritsyn allowed the Whites to transport tanks, delivered by the British. On 30 June 1919, Wrangel's forces entered the city, taking 40,000 red prisoners and seizing supplies and ammunition cars. On 3 July 1919, at the victory parade of Wrangel's forces in Tsaritsyn, Denikin announced the beginning of the White advance on Moscow before the Icon of Our Lady of Kazan. The Reds recapture Tsaritsyn (August 1919 – January 1920) As part of the White campaign to capture Moscow, the Caucasian Army, led by Wrangel, marched out of Tsaritsyn, passed through Kamyshin (also in White hands), and in early August was approaching Saratov. However, the lack of reserves and supplies and insufficient support from the Kuban Cossacks forced Wrangel to withdraw to Tsaritsyn. In August, the Red Army command entrusted the task of recapturing the city to a strike group under Vasily Shorin. Wrangel retreated to the outskirts of Tsaritsyn, where he successfully defended himself against Shorin's forces, inflicting heavy losses on them. After six weeks of fighting, they were only able to passively defend. Shorin's intention to regroup and continue his march on Tsaritsyn was finally thwarted by Konstantin Mamontov's unexpected cavalry raid into the rear of the Red Army, to which Shorin had to direct some of his troops. On 3 January 1920, Tsaritsyn was definitively retaken by the Southwestern Front of the Red Army. Repressions During the battle, the locally-created Cheka carried out a ruthless repression campaign targeting those deemed to be bourgeoisie, clergy, intelligentsia or tsarist officers, many of whom had answered a local appeal to join the Red Army. Those who questioned the policy were also suppressed. Stalin, having been granted military powers in the city, proceeded to arrest the current Red Army general Andrei Snesarev and other tsarist officers and specialists who were already serving in the Red Army and had them detained on a barge on the Volga River. The eventual fate of the prisoners was starvation or execution except for Snesarev, who was freed on Trotsky's orders and reassigned elsewhere. Stalin had also intrigued