targeted at whole social classes. Moreover, it had been thought out and put into practice before the outbreak of the civil war. The White Terror was never systematized in such a fashion. It was almost invariably the work of detachments that were out of control, and taking measures not officially authorized by the military command that was attempting, without much success, to act as a government. If one discounts the pogroms, which Denikin himself condemned, the White Terror most often was a series of reprisals by the police acting as a sort of military counterespionage force. The Cheka and the Troops for the Internal Defense of the Republic were a structured and powerful instrument of repression of a completely different order, which had support at the highest level from the Bolshevik regime. Volunteer and Don Army After the October Revolution, the arrested generals Lavr Kornilov, Anton Denikin, Sergey Markov and others were released by Commander-in-Chief Nikolay Dukhonin before his removal and went to Don to Ataman Alexey Kaledin. The Don Region abandoned the power of the Soviets and proclaimed independence "before the formation of a nation-wide, popularly recognized government". The first white army was created by Mikhail Alekseyev, calling it the "Alekseyev Organization". Officers were recruited there on a voluntary basis. A Volunteer Army was created from the members of this organization. Generals Alexey Kaledin and Lavr Kornilov joined him. Three months later, in April 1918, the Council of Defense of the Don Host formed the Don Army. In May 1918, the Drozdov brigade joined the Volunteer Army from the Romanian Front. Among those who came to the Don were public figures. Boris Savinkov, the former head of the SR Combat Organization, who organized the Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom under the Volunteer Army, was also there. Military leaders and Cossacks reacted extremely negatively to his presence. One of the first to join the Alekseyev Organization was Vasily Shulgin, who later became a member of the Special Meeting under Denikin. People's Army On 8 June 1918, the uprising white Czechs took Samara. On the same day, the People's Army was organized under the command of Colonel Nikolai Galkin. It was formed by the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly. On 9 June, after the arrival of Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Kappel in the army, the following were formed: 1st Volunteer Samara Squadron, Cavalry Squadron of Staff