A letter dated 5 December 1919 from a North-western Army officer – Captain Herman Alexandrov – to the Estonian Commander-in-Chief Johan Laidoner was a desperate step. Having become disappointed in the North-western Army’s justice system, this Russian captain felt that he had no other option but to go over the heads of his superiors and the generals of the Russian White Guard to turn directly to Laidoner.

The case that Captain Alexandrov described in his letter was an unprecedented tumult of crime in the ranks of the Russian White North-western Army. More precisely, Alexandrov referred to a criminal offender named Ogloblin, who wore an officer’s uniform while leading a criminal gang on the North-western Army’s railroads. Thereat, Ogloblin succeeded in becoming the head of that railway’s guard system. He used his position to commit several crimes. It is notable that local commanders and the corrupt leadership of the North-western Army’s Administration of Railroads covered for the actions of the gang.

On the one hand, it is as if this was an isolated case, yet on the other hand, Ogloblin’s gang was one of a number of ‘disgraceful phenomena’, according to General Alexander Rodzyanko. Within the framework of this brief examination, we can arrive at the conclusion that internal disorder in the North-western Army ran rampant, crime was widespread, and even individuals who belonged to the army’s leadership were involved in it. Crime in the North-western Army made itself felt especially at the time of the army’s retreat in the autumn of 1919. Part of the blame for this evidently lies with the leadership of the North-western Army, which right through to the end was unable to establish order and discipline in the army regardless of repeated appeals and orders.

Alexandrov’s desperate appeal evidently achieved its aim since Ogloblin’s criminal gang was finally put on trial. Yet as practice in the North-western Army demonstrated, the court system was exceedingly sluggish and negligent, and many criminals were released without receiving punishment, especially due to the conclusive liquidation of the North-western Army on 22 January 1920.