Despite the AFSR’s successes in the summer and autumn of 1919, its rear was beset by rampant corruption among administrators, anti-White revolts among various ethnic groups, anarchist uprisings, pogroms against Jews and political infighting between the White generals and Cossack leaders. In October, Red Army counterattacks managed to recapture Oryol from the Volunteer Army while the Red Cavalry Corps under Semyon Budyonny drove a wedge between the Volunteer Army and Don Cossack Army. With no stable rear to fall back on, the remnants of the AFSR eventually retreated south to the Crimea and behind the Don River. In late February 1920, the Red Army renewed its attacks and succeeded in forcing the Whites to abandon the North Caucasus. Amid a disastrous evacuation at Novorossiysk, tens of thousands of Volunteer and Don Cossack troops did manage to embark on ships that transported them safely to the Crimean Peninsula. But due to insufficient tonnage, an even greater number of Cossack soldiers and civilians fleeing with the Whites were left behind at Novorossiysk where they were forced to either surrender or continue to retreat south.