The West Russian Volunteer Army was a counterrevolutionary army in the Baltic provinces of the former Russian Empire during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1920. The Western Russian Volunteer Army, unlike the pro-Entente Volunteer Army was supported and in fact created by Germany. It was led by Cossack General Pavel Bermont-Avalov who recruited about 50,000 men in close co-operation with German General Rüdiger von der Goltz and is sometimes referred to as the Bermontians. The West Russian Volunteer Army, originally known as the "Special Russian Corps", was made up of mostly Baltic Germans as well as some Russian POWs captured by Germany in World War I and then released on the promise that they would help fight against the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War. In October 1919 the West Russian Volunteer Army attacked the newly-independent states of Lithuania and Latvia, to which Germany had granted independence. It briefly occupied Riga and the government of Kārlis Ulmanis had to request military assistance from Lithuania and Estonia. The Estonians sent two armoured trains to aid the Latvians (according to some explanations, in exchange for Latvia ceding the island of Ruhnu and its territorial waters to Estonia) while the Lithuanians stayed away fearing German interference. The Latvians also received assistance from the guns of a British battleship in Riga harbor. In November the Latvian army managed to drive the Bermont-Avalov forces into Lithuanian territory. Finally, the West Russian Volunteer Army suffered heavy defeats by the Lithuanians near Radviliškis, a major railway centre. After the involvement of the Entente military mission, the remaining elements of the West Russian Volunteer Army withdrew from the Baltics into Germany.
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