The army group was created to invade Ukraine after the withdrawal of the Austrian-German occupation force in November 1918 and to fight the Ukrainian People's Republic, as well as the troops of the Entente which had landed on the Black Sea coast.

The reserve front was originally commissioned under Commandarm Vasily Glagolev and members of revolutionary military council Viyshnevetsky and Zusmanovich.

[1] On November 17, 1918, the Revolutionary Military Council consisting of Stalin, Yuri Pyatakov, Volodymyr Zatonsky, and Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko established the Army Group of Kursk Direction.

The chairman of the Russian Revolutionary Military Council Leon Trotsky ordered on December 14, 1918, a mass recruitment of ethnic Ukrainians.

After the withdrawal of the German forces from the borders, the 2nd Insurgent Division occupied Belgorod on December 21, 1918, and started to advance on Kharkiv.

In November 1918 the White Russian Volunteer Army was in a strong position after it successfully secured the territory of Northern Caucasus and Kuban, as well as being supported by the Allied landings in Southern Ukraine.

On January 13, 1919, as part of the Front the Army Group of Kharkiv Direction was created, which was based on the 2nd Ukrainian Soviet Division.