The 1st Cavalry Army (, literally '1st Horse Army') was the most prominent Red Army military formation. It was also known as Budyonny's Cavalry Army or simply as Konarmia ('Horsearmy'). When the Russian Civil War broke out in 1918, a soldier named Budyonny organized a small cavalry force in the Don region out of local Cossacks. This force rapidly grew in numbers, sided with the Bolsheviks and eventually became the 1st Cavalry Army. It was transformed from a guerrilla force into a proper military unit under the command of Semyon Budyonny, and the political guidance of Kliment Voroshilov.