In 1918 - 1922 and the Ground Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922 - 1946. After the war, it was the largest army in Europe.

Story

The old army served as an instrument of class oppression of the working people by the bourgeoisie. With the transfer of power to the working and exploited classes, it became necessary to create a new army, which will be the bulwark of Soviet power in the present, the foundation for replacing the standing army with nationwide weapons in the near future and will serve as support for the coming socialist revolution in Europe. In view of this, the Council of People's Commissars decides: to organize a new army under the name "Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army", on the following grounds: 1. The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army is being created from the most conscious and organized elements of the working masses. 2. Access to its ranks is open to all citizens of the Russian Republic who are at least 18 years old. Everyone enters the Red Army who is ready to give his strength, his life to defend the gains of the October Revolution, the power of the Soviets and socialism. To join the ranks of the Red Army, recommendations are required: military committees or public democratic organizations standing on the platform of Soviet power, party or professional organizations, or at least two members of these organizations. When joining in whole parts, a mutual guarantee of all and a roll-call vote are required. 1. The soldiers of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army are on full state allowance and in addition receive 50 rubles. per month. 2. Disabled members of the families of soldiers of the Red Army, who were previously dependent on them, are provided with everything necessary according to local consumer standards, in accordance with the decisions of local Soviet authorities. The Council of People's Commissars is the supreme governing body of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. The direct leadership and management of the army is concentrated in the Commissariat for Military Affairs, in the special All-Russian Board created under it. Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars - V. Ulyanov (Lenin). Supreme Commander - N. Krylenko. People's Commissars for Military and Naval Affairs - Dybenko and Podvoisky. People's Commissars - Proshyan, Zatonsky and Steinberg. Managing Director of the Council of People's Commissars - Vlad. Bonch-Bruyevich. Secretary of the Council of People's Commissars - N. Gorbunov.

Governing bodies

The supreme governing body of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army was the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR (since the formation of the USSR - the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR). The leadership and management of the army was concentrated in the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs, in the special All-Russian Collegium created under it, since 1923 the Council of Labor and Defense of the USSR, since 1937 the Defense Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. In 1919-1934, the Revolutionary Military Council carried out direct command of the troops. In 1934, to replace it, the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR was formed.

In the conditions of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, on June 23, 1941, the Headquarters of the Supreme Command was formed (from July 10, 1941 - the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, from August 8, 1941 - the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command). From February 25, 1946 until the collapse of the USSR, the armed forces were controlled by the USSR Ministry of Defense.

Organizational structure

Detachments and squads - armed detachments and squads of sailors, soldiers and workers, in Russia in 1917 - supporters (not necessarily members) of leftist parties - Social Democrats (Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and Mezhraiontsy), Socialist-Revolutionaries and Anarchists, as well as detachments of the Red Partisans became the basis of the Red Army detachments.

Initially, the main unit of the formation of the Red Army, on a voluntary basis, was a separate detachment, which was a military unit with an independent economy. At the head of the detachment was a Council consisting of a military leader and two military commissars. He had a small headquarters and an inspectorate.

With the accumulation of experience and after the involvement of military experts in the ranks of the Red Army, the formation of full-fledged units, units, formations (brigade, division, corps), institutions and institutions began.

The organization of the Red Army was in accordance with its class character and the military requirements of the early 20th century. The combined arms units of the Red Army were built as follows:

• the rifle corps consisted of two to four divisions | divisions;
  • division - from three rifle regiments, an artillery regiment (artillery regiment) and technical units;
    • regiment - from three battalions, an artillery battalion and technical units;
• cavalry corps - two cavalry divisions;
  • cavalry division - four to six regiments, artillery, armored units (armored units), technical units.

The technical equipment of the military formations of the Red Army with fire weapons (machine guns, guns, infantry artillery) and military equipment was basically at the level of modern advanced armed forces of that time. It should be noted that the introduction of technology made changes to the organization of the Red Army, which were expressed in the growth of technical units, in the appearance of special motorized and mechanized units and in the strengthening of technical cells in rifle troops and cavalry. A feature of the organization of the Red Army was that it reflected its openly class character. In the military organisms of the Red Army (in subdivisions, units and formations) there were political bodies (political departments (political departments), political units (political units)), leading in close cooperation with the command (commander and commissar of the unit) political and educational work and ensuring the political growth of the Red Army and their activity in combat training.

For the duration of the war, the active army (that is, those troops of the Red Army who conduct military operations or provide them) is divided into fronts. The fronts are divided into armies, which include military formations: rifle and cavalry corps, rifle and cavalry divisions, tank, aviation brigades and individual units (artillery, aviation, engineering and others).

Compound

Rifle troops

Rifle troops are the main branch of the armed forces, which constitute the backbone of the Red Army. The largest rifle unit in the 1920s was the rifle regiment. The rifle regiment consisted of rifle battalions, regimental artillery, small units - communications, sappers and others - and the headquarters of the regiment. The rifle battalion consisted of rifle and machine gun companies, battalion artillery and battalion headquarters. Rifle company - from rifle and machine-gun platoons. Rifle platoon - from branches. Branch - the smallest organizational unit of the rifle troops. It was armed with rifles, light machine guns, hand grenades and a grenade launcher.

Artillery

The largest unit of artillery was an artillery regiment. It consisted of artillery battalions and regimental headquarters. The artillery battalion consisted of batteries and division control. Battery - from platoons. There are 4 guns in a platoon.

Breakthrough Artillery Corps (1943 - 1945) - a formation (corps) of the Red Army artillery in the armed forces of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War. The breakthrough artillery corps were part of the reserve artillery of the Supreme High Command.

Cavalry

The basic unit of the cavalry is the cavalry regiment. The regiment consists of saber and machine-gun squadrons, regimental artillery, technical units and headquarters. Saber and machine-gun squadrons consist of platoons. The platoon is divided into sections. The Soviet cavalry began to form simultaneously with the creation of the Red Army in 1918. Of the disbanded old Russian army, only three cavalry regiments entered the Red Army. In the formation of cavalry for the Red Army, a number of difficulties were encountered: the main areas that supplied cavalrymen and saddle horses to the army (Ukraine, the South and South-East of Russia) were occupied by the White Guards and occupied by the armies of foreign states; lacked experienced commanders, weapons and equipment. Therefore, the main organizational units in the cavalry were originally hundreds, squadrons, detachments and regiments. From individual cavalry regiments and cavalry detachments, the transition soon began to the formation of brigades, and then divisions. So, from a small equestrian partisan detachment of S. M. Budyonny, created in February 1918, in the autumn of the same year, during the battles for Tsaritsyn, the 1st Don Cavalry Brigade was formed, and then the consolidated cavalry division of the Tsaritsyn Front.

Especially vigorous measures to create cavalry were taken in the summer of 1919 to oppose Denikin's army. To deprive the latter of the advantage in the cavalry, cavalry formations larger than the division were needed. In June - September 1919, the first two cavalry corps were created; by the end of 1919, the number of Soviet and opposing cavalry was equal. The fighting in 1918-1919 showed that the Soviet cavalry formations were a powerful strike force capable of solving important operational tasks both independently and in cooperation with rifle formations. The most important stage in the construction of the Soviet cavalry was the creation in November 1919 of the First Cavalry Army, and in July 1920 of the Second Cavalry Army. Cavalry formations and associations played an important role in operations against the armies of Denikin and Kolchak in late 1919 - early 1920, Wrangel and the army of Poland in 1920.

During the Civil War, in some operations, the Soviet cavalry accounted for up to 50% of the infantry. The main method of action for subunits, units and formations of the cavalry was an offensive in equestrian formation (horse attack), supported by powerful machine gun fire from carts. When the conditions of the terrain and the stubborn resistance of the enemy limited the actions of the cavalry in mounted formation, they fought in dismounted combat formations. The Soviet command during the years of the Civil War was able to successfully resolve the issues of using large masses of cavalry to perform operational tasks. The creation of the world's first mobile formations - cavalry armies - was an outstanding achievement of military art. Cavalry armies were the main means of strategic maneuver and the development of success, they were used massively in decisive directions against those enemy forces that at this stage posed the greatest danger.

Red cavalry on the attack

The success of the fighting of the Soviet cavalry during the years of the Civil War was facilitated by the vastness of the theaters of operations, the stretching of enemy armies on broad fronts, the presence of gaps that were poorly covered or not at all occupied by troops, which were used by cavalry formations to reach the enemy’s flanks and carry out deep raids in his rear. Under these conditions, the cavalry could fully realize its combat properties and capabilities - mobility, surprise attacks, speed and decisiveness of actions.

After the Civil War, the cavalry in the Red Army continued to be a rather numerous branch of the armed forces. In the 1920s, it was divided into strategic (cavalry divisions and corps) and military (subdivisions and units that were part of rifle formations). In the 1930s, mechanized (later tank) and artillery regiments, anti-aircraft weapons were introduced into the cavalry divisions; new combat regulations were developed for the cavalry.

As a mobile branch of the military, the strategic cavalry was intended for the development of a breakthrough and could be used by decision of the front command.

Cavalry units and subunits took an active part in the hostilities of the initial period of the Great Patriotic War. In particular, in the battle for Moscow, the cavalry corps under the command of L. M. Dovator valiantly proved himself. However, as the war progressed, it became more and more obvious that the future lay in new modern types of weapons, so by the end of the war, most of the cavalry units were disbanded. At the end of the Great Patriotic War, the cavalry as a branch of service finally ceased to exist.

armored forces

Tanks produced by the KhPZ named after the Comintern - the largest tank factory in the USSR

In the 1920s, the production of its own tanks began in the USSR, and with it the foundations of the concept of combat use of troops were laid. In 1927, in the Combat Manual of the Infantry, special attention was paid to the combat use of tanks and their interaction with infantry units. So, for example, in the second part of this document it is written that the most important conditions for success are:

• the sudden appearance of tanks as part of the attacking infantry, their simultaneous and massive use over a wide area in order to disperse artillery and other anti-armor weapons of the enemy;
• separation of tanks in depth while creating a reserve of them, which allows you to develop an attack to a greater depth;
• close interaction of tanks with infantry, which secures the points they occupy.

The issues of use were most fully disclosed in the "Temporary Instructions for the Combat Use of Tanks", issued in 1928. It provided for two forms of participation of tank units in battle:

• for direct infantry support;
• as a forward echelon operating out of fire and visual communication with it.

The armored forces consisted of tank units and formations and units armed with armored vehicles. The main tactical unit is the tank battalion. It consists of tank companies. A tank company consists of tank platoons. The composition of the tank platoon - up to 5 tanks. An armored car company consists of platoons; platoon - from 3-5 armored vehicles.

T-34 in winter camouflage

For the first time, tank brigades began to be created in 1935 as separate tank brigades of the reserve of the High Command. In 1940, tank divisions were formed on their basis, which became part of the mechanized corps.

Mechanized troops, troops consisting of motorized rifle (mechanized), tank, artillery and other units and subunits. The concept "M. AT." appeared in various armies by the early 1930s. In 1929, the Central Directorate of Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army was created in the USSR and the first experimental mechanized regiment was formed, deployed in 1930 into the first mechanized brigade consisting of tank, artillery, reconnaissance regiments and support units. The brigade had 110 MS-1 tanks and 27 guns and was intended to study issues of operational-tactical use and the most advantageous organizational forms of mechanized formations. In 1932, on the basis of this brigade, the world's first mechanized corps was created - an independent operational unit, which included two mechanized and one rifle and machine gun brigades, a separate anti-aircraft artillery division and numbering over 500 tanks and 200 vehicles. By the beginning of 1936 there were 4 mechanized corps, 6 separate brigades, and 15 regiments in cavalry divisions. In 1937, the Central Directorate of Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army was renamed the Armored Directorate of the Red Army, and in December 1942, the Directorate of the Commander of Armored and Mechanized Forces was formed. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, armored and mechanized troops became the main strike force of the Red Army.

Air Force

Aviation in the Soviet Armed Forces began to form in 1918. Organizationally, it consisted of separate aviation detachments that were part of the district Air Fleet Directorates, which in September 1918 were reorganized into front-line and army field aviation and aeronautics directorates at the headquarters of the fronts and combined arms armies. In June 1920, the field administrations were reorganized into the headquarters of the air fleets with direct subordination to the commanders of the fronts and armies. After the Civil War of 1917-1923, the air forces of the fronts became part of the military districts. In 1924, the aviation squadrons of the Air Force of the military districts were consolidated into homogeneous aviation squadrons (18-43 aircraft each), which were transformed into aviation brigades in the late 1920s. In 1938-1939, the aviation of the military districts was transferred from a brigade to a regimental and divisional organization. The main tactical unit was an aviation regiment (60-63 aircraft). Aviation of the Red Army was based on the main property of aviation - the ability to deliver fast and powerful air strikes to the enemy over long distances that are not available to other branches of the military. The combat means of aviation were aircraft armed with high-explosive, fragmentation and incendiary bombs, cannons and machine guns. Aviation possessed, at that time, a high flight speed (400-500 or more kilometers per hour), the ability to easily overcome the enemy’s battle front and penetrate deep into his rear. Combat aviation was used to destroy manpower and technical means of the enemy; for the destruction of his aviation and the destruction of important objects: railway junctions, military industry enterprises, communication centers, roads, etc. Reconnaissance aviation was intended to conduct aerial reconnaissance behind enemy lines. Auxiliary aviation was used to correct artillery fire, to communicate and monitor the battlefield, to transport the sick and wounded in need of urgent medical care to the rear (air ambulance), and for the urgent transportation of military cargo (transport aviation). In addition, aviation was used to transport troops, weapons and other means of combat over long distances. The basic unit of aviation was the aviation regiment (air regiment). The regiment consisted of aviation squadrons (air squadrons). Air squadron - from links.

"Glory to Stalin!" (Victory Parade 1945)

By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the aviation of the military districts consisted of separate bomber, fighter, mixed (assault) aviation divisions and separate reconnaissance aviation regiments. In the autumn of 1942, the aviation regiments of all branches of aviation had 32 aircraft each, in the summer of 1943 the number of aircraft in the assault and fighter aviation regiments was increased to 40 aircraft.

Engineering Troops

The divisions were supposed to have an engineering battalion, in rifle brigades - a sapper company. In 1919, special engineering units were formed. The engineering troops were led by the inspector of engineers at the Field Headquarters of the Republic (1918-1921 - A.P. Shoshin), the chiefs of engineers of fronts, armies and divisions. In 1921, the leadership of the troops was entrusted to the Main Military Engineering Directorate. By 1929, full-time engineering units were available in all military branches. After the start of the Great Patriotic War in October 1941, the post of chief of the Engineering Troops was established. During the war, engineer troops built fortifications, created barriers, mined the terrain, ensured the maneuver of troops, made passages in enemy minefields, ensured the overcoming of his engineering barriers, forcing water barriers, participated in the assault on fortifications, cities, etc.

Chemical troops

In the Red Army, chemical troops began to take shape at the end of 1918. November 13, 1918, by order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic No. 220, the Chemical Service of the Red Army was created. By the end of the 1920s, all rifle and cavalry divisions and brigades had chemical units. In 1923, anti-gas teams were introduced into the states of rifle regiments. By the end of the 1920s, all rifle and cavalry divisions and brigades had chemical units. During the Great Patriotic War, the chemical troops included: technical brigades (for setting up smoke and masking large objects), brigades, battalions and companies of chemical protection, flamethrower battalions and companies, bases, warehouses, etc. During the hostilities, they maintained high readiness chemical protection of units and formations in case the enemy used chemical weapons, destroyed the enemy with the help of flamethrowers and carried out smoke camouflage of troops, continuously conducted reconnaissance in order to reveal the preparation of the enemy for a chemical attack and timely warning of their troops, participated in ensuring the constant readiness of military units, formations and formations to perform combat missions in the conditions of the possible use of chemical weapons by the enemy, destroyed the enemy’s manpower and equipment with flamethrower and incendiary means, camouflaged their troops and rear facilities with smoke.

Signal Corps

The first units and communications units in the Red Army were formed in 1918. On October 20, 1919, the Communications Troops were created as independent special troops. In 1941, the post of chief of the Communications Troops was introduced.

Automobile Troops

As part of the Logistics of the Armed Forces of the USSR. In the Soviet Armed Forces appeared during the Civil War. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, they consisted of subdivisions and units. In the Republic of Afghanistan, military motorists were assigned a decisive role in providing OKSVA with all types of materiel. Automobile units and subunits transported goods not only for the troops, but also for the civilian population of the country.

Railway Troops

In 1926, the servicemen of the Separate Corps of the Railway Troops of the Red Army began to carry out topographic reconnaissance of the future BAM route. 1st Guards Naval Artillery Railroad Brigade (converted from 101st Naval Artillery Railroad Brigade) KBF. The title "Guards" was awarded on January 22, 1944. 11th Guards separate railway artillery battery of the KBF. The title "Guards" was awarded on September 15, 1945. There were four railway buildings: two BAMs were built and two in Tyumen, roads were laid to each tower, bridges were erected.

Road Troops

As part of the Logistics of the Armed Forces of the USSR. In the Soviet Armed Forces appeared during the Civil War. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, they consisted of subdivisions and units.

By the middle of 1943, the road troops consisted of: 294 separate road battalions, 22 military highway directorates (VAD) with 110 road commandant sections (DKU), 7 military road departments (VDU) with 40 road detachments (DO), 194 horse transport companies, repair bases, bases for the production of bridge and road structures, educational and other institutions.

Labor army

Military formations (associations) in the Armed Forces of the Soviet Republic in 1920-22, temporarily used for the restoration of the national economy during the Civil War. Each labor army consisted of ordinary rifle formations, cavalry, artillery and other units engaged in labor activities and at the same time retaining the ability to quickly transition to a state of combat readiness. In total, 8 labor armies were formed; in military-administrative terms, they were subordinate to the RVSR, and in economic and labor terms - to the Council of Labor and Defense. The forerunner of military construction units (military construction teams).

Personnel

Each Red Army unit was assigned a political commissar, or political commissar, with the authority to cancel the orders of the unit commander. This was necessary, since no one could know which side the former tsarist officer would take in the next battle. When enough new command cadres had been brought up by 1925, control was loosened.

population

• April 1918 - 196,000
• September 1918 - 196,000
• September 1919 - 3,000,000
• Autumn 1920 - 5,500,000
• January 1925 - 562,000
• March 1932 - 604,300
• January 1937 - 1,518,090
• February 1939 - 1,910,477
• September 1939 - 5,289,400
• June 1940 - 4,055,479
• June 1941 - 5,080,977
• July 1941 - 10,380,000
• Summer 1942 - 11,000,000 people.
• January 1945 - 11,365,000
• February 1946 5,300,000

Conscription and military service

The Red Army go on the attack

Since 1918, the service has been voluntary (built on a volunteer basis). But the self-consciousness of the population was not yet high enough, and on June 12, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars issued the first decree on the conscription of workers and peasants of the Volga, Ural and West Siberian military districts. Following this decree, a number of additional decrees and orders for conscription into the armed forces were issued. On August 27, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars issued the first decree on the drafting of military sailors into the Red Fleet. The Red Army was a militia (from Latin militia - an army), created on the basis of a territorial-militia system. Military units in peacetime consisted of an accounting apparatus and a small number of command personnel; most of it and the rank and file, assigned to military units on a territorial basis, underwent military training by the method of non-military training and at short-term training camps. The system was based on military commissariats located throughout the Soviet Union. During the conscription campaign, young people were distributed on the basis of the quotas of the General Staff for the types of troops and services. After the distribution of conscripts, officers were taken from the units and sent to the course of a young soldier. There was a very small stratum of professional sergeants; most of the sergeants were conscripts who had completed a training course to prepare them for positions as junior commanders.

The term of service in the army for infantry and artillery is 1 year, for cavalry, horse artillery and technical troops - 2 years, for the air fleet - 3 years, for the navy - 4 years.

military training

The system of military education in the Red Army is traditionally divided into three levels. The main one is the system of higher military education, which is a developed network of higher military schools. Their students are called cadets. The term of study is 4-5 years, graduates receive the title of "lieutenant", which corresponds to the position of "platoon commander".

If in peacetime the training program in schools corresponds to obtaining higher education, in wartime it is reduced to secondary special education, the training period is sharply reduced, and short-term command courses lasting six months are organized.

One of the features of military education in the USSR was the system of military academies. Students in them receive a higher military education. This is in contrast to Western countries, where academies usually train junior officers.

The military academies of the Red Army have gone through a number of reorganizations and redeployments, and are divided into different types of troops (Military Academy of Logistics and Transport, Military Medical Academy, Military Academy of Communications, Academy of Strategic Missile Forces, etc.). After 1991, the factually incorrect point of view was propagated that a number of military academies were directly inherited by the Red Army from the tsarist army.

Reserve officers

As in any other army in the world, the system for training reserve officers was organized in the Red Army. Its main goal is to create a large reserve of officers in case of general mobilization in wartime. The general trend of all the armies of the world during the 20th century was a steady increase in the percentage of people with higher education among officers. In the post-war Soviet Army, this figure was actually brought up to 100%.

In keeping with this trend, the Soviet Army considers virtually any civilian with a college degree as a potential wartime reserve officer. For their education, a network of military departments has been deployed at civilian universities, the training program in them corresponds to a higher military school.

Such a system was used for the first time in the world, in Soviet Russia, adopted by the United States, where a significant part of the officers are trained in non-military training courses for reserve officers, and in officer candidate schools.

Armament and military equipment

The development of the Red Army reflected the general trends in the development of military equipment in the world. These include, for example, the formation of tank troops and the air force, the mechanization of the infantry and its transformation into motorized rifle troops, the disbandment of the cavalry, the appearance on the scene of nuclear weapons.

The role of the cavalry

A. Warsaw. Cavalry advance

The First World War, in which Russia took an active part, differed sharply in character and scale from all previous wars. A continuous multi-kilometer front line, and a protracted "trench war" made the widespread use of cavalry practically impossible. However, the Civil War was very different in nature from the First World War.

Its features included excessive stretching and fuzziness of front lines, which made possible the widespread use of cavalry in combat. The specifics of the civil war include the combat use of "carts", most actively used by the troops of Nestor Makhno.

The general trend of the interwar period was the mechanization of troops, and the rejection of horse traction in favor of cars, the development of tank troops. Nevertheless, the need for the complete disbandment of the cavalry was not obvious to most countries of the world. In the USSR, some commanders who grew up during the Civil War spoke in favor of preserving and further developing the cavalry.

In 1941, the Red Army had 13 cavalry divisions deployed up to 34. The final disbandment of the cavalry took place in the mid-50s. The command of the US Army issued an order to mechanize the cavalry in 1942, the existence of the cavalry in Germany ceased along with its defeat in 1945.

Armored trains

Soviet armored train

Armored trains were widely used in many wars long before the Russian Civil War. In particular, they were used by British troops to guard vital rail communications during the Anglo-Boer Wars. They were used during the American Civil War, etc. In Russia, the “boom of armored trains” fell on the Civil War. This was due to its specifics, such as the virtual absence of clear front lines, and the sharp struggle for railways, as the main means for the rapid transfer of troops, ammunition, and bread.

Part of the armored trains were inherited by the Red Army from the tsarist army, while mass production of new, many times superior to the old, armored trains was launched. In addition, until 1919, the mass production of "surrogate" armored trains, assembled from improvised materials from ordinary passenger cars, remained in the absence of any drawings; such an armored train had the worst security, but could be assembled in just a day.

By the end of the Civil War, the Central Council of Armored Units (Tsentrobron) was in charge of 122 full-fledged armored trains, the number of which by 1928 was reduced to 34.

During the interwar period, the technology for the production of armored trains was constantly improved. Many new armored trains were built, and air defense railway batteries were deployed. Armored train units played an important role in the Great Patriotic War, primarily in the protection of railway communications of the operational rear.

At the same time, the rapid development of tank troops and military aviation during the Second World War sharply reduced the importance of armored trains. By the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of February 4, 1958, the further development of railway artillery systems was stopped.

The rich experience gained in the field of armored trains allowed the USSR to add to its nuclear triad also rail-based nuclear forces - military railway missile systems (BZHRK) equipped with RS-22 missiles (in NATO terminology SS-24 "Scalpel"). Their advantages include the possibility of avoiding an impact due to the use of a developed network of railways, and the extreme difficulty of tracking from satellites. One of the main demands of the United States in the 80s was the complete disbandment of the BZHRK as part of a general reduction in nuclear weapons. The United States itself has no analogues of the BZHRK.

Warrior rituals

Revolutionary Red Banner

Each separate combat unit of the Red Army has its own revolutionary Red Banner, handed over to it by the Soviet government. The revolutionary Red Banner is the emblem of the unit, expresses the inner cohesion of its fighters, united by their constant readiness to act at the first demand of the Soviet government to defend the gains of the revolution and the interests of the working people.

The revolutionary Red Banner is in the unit and accompanies it everywhere in its marching-combat and peaceful life. The banner is awarded to the unit for the entire time of its existence. Orders of the Red Banner awarded to individual units are attached to the revolutionary Red Banners of these units.

Military units and formations that have proven their exceptional devotion to the Motherland and have shown outstanding courage in battles with the enemies of the socialist fatherland or have shown high successes in military and political training in peacetime are awarded the "Honorary Revolutionary Red Banner". The "Honorary Revolutionary Red Banner" is a high revolutionary award for the merits of a military unit or formation. It reminds the servicemen of the ardent love of the party of Lenin-Stalin and the Soviet government for the Red Army, of the exceptional achievements of the entire personnel of the unit. This banner serves as a call to improve the quality and pace of combat training and constant readiness to defend the interests of the socialist fatherland.

For each unit or formation of the Red Army, its Revolutionary Red Banner is sacred. It serves as the main symbol of the unit, and the embodiment of its military glory. In the event of the loss of the Revolutionary Red Banner, the military unit is subject to disbandment, and those directly responsible for such disgrace are subject to trial. A separate guard post is established to protect the Revolutionary Red Banner. Each soldier, passing by the banner, is obliged to give him a military salute. On especially solemn occasions, the troops carry out the ritual of the solemn removal of the Revolutionary Red Banner. To be included in the banner group directly conducting the ritual is considered a great honor, which is awarded only to the most worthy military personnel.

military oath

Mandatory for recruits in any army in the world is to bring them to the oath. In the Red Army, this ritual is usually performed a month after the call, after completing the course of a young soldier. Before being sworn in, soldiers are forbidden to be trusted with weapons; there are a number of other restrictions. On the day of the oath, the soldier receives weapons for the first time; he breaks down, approaches the commander of his unit, and reads out a solemn oath to the formation. The oath is traditionally considered an important holiday, and is accompanied by the solemn removal of the Battle Banner.

The text of the oath was as follows:

I, a citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, joining the ranks of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, take an oath and solemnly swear to be an honest, brave, disciplined, vigilant fighter, strictly keep military and state secrets, implicitly comply with all military regulations and orders of commanders, commissars and chiefs.

I swear to conscientiously study military affairs, to protect military property in every possible way and to my last breath to be devoted to my people, my Soviet Motherland and the workers' and peasants' government.

I am always ready, on the orders of the Workers 'and Peasants' Government, to defend my Motherland - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and, as a soldier of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, I swear to defend it courageously, skillfully, with dignity and honor, not sparing my blood and life itself to achieve complete victory over the enemy.

If, by malicious intent, I violate this solemn oath of mine, then let me suffer the severe punishment of Soviet law, the general hatred and contempt of the working people.

Military salute

When moving in formation, a military greeting is performed as follows: the guide puts his hand to the headdress, and the formation presses his hands at the seams, all together moving to the drill step and turning his head as he passes the met authorities. When passing towards units or other military personnel, it is enough for the guides to perform a military greeting.

At a meeting, the junior in rank is obliged to be the first to greet the elder; if they belong to different categories of military personnel (soldier - officer, junior officer - senior officer), a senior in rank may perceive the failure to perform a military greeting at a meeting as an insult.

In the absence of a headgear, a military greeting is given by turning the head and adopting a combat position (hands at the seams, the body is straightened).

L. D. Trotsky became its chairman. His immediate subordinate was the former tsarist colonel, Latvian Joachim Vatsetis, who received the post of the first Soviet commander in chief.

Attempts to found the Red Army on a voluntary basis under the slogan "The Socialist Fatherland is in danger!" turned out to be unsuccessful. The result was a rapid transition to mobilizations. Party members and Red Guards mobilized into the Red Army, and it is forbidden to disband the few units of the former tsarist army that have retained their combat capability, for example, the Guards Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky regiments. On May 29, 1918, on the basis of the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee "On forced recruitment into the worker-peasant army", conscription into the army began.

Non-working elements were called up to the rear militia.

An important step taken by the Bolsheviks was the fight against the "military anarchism" of the first months of the existence of the Red Army. The need for an effective military force forced them to go for the introduction in the army of the obligatory execution of orders from commanders, the restoration of executions for desertion, and the conduct of mass mobilizations in order to ensure the required number of troops. To control the loyalty of "military experts", the positions of commissars were established. In the summer of 1918, the election of commanders was abolished.

Beginning of the Civil War

Commission for the conscription of workers and peasants to the Red Army (1918)

In conflicts between the Cossacks and the non-residents in the traditional Cossack lands, the Bolsheviks sided with the non-residents. The struggle for power on the Don led to the election of the tsarist general A. M. Kaledin as the ataman of the Don Cossacks; on the Don, the formation of a group of senior officers (generals M. V. Alekseev, L. G. Kornilov, A. I. Denikin, S. L. Markov) of the White Guard Volunteer Army began. The signing of the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk by the Bolshevik leadership headed by Trotsky and A. A. Yoffe led to a sharp expansion of the German occupation (by the summer of 1918, the German and Austro-Hungarian armed forces occupied Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, a number of districts of the Pskov and Petrograd provinces, most of Belarus, Ukraine, Crimea, Don region, partly Taman Peninsula, Voronezh and Kursk provinces).

In March 1918, British troops occupied Arkhangelsk, in July - Murmansk, on April 5, Japanese troops occupied Vladivostok. Under the cover of the Entente troops in the north, a White Guard government is being formed, which has begun to form a "Slavic-British Legion" and a "Murmansk Volunteer Army" of 4,500 people, mainly former tsarist officers.

In the Soviet period, the beginning of the civil war was considered to be the rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps in May 1918 - according to a number of historians, this is not true, if only because by this moment the first armed stage of the White Resistance - the struggle in the South of Russia - the First Kuban campaign of the young Volunteer Army (February 9 (22) - May 13, 1918). Another, and the most important, reason to consider this not true for this category of researchers is the complete ignorance of the authors of these statements with the definition of "war" in general, and "civil war" in particular. During the First World War, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and were forced to fight against Russia, despite the strong pro-Russian sentiment that existed at that time among the population of these countries. The tsarist government recruited a corps from Czechoslovak prisoners of war, planning to send it to the front; however, the revolution in Petrograd thwarted these plans. The command of the corps managed to reach an agreement with the Bolsheviks on sending to France through Vladivostok. At the time of the uprising, the corps was greatly stretched along the railroad.

At this stage, the corps was actually the only combat-ready military force in the country: the tsarist army disintegrated, and the Red Army and the white armies were still in the process of formation. The clashes between the Czechoslovak command and the Bolshevik agitators became one of the reasons for the simultaneous rebellion along the entire route of the corps. In Samara, the Czechoslovaks overthrew the Bolsheviks and supported the formation of the SR-Menshevik Komuch (committee of members of the Constituent Assembly). This event led to the fall of Soviet power over vast territories. In Siberia, a weak government of the Ufa Directory was formed. After the return to Russia of the former tsarist admiral A.V. Kolchak, determined officers organized a coup on November 18, 1918, which brought him to power.

The course of the war

The next stage of the civil war in Russia was the "white flood"; three main white armies were formed - the Volunteer Army on the Don (the first commander was General L. G. Kornilov, after his death on April 13, 1918 - General A. I. Denikin), in Siberia - the army of A. V. Kolchak (proclaimed by the Supreme The ruler of Russia with the capital in Omsk), in the north-west - the army of General N. N. Yudenich. Already in September 1918, the Komuch government collapsed under blows from two sides - the Whites and the Reds. Kolchak's troops reached the Urals, and Denikin's - to Kyiv, on October 13, 1919 they occupied Oryol. Yudenich's troops in September 1919 directly threatened Petrograd.

The powerful offensive of the White armies was stopped by the Red Army at the end of 1919. 1920 was the time of the "red flood": the offensive of the Red Army on all fronts was supported by the formed First Cavalry Army of S. M. Budyonny. General Yudenich with the slogan "United and indivisible Russia" did not receive support from Finland and Estonia, his troops at the end of 1919 were forced to retreat to the territory of Estonia, where they were subsequently interned. In January 1920, Admiral Kolchak was arrested in Irkutsk by the authorities of the Menshevik-SR Political Center, handed over to the Bolsheviks, and on February 7, 1920 he was shot. The Volunteer Army of General Denikin experienced friction with the Cossacks, in Ukraine she also had to fight, in addition to the Red Army, also with the Petliurists, and Makhno's troops. On January 10, 1920, the Red Army occupied Rostov-on-Don, in 1920 the Volunteer Army began a mass retreat to the south; On February 8, 1920, the Red Army occupied Odessa, on March 27 - Novorossiysk.

After the withdrawal of the Entente troops from the Northern Region (September 1919 - the evacuation of the interventionists from Arkhangelsk, February 1920 - from Murmansk), the disintegration of the local White Guard government began. On February 20, 1920, the Provisional Government of the Northern Region and its army fled to Finland and Norway; on February 21, 1920, the Red Army entered the Northern Region.

Legionnaires of the Czechoslovak Corps

In 1919-1921. The Red Army also participated in the Soviet-Polish war. By signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Russia de jure recognized the independence of Poland, de facto independent from the beginning of the German occupation in the summer of 1915 (Germany occupied Poland, Lithuania, part of Belarus west of the Dvinsk-Sventsyany-Pinsk line, the Moonsund Islands, part of Latvia, including Riga and Riga district, part of Ukraine). After Piłsudski came to power, Poland began to hatch plans for the restoration of the great Commonwealth “from sea to sea”. On May 6, 1920, Polish troops occupied Kyiv, but by mid-July 1920 they were driven back to the borders of Poland. The attempt of the Red Army to advance and further ended in disaster for it; instead of the uprising of the Polish proletariat expected by the Bolsheviks, the local population perceived the Red Army as Russian occupiers. In March 1921, a peace treaty was signed, transferring Western Belarus and Western Ukraine to Poland.

On October 28, 1920, the Red Army crossed the Sivash, and broke through the defenses of the White Armed Forces of the South of Russia under the command of Baron P. N. Wrangel in the Crimea. On November 14-16, 1920, the remnants of the White Guards were evacuated from the Crimea.

End of the war

In early 1920, the Bolsheviks recognized the Far Eastern Republic (FER), which was supposed to serve as a buffer between them and the Japanese occupiers. The main forces of the region, in addition to the Bolsheviks, the troops of the Far Eastern Republic and the Japanese, were also the Transbaikal Cossacks of Ataman Semyonov. Under the pressure of the Bolsheviks, as well as the Entente countries, who feared the strengthening of Japan, the FER troops were withdrawn from Transbaikalia in the fall of 1920.

In 1939, the Soviet Union demanded that Finland transfer the territories bordering Leningrad in exchange for sparsely populated territories in the north, or rather, suggested that the Finnish government consider a request to move the border from a line 30 kilometers from Leningrad (heavy artillery shot distance) to a safe for the USSR, the distance, in exchange for significantly larger territories in an area that does not threaten the security of the USSR, and, only having received a categorical refusal to discuss any conditions and generally negotiate, was forced, after a series of provocations from the Finnish side, to move to decisive action. The Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army crossed the border on November 30, 1939. The aggravation of relations led to the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-40 (in Finnish sources - "Winter War"). The Finns' excellent knowledge of their territory, the widespread use of ski units and snipers, and most importantly, the advance (two months before the start of the Red Army's operations) full mobilization led to numerous losses among the Red Army (330 thousand people, including those killed and missing - 80 thousand). However, the enormous numerical and technical superiority of the Red Army of the Soviet Union led Finland to defeat with loss rates worse than normal for such conditions. On February 12, 1940, the Mannerheim Line was broken. Losses of 48.3 thousand people killed and 45 thousand wounded were also excessively large for the 200 thousand Finnish army.

At this stage, a number of Western powers viewed the USSR as a country fighting in World War II on the side of Germany, which is especially surprising given that Finland had been pursuing an exclusively pro-German policy since 1935. The USSR was excluded from the League of Nations as an aggressor; the possibility of sending volunteers to Finland, which had not yet been realized, was declared.

June 22, 1941

On the day of the surprise attack of the Nazis - June 22, 1941 - the number of field forces of the Red Army consisted of 303 divisions and 22 brigades in 4.8 million people, including 166 divisions and 9 brigades in 2.9 million people near the western borders of the USSR in the western military districts. The Axis concentrated 181 divisions and 18 brigades (3.5 million men) on the Eastern Front. The first months of the invasion led the Red Army to the loss of hundreds of thousands of people in encirclement, the loss of valuable weapons, military aircraft, tanks and artillery. The Soviet leadership announced a general mobilization, and by August 1, 1941, despite the loss of 46 divisions in battle, the Red Army had 401 divisions.

Large losses are explained, as is commonly believed, by the low readiness for an attack by Germany.

The first major success of the Red Army was the counter-offensive near Moscow on December 5, 1941, as a result of which German troops were driven back from the city, although the Red Army's attempt to go on the general offensive ended in disaster.

The Soviet government resorted to a series of emergency measures in order to stop the retreating Red Army. One of the effective means was the execution of those fleeing the battlefield, introduced by Stalin's order, which received the unofficial name "Not a step back."

The political commissars, conceived as messengers of the party, called upon to keep an eye on the commanders, lost their power. They were renamed political deputies and became subordinate unit commanders. However, the most radical step was the restoration of pre-revolutionary military ranks and insignia, with minor changes. During the civil war, there were no ranks and insignia in it initially. However, already in 1918, appeals were introduced for the position held, “comrade of the platoon commander”, “comrade of the regiment commander”, etc., and insignia were introduced to denote the position. The greatest hatred among the Bolsheviks was caused by shoulder straps, as a symbol of the old regime.

In 1938, as an experiment, personal military ranks were introduced for the highest ranks of the Red Army. In 1943, ranks and insignia, developed on the basis of the royal ones, were introduced for all military personnel.

The course of the war

In the territories occupied by the Nazis, the NKVD organized a broad partisan movement, for example, in Ukraine alone in August 1943, 24,500 Soviet partisans operated.

Soviet poster

The surrender took place in the period May 9-17, during which time the Red Army captured 1 million 390 thousand 978 soldiers and officers, and 101 generals. At the request of the USSR, on May 23, the German government of Karl Dönitz was dissolved. On June 5, the Declaration of the Defeat of Germany was signed, transferring all power in Germany to the victors.

At the end of World War II, the Soviet Army was the most powerful army in history. It had more tanks and artillery than all the other countries put together, more soldiers, more honored great generals. The British General Staff rejected the plan of Operation Unthinkable to overthrow the Stalin government and oust the Red Army from Europe as unworkable.

As part of the "crusade against Bolshevism" announced by Hitler, a number of European countries took part in the hostilities against the USSR, while actually pursuing their national interests:

• Finland - participated in the occupation of Karelia and the blockade of Leningrad as revenge for the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-40. In Finnish sources, military operations against the USSR in the period 1941-1944 are usually called "Continuation War". After the return of the territories, Mannerheim ordered the troops to go on the defensive; On June 9, the Red Army launched an offensive; on September 5, Finland went over to the side of the anti-Hitler coalition.
• Spain - the "Blue Division" numbering 18 thousand people took part in the hostilities on the Eastern Front. This unit was recruited from volunteers - Falangists, staunch supporters of the dictator General Franco, while the USSR supported the other side during the Spanish Civil War - the Republicans. By October 1943, the formation lost 12,776 people and was withdrawn from the front.
• France - an infantry regiment of 2,452 men recruited in Vichy France fought on the Eastern Front. Disbanded 1 September 1944
• Italy - sent to the USSR the Italian Expeditionary Force in Russia (Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Russia, CSIR), numbering 62 thousand people. It was defeated as a result of the breakthrough of the Red Army on the Don on November 19.
• Romania - the troops underwent a series of reorganizations. The Romanian army participated in the occupation of Bessarabia, Ukraine, Crimea, and was the largest allied contingent from among the German satellite countries (267,727 people). The offensive of the Red Army in August 1944 caused a coup in Romania (King Mihai I overthrew the dictator Antonescu), and a transition to the side of the anti-Hitler coalition on August 25.
• Hungary - sent to the Eastern Front in 1941 a mobile corps of 40 thousand people (destroyed and returned to Budapest on December 6, 1941), 4 infantry brigades with a total number of 63 thousand people, and the 2nd army, consisting of 9 light infantry divisions. Defeated during the Soviet offensive on January 12-14. The Hungarian government enters into negotiations with the USSR, and signs an armistice on October 15; German troops organize a coup d'état and force Hungary to continue the war. The fighting in Budapest continues until the very end of the war.

Liberation of Europe from the Wehrmacht

The offensive of 1944 allowed the Red Army to move on to liberation from the German occupiers of a number of European countries. Soviet troops fought in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia, occupied Bulgaria, and occupied East Germany.

This laid the foundation for the subsequent formation of the so-called. "socialist camp" in Europe. However, its borders did not coincide with the territories of those countries that the Red Army liberated; thus, the communists in Yugoslavia came to power thanks to the partisan People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, which was virtually independent of Moscow. There were no Soviet troops on the territory of Albania either.

On the other hand, the Red Army liberated the capital of Austria, Vienna, and the island of Bornholm in Denmark, where pro-Soviet power had not been established.

The fighting took place in the following countries:

• Poland. In July-August 1944, the Red Army occupies territories east of the Vistula, which make up a quarter of Poland with a population of 5 million people. The Krayova Army is deployed - the armed forces of the Polish government in exile, and the People's Army - the militant organization of the pro-Soviet Polish Workers' Party (in 1944 it was reorganized into the Polish Army). On August 1, 1944, the Home Army organizes an anti-German uprising in Warsaw, which is suppressed by Germany with the most cruel methods. The question of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 remains debatable; supporters of one point of view argue that the Red Army deliberately "stopped at the Warsaw walls", since the uprising was organized by the Polish government in exile, in Soviet sources referred to as "the government in exile in London." Proponents of a different point of view point out that in August 1944 the Red Army was physically unable to come to the aid of the rebels. In January 1945, the Soviet-Polish troops force the Vistula and reach the Oder.
• Romania. In the spring of 1944, the Red Army enters the territory of this country. Soviet superiority over the Romanian troops is estimated at nine to one. This circumstance causes a coup on August 23, 1944. The Romanian king Mihai I overthrows the pro-German dictator Antonescu. Uprisings break out in Bucharest, Ploiesti, Brasov and others. On August 31, Soviet troops enter Bucharest. September 12, 1944 Romania signs an agreement to join the anti-Hitler coalition; the clauses of this agreement provide for the dissolution of pro-Hitler organizations and the prohibition of propaganda against the anti-Hitler coalition.
• Bulgaria. She fought on the side of Germany in both world wars. Nevertheless, the traditional pro-Russian sentiments led to the fact that Bulgaria did not formally declare war on the USSR, and did not send troops to the Eastern Front. Bulgarian units carried out occupational service in Greece and Yugoslavia, releasing German troops. This circumstance prompted the USSR to enter the territory of Bulgaria on September 8, 1944. The advance of the Red Army did not meet any resistance, and, in turn, caused the uprising of the Fatherland Front in Sofia on September 9, 1944. The new government declares war on Germany and Hungary.
• Czechoslovakia. The Red Army enters the territory of Slovakia on September 8, and begins battles with the German troops with the active support of the Czechoslovak partisans. The army of the pro-German government of Slovakia goes over to the side of the USSR. A new Soviet offensive begins in the spring of 1945, on May 5, 1945, an uprising breaks out in Prague. By the 7th, the position of the rebels becomes critical. On May 9, Soviet troops enter Prague.
• Yugoslavia. By 1944, widespread anti-German resistance unfolded in Yugoslavia, the main forces of which were the communist People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia (NOAYU), numbering up to 400 thousand people under the command of Josip Broz Tito, and the monarchist "Officer Movement" of the Chetniks (from the Serbian "couple" - "Squad"), under the command of D. Mikhailovich. The weak activity of the Chetniks, and their propensity for collaborationism, was combined with clashes with the forces of the NOAU. On September 28, 1944, the Red Army strikes in the direction of Belgrade. By October 21, Soviet troops, with the support of Bulgarian troops and the NOAU, occupy Belgrade. A group of Chetniks pose with German soldiers.

• Hungary. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I, the former admiral M. Horthy, a staunch supporter of Germany, comes to power. In August 1944, the Red Army entered the territory of Hungary. Her government proposes to conclude a truce, however, with the support of the Germans, on October 17, the leader of the fascist organization Arrow Cross F. Salashi comes to power. On December 26, the Soviet offensive closed the Hungarian and German troops in the Budapest area. On December 28, the new government declares war on Germany. The completion of the liberation of Hungary takes place in 1945.
• Austria. On April 6, 1945, the Red Army began street fighting in Vienna, which ended on April 13. On April 9, the government of the USSR makes a statement that "The Soviet government does not pursue the goal of acquiring part of the Austrian territories, or changing the social system of Austria." On April 27, 1945, Austria regains state sovereignty, destroyed during the Anschluss of 1938.
• Denmark. On May 9, 1945, the Red Army lands on the Danish island of Bornholm, and accepts the surrender of 12,000 German soldiers and officers. On May 19, representatives of the Danish government arrive at Bornholm to express gratitude.
• Norway. In October 1944, the Red Army liberates Pechenga, and enters the northeastern regions of Norway. The German grouping in this country capitulates only in May 1945.
• Finland. In the summer of 1944, the Red Army strikes at the Finns, occupies Vyborg on June 20, and Petrozavodsk on June 28. On September 19, 1944, Finland signs an armistice agreement with the USSR, the Lapland War with Germany begins.

Organization

In the first months of its existence, the Red Army was conceived without ranks and insignia, with free elections of commanders. However, already on May 29, 1918, compulsory military service was declared for men aged 18 to 40. To carry out mass recruitment into the troops, the Bolsheviks organized military commissariats (military enlistment offices), which continue to exist today, retaining their former functions and their former name. The military commissariats should not be confused with the institution of political commissars in the troops.

In the mid-1920s, a military reform was carried out in the USSR, which laid the basis for the formation of the Red Army on the territorial-militia principle. In each region, men capable of holding weapons were called up for a limited time to territorial units that made up about half of the army. The first term of service was three months during the year, then - one month a year for five years. At the same time, the regular frame remained the core of the system. In 1925, such an organization provided 46 out of 77 infantry divisions, and 1 out of 11 cavalry divisions. The term of service in the regular (non-territorial) troops was 2 years. Subsequently, the territorial system was dissolved, with a complete reorganization into personnel divisions in 1937-38.

With the beginning of industrialization in the USSR, a campaign for technical re-equipment and mechanization of troops was also launched. The first mechanized unit was formed in 1930. They became the 1st Mechanized Brigade, which consisted of a tank regiment, a motorized rifle regiment, a reconnaissance battalion, and an artillery battalion (corresponding to a battalion). After such humble beginnings, the Red Army began to form in 1932 the first operational-level mechanized formations in its history, the 11th and 45th mechanized corps. They included tank units in their composition, and were able to independently solve a number of combat missions without support from the fronts.

By order of the Soviet People's Commissar of Defense on July 6, 1940, nine mechanized corps were formed. Between February and March 1941, an order was issued to form another 20 such corps. Officially, the Red Army consisted of 29 mechanized corps in 1941, with no less than 29,899 tanks, but a number of historians are of the opinion that in fact there were only 17,000 tanks. A number of models were obsolete, there was a significant shortage of spare parts. On June 22, 1941, only 1,475 T-34 tanks and KV series tanks were in service with the Red Army, and they were too heavily dispersed along the front line. In the future, the 3rd Mechanized Corps in Lithuania was formed with 460 tanks, 109 of which were the latest T-34s and KV-1s at that time. The 4th Army had 520 tanks, all obsolete T-26s, despite the fact that it had to fight the enemy, who fielded 1,031 new medium tanks. According to other sources, in terms of combat qualities, the main tanks of the Red Army of the period 1940-1942. were on par with or superior to German tanks. New types of tanks (T-34 and KV) had superiority over all German tanks and were less vulnerable to enemy anti-tank artillery. The shortage of T-34 tanks was common for the Red Army at the beginning of the war, and played a role in its defeats in 1941.

Another point of view

The leadership of the USSR in the 30s came up with the following theses:

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army is the armed force of the workers and peasants of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It is called upon to guard and defend our Motherland, the world's first socialist working-class state.

Due to historical conditions, the Red Army exists as an invincible, all-destroying force. That's how she is, that's how she always will be.

Some observers explained the defeats of the Red Army in the first period of the Great Patriotic War by the low qualifications of the higher and middle command personnel. As the former commander of the howitzer battery of the 14th Panzer Division, Ya. I. Dzhugashvili, who was captured near Senno (See Lepel counterattack), said during interrogation:

The failures of the [Soviet] tank forces are not due to the poor quality of materials or weapons, but inability to command and lack of experience in maneuvering Wikipedia

At the end of November 1917, a new type of army was created in the shortest possible time to protect the socialist revolution. At the end of November-December 1917, the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs instructed the Main Directorate of the General Staff to develop a project for the creation of a military police. On December 8, the note of the General Staff was discussed at a meeting of the Collegium of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs.

The meeting adopted the idea of ​​organizing the army on a territorial-militia basis. The first legislative act in the formation of a new army was the "Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People", approved by the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets on January 12 (25), 1918, which spoke about arming the workers.

Late in the evening on January 28, 1918, members of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Republic gathered, as usual, in the "Red Room" of Smolny. VI Lenin opened the 47th meeting of the Council of People's Commissars and announced the agenda. The seventh paragraph in it was formulated as follows: "Decree on the Red Army."

IN AND. Lenin

On February 11, the signing of the Decree on the organization of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Fleet took place. Taking advantage of the military weakness of the Soviet Republic, violating the truce concluded with it, the German and Austro-Hungarian troops went on the offensive on February 18, 1918 on a broad front from the Baltic to the Carpathians. 59 selected, well-armed divisions were thrown into the battle. Encountering no resistance from the demoralized parts of the Russian army, the interventionists quickly advanced towards Petrograd, deep into Belarus and Ukraine. On February 21, the decree-appeal of the Soviet government "The Socialist Fatherland is in danger!" was published, in which the workers and peasants were urged to come out in defense of the freedom they had won.

Leonid Trotsky was appointed Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs.

As subsequent events showed, this was perhaps the most successful personnel appointment of the Soviet era. It is clear that not only Trotsky was involved in the construction of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA), but a whole galaxy of major military figures and Bolshevik politicians. The Red Army has many parents, however, according to military historians, the main one, without a doubt, was Trotsky. It was he who, having confused all the cards of the whites, and the West as well, tipped the scales of the civil war in favor of the Bolsheviks. The leading role of Trotsky in the creation of the Red Army was also recognized by his direct opponents in the civil war - the generals of the White Army.

The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History, which, with rare exceptions, is highly objective, states: “The disunity of the White command, on the one hand, and Trotsky’s administrative and strategic talent, on the other, decided the outcome of the matter. Both opposing armies were born from a mass of peasant partisans and non-professional militias. Through trial and error, Trotsky forged from his masses a professional and combat-ready army.

Finally, the Red Army played an important role not only as a defender of the fatherland or as an instrument of Bolshevik policy outside the USSR. The army created by Trotsky became almost the main forge and educator of Soviet personnel. It was in the army that the large peasant mass of Russia was subjected to the first, albeit primitive, but effective socialist treatment. The peasant was taught, and not only military, but also general literacy, fed, treated, prepared ideologically. The army gave a start in life not only to major Soviet commanders, but also to scientists, "red directors", artists, and writers.

Trotsky had much of what a true military man should have, in particular, the character of a leader, iron will, personal courage and organizational talent. As for special knowledge, then, given Trotsky's industriousness and generally high general educational level, all this was a matter of gain. Pretty soon after his appointment, the people's commissar could already appreciate the advice of military experts and make professionally competent decisions.

Perhaps the main enemy of the people's commissar at the first stage of creating a regular army was anarchy, to which he opposed the most severe discipline.

If the issue of the birthday of the Red Army was decided not by propagandists, but by military specialists and historians, then they would most likely shift the date of its birth from spring to autumn 1918. On February 23, the Red Army existed only in the draft, being in fact all that unorganized, and therefore unpredictable Red Guard, capable of both a heroic attack and a stampede. By mid-September, thanks to the talents and incredible efforts of a number of "military builders" and, above all, thanks, of course, to Trotsky, the Red Army began to acquire the features of a regular, manageable and effective military force. That's when she was born. Of the three armies that arose in the vastness of revolutionary Russia after October 1917, the White, Green and Red were the most effective. The Reds managed to defeat both the Whites, despite the support of this movement by the West, and the Greens, although they relied on the most numerous class in Russia - the peasantry.

Lev Davidovich put three principles at the basis of military organizational development. General military training of the working people, which was supposed to ensure a constant influx of a more or less trained reserve into the army. The wide involvement of military specialists of the tsarist army in the work, which made it possible to build a truly professional armed forces. And the widespread planting in the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army of ideological overseers - commissars, which guaranteed the protection of the interests of the revolution and the Bolshevik party.

An equally important component of the Trotskyist "cement" was the use in military construction, former officers and generals of the tsarist army. If ideologically the Red Army was built on a fundamentally new foundation, then professionally, whether it wanted it or not, it inherited the traditions of the old Russian army.

The formation of military regiments and divisions of the Red Army, including the first Red Army corps in the Petrograd region, proceeded at an accelerated pace. In total, about 60 thousand people were mobilized in the capital to repel the enemy during February 22-23, of which 20 thousand immediately went to the front.

In Moscow, about 20 thousand people signed up for the Red Army. Then, on February 22 and 23, 1918, near Pskov and Narva, in Belarus and Ukraine, there were oncoming battles between the newly formed units of the Red Army and the Kaiser invaders. The following fought near Pskov: the First Red Army Regiment (commander Alexander Nikolaevich Paradelov, former battalion commander, lieutenant colonel of the tsarist army), the Second Red Army regiment (commander Alexander Ivanovich Cherepanov, former company commander, staff captain of the tsarist army), the First Revel Red Estonian Regiment, formed by Viktor Eduardovich Kingisepp (one of the active figures in the revolutionary movement in Russia and Estonia, a member of the Executive Committee of Soviets of the Estland region), the Sixth Tukums, Fifth, Seventh and Eighth Latvian regiments, the Moscow and Third rifle reserve revolutionary regiments, a detachment of the Pskov Red Guards and soldiers of the railway troops.

In the central direction, resistance to the German troops was provided by the Vitebsk, Orsha and Mogilev detachments, led by Alexander Fedorovich Myasnikov (real name Myasnikyan), a lawyer and writer, a participant in the First World War, in November 1917, at the Congress of Deputies of the armies of the Western Front, he was elected commander of the front.

Detachments under the command of Yan Karlovich Berzin, a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, a former private in the tsarist army, also fought there. In the area between Bobruisk and Zhlobin, soldiers of the 3rd brigade of the Latvian riflemen fought, the commander of which was Joakim Ioakimovich Vatsetis, a former colonel, regiment commander of the tsarist army. In Ukraine, detachments under the command of P.V. Egorov, R.F. Sievers, V.I. Kikvidze, G.I. Chudnovsky, A.I. Ivanov, Yu.M. M.Primakova.

In commemoration of the mass rise of the working people to defend the Soviet Fatherland, the courageous repulse of the first regiments and detachments of the Red Army, the revolutionary Baltic Fleet against the German invaders on land and at sea, February 23 has been celebrated annually since 1919 as the Day of the Soviet Army and Navy.

Vladimir Lenin believed that in the country of the victorious proletariat, the need for a regular army would disappear. In 1917, he wrote the work "State and Revolution", where he advocated the replacement of the regular army with the general armament of the people.

The armament of the people by the end of the First World War was indeed close to universal. True, by no means all the people were ready to defend the “gains of the revolution” with arms in their hands.
At the first clashes "with the cruel revolutionary reality," the idea of ​​a voluntary principle of recruitment into the Red Guard detachments showed its complete unviability.

"The principle of voluntariness" as a factor in inciting civil war

The detachments of the Red Guard, assembled in late 1917 and early 1918 from volunteers, quickly degenerated into semi-bandit or openly bandit formations. Here is how one of the delegates to the VIII Congress of the RCP (b) recalls this period of the formation of the Red Army: “... The best elements were knocked out, died, were captured, and thus a selection of the worst elements was created. These worst elements were joined by those who went to the volunteer army not to fight and die, but went because they were left without work, because they were thrown out into the street as a result of a catastrophic breakdown of the entire social order. Finally, just the half-rotten remnants of the old army went there ... ".
It was the "gangster bias" of the first Red Army detachments that provoked the proliferation of the civil war. Suffice it to recall the uprisings of the Don Cossacks in April 1918, outraged by the "revolutionary" lawlessness.

The real birthday of the Red Army

Around the holiday on February 23, many copies broke and breaks. Its supporters say that it was on this day that the “revolutionary consciousness of the working masses” woke up, spurred on by the just published appeal of the Council of People’s Commissars of February 21 “The socialist fatherland is in danger”, as well as the “Appeal of the Military Commander-in-Chief” Nikolai Krylenko, which ended with the words : “All to arms. All in defense of the revolution." Rallies were held in large cities of central Russia, primarily in Petrograd and Moscow, after which thousands of volunteers signed up for the Red Army. With their help, in March 1918, with difficulty, it was possible to stop the advance of small German units approximately on the line of the modern Russian-Estonian border.

On January 15 (28), 1918, the Council of People's Commissars of Soviet Russia issued a Decree on the Creation of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (published on January 20 (February 2), 1918). However, it seems that April 22, 1918 can be considered the real birthday of the Red Army. On this day, by the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee "On the procedure for filling positions in the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army", the election of command personnel was canceled. The commanders of individual units, brigades, divisions began to be appointed by the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs, and the commanders of battalions, companies and platoons were recommended for positions by local military registration and enlistment offices.

The Bolsheviks in the construction of the Red Army once again demonstrated the skillful use of "double standards". If in order to destroy and demoralize the tsarist army, they welcomed its “democratization” in every possible way, then the aforementioned decree returned the Red Army to the “vertical of power”, without which no combat-ready army in the world can exist.

From Democracy to Decimation

Leon Trotsky played an important role in the formation of the Red Army. It was he who set the course for building an army on traditional principles: unity of command, the restoration of the death penalty, mobilization, the restoration of insignia, uniform uniforms and even military parades, the first of which took place on May 1, 1918 in Moscow, on the Khodynka field. An important step was the fight against the "military anarchism" of the first months of the existence of the Red Army. For example, executions for desertion were restored. By the end of 1918, the power of the military committees was reduced to nothing.
People's Commissar Trotsky, by his personal example, showed the red commanders how to restore discipline. On August 10, 1918, he arrived in Sviyazhsk to take part in the battles for Kazan. When the 2nd Petrograd Regiment arbitrarily fled from the battlefield, Trotsky applied the ancient Roman ritual of decimation to deserters (execution of every tenth by lot). On August 31, Trotsky personally shot 20 people from among the unauthorized retreating units of the 5th Army.
With the filing of Trotsky, by a decree of July 29, the entire population of the country liable for military service between the ages of 18 and 40 was registered and military horse duty was established. This made it possible to sharply increase the size of the armed forces. In September 1918, about half a million people were already in the ranks of the Red Army - more than two times more than 5 months ago.
By 1920, the number of the Red Army was already more than 5.5 million people.

Commissioners are the key to success

The sharp increase in the number of the Red Army led to the fact that an acute shortage of competent, trained military commanders began to be felt. Voluntarily, according to various sources, from 2 to 8 thousand former "tsarist officers" joined the ranks of the Red Army. This was clearly not enough. Therefore, in relation to the most suspicious social group from the point of view of the Bolsheviks, they also had to resort to the method of mobilization. However, they could not rely entirely on the "military experts", as the officers of the Imperial Army began to be called. This is also why the institute of commissars was introduced in the troops, who looked after the "former".
This step played perhaps the main role in the outcome of the Civil War. It was the commissars, who were all members of the RCP(b), who undertook political work both with the troops and with the population. Relying on a powerful propaganda apparatus, they intelligibly explained to the fighters why it was necessary to fight for Soviet power "to the last drop of workers' and peasants' blood." While explaining the goals of the "whites", as an additional burden fell on the officers, who basically had a purely military education and were completely unprepared for such work. Therefore, not only ordinary White Guards, but also the officers themselves often did not have a clear idea of ​​what they were fighting for.

The Reds defeated the Whites more by numbers than skill. So, even in the most difficult period for the Bolsheviks at the end of the summer - in the fall of 1919, when the fate of the world's first Soviet republic hung in the balance, the number of the Red Army exceeded the combined strength of all the White armies at that time, according to various sources from 1.5 to 3 times.
One of the outstanding phenomena in the history of military art was the legendary red cavalry. At first, a clear advantage in the cavalry was for the whites, for whom, as you know, the majority of the Cossacks spoke. In addition, the South and South-East of Russia (territories where horse breeding was traditionally developed) were cut off from the Bolsheviks. But gradually, from separate red cavalry regiments and cavalry detachments, a transition began to the formation of brigades, and then divisions. So, a small equestrian partisan detachment of Semyon Budyonny, created in February 1918, grew within a year to a consolidated cavalry division of the Tsaritsyn Front, and then to the First Cavalry Army, which played an important, and, according to some historians, a decisive role in the defeat of Denikin's army . During the years of the Civil War, in individual operations, the red cavalry accounted for up to half of the total number of troops involved in the Red Army. Often horse attacks were supported by powerful machine gun fire from carts.

The success of the combat operations of the Soviet cavalry during the years of the Civil War was facilitated by the vastness of the theaters of operations, the stretching of the opposing armies on broad fronts, the presence of gaps that were poorly covered or not at all occupied by troops, which were used by cavalry formations to reach the enemy’s flanks and carry out deep raids in his rear. Under these conditions, the cavalry could fully realize its combat properties and capabilities: mobility, surprise attacks, speed and decisiveness of actions.

On February 23, 1918, a new military force appeared in Russia - the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA). The members of the young military organization received their baptism of fire in clashes with the White Guards, as well as German and Polish troops. Despite the lack of professional personnel and proper combat training, the soldiers of the Red Army were able to turn the tide of world history by winning the Great Patriotic War. Despite the political upheavals of the last hundred years, the Russian army has remained faithful to military traditions. About the main stages of the creation and development of the Red Army - in the material RT.

• Cavalry of the Red Army during the Civil War
• RIA News

The Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) originated on the territory of the former Russian Empire. From November 1917, the nominal leadership of the state was carried out by the Bolsheviks (RSDLP (b), the radical wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party).

Most of the "old regime" generals were in opposition to them. It was he, along with the Cossacks, who formed the backbone of the White Guard movement. In addition, the main external opponents of the new political structure of Russia were Kaiser's Germany (until November 1918), Poland, Great Britain, France and the USA.

A powerful military grouping was supposed to protect the young socialist republic from political opponents and foreign troops. The Bolsheviks took the first steps in this direction in the winter of 1917-1918.

The Soviet authorities liquidated the recruiting system for the tsarist army, abolishing all ranks and ranks. On January 28, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a Decree on the creation of the Red Army, and on February 11, on the creation of a fleet. Nevertheless, February 23 is considered the founding day of the Red Army - the date of publication of the appeal of the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) "The socialist fatherland is in danger!".

The document spoke of the expansionist plans of "German militarism". In this regard, the citizens of the RSFSR were called upon to throw all their forces and means into the "cause of the revolutionary struggle." Military personnel in the western regions had to defend "every position to the last drop of blood."

From workers, peasants and "able-bodied members of the bourgeois class" battalions were created to dig trenches under the guidance of military specialists. Speculators, hooligans, agents and spies of the enemy, as well as counter-revolutionaries, were to be shot at the scene of the crime.

• German troops in Kyiv, March 1918
• RIA News

At the stage of formation

The Red Army was formed in the most difficult military-political and economic conditions. Before coming to power, the Bolsheviks sought to demoralize the tsarist military by calling the war with Germany and Austria-Hungary "imperialist". The leader of the RSDLP (b), Vladimir Lenin, demanded a separate peace with the Germans and predicted an imminent regime change in Berlin.

After the seizure of power, the Bolsheviks refused to fight against Kaiser's Germany, but they failed to agree on peace. Taking advantage of Russia's weakness, German troops occupied Ukraine and became a real threat to the Bolshevik government.

At the same time, "counter-revolutionary" forces were growing in the former Russian Empire. In the south of Russia, in the Volga region and in the Urals, White Guard formations were formed. The opposition of the RSDLP (b) was supported by Western countries, which in 1918-1919 occupied part of the coastal territories of the country.

The Bolsheviks needed to create a combat-ready army, and in the shortest possible time. For some time this was hindered by the excessively democratic views of the ideologists of Bolshevism.

However, such a view of the purpose of the armed forces of the Council of People's Commissars, which was headed by Lenin, had to be abandoned. In January 1918, the Bolsheviks actually headed for the construction of a typical regular army, which is based on the principles of unity of command, the "vertical of power" and the inevitability of punishment for non-execution of orders.

• Vladimir Lenin on Sverdlov Square in front of the troops, Moscow, May 5, 1920
• RIA News
• G. Goldstein

The paper approves the conscription system for recruiting troops. Citizens under the age of 18 could serve in the Red Army. Red Army soldiers were assigned a monthly salary of 50 rubles. The Red Army was proclaimed an instrument for protecting the rights of workers and was supposed to consist of "exploited classes."

The Red Army was declared "the worst enemy of capitalism", and therefore was completed according to the class principle. The commanding staff were to include only workers and peasants. The term of service in the infantry of the Red Army was set at one and a half years, in the cavalry - two and a half years. At the same time, the Bolsheviks convinced the citizens that the regular character of the Red Army would gradually change to a "militia" one.

In their achievements, the Bolsheviks recorded a significant reduction in the number of troops compared with the tsarist period - from 5 million to 600 thousand people. However, by 1920, about 5.5 million soldiers and officers were already serving in the ranks of the Red Army.

Young army

A huge contribution to the formation of the Red Army was made by the People's Commissar for Military Affairs of the RSFSR (since March 17, 1918) Lev Trotsky. He eliminated any indulgence, restoring the authority of commanders and the practice of executions for desertion.

Iron discipline, combined with active propaganda of revolutionary ideas and the fight against the invaders, became the key to the success of the Red Army on the eastern, southern and western fronts. By 1920, the Bolsheviks had conquered regions rich in natural resources, which made it possible to provide troops with food and ammunition.

Changes for the better have also taken place in relations with Western countries. In 1919, German troops left Ukraine, and in 1920 the interventionists left the previously occupied Russian territories. However, bloody battles in 1919-1921 unfolded with the recreated Polish state.

The Soviet-Polish war ended with the signing of the Riga Peace Treaty on March 18, 1921. Warsaw, which had previously been part of the Russian Empire, received the vast lands of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.

At the end of 1920, when the threat of Bolshevik power had passed, Lenin announced a mass demobilization. The size of the army fell to half a million people, and the citizens who served were recorded in the reserve. In the mid-1920s, the Red Army was recruited according to the territorial-militia principle.

About 80% of the Armed Forces (AF) were citizens who were called up for military training. This approach was generally consistent with the concept of Lenin, set out in the book "State and Revolution", but in practice only exacerbated the problem of a shortage of qualified personnel.

Cardinal changes took place in the mid-1930s, when the territorial principle was abolished, and a profound reform was carried out in the command and control bodies of the Armed Forces. The size of the army began to grow, by 1941 reaching about 5 million people.

“In 1918, the country had a young army, into which many specialists from the tsarist army joined. The command staff was represented mainly by red commanders, who were trained from former non-commissioned officers and officers of the tsarist army. However, the problem of the lack of new command personnel was extremely acute. In the future, it was solved by creating new military schools and academies, ”Mikhail Myagkov, scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society (RVIO), told RT.

Rising power

The achievements of the pre-war period include an unprecedented increase in production in the defense industry. The Soviet government almost completely eliminated dependence on the import of weapons technology and military products.

The Red Army won its first war after the reorganization at the cost of monstrous losses. In 1939, Moscow was unable to agree with Helsinki on the transfer of the border from Leningrad and threw troops against the Finns. On March 12, 1940, the territorial claims of the USSR were satisfied.

• Soviet troops in the area of ​​Fort Ino on the Karelian Isthmus, 1939-1940
• RIA News

However, in three-month battles, the Red Army lost more than 120 thousand military personnel against 26 thousand from Finland. The war with Helsinki showed serious problems in logistics (lack of warm clothes) and lack of experience among the commanding staff.

Historians most often explain the major defeats that the Soviet Armed Forces suffered in the first months of 1941 with such shortcomings in the planning of military operations. Despite the superiority in tanks, aircraft and artillery before the war with Germany, the Red Army experienced a shortage of fuel, spare parts, and most importantly, a shortage of personnel.

In November - December 1941, the Soviet troops managed to win the first and most important victory at that time: to stop the Nazis near Moscow. 1942 was a turning point for the army. Despite the loss of key industrial areas in the west of the country, the Soviet Union established the production of weapons and ammunition and improved the training system for soldiers and junior command levels.

In the incredible Red Army gained experience and knowledge, which was lacking in the fateful 1941. A vivid proof of the increased power of the Soviet Armed Forces was (February 2, 1943). Six months later, on the Kursk Bulge, Germany suffered the largest tank defeat, and in 1944 the Red Army liberated the entire territory of the USSR.

The Red Army gained immortal worldwide fame thanks to the mission to liberate Central and Eastern Europe from the Nazis. Soviet troops drove the Nazis out of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, East Germany and Austria. The assault flag of the 150th Infantry Division, which was hoisted over the Reichstag building on May 1, 1945, became the symbol of the Victory over Nazism.

• Soviet soldiers at the Reichstag in Berlin, May 1945
• RIA News

After the end of the Second World War, the leadership of the USSR disbanded all fronts, established military districts and began large-scale demobilization, reducing the strength of the Armed Forces from 11 to 2.5 million people. On February 25, 1946, the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army was renamed the Soviet Army. Instead of the People's Commissariat of Defense, the Ministry of the Armed Forces appeared. However, the "Red Army" did not leave the lexicon of the military.

With the growing tension in relations with the West, the number and role of the Soviet Armed Forces increased again. Since the 1950s, Moscow began to prepare for the prospect of a large-scale land war with NATO. By the end of the 1960s, the USSR had an arsenal of tens of thousands of armored vehicles and artillery.

The Soviet war machine reached its peak in the mid-1980s. With the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev (1985), the confrontation with the United States has noticeably decreased. The Soviet army (in parallel with the US Armed Forces) entered a period of disarmament, which continued until the end of the 1990s.

The Soviet army ceased to exist with the paperwork on the collapse of the USSR in December 1991. However, some researchers believe that de facto the Soviet Armed Forces continued to exist until 1993, that is, until the withdrawal of the group of troops from East Germany.

• A group of Soviet troops in Germany at tactical exercises
• RIA News

Return of traditions

In an interview with RT, Vladimir Afanasyev, chief researcher at the Central Museum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, noted that the Red Army, despite radical political changes, absorbed many traditions of the tsarist army.

“Former traditions were restored from the first months of the existence of the Red Army. Personal military ranks were returned. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, general ranks were reintroduced, and during the war years, many traditions found a second life: shoulder straps, honorary names of units and formations, salutes in honor of the liberation of cities returned, ”said Afanasyev.

The bearers of traditions were not only personnel of the tsarist period, but also military establishments. According to the expert, the Soviet authorities created Suvorov schools in the image and likeness of the cadet corps. Their formation was initiated by the tsarist general Alexei Alekseevich Ignatiev. The tradition has also returned to enlist distinguished soldiers in the lists of units forever.

• Soldiers at the Victory Parade
• RIA News
• Alexander Wilf

“A significant part of the military schools that functioned in tsarist times continued to work after the revolution. This is the Mikhailovskaya Military Artillery Academy, and the Academy of the General Staff. Therefore, we can say that almost all Soviet military leaders were students of the royal military minds, ”said Afanasyev.

Myagkov believes that the most intensive stage of the return of pre-revolutionary traditions occurred during the Great Patriotic War.

“In 1943, shoulder straps were introduced. Many World War I veterans who fought in the 1940s wore royal decorations. These were symbolic examples of continuity. Also during the Great Patriotic War, the Order of Glory was introduced, which, in its statute and in its colors, resembled the St. George awards, ”the expert said in an interview with RT.

Historians are sure that they are the successors of the Soviet troops. They simultaneously inherited the traditions of the Red Army and the pre-revolutionary imperial army: patriotism, devotion to the people, loyalty to the banner and their military unit.