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The short forms Red Army and RKKA refer to the "Workers' and Peasants' Red Army", (Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия - Raboche-Krest'yanskaya Krasnaya Armiya in Russian), the armed forces organised by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918. This organisation became the army of the Soviet Union after its establishment in 1922. "Red" refers to the blood shed by the working class in its struggle against capitalism. Although it was officially known as the Soviet Army from 1946, the term Red Army is commonly used in the West to refer to the Soviet military after that date, i.e., during the Cold War. Flag of red army File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Flag of red army File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Russian (русский язык listen?) is the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages. ...
Bolshevik Party Meeting. ...
The Russian Civil War was fought between 1918 and 1920. ...
1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (СССР) listen; tr. ...
Red re-directs here; for alternate uses see Red (disambiguation) Red is a color at the lowest frequencies of light discernible by the human eye. ...
The Cold War ( 1947- 1991) was the open yet restricted rivalry that developed after World War II between groups of nations practicing different ideologies and political systems. ...
Early History
The Council of People's Commissars set up the Red Army by decree on January 15, 1918 ( Old Style) (January 28, 1918), basing it on the already-existing Red Guard. The official Red Army Day of February 23, 1918 marked the day of the first mass draft of the Red Army in Petrograd and Moscow, and of the first combat action against the occupying imperial German army. February 23 became an important national holiday in the Soviet Union, later celebrated as "Soviet Army Day", and it continues as a day of celebration in present-day Russia as Defenders of the Motherland Day. Credit as the founder of the Red Army generally goes to Leon Trotsky, the People's Commissar for War from 1918 to 1924. January 15 is the 15th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...
1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...
In Britain and countries of the British Empire, Old Style or O.S. after a date means that the date is in the Julian calendar, in use in those countries until 1752; New Style or N.S. means that the date is in the Gregorian calendar, adopted on 14 September...
January 28 is the 28th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...
1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...
In the context of the history of Russia and Soviet Union, Red Guards (Russian: Красная Гвардия) was armed groups of workers formed in the time frame of the Russian Revolution. ...
February 23 is the 54th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...
1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...
Saint Basils Cathedral Moscow listen? ( Russian/Cyrillic: Москва́, pronunciation: Moskva), capital of Russia, located on the river Moskva, and encompassing 1097. ...
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (СССР) listen; tr. ...
1915 passport photo of Trotsky Leon Davidovich Trotsky ( Russian: Лев Давидович Троцкий; also transliterated Leo, Lev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij and Trotzky ) (October 26 ( O.S.) = November 7 ( N.S.), 1879 - August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Лев Давидович Бронштейн), was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist intellectual. ...
1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...
At the beginning of its existence, the Red Army functioned as a voluntary formation, without ranks and insignia. Democratic elections selected the officers. However, a decree of May 29, 1918 specified obligatory military service was decreed for men of ages 18 to 40. To service the massive draft, the Bolsheviks formed regional military commissariats (военный комиссариат, военкомат (voenkomat)), which existed in this function and under this name till the very last days of the Soviet Union. (Note: do not confuse military commissariats with the institution of military political commissars.) May 29 is the 149th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (150th in leap years). ...
1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...
A political commissar is an officer appointed by a communist party to oversee a unit of the military. ...
The Bolshevik authorities assigned to every unit of the Red Army a political commissar, or politruk, who had the authority to override unit commanders' decisions if they ran counter to the principles of the Communist Party. Although this sometimes resulted in inefficient command, the Party leadership considered political control over the military necessary, as the Army relied more and more on experienced officers from the pre-revolutionary Tsarist period. A political commissar is an officer appointed by a communist party to oversee a unit of the military. ...
A Communist party is a party which promotes Communism. ...
Tsar ( Bulgarian цар, Russian царь, listen?; often spelled Czar or Tzar and sometimes Csar or Zar in English), was the title used for the autocratic rulers of the First and Second Bulgarian Empires since 913, in Serbia in the middle of the 14th century, and in Russia from 1547 to...
The institution of a professional officer corps, abandoned as a "heritage of tsarism" in the Revolution, returned in 1935. The Red Army acquired a General Staff made up of officers trained by German experts during the period of Soviet-German cooperation between the two World Wars. During the Great Purges of 1937-1939 (and later), the NKVD executed nearly all senior officers or sent them to forced labor camps as potential threats to Stalin's authority. Lenin, Trotsky, and soldiers of the Red Army in St. ...
Lenin, Trotsky, and soldiers of the Red Army in St. ...
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin ( Russian: Влади́мир Ильи́ч Ле́нин listen?), original surname Ulyanov (Улья́нов) ( April 22 (April 10 ( O.S.)), 1870 – January 21, 1924), was a Russian revolutionary, the leader of the Bolshevik party, the first Premier of the Soviet Union, and the founder of the ideology of Leninism. ...
On Thursday, April 15, 1920, Victor Kopp, Soviet Russias special representative sent by Lenin to Berlin, asked at the German Foreign Office whether there was any possibility of combining the German and the Red Army for a joint war on Poland. This was the start of military cooperation between...
The Great Purge is the name given to campaigns of repression in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s which included a purge of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. ...
1937 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Black Ravens by Boris Vladimirski, a depiction of the cars used by NKVD agents. ...
A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are engaged in forced labor. ...
World War II At the time of the Nazi assault on the USSR in June 1941, the Red Army numbered around 1.5 million men, but political cleansing of its ranks had weakened it. The German invasion took the Red Army cadres by surprise. The first weeks of the War saw the annihilation of virtually the entire Soviet Air Force on the ground, and major Soviet defeats as German forces trapped hundreds of thousands of Red Army soldiers in vast pockets. Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (СССР) listen; tr. ...
Soviet Air Force, also known under the abbreviation VVS, transliterated from Russian: ВВС, Военно-воздушные силы (Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily), formed the official designation of the airforce of the Soviet Union. ...
Soviet forces were destroyed in the field as a result of poor levels of preparedness (defences in territory recently annexed from Poland were poor), a rejection of the earlier Soviet offensive doctrine of deep operations which resulted in static formations being overwhelmed and a refusal of Stalin to authorise preparations in case these were regarded as provocations by Hitler. The Republic of Poland, a democratic country with a population of 38,626,349 and area of 312,685 km², is located in Central Europe, between Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and the Baltic Sea, Lithuania and...
However, a generation of brilliant commanders, most notably Zhukov learned from the defeats and Soviet victories in the Battle of Moscow, at Stalingrad, Kursk and later in Operation Bagration proved decisive in what was known as the Great Patriotic War. But Soviet military conditions were brutal and losses were higher than in any other combatant nation's armed forces. Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgi Zhukov Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov (Russian: Гео́ргий Константи́нович Жу́ков) (December 1, 1896 - June 18, 1974), Soviet military commander and politician, considered by many as one of the most successful field commanders of World War II. Prewar career Born into a peasant family in Strelkovka, Kaluga...
The Battle of Moscow refers to the defense of the Soviet capital of Moscow and the subsequent counter-offensive against the German army, between October 1941 and January 1942, during the Great Patriotic War. ...
Stalingrad is the former name of two cities: Volgograd, Russia Karviná-Nové Město, near Ostrava, Czech Republic Other uses: The Battle of Stalingrad (a major turning-point of World War II and arguably the bloodiest battle in human history) Stalingrad (German film set during the above battle) Stalingrad (metro station...
For other uses, see Kursk (disambiguation). ...
Operation Bagration Conflict World War II Date June 22, 1944 - August 19, 1944 Place Belorussia, USSR Result Soviet victory During World War II, Operation Bagration was the general attack by Soviet forces to clear the Nazis from Belarus which resulted in the destruction of the German Army Group Centre, possibly...
The Eastern Front1 was the theatre of combat between Nazi Germany and its allies against the Soviet Union during World War II. It was somewhat separate from the other theatres of the war, not only geographically, but also for its scale and ferocity. ...
The Soviet government adopted a number of measures to improve the state and morale of the retreating Red Army in 1941. Soviet propaganda turned away from political notions of class struggle, and instead invoked the deeper-rooted patriotic feelings of the population, embracing pre-revolutionary Russian history. Propagandists proclaimed the War against the German aggressors as the Great Patriotic War, in allusion to the Patriotic War of 1812 against Napoleon. References to ancient Russian military heroes such as Alexander Nevski and Mikhail Kutuzov appeared. Repressions against the Russian Orthodox Church stopped, and priests revived the tradition of blessing arms before battle. The Party abolished the institution of political commissars -- although it soon restored them. Military ranks were introduced. Many additional individual distinctions such as medals and orders were adopted. The Guard was re-established: units which had shown exceptional heroism in combat gained the names of "Guards Regiment", "Guards Army" etc. Class struggle is class conflict looked at from a communist (that is, Marxist or anarchist) perspective. ...
The Eastern Front1 was the theatre of combat between Nazi Germany and its allies against the Soviet Union during World War II. It was somewhat separate from the other theatres of the war, not only geographically, but also for its scale and ferocity. ...
For other uses, see Russian) (May 30, 1220?–November 14, 1263) was a Russian statesman and Grand Prince of Novgorod and Vladimir (from 1252). ...
Prince Mikhail Illarionovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov (September 16, 1745 – April 28, 1813 (n. ...
Saint Basils Cathedral, a well-known Russian Orthodox church situated in Moscow The Russian Orthodox Church (Русская Православная церковь) is that body of Christians who are united under the Patriarch of Moscow, who in turn is in communion with the other patriarchs of the Eastern Orthodox Church. ...
A political commissar is an officer appointed by a communist party to oversee a unit of the military. ...
During the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army drafted between 15 and 20 million officers and soldiers, of which 7 to 10 million died. Nazi troops who captured Red Army soldiers frequently shot them in the field or shipped them to concentration camps and executed them as a part of the Holocaust. Hitler's notorious Commissar Order implicated all the German armed forces in the policy of war crimes. A concentration camp is a large detention center created for political opponents, aliens, specific ethnic or religious groups, civilians of a critical war-zone, or other groups of people, often during a war. ...
Concentration camp inmates during the Holocaust The Holocaust refers to Nazi Germanys systematic genocide ( ethnic cleansing) of various ethnic, religious, national, and secular groups during World War II starting in 1941 and continuing through 1945. ...
Following its costly victory over Germany after the capture of Berlin in 1945, the prestige and influence of the Red Army in post-war Soviet society increased greatly.
To mark the final step in the transformation from a revolutionary militia to a regular army of a sovereign state, the Red Army gained the official name of the Soviet Army in 1946.
The Cold War After the end of the Second World War, the numbers of the Soviet Army dropped to approximately 5 million. Soviet Army units which had liberated the countries of Eastern Europe from German rule remained in some of them to secure the régimes in what became satellite states of the Soviet Union and to deter and to fend off NATO forces. The greatest Soviet military presence based itself in East Germany, in the so-called Western Group of the Armed Forces. Soviet army conscript hat insignia. ...
Soviet army conscript hat insignia. ...
Conscription is a general term for involuntary labor demanded by some established authority, e. ...
Insignia (from latin insigne: emblem, symbol) is a symbol or token of personal power, status or office, or of an offical body of government or jurisdiction. ...
The term satellite state, by analogy to stellar objects orbiting a larger object, such as planets revolving around the sun, refers to a country that is formally sovereign but that is in fact dominated by a larger hegemonic power. ...
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (СССР) listen; tr. ...
For the National Association of Theatre Owners, please see National Association of Theatre Owners. ...
For the historical eastern German provinces, see Historical Eastern Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR), German Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), was a Communist Party-led state that existed from 1949 to 1990 in the former Soviet occupation zone of Germany. ...
Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (1949--1988), also known as Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany (1945--1949) and Western Group of Forces (1988-1990) were the troops of the Soviet Army in East Germany. ...
The trauma of the devastating German invasion influenced the Soviet cold-war military doctrine of fighting enemies on their own territory, or in a buffer zone under Soviet hegemony, but in any case preventing any war from reaching Soviet soil. In order to secure these Soviet interests in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Army moved in to quell anti-Soviet uprisings in the German Democratic Republic, Hungary and Czechoslovakia in the 1950s and 1960s. East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR), German Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), was a socialist country that existed from 1949 to 1990. ...
The Republic of Hungary (Magyar Köztársaság) or Hungary (Magyarország) is a landlocked country in Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. ...
Czechoslovakia (Czech: Československo, Slovak: Česko-Slovensko/before 1990 Československo) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1992 (except for the World War II period). ...
The confrontation with the US and NATO during the Cold War mainly took the form of mutual deterrence with nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union invested heavily in the Army's nuclear capacity, especially in the production of ballistic missiles and of nuclear submarines to deliver them. Open hostilities took the form of wars by proxy, with the Soviet Union and the US supporting loyal client régimes or rebel movements in Third World countries. For the National Association of Theatre Owners, please see National Association of Theatre Owners. ...
The Cold War ( 1947- 1991) was the open yet restricted rivalry that developed after World War II between groups of nations practicing different ideologies and political systems. ...
The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the epicenter. ...
For the Jamaican reggae band, see Third World (band). ...
"You were born under the red banner in the stormy year of 1918", a poster produced for the annual Red Army Day holiday. In 1979, however, the Soviet Army intervened in a civil war raging in Afghanistan. The Soviet Army came to back a Soviet-friendly secular government threatened by Muslim fundamentalist guerillas (including Osama bin Laden) equipped and financed by the United States. In spite of technical superiority, the Soviets could not establish control over the country and suffered heavy losses in guerilla attacks and ambushes, which led Gorbachev finally to withdraw the Soviet forces from the country. The blow to the Army's pride suffered in the debacle of Afghanistan parallels the American trauma over the lost war in Vietnam. The débacle of Afghanistan, moreover, drained away military resources at a time when the Soviet Union had to strain to keep pace with the West, and would ultimately prove a contributory factor in its decay. You were born under the red banner in the stormy year of 1918, translation of Родилась ты под знаменем алым в восемнадцатом грозном году(lit. ...
You were born under the red banner in the stormy year of 1918, translation of Родилась ты под знаменем алым в восемнадцатом грозном году(lit. ...
1979 is a common year starting on Monday. ...
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was a 10-year war which wreaked incredible havoc and destruction on Afghanistan. ...
Afghanistan (Pashtu/Dari-Persian: Afğānistān افغانستان) is a country in Central Asia. ...
Osama bin Laden Usāmah bin Muhammad bin `Awad bin Lādin (born March 10, 1957 or July 30, 1957) ( Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عود بن لادن), commonly known as Osama bin Laden (أسامة بن لادن), is the head of al-Qaeda, a militant Islamist organization that has been involved in...
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (Russian: ; Pronunciation: mih-kha-ILL ser-GHE-ye-vich gor-bah-CHOFF) (born March 2, 1931), was leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. ...
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a country in Southeast Asia. ...
The End of the Soviet Union In 1991, the Army played a decisive role in the coup d'état of reactionary communists and senior military commanders, who sent tanks into the streets of Moscow to overthrow Gorbachev and his reform-minded government. The coup failed as citizens took to the streets and tank crews refused to shoot at their compatriots. A coup détat, or simply a coup, is the sudden overthrow of a government, usually done by a small group that just replaces the top power figures. ...
Saint Basils Cathedral Moscow listen? ( Russian/Cyrillic: Москва́, pronunciation: Moskva), capital of Russia, located on the river Moskva, and encompassing 1097. ...
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (Russian: ; Pronunciation: mih-kha-ILL ser-GHE-ye-vich gor-bah-CHOFF) (born March 2, 1931), was leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. ...
After the following collapse of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Army dissolved and the USSR's successor states divided its assets among themselves. The bulk of the Soviet Army, including most of the nuclear missile forces, became incorporated in the Army of the Russian Federation. Military forces garrisoned in Eastern Europe (including the Baltic states) gradually returned home between 1991 and 1994. The rise of Gorbachev Although reform stalled between 1964–1982, the generational shift gave new momentum for reform. ...
A nuclear missile is a type of: missile nuclear weapon It could also refer to a missile with some form of nuclear propulsion, such as the Project Pluto cruise missile. ...
Categories: Wikipedia cleanup | Military of Russia | Russia-related stubs ...
Baltic states and the Baltic Sea The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a term which nowadays refers to three countries in Northern Europe: Estonia Latvia Lithuania Prior to World War II, Finland was sometimes considered, particularly by the Soviet Union, a fourth Baltic state. ...
Further Reading - Roter Stern über Deutschland, Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk und Stefan Wolle, Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin, 2001, ISBN 3-86153-246-8. This German book, The Red Star over Germany, without excessive hatred presents 49 years of the Soviet Army stationed in East Germany. The 256 pages of the book cover it all: from 49,000 who perished in prison camps of the Soviet zone, to the 18 Russian soldiers who refused to shoot unarmed Germans.
- The Warsaw Pact: Arms, Doctrine and Strategy, Lewis, William J.; Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis; 1982. ISBN 0-07-031746-1. This book presents an overview of all the Warsaw Pact armed forces as well as a section of Soviet strategy, a model land campaign the Soviet Union could have conducted against NATO, a section on vehicules, weapons and aircraft, and a full color section of the uniforms, badges and rank insignias of all Warsaw Pact nations.
For astronomical meanings of red star, see red dwarf, red giant, and stellar classification. ...
For the historical eastern German provinces, see Historical Eastern Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR), German Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), was a Communist Party-led state that existed from 1949 to 1990 in the former Soviet occupation zone of Germany. ...
For the National Association of Theatre Owners, please see National Association of Theatre Owners. ...
See also The following is a table of Ground Force, Air Force and Naval ranks of the Military of Russia. ...
The Eastern Front1 was the theatre of combat between Nazi Germany and its allies against the Soviet Union during World War II. It was somewhat separate from the other theatres of the war, not only geographically, but also for its scale and ferocity. ...
Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (1949--1988), also known as Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany (1945--1949) and Western Group of Forces (1988-1990) were the troops of the Soviet Army in East Germany. ...
1915 passport photo of Trotsky Leon Davidovich Trotsky ( Russian: Лев Давидович Троцкий; also transliterated Leo, Lev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij and Trotzky ) (October 26 ( O.S.) = November 7 ( N.S.), 1879 - August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Лев Давидович Бронштейн), was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist intellectual. ...
Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker List of military aircraft of the USSR and CIS Attack Ilyushin Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik Ilyushin Il-10 Sukhoi Sukhoi Su-2 Sukhoi Su-7 Sukhoi Su-24 Sukhoi Su-25 Yakovlev Yakovlev Yak-38 Bomber Ilyushin Ilyushin DB-3 Ilyushin Il-4 Ilyushin Il-28...
Marshal of the Soviet Union Semyon Timoshenko in dress uniform The rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union (Russian: Marshal Sovietskogo Soyuza, Маршал Совет́ского Союза) was in practice the highest military rank of the Soviet Union. ...
Stalin and Voroshilov salute a military parade in Red Square above the message Long Live the Workers and Peasant Red Army - Loyal Guard of the Soviet Border! The military history of the Soviet Union began in the early days following the 1917 October Revolution and the creation of the Russian...
Categories: Wikipedia cleanup | Military of Russia | Russia-related stubs ...
The Russian Civil War was fought between 1918 and 1920. ...
The Soviet Naval ensign The Soviet Navy (Russian: Военно-морской флот СССР, Voyenno-morskoy flot SSSR, literally Naval military forces of the USSR) was the naval arm of the Soviet armed forces. ...
Map of Warsaw Pact member countries. ...
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