The anti-Nazi Great Patriotic War was conflated with the Patriotic War of 1812 against Napoleon, and historical Russian military heroes, such as Alexander Nevski and Mikhail Kutuzov, appeared.
The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution.
In the troops of 1–4 Ukrainian fronts (mainly in infantry units and other formations), Ukrainians accounted for 60–80%. ==Origins== In September 1917, Vladimir Lenin wrote: "There is only one way to prevent the restoration of the police, and that is to create a people's militia and to fuse it with the army (the standing army to be replaced by the arming of the entire people)." At the time, the Imperial Russian Army had started to collapse.
We have no power to stay the enemy; only an immediate signing of the peace treaty will save us from destruction." ==History== ===Russian Civil War=== The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) occurred in three periods: October 1917 – November 1918: From the Bolshevik Revolution to the First World War Armistice, developed from the Bolshevik government's nationalization of traditional Cossack lands in November 1917.
The list of Soviet Union divisions 1917–1945 details the formations of the Red Army in that time. In the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s, Soviet military theoreticians – led by Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky – developed the deep-operations doctrine, a direct consequence of their experiences in the Polish-Soviet War and in the Russian Civil War.
On 12 November 1917 the Soviet government appointed Krylenko as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, and because of an "accident" during the forceful displacement of the commander-in-chief, Dukhonin was killed on 20 November 1917.
Nikolai Podvoisky was appointed as the Narkom of War Affairs, leaving Dybenko in charge of the Narkom of Marine Affairs and Ovseyenko – the expeditionary forces to the Southern Russia on 28 November 1917.
He estimated the remaining troops as numbering 10 million. While the Imperial Russian Army was being taken apart, "it became apparent that the rag-tag Red Guard units and elements of the imperial army who had gone over the side of the Bolsheviks were quite inadequate to the task of defending the new government against external foes." Therefore, the Council of People's Commissars decided to form the Red Army on 28 January 1918.
At a joint meeting of Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, held on 22 February 1918, Krylenko remarked: "We have no army.
We have no power to stay the enemy; only an immediate signing of the peace treaty will save us from destruction." ==History== ===Russian Civil War=== The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) occurred in three periods: October 1917 – November 1918: From the Bolshevik Revolution to the First World War Armistice, developed from the Bolshevik government's nationalization of traditional Cossack lands in November 1917.
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918) aggravated Russian internal politics.
The civil war intensified after Lenin dissolved the Russian Constituent Assembly (5–6 January 1918) and the Soviet government signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (3 March 1918), removing Russia from the Great War.
"Red Army Day", 23 February 1918, has a two-fold historical significance: it was the first day of drafting recruits (in Petrograd and Moscow), and the first day of combat against the occupying Imperial German Army. In June 1918, Trotsky abolished workers' control over the Red Army, replacing the election of officers with traditional army hierarchies and criminalizing dissent with the death penalty.
As a result of this initiative, in 1918 75% of the officers were former tsarists.
When the civil war ended in 1922, ex-Tsarists constituted 83% of the Red Army's divisional and corps commanders. On 6 September 1918 the Bolshevik militias consolidated under the supreme command of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (Революционный Военный Совет|translit= Revolyutsionny Voyenny Sovyet (Revvoyensoviet)).
Conscription began in June 1918, and opposition to it was violently suppressed.
In August 1918, Trotsky authorized General Mikhail Tukhachevsky to place blocking units behind politically unreliable Red Army units, to shoot anyone who retreated without permission.
In 1942, during the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945) Joseph Stalin reintroduced the blocking policy and penal battalions with Order 227. The Red Army controlled by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic invaded and annexed non-Russian lands helping to create the Soviet Union. ===Polish–Soviet War and prelude=== The Soviet westward offensive of 1918–19 occurred at the same time as the general Soviet move into the areas abandoned by the Ober Ost garrisons.
The Bolsheviks also sent out their own representatives to replace front commanders of the Russian Imperial Army. After the signing of Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918, a major reshuffling took place in the Soviet military administration.
On 13 March 1918 the Soviet government accepted the official resignation of Krylenko and the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief was liquidated.
On 14 March 1918 Leon Trotsky replaced Podvoisky as the Narkom of War Affairs.
On 16 March 1918 Pavel Dybenko was relieved from the office of Narkom of Marine Affairs.
On 8 May 1918 the All-Russian Chief Headquarters was created, headed by Nikolai Stogov and later Alexander Svechin. On 2 September 1918 the Revolutionary Military Council (RMC) was established as the main military administration under Leon Trotsky, the Narkom of War Affairs.
On 6 September 1918 alongside the chief headquarters the Field Headquarters of RMC was created, initially headed by Nikolai Rattel.
However, a decree of 29 May 1918 imposed obligatory military service for men of ages 18 to 40.
A series of engagements resulted, involving, amongst others, the Czechoslovak Legion, the Polish 5th Rifle Division, and the pro-Bolshevik Red Latvian Riflemen. January 1919 – November 1919: Initially the White armies advanced successfully: from the south, under General Anton Denikin; from the east, under Admiral Aleksandr Vasilevich Kolchak; and from the northwest, under General Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich.
The first chairman was Leon Trotsky, and the first commander-in-chief was Jukums Vācietis from the Latvian Riflemen; in July 1919 he was replaced by Sergey Kamenev.
This merged into the 1919–1921 Polish–Soviet War, in which the Red Army reached central Poland in 1920, but then suffered a defeat there, which put an end to the war.
On the same day the office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces was created, and initially assigned to Jukums Vācietis (and from July 1919 to Sergey Kamenev).
In January 1920 Budenny's First Cavalry Army entered Rostov-on-Don. 1919 to 1923: Some peripheral battles continued for two more years, and remnants of the White forces continued in the Far East into 1923. At the start of the civil war, the Red Army consisted of 299 infantry regiments.
By mid-August 1920 the Red Army's former Tsarist personnel included 48,000 officers, 10,300 administrators, and 214,000 NCOs.
This merged into the 1919–1921 Polish–Soviet War, in which the Red Army reached central Poland in 1920, but then suffered a defeat there, which put an end to the war.
The formation of departments' rifle corps began. ===Doctrinal development in the 1920s and 1930s=== After four years of warfare, the Red Army's defeat of Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel in the south in 1920 allowed the foundation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in December 1922.
The list of Soviet Union divisions 1917–1945 details the formations of the Red Army in that time. In the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s, Soviet military theoreticians – led by Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky – developed the deep-operations doctrine, a direct consequence of their experiences in the Polish-Soviet War and in the Russian Civil War.
The ranks and insignia of 1943 did not change much until the last days of the USSR; the contemporary Russian Army uses largely the same system. ===Military education=== During the Civil War the commander cadres were trained at the Nicholas General Staff Academy of the Russian Empire, which became the Frunze Military Academy in the 1920s.
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, frequently shortened to Red Army was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
When the civil war ended in 1922, ex-Tsarists constituted 83% of the Red Army's divisional and corps commanders. On 6 September 1918 the Bolshevik militias consolidated under the supreme command of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (Революционный Военный Совет|translit= Revolyutsionny Voyenny Sovyet (Revvoyensoviet)).
By the end of 1922, after the Congress, the Party Central Committee decided to reduce the Red Army to 800,000.
The formation of departments' rifle corps began. ===Doctrinal development in the 1920s and 1930s=== After four years of warfare, the Red Army's defeat of Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel in the south in 1920 allowed the foundation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in December 1922.
In January 1920 Budenny's First Cavalry Army entered Rostov-on-Don. 1919 to 1923: Some peripheral battles continued for two more years, and remnants of the White forces continued in the Far East into 1923. At the start of the civil war, the Red Army consisted of 299 infantry regiments.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces existed until April 1924, the end of Russian Civil War. In November 1923, after the establishment of the Soviet Union, the Russian Narkom of War Affairs was transformed into the Soviet Narkom of War and Marine Affairs. ==Organization== At the beginning of its existence, the Red Army functioned as a voluntary formation, without ranks or insignia.
Historian John Erickson sees 1 February 1924, when Mikhail Frunze became head of the Red Army staff, as marking the ascent of the general staff, which came to dominate Soviet military planning and operations.
By 1 October 1924 the Red Army's strength had diminished to 530,000.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces existed until April 1924, the end of Russian Civil War. In November 1923, after the establishment of the Soviet Union, the Russian Narkom of War Affairs was transformed into the Soviet Narkom of War and Marine Affairs. ==Organization== At the beginning of its existence, the Red Army functioned as a voluntary formation, without ranks or insignia.
Insignia for these functional titles existed, consisting of triangles, squares and rhombuses (so-called "diamonds"). In 1924 (2 October) "personal" or "service" categories were introduced, from K1 (section leader, assistant squad leader, senior rifleman, etc.) to K14 (field commander, army commander, military district commander, army commissar and equivalent).
By 1925 this system provided 46 of the 77 infantry divisions and one of the eleven cavalry divisions.
This system was abolished in 1925, as there were by that time enough trained Communist officers to render the counter-signing unnecessary. ===Ranks and titles=== The early Red Army abandoned the institution of a professional officer corps as a "heritage of tsarism" in the course of the Revolution.
Senior and supreme commanders were trained at the Higher Military Academic Courses, renamed the Advanced Courses for Supreme Command in 1925.
For maximum tactical effect aircraft should be employed en masse, concentrated in time and space, against targets of the highest tactical importance." Red Army deep operations found their first formal expression in the 1929 Field Regulations, and became codified in the 1936 Provisional Field Regulations (PU-36).
The formation of departments' rifle corps began. ===Doctrinal development in the 1920s and 1930s=== After four years of warfare, the Red Army's defeat of Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel in the south in 1920 allowed the foundation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in December 1922.
The list of Soviet Union divisions 1917–1945 details the formations of the Red Army in that time. In the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s, Soviet military theoreticians – led by Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky – developed the deep-operations doctrine, a direct consequence of their experiences in the Polish-Soviet War and in the Russian Civil War.
An American journalist wrote in 1941: Under Stalin's campaign for mechanization, the army formed its first mechanized unit in 1930.
The General staff Academy was reinstated on 2 April 1936, and became the principal military school for the senior and supreme commanders of the Red Army. ===Purges=== The late 1930s saw purges of the Red Army leadership which occurred concurrently with Stalin's Great Purge of Soviet society.
The 1931 establishment of an Operations Faculty at the Frunze Military Academy supplemented these courses.
From this humble beginning, the Soviets would go on to create the first operational-level armored formations in history, the 11th and 45th Mechanized Corps, in 1932.
Service category insignia again consisted of triangles, squares and rhombuses, but also rectangles (1 – 3, for categories from K7 to K9). On 22 September 1935 the Red Army abandoned service categories and introduced personal ranks.
Further complications ensued from the functional and categorical ranks for political officers (e.g., "brigade commissar", "army commissar 2nd rank"), for technical corps (e.g., "engineer 3rd rank," "division engineer"), and for administrative, medical and other non-combatant branches. The Marshal of the Soviet Union (Маршал Советского Союза) rank was introduced on 22 September 1935.
For maximum tactical effect aircraft should be employed en masse, concentrated in time and space, against targets of the highest tactical importance." Red Army deep operations found their first formal expression in the 1929 Field Regulations, and became codified in the 1936 Provisional Field Regulations (PU-36).
The General staff Academy was reinstated on 2 April 1936, and became the principal military school for the senior and supreme commanders of the Red Army. ===Purges=== The late 1930s saw purges of the Red Army leadership which occurred concurrently with Stalin's Great Purge of Soviet society.
In 1936 and 1937, at the orders of Stalin, thousands of Red Army senior officers were dismissed from their commands.
The Great Purge of 1937–1939 and the Purge of 1940–1942 removed many leading officers from the Red Army, including Tukhachevsky himself and many of his followers, and the doctrine was abandoned.
The Red Army, however, had been hindered by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's Great Purge of 1937, reducing the army's morale and efficiency shortly before the outbreak of the fighting.
The territorial system was finally abolished, with all remaining formations converted to the other cadre divisions, in 1937–1938. ===Mechanization=== The Soviet military received ample funding and was innovative in its technology.
In 1936 and 1937, at the orders of Stalin, thousands of Red Army senior officers were dismissed from their commands.
In 1938, the Red Army had 179,000 officers, 56% more than in 1937, of whom a further 6,742 were dismissed.
In 1937, the Red Army numbered around 1.3 million, increasing to almost three times that number by June 1941.
In 1937, the entire junior class of one academy was graduated a year early to fill vacancies in the Red Army.
Thus at the Battle of Lake Khasan in 1938 and in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol in 1939 (major border clashes with the Imperial Japanese Army), the doctrine was not used.
In 1938, the Red Army had 179,000 officers, 56% more than in 1937, of whom a further 6,742 were dismissed.
Thus at the Battle of Lake Khasan in 1938 and in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol in 1939 (major border clashes with the Imperial Japanese Army), the doctrine was not used.
It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939—three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland, and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty.
The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union on 14 December 1939. The Soviet forces led by Semyon Timoshenko had three times as many soldiers as the Finns, thirty times as many aircraft, and a hundred times as many tanks.
With over 30,000 of its army officers executed or imprisoned, most of whom were from the highest ranks, the Red Army in 1939 had many inexperienced senior officers.
The Finns retained their sovereignty and improved their international reputation, which bolstered their morale in the Continuation War. ===Second World War ("The Great Patriotic War")=== In accordance with the Soviet-Nazi Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 23 August 1939, the Red Army invaded Poland on 17 September 1939, after the Nazi invasion on 1 September 1939.
On 30 November the Red Army also attacked Finland, in the Winter War of 1939–1940.
The Great Purge of 1937–1939 and the Purge of 1940–1942 removed many leading officers from the Red Army, including Tukhachevsky himself and many of his followers, and the doctrine was abandoned.
It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939—three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland, and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty.
Finnish forces inflicted stunning losses on the Red Army for the first three months of the war while suffering very few losses themselves. Hostilities ceased in March 1940 with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty.
By autumn 1940, after conquering its portion of Poland, the Third Reich shared an extensive border with USSR, with whom it remained neutrally bound by their non-aggression pact and trade agreements.
Another consequence of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, carried out by the Southern Front in June–July 1940 and Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940).
For Adolf Hitler, the circumstance was no dilemma, because the Drang nach Osten ("Drive towards the East") policy secretly remained in force, culminating on 18 December 1940 with Directive No.
These were tank-heavy formations with combat support forces included so they could survive while operating in enemy rear areas without support from a parent front. Impressed by the German campaign of 1940 against France, the Soviet People's Commissariat of Defence (Defence Ministry, Russian abbreviation NKO) ordered the creation of nine mechanized corps on 6 July 1940.
On 7 May 1940 further modifications to rationalise the system of ranks were made on the proposal by Marshal Voroshilov: the ranks of "General" and "Admiral" replaced the senior functional ranks of Combrig, Comdiv, Comcor, Comandarm in the Red Army and Flagman 1st rank etc.
Hamstrung by inexperience and fear of reprisals, many of these new officers failed to impress the large numbers of incoming draftees to the ranks; complaints of insubordination rose to the top of offenses punished in 1941, and may have exacerbated instances of Red Army soldiers deserting their units during the initial phases of the German offensive of that year. By 1940, Stalin began to relent, restoring approximately one-third of previously dismissed officers to duty.
However, the effect of the purges would soon manifest itself in the Winter War of 1940, where Red Army forces generally performed poorly against the much smaller Finnish Army, and later during the German invasion of 1941, in which the Germans were able to rout the Soviet defenders partially due to inexperience amongst the Soviet officers. === Soldier crimes === In Lithuania, Red Army personnel robbed local shops.
21, Operation Barbarossa, approved on 3 February 1941, and scheduled for mid-May 1941. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, in Operation Barbarossa, the Red Army's ground forces had 303 divisions and 22 separate brigades (5.5 million soldiers) including 166 divisions and brigades (2.6 million) garrisoned in the western military districts.
Stalin increased mobilization, and by 1 August 1941, despite 46 divisions lost in combat, the Red Army's strength was 401 divisions. The Soviet forces were apparently unprepared despite numerous warnings from a variety of sources.
A generation of Soviet commanders (notably Georgy Zhukov) learned from the defeats, and Soviet victories in the Battle of Moscow, at Stalingrad, Kursk and later in Operation Bagration proved decisive. In 1941, the Soviet government raised the bloodied Red Army's esprit de corps with propaganda stressing the defense of Motherland and nation, employing historic exemplars of Russian courage and bravery against foreign aggressors.
Per a 1941 Stalin directive, Red Army officers and soldiers were to "fight to the last" rather than surrender; Stalin stated: "There are no Soviet prisoners of war, only traitors.
The 1941 decision to physically move their manufacturing capacity east of the Ural mountains kept the main Soviet support system out of German reach.
The Red Army's heavy KV-1 and medium T-34 tanks outclassed most Wehrmacht armor, but in 1941 most Soviet tank units used older and inferior models. ==Administration== Military administration after the October Revolution was taken over by the People's Commissariat of war and marine affairs headed by a collective committee of Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko, Pavel Dybenko, and Nikolai Krylenko.
An American journalist wrote in 1941: Under Stalin's campaign for mechanization, the army formed its first mechanized unit in 1930.
Between February and March 1941 the NKO ordered another twenty to be created.
Even though the Red Army's 29 mechanized corps had an authorized strength of no less than 29,899 tanks by 1941, they proved to be a paper tiger.
By 22 June 1941 there were only 1,475 of the modern T-34s and KV series tanks available to the Red Army, and these were too dispersed along the front to provide enough mass for even local success.
This problem was universal throughout the Red Army, and would play a crucial role in the initial defeats of the Red Army in 1941 at the hands of the German armed forces. ===Wartime=== War experience prompted changes to the way frontline forces were organised.
After six months of combat against the Germans, the Stavka abolished the rifle corps which was intermediate between the army and division level because, while useful in theory, in the state of the Red Army in 1941, they proved ineffective in practice.
The total number of rifle corps started at 62 on 22 June 1941, dropped to six by 1 January 1942, but then increased to 34 by February 1943, and 161 by New Year's Day 1944.
Actual strengths of front-line rifle divisions, authorised to contain 11,000 men in July 1941, were mostly no more than 50% of establishment strengths during 1941, and divisions were often worn down, because of continuous operations, to hundreds of men or even less. On the outbreak of war, the Red Army deployed mechanised corps and tank divisions whose development has been described above.
The initial German attack destroyed many and, in the course of 1941, virtually all of them,(barring two in the Transbaikal Military District).
In the highest echelons of the Red Army the Purges removed 3 of 5 marshals, 13 of 15 army generals, 8 of 9 admirals, 50 of 57 army corps generals, 154 out of 186 division generals, all 16 army commissars, and 25 of 28 army corps commissars. The result was that the Red Army officer corps in 1941 had many inexperienced senior officers.
While 60% of regimental commanders had two years or more of command experience in June 1941, and almost 80% of rifle division commanders, only 20% of corps commanders, and 5% or fewer army and military district commanders, had the same level of experience. The significant growth of the Red Army during the high point of the purges may have worsened matters.
In 1937, the Red Army numbered around 1.3 million, increasing to almost three times that number by June 1941.
Hamstrung by inexperience and fear of reprisals, many of these new officers failed to impress the large numbers of incoming draftees to the ranks; complaints of insubordination rose to the top of offenses punished in 1941, and may have exacerbated instances of Red Army soldiers deserting their units during the initial phases of the German offensive of that year. By 1940, Stalin began to relent, restoring approximately one-third of previously dismissed officers to duty.
However, the effect of the purges would soon manifest itself in the Winter War of 1940, where Red Army forces generally performed poorly against the much smaller Finnish Army, and later during the German invasion of 1941, in which the Germans were able to rout the Soviet defenders partially due to inexperience amongst the Soviet officers. === Soldier crimes === In Lithuania, Red Army personnel robbed local shops.
In 1942, during the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945) Joseph Stalin reintroduced the blocking policy and penal battalions with Order 227. The Red Army controlled by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic invaded and annexed non-Russian lands helping to create the Soviet Union. ===Polish–Soviet War and prelude=== The Soviet westward offensive of 1918–19 occurred at the same time as the general Soviet move into the areas abandoned by the Ober Ost garrisons.
In 1942, Stalin established the penal battalions composed of gulag inmates, Soviet PoWs, disgraced soldiers, and deserters, for hazardous front-line duty as tramplers clearing Nazi minefields, et cetera.
Following the decisive victory in the Battle of Moscow in January 1942, the high command began to reintroduce rifle corps into its more experienced formations.
The total number of rifle corps started at 62 on 22 June 1941, dropped to six by 1 January 1942, but then increased to 34 by February 1943, and 161 by New Year's Day 1944.
It was late 1942 and early 1943 before larger tank formations of corps size were fielded to employ armour in mass again.
During operations on the Eastern Front, it accounted for 75–80% of casualties the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS suffered during the war and ultimately captured the Nazi German capital, Berlin.During 1943-1944, the Red Army recruited, more than 3 million people or 10% of the total population of Ukraine (in the Volyn region, this figure was 16%).
The total number of rifle corps started at 62 on 22 June 1941, dropped to six by 1 January 1942, but then increased to 34 by February 1943, and 161 by New Year's Day 1944.
It was late 1942 and early 1943 before larger tank formations of corps size were fielded to employ armour in mass again.
For the most part the new system restored that used by the Imperial Russian Army at the conclusion of its participation in World War I. In early 1943 a unification of the system saw the abolition of all the remaining functional ranks.
The ranks and insignia of 1943 did not change much until the last days of the USSR; the contemporary Russian Army uses largely the same system. ===Military education=== During the Civil War the commander cadres were trained at the Nicholas General Staff Academy of the Russian Empire, which became the Frunze Military Academy in the 1920s.
Of these, by 1944, more than 90% were cleared, and about 8% were arrested or condemned to serve in penal battalions.
In 1944, they were sent directly to reserve military formations to be cleared by the NKVD.
The total number of rifle corps started at 62 on 22 June 1941, dropped to six by 1 January 1942, but then increased to 34 by February 1943, and 161 by New Year's Day 1944.
Further, in 1945, about 100 filtration camps were set for repatriated POWs, and other displaced persons, which processed more than 4,000,000 people.
Following the fall of East Prussia, Soviet soldiers carried out large-scale rapes in Germany, especially noted in Berlin until the beginning of May 1945.
Beginning in February 1946, the Red Army, along with the Soviet Navy, embodied the main component of the Soviet Armed Forces; taking the official name of "Soviet Army", until its dissolution in December 1991. The Red Army provided the largest land force in the Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II, and its invasion of Manchuria assisted the unconditional surrender of Imperial Japan.
By 1946, 80% civilians and 20% of POWs were freed, 5% of civilians, and 43% of POWs were re-drafted, 10% of civilians and 22% of POWs were sent to labor battalions, and 2% of civilians and 15% of the POWs (226,127 out of 1,539,475 total) were transferred to the Gulag. During the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army conscripted 29,574,900 men in addition to the 4,826,907 in service at the beginning of the war.
Beginning in February 1946, the Red Army, along with the Soviet Navy, embodied the main component of the Soviet Armed Forces; taking the official name of "Soviet Army", until its dissolution in December 1991. The Red Army provided the largest land force in the Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II, and its invasion of Manchuria assisted the unconditional surrender of Imperial Japan.
voyenkomat), which as of 2006 still exist in Russia in this function and under this name.
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