Soviet Armed Forces

• 1. Origins And Early Development

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  The Council of People's Commissars issued a decree on the 15th of January 1918 to establish the Red Army. This new force relied initially on voluntary units without ranks or insignia. Democratic elections selected officers for these early formations. A decree dated the 29th of May 1918 changed this system by imposing obligatory military service for men aged eighteen to forty. The Bolsheviks created regional Military commissariats known as voenkomats to manage the massive draft. These offices still function in modern Russia today.

  Leon Trotsky served as the People's Commissar for War from 1918 until 1924. He is credited as the founder of the Red Army. General Aleksei Brusilov offered his professional services to the Bolsheviks in 1920. Authorities formed a special commission under Lev Glezarov to recruit former Imperial Russian officers. By August 1920 they had drafted approximately 315,000 ex-officers into advisory roles called voyenspets. Most prominent commanders like Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich had previously served as Imperial generals before joining the revolution.

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• 2. World War II Campaigns

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  Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union in June 1941. At that time the Red Army possessed 303 divisions and 22 brigades totaling 4.8 million troops. German forces deployed 181 divisions and 18 brigades with 3.8 million soldiers on the Eastern Front. The first weeks saw the annihilation of virtually the entire Soviet Air Force on the ground. Major equipment losses included tanks and artillery while hundreds of thousands of Red Army soldiers were trapped in vast pockets.

  Soviet victories emerged at Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk and later during Operation Bagration. These battles proved decisive in what became known as the Great Patriotic War. The government adopted measures to improve morale by invoking patriotic feelings rather than class struggle. Propagandists referenced ancient heroes like Alexander Nevski and Mikhail Kutuzov. Repressions against the Orthodox Church stopped and priests revived traditions of blessing arms before battle. The Red Army re-introduced military ranks and medals after initially abolishing them.

  During the conflict the Red Army drafted a staggering 29,574,900 men in addition to those already serving. Total losses amounted to 8,668,400 including killed in action, missing in action and deaths by disease. Ethnic Russians suffered the highest casualties at 5,756,000 followed by ethnic Ukrainians at 1,377,400. German losses on the Eastern Front consisted of an estimated 3,604,800 killed or missing plus 3,576,300 captured.

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• 3. Cold War Doctrine And Strategy

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  The Soviet Union maintained Ground Forces, Air Forces and Navy forces immediately after World War II ended in 1945. Men within the armed forces dropped from around 11.3 million to approximately 2.8 million personnel by 1948. Western estimates placed the size of Ground Forces between four million and five million throughout most of the Cold War era. Soviet units stationed in East Germany formed the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany while smaller groups existed in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.

  Confrontation with NATO took the form of threatened mutual deterrence using nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union invested heavily in ballistic missiles and nuclear submarines to deliver them. Proxy wars occurred globally where Moscow supported loyal client regimes or rebel movements. During the Korean War two Soviet air divisions flying MiG-9 and MiG-15 fighter jets fought against United States Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers. Soviet intelligence ships provided vital early warnings to North Vietnamese forces during the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1970.

  Soviet Minister of Defence Marshal Andrei Grechko defined military doctrine in 1975 as a system of views on war nature and methods of waging it. The political side of this doctrine explained international moves undertaken by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Harriet F Scott and William Scott noted that Westerners ignored the political aspects of Soviet strategy.

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• 4. Afghanistan Intervention And Decline

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  The Soviet Army intervened in Afghanistan in 1979 to back a communist government threatened by mujahideen insurgents. A limited contingent averaging between 80,000 and 100,000 troops could not establish control over the countryside. Local insurgents employed hit-and-run tactics using easy escape routes and good supply channels. Actual losses averaged 1,670 per year but became highly unpopular within the army and across the USSR.

  General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev withdrew Soviet forces from Afghanistan after a decade-long war. Millions of Afghans fled their country mostly to Pakistan and Iran while at least half a million civilians were killed. The conflict resulted in what soldiers called Afghan Syndrome paralleling American trauma from Vietnam. By 1989 Soviet troops began leaving Warsaw Pact neighbors to fend for themselves.

  Soviet citizens turned against the government as the union moved toward disintegration. On the 9th of April 1989 army units massacred about 190 demonstrators in Tbilisi Georgia. Forces forcibly entered Baku on the 19th of January 20, 1990 killing hundreds of civilians. Soviet forces stormed buildings in Vilnius Lithuania on the 13th of January 1991 killing 14 people and injuring 700.

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• 5. Command Structure And Party Control

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  The Communist Party controlled the armed forces through multiple mechanisms starting from certain ranks. Only party members could serve as military commanders above specific thresholds. Top leaders systematically integrated into highest echelons of the party structure. A network of political officers influenced activities throughout all units. A zampolit served as political commissar supervising party organizations within each unit.

  During World War II the zampolit lost veto authority over commander decisions but retained reporting power. In 1989 over 20% of all personnel were party or Komsomol members while more than 90% of officers held membership. The Minister of Defence generally sat as a full member of the Politburo chaired by the General Secretary. From 1934 onwards this position also required holding the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union.

  Beneath the Minister stood two First Deputy Ministers including the Chief of the General Staff responsible for operations planning. By the 1980s eleven other Deputy Ministers commanded service branches like Strategic Rocket Forces and Air Defence Forces. Internal Troops and KGB Border Troops operated outside direct Ministry of Defence control in 1989.

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• 6. Personnel Systems And Ethnic Composition

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  Soviet conscription reduced service terms from three years to two years beginning in 1967. Young male citizens reported annually to local voenkomats for assessment following school and employer lists. New conscripts began training courses then faced hazing known as dedovshchina meaning rule by grandfathers. Most professional service members were officers while enlisted personnel remained conscripts.

  Ethnic composition showed complex dynamics within the ranks. Infantry units at height of World War II contained Russians making up 62.95 percent and Ukrainians 14.52 percent. Non-Slavic servicemen often entered with no previous ability to communicate in Russian. Around 80% or more of combat units staffed by Slavic nationalities while non-combat units usually contained 70% to 90% non-Slavs.

  By 1990 ethnic Slavs made up 69.2% of all military members including Russians, Ukrainians and Belorussians. Baltic people comprised only 1.9% while Muslim-Turkic people accounted for 20.6%. High technology services like Strategic Rocket Forces and Navy disproportionately consisted of Russians who made up 69.4% of officer corps. Soviet minorities carried anti-regime views leading to recruitment into German military on Eastern Front during WWII.

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