— Ch. 1 · Origins And Early Development —
Soviet Armed Forces.
~6 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
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.
World War II Campaigns
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.