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Red Army



The Ground Forces were manned through conscription, which as noted above was reduced in 1967 from three to two years. This system was administered through the thousands of military commissariats (военный комиссариат, военкомат (voyenkomat)) located throughout the Soviet Union. Between January and May of every year, every young Soviet male citizen was required to report to the local voyenkomat for assessment for military service, following a summons based on lists from every school and employer in the area. The voyenkomat worked to quotas sent out by a department of the General Staff, listing how young men are required by each service and branch of the Armed Forces.[62] The new conscripts were then picked up by an officer from their future unit and usually sent by train across the country. On arrival, they would begin the Young Soldiers' course, and become part of the system of senior rule, known as dedovshchina, literally "rule by the grandfathers." There were only a very small number of professional non-commissioned officers (NCOs), as most NCOs were conscripts sent on short courses[63] to prepare them for section commanders' and platoon sergeants' positions. These conscript NCOs were supplemented by praporshchik warrant officers, positions created in the 1960s to support the increased variety of skills required for modern weapons.[64]

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Weapons and equipment

The Soviet Union expanded its indigenous arms industry as part of Stalin's industrialization program in the 1920s and 1930s.

Notable Soviet tanks include the T-34, T-54 and T-55, T-62, T-72, and T-80, as well as post-Soviet variants of the T-72 and T-80 such as the T-90 and T-84.[65] Hand weapons used during the Second World War included, for example, the Mosin-Nagant Rifle, which was also used as a sniper rifle[66] and the PPSh sub-machine gun.[67]

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Military doctrine

The Soviet meaning of military doctrine was much different from U.S. military usage of the term. Minister of Defence of Soviet Union Marshal Andrei Grechko defined it in 1975 as 'a system of views on the nature of war and methods of waging it, and on the preparation of the country and army for war, officially adopted in a given state and its armed forces.' Soviet theorists emphasized both the political and 'military-technical' sides of military doctrine, while from the Soviet point of view, Westerners ignored the political side. However the political side of Soviet military doctrine, Western commentators Harriet F Scott and William Scott said, 'best explained Soviet moves in the international arena'.[68]

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Notes

  1. ^ January 15, 1918 (Old Style)
  2. ^ S.S. Lototskiy, The Soviet Army (Moscow:Progress Publishers, 1971), p.25, cited in Scott and Scott, The Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, Eastview Press, Boulder, Co., 1979, p.3. February 23 became an important national holiday in the Soviet Union, later celebrated as "Soviet Army Day".
  3. ^ Other forces fighting in the Civil War included the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine or 'Black Army' of Nestor Makhno, and the Green Army.
  4. ^ Scott and Scott, 1979, p.8
  5. ^ John Erickson, The Soviet High Command - A Military-Political History 1918–41, MacMillan, London, 1962, p.31–34
  6. ^ N. Efimov, Grazhdanskaya Voina 1918–21 (The Civil War 1918–21), Second Volume, Moscow, c.1928, p.95, cited in Erickson, 1962, p.33
  7. ^ Erickson, 1962, p.38–9
  8. ^ John Erickson, The Soviet High Command 1918–41, p.72–73
  9. ^ Erickson, 1962, p.101
  10. ^ Erickson, 1962, p.102–107
  11. ^ Erickson, 1962, p.167
  12. ^ Mary Habeck, Storm of Steel: The Development of Armor Doctrine in Germany and the Soviet Union, 1919–1939, Cornell University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-8014-4074-2.
  13. ^ Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, American edition, Boston, 1943, p.654, cited in William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, The Reprint Society, London, 1962, p. 796
  14. ^ David Glantz, Stumbling Colossus, University Press of Kansas, 1998, p.15
  15. ^ David Glantz, Stumbling Colossus, University Press of Kansas, 1998
  16. ^ David Glantz, Stumbling Colossus, University Press of Kansas, 1998
  17. ^ David Glantz in Stumbling Colossus discusses the correlation of forces in Appendix D (pages 292–295), and concludes that the Axis forces had a superiority of 1:1.7 in personnel, though the Red Army had 174 divisions to the Axis' 164, a 1.1:1 ratio.
  18. ^ David Glantz, Colossus Reborn, 2005, p.61–62
  19. ^ David Glantz, Colossus Reborn: The Red Army at War 1941–43, University Press of Kansas, 2005, p.181
  20. ^ See Г. Ф. Кривошеев, Россия и СССР в войнах XX века: потери вооруженных сил. Статистическое исследование (G. F. Krivosheev, Russia and the USSR in the wars of the 20th century: losses of the Armed Forces. A Statistical Study, in Russian)
  21. ^ Glantz, Colossus Reborn: The Red Army at War 1941–43, University Press of Kansas, 2005, p.600–602
  22. ^ Rűdiger Overmans, Deutsche militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Oldenbourg 2000. ISBN 3-486-56531-1
  23. ^ German-Russian Berlin-Karlhorst museum, http://newsfromrussia.com/science/2003/06/13/48180.html
  24. ^ Antony Beevor, Stalingrad, 1998. ISBN 0-14-024985-0
  25. ^ Operation Unthinkable report - page 2, opening date.
  26. ^ David Glantz, Stumbling Colossus, University Press of Kansas, 1998
  27. ^ Scott and Scott, The Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, Eastview Press, Boulder, Co., 1979, p.142
  28. ^ William E. Odom, The Collapse of the Soviet Military, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1998, p.39
  29. ^ Scott and Scott, The Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, Westview Press, Boulder, CO., 1979, p.176
  30. ^ Odom, 1998, p.39
  31. ^ Scott and Scott, 1979, p.305
  32. ^ Scott and Scott, 1979, p.176
  33. ^ see Viktor Suvorov, Inside the Soviet Army
  34. ^ William E. Odom, The Collapse of the Soviet Military, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1998, p.69
  35. ^ William E. Odom, The Collapse of the Soviet Military, Yale, 1998, p.72-80, also Parallel History Project, http://www.php.isn.ethz.ch/collections/colltopic.cfm?lng=en&id=14944&nav1=1&nav2=2, and the documentation on the associated Polish exercise, Seven Days to the River Rhine, 1979.
  36. ^ Helene Carrere D'Encausse, The End of the Soviet Empire: The Triumph of the Nations, Basic Books, 1992, ISBN 0-465-09818-5
  37. ^ David Remnick, Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire, Vintage Books, 1994, ISBN 0-679-75125-4
  38. ^ IISS, The Military Balance 1992–93, Brassey's, London, 1992, p.72,86,96
  39. ^ Jack F. Matlock, Jr., Autopsy on an Empire: The American Ambassador's Account of the Collapse of the Soviet Union, Random House, 1995, ISBN 0679413766
  40. ^ Scott and Scott, 1979, p.5
  41. ^ Scott and Scott, 1979, p.12
  42. ^ David Glantz, Colossus Reborn: The Red Army at War 1941–43, University Press of Kansas, 2005, p.717 note 5.
  43. ^ Charles Sharp, Soviet Order of Battle World War II Volume I: "The Deadly Beginning," Soviet Tank, Mechanized, Motorized Divisions and Tank Brigades of 1940–1942 (Privately Published, George Nafziger, 1995), 2–3, cited at http://www.redarmystudies.net/0411030.htm
  44. ^ House, p. 96
  45. ^ Zaloga 1984, p 126.
  46. ^ House, Jonathan M. (1984). Toward Combined Arms Warfare: A Survey of 20th Century Tactics, Doctrine, and Organization. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 66027–6900: U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, p. 96
  47. ^ Glantz, pg.35
  48. ^ Glantz, Stumbling Colossus, p. 117
  49. ^ Glantz, Colossus Reborn: The Red Army at War 1941–43, University Press of Kansas, 2005, p.179
  50. ^ David Glantz, 2005, p.189
  51. ^ Glantz, 2005, p.217–230
  52. ^ Mark L Urban, Soviet Land Power
  53. ^ M J Orr, The Russian Ground Forces and Reform 1992–2002, January 2003, Conflict Studies Research Centre, UK Defence Academy, Sandhurst, p.1
  54. ^ M J Orr, 2003, p.1 and David C Isby, Weapons and Tactics of the Soviet Army, Jane's Publishing Company, 1988, p.30
  55. ^ Viktor Suvorov, Inside the Soviet Army, Hamish Hamilton, 1982, gives this title, Odom (1998) also discusses this development
  56. ^ Scott and Scott, The Armed Forces of the USSR, Eastview Press, 1979, p.13
  57. ^ John Erickson, The Soviet High Command 1918–41, p.72–73
  58. ^ John Erickson, The Soviet High Command 1918–41
  59. ^ Carey Schofield, Inside the Soviet Army, Headline, London, 1991, p.67–70
  60. ^ http://www.redarmystudies.net/0411030.htm, citing Alan Bullock, Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives (New York: Vintage Books, 1993), 489.
  61. ^ Glantz, David M., Stumbling Colossus, p. 58.
  62. ^ Carey Schofield, Inside the Soviet Army, Headline, London, 1991, p.67–70
  63. ^ Viktor Suvorov, Inside the Soviet Army, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1982, gives the figure of six months with a training division
  64. ^ William E Odom, The Collapse of the Soviet Military, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1998, p.43
  65. ^ See also Tanks (1919-1939)#Soviet Union, Tanks in World War II#Soviet Union, and List of equipment of the Russian Ground Forces
  66. ^ http://www.a-izquierdo.com/Armas/Mosin%20Nagant%20Sniper.jpg
  67. ^ http://www.frenchparadise.net/modules/Page/html/images/ppsh_side_small.jpg
  68. ^ Scott and Scott, 1979, p.37,59

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References

  • Helene Carrere D'Encausse, The End of the Soviet Empire: The Triumph of the Nations, Basic Books, 1992, ISBN 0-465-09818-5
  • John Erickson, The Soviet High Command - A Military-Political History 1918–41, MacMillan, London, 1962
  • David Glantz, Stumbling Colossus & Colossus Reborn, University Press of Kansas
  • House, Jonathan M. (1984). Toward Combined Arms Warfare: A Survey of 20th Century Tactics, Doctrine, and Organization. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 66027–6900: U.S. Army Command and General Staff College
  • David C Isby, Weapons and Tactics of the Soviet Army, Jane's Publishing Company, 1988
  • William E Odom, The Collapse of the Soviet Military, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1998
  • Carey Schofield, Inside the Soviet Army, Headline Book Publishing, 1991
  • Scott and Scott, The Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, Eastview Press, Boulder, Co., 1979
  • Zaloga, Steven J., James Grandsen (1984). Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War Two, London: Arms and Armour Press. ISBN 0-85368-606-8.




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