Soviet Armed Forces

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Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Вооружённые Силы Союза Советских Социалистических Республик Vooruzhonnyye Sily Soyuza Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik
US$200-300 billion (CIA, Pentagon estimate, 1988)[4]
Percent of GDP	4.9% (official, 1988) 7.7–11.5% (CIA, Pentagon estimate, 1988)
Related articles
History	Military history of the Soviet Union
Ranks	Military ranks of the Soviet Union

The Soviet Armed Forces,^[a] also known as the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union,^[b] the Red Army (1918–1946) and the Soviet Army (1946–1991), were the armed forces of the Russian SFSR (1917–1922) and the Soviet Union (1922–1991) from their beginnings in the Russian Civil War of 1917–1923 to the collapse of the USSR in 1991. In May 1992, Russian President Boris Yeltsin issued decrees forming the Russian Armed Forces, which subsumed much of the Soviet Armed Forces. Multiple sections of the former Soviet Armed Forces in the other, smaller Soviet republics gradually came under those republics' control.

According to the all-union military service law of September 1925, the Soviet Armed Forces consisted of the

In the USSR, general conscription applied, which meant that all able-bodied males aged eighteen and older were drafted into the armed forces.^[6] International observers regarded the armed organizations as collectively one of the strongest such forces in world history.^[7] The relative advancement and development of the government's militaries was a key part of the history of the USSR.

In the context of the Cold War, an academic study by the rival U.S. Department of Defense in 1984 found that the Soviets maintained a notable reach across the world and particularly inside Europe. The analysis explicitly concluded that "Soviet armies have always been massive" while "they are also highly modernized, well-equipped, and have great firepower... [as well as] mobility", which meant that "manpower and materiel combined make the present Soviet ground forces a very formidable land army." Although Soviet military strategy in general merited comment, "the ground forces constituted the largest of the five Soviet military services" as of the date the research ended.^[7]

Names

Soviet Armed Forces
Components
General Staff Strategic Rocket Forces Red Army Soviet Army Air Defence Forces Air Forces Navy
Ranks of the Soviet Military
Military ranks of the Soviet Union
History of the Soviet Military
Military history of the Soviet Union History of Russian military ranks
v t e

Politics of the Soviet Union
Leadership Leaders President list Vice President Collective leadership State Council Presidential Council
Communist Party Congress Central Committee History General Secretary Politburo Secretariat Orgburo
Legislature Congress of Soviets Central Executive Committee Supreme Soviet Soviet of the Union Soviet of Nationalities Presidium Congress of People's Deputies Speaker 1989 Legislative election
Governance Constitution Official names 1924 1936 1977 Government Ministries State Committees Cabinets Premiership First Deputy Premier Deputy Premier Administrator of Affairs
Judiciary Law Supreme Court Military Collegium People's Court Procurator General
Ideology Soviet democracy Marxism–Leninism Khrushchevism De-Stalinization Perestroika Glasnost
Society Economy Agriculture Consumer goods Five-Year Plan Kosygin reform New Economic Policy Science and technology Era of Stagnation Material balance planning Transport War communism Culture Demographics Education Family Phraseology Religion Repression Censorship Censorship of images Great Purge Gulag system Collectivization Human rights Ideological repression Political abuse of psychiatry Political repression Population transfer Propaganda Suppressed research Red Terror Soviet Empire
Soviet Union portal Other countries
v t e

• Russian: Вооружённые Силы Союза Советских Социалистических Республик, Vooruzhonnyye Sily Soyuza Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik
• Ukrainian: Збройні Сили Союзу Радянських Соціалістичних Республік, Zbroyni Syly Soyuzu Radyansʹkykh Sotsialistychnykh Respublik
• Belarusian: Узброеныя Сілы Саюза Савецкіх Сацыялістычных Рэспублік, Uzbrojenyja Sily Sajuza Savieckich Sacyjalistyčnych Respublik
• Uzbek: Совет Социалистик Республикалари Иттифоқининг қуролли кучлари, Sovet Sotsialistik Respublikalari Ittifoqining qurolli kuchlari
• Kazakh: Кеңестік Социалистік Республикалар Одағы Қарулы Күштері, Keńestik Socıalistik Respýblıkalar Odaǵy Qarýly Kúshteri
• Georgian: საბჭოთა სოციალისტური რესპუბლიკების კავშირის შეიარაღებული ძალები, Sabch’ota Sotsialist’uri Resp’ublik’ebis K’avshiris Sheiaraghebuli Dzalebi
• Azerbaijani: Совет Сосиалист Республикалары Иттифагынын Силаһлы Гүввәләри, Sovet Sosialist Respublikaları İttifaqının Silahlı Qüvvələri
• Lithuanian: Tarybų Socialistinių Respublikų Sąjungos Ginkluotosios Pajėgos
• Romanian (called "Moldavian" in the USSR; also known as Moldovan language): Форцеле армате але Униуна Републичилори Сочиалисть Советичь, Forțele armate ale Uniuna Republicilori Socialisti Sovietici
• Latvian: Padomju Sociālistisko Republiku Savienības Bruņotie Spēki
• Kyrgyz: Советтик Социалисттик Республикалар Союзу Куралдуу Күчтөрү, Sovettik Sotsialisttik Respublikalar Soyuzu Kuralduu Küçtörü
• Tajik: Қувваҳои Мусаллаҳи Иттиҳоди Ҷумҳуриҳои Шӯравии Сосиалистӣ, Quvvahoji Musallahi Ittihodi Çumhurihoji Şūraviji Sosialistī
• Armenian: Սովետական սոցիալիստական հանրապետությունների միության զինված ուժեր, Sovetakan sots’ialistakan hanrapetut’yunneri miut’yan zinvats uzher
• Turkmen: Совет Сосиалистик Республикалары Союзы Яраглы Гүйчлери, Sowet Sosialistik Respublikalary Soýuzy Ýaragly Güýçleri
• Estonian: Nõukogude Sotsialistlike Vabariikide Liidu Relvajõud

History

Origins

The

from 1918 to 1924.

At the beginning of its existence, the Red Army functioned as a voluntary formation, without ranks or insignia. Democratic elections selected the officers. However, a decree of May 29, 1918, imposed obligatory military service for men of ages 18 to 40. To service the massive draft, the Bolsheviks formed regional Military commissariats (voenkomats), which still carry out this function in Russia. They should not be confused with military political commissars. Democratic election of officers was also abolished by decree, while separate quarters for officers, special forms of address, saluting, and higher pay were all reinstated.

After General

, had joined the Bolsheviks earlier.

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 of the Soviet Union. 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.

Civil War

Polish–Soviet War

The Polish–Soviet War represented the first foreign campaign of the Red Army. The Soviet counter-offensive following the 1920 Polish invasion of Ukraine at first met with success, but Polish forces halted it at the disastrous (for the Soviets) Battle of Warsaw (1920).

Far East

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In 1934, Mongolia and the USSR, recognising the threat from the mounting Japanese military presence in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia, agreed to co-operate in the field of defence. On March 12, 1936, the co-operation increased with the ten-year Mongolian-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, which included a mutual defence protocol.

In May 1939, a Mongolian

, which drove the Mongolians over the river. The Soviet troops quartered there in accordance with the mutual defence protocol intervened and obliterated the detachment. Escalation of the conflict appeared imminent, and both sides spent June amassing forces. On July 1 the Japanese force numbered 38,000 troops. The combined Soviet-Mongol force had 12,500 troops. The Japanese crossed the river, but after a three-day battle their opponents threw them back over the river. The Japanese kept probing the Soviet defences throughout July, without success.

On August 20

cease-fire

, and the conflict concluded with an agreement between the USSR, Mongolia and Japan signed on September 15 in Moscow. In the conflict, the Red Army losses were 9,703 killed in action (KIA) and missing in action (MIA) and 15,952 wounded. The Japanese lost 25,000 KIA; the grand total was 61,000 killed, missing, wounded and taken prisoner.

Shortly after the cease-fire, the Japanese negotiated access to the battlefields to collect their dead. Finding thousands upon thousands of dead bodies came as a further shock to the already shaken morale of the Japanese soldiers. The scale of the defeat probably became a major factor in discouraging a Japanese attack on the USSR during World War II, which allowed the Red Army to switch a large number of its

European Theatre

in the desperate autumn of 1941.

Second World War

The Polish Campaign

On September 17, 1939, the Red Army marched its troops into the eastern territories of

.

The

]; After a few casualties on both sides, the parties negotiated, the German troops left the area, and the Red Army troops entered L'viv on 22 September.

According to post-1991 Russian sources, the Red Army force in Poland numbered 466,516.

The Finnish campaigns

The Winter War began when the Soviet Union attacked Finland on 30 November 1939, two months after the invasion of Poland by Germany that started World War II. Because the attack was judged as illegal, the Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations on 14 December.^[15] The war ended on 13 March 1940.

The

In

on 19 September 1944.

Barbarossa, 1941–1945 (Great Patriotic War)

By the autumn of 1940,

.

For

necessitated a delay—to the second half of June.

At the time of the Nazi assault on the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Red Army had 303 divisions and 22 brigades (4.8 million troops), including 166 divisions and 9 brigades (2.9 million troops) stationed in the western military districts. Their Axis opponents deployed on the

Soviet Air Force

on the ground, the loss of major equipment, tanks, artillery, and major Soviet defeats as German forces trapped hundreds of thousands of Red Army soldiers in vast pockets.

Soviet forces suffered heavy damage in the field as a result of poor levels of preparedness, which was primarily caused by a reluctant, half-hearted and ultimately belated decision by the Soviet Government and High Command to mobilize the army. Equally important was a general tactical superiority of the German army, which was conducting the kind of warfare that it had been combat-testing and fine-tuning for two years. The hasty pre-war growth and over-promotion of the Red Army cadres as well as the removal of experienced officers caused by the Purges offset the balance even more favourably for the Germans. Finally, the sheer numeric superiority of the Axis cannot be underestimated.

A generation of brilliant Soviet commanders (most notably

.

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

re-appeared: units which had shown exceptional heroism in combat gained the names of "Guards Regiment", "Guards Army", etc.

During the German–Soviet War, the Red Army drafted a staggering 29,574,900 in addition to the 4,826,907 in service at the beginning of the war. Of these it lost 6,329,600 KIA, 555,400 deaths by disease and 4,559,000 MIA (most captured). Of these 11,444,100, however, 939,700 re-joined the ranks in the subsequently re-took Soviet territory, and a further 1,836,000 returned from German captivity. Thus the grand total of losses amounted to 8,668,400. The majority of the losses were ethnic Russians (5,756,000), followed by ethnic Ukrainians (1,377,400).^[17] The German losses on the Eastern Front consisted of an estimated 3,604,800 KIA/MIA (most killed) and 3,576,300 captured (total 7,181,100).

Stalin

in Berlin, June 1945

In the first part of the war, the Red Army fielded weaponry of mixed quality. It had excellent artillery, but it did not have enough trucks to manoeuvre and supply it; as a result the Wehrmacht (which rated it highly) captured much of it. Red Army

outclassed any other tanks the Germans had when they appeared in 1941, yet most of the Soviet armoured units were less advanced models; likewise, the same supply problem handicapped even the formations equipped with the most modern tanks. The Soviet Air Force initially performed poorly against the Germans. The quick advance of the Germans into the Soviet territory made reinforcement difficult, if not impossible, since much of the Soviet Union's military industry lay in the west of the country.

The Manchurian Campaign

After the end of the war in Europe, the Red Army attacked Japan and Manchukuo (Japan's puppet state in Manchuria) on 9 August 1945, and in combination with Mongolian and Chinese Communist forces rapidly overwhelmed the outnumbered Kwantung Army. Soviet forces also attacked in Sakhalin, in the Kuril Islands and in northern Korea. Japan surrendered unconditionally on 2 September 1945.

The Cold War

The Soviet Union only had Ground Forces, Air Forces, and the Navy in 1945.

.

Men within the Soviet Armed Forces dropped from around 11.3 million to approximately 2.8 million in 1948.

.

The trauma of the devastating

German Democratic Republic

(1953), Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968). As a result of the Sino-Soviet border conflict, a sixteenth military district was created in 1969, the Central Asian Military District, with headquarters at Alma-Ata.^[20] To improve capabilities for war at a theatre level, in the late 1970s and early 1980s four high commands were established, grouping the military districts, groups of forces, and fleets.^[22] The Far Eastern High Command was established first, followed by the Western and South-Western High Commands towards Europe, and the Southern High Command at Baku, oriented toward the Middle East.

Confrontation with the US and NATO during the Cold War mainly took the form of threatened mutual deterrence with

The Soviet Union invested heavily in nuclear capabilities, especially in the production of ballistic missiles and of nuclear submarines to deliver them.

Military doctrine

The Soviet meaning of military doctrine was much different from U.S. military usage of the term. Soviet Minister of Defence 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 emphasised both the political and 'military-technical' sides of military doctrine, while from the Soviet point of view, Westerners ignored the political side. According to Harriet F Scott and William Scott, the political parts of Soviet military doctrine best explained the international moves that the Soviet Union undertook during the Cold War.^[24]

The limited contingent in Afghanistan

In 1979, however, the Soviet Army

. Tactically, both sides concentrated on attacking supply lines, but Afghan mujahideen were well dug-in with tunnels and defensive positions, holding out against artillery and air attacks. The decade long war resulted in millions of Afghans fleeing their country, mostly to Pakistan and Iran. At least half a million Afghan civilians were killed in addition to the rebels in the war.

The end of the Soviet Union

This section includes a improve this section by introducing more precise citations. (May 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message )

From 1985 to 1991, the new leader of the Soviet Union

, both under opposition control, killing 14 people and injuring 700. This action was perceived by many as heavy-handed and achieved little.

By mid-1991, the Soviet Union had reached a state of emergency. According to the official commission (the Soviet Academy of Sciences) appointed by the

] Commanders sent tanks into the streets of Moscow, but (according to all the commanders and soldiers) only with orders to ensure the safety of the people. It remains unclear why exactly the military forces entered the city, but they clearly did not have the goal of overthrowing Gorbachev (absent on the Black Sea coast at the time) or the government. The coup failed primarily because the participants did not take any decisive action, and after several days of their inaction the coup simply stopped. Only one confrontation took place between civilians and the tank crews during the coup, which led to the deaths of three civilians. Although the victims became proclaimed heroes, the authorities acquitted the tank crew of all charges. Nobody issued orders to shoot at anyone.

Following the coup attempt of August 1991, the leadership of the Soviet Union retained practically no authority over the component republics. Nearly every Soviet Republic declared its intention to secede and began passing laws defying the Supreme Soviet. On December 8, 1991, the Presidents of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine declared the Soviet Union dissolved and signed the document setting up the

Kazakh Army

.

In mid-March 1992, Yeltsin appointed himself as the new Russian Minister of Defence, marking a crucial step in the creation of the new

, Ukraine, with the fleet division and a Russian leasehold for fleet facilities in Crimea finally achieved in 1997.

The Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) became successful members of NATO since 2004. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine maintain cooperation with NATO as well.

Structure and leadership

The Soviet Armed Forces were controlled by the

. Stalin was the last civilian/politician Minister of Defence; from 1947 onwards, the Minister of Defence was a serving general (though the last was an airman). Between 1934 and 1946, 1950 and 1953, a separate Ministry of the Navy existed and the Ministry of Defence was responsible only for land and air forces. In practice, the Navy Minister was a far more junior official and the Defence Ministry continued to dominate policymaking.

Beneath the Minister of Defence were two First Deputy Ministers of Defence; the

In 1989, the Soviet Armed Forces consisted of the

Civil Defence

Forces were added.

There were also a number of armed organisations beyond the Ministry of Defence; in 1989 these included

KGB Border Troops

.

Personnel

Petrograd

, 1921

Ranks and titles

The early Red Army never adopted the idea of a professional officer corps. It was seen as a "heritage of tsarism.". In particular, the Bolsheviks condemned the use of the word "officer" and used the word "commander" instead. The Red Army never adopted epaulettes and ranks, using purely functional titles such as "Division Commander", "Corps Commander", and similar titles. In 1924 it supplemented this system with "service categories", from K-1 (lowest) to K-14 (highest). The service categories essentially operated as ranks in disguise: they indicated the experience and qualifications of a commander. The insignia now denoted the category, not the position of a commander. However, one still had to use functional titles to address commanders, which could become as awkward as "comrade deputy head-of-staff of corps". If one did not know a commander's position, one used one of the possible positions—for example: "Regiment Commander" for K-9.

On September 22, 1935, the Red Army abandoned service categories and introduced personal ranks. These ranks, however, used a unique mix of functional titles and traditional ranks. For example, the ranks included "Lieutenant" and "Komdiv" (Комдив, Division Commander). 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"), for administrative, medical and other non-combatant branches. The year before (1934), the revival of personal ranks began with the Marshal of the Soviet Union rank bestowed upon 5 Army Commanders.

There were further modifications to the system. 1937 saw the Junior Lieutenant and Junior Military Technician ranks being added. On May 7, 1940, the ranks of "

) rank.

In early 1942 all the functional ranks in technical and administrative corps became regularised ranks (e.g., "Engineer Major", "Engineer Colonel", "Captain of the Intendant Service", etc.). On October 9, 1942, the authorities abolished the system of military commissars, together with the commissar ranks. The functional ranks remained only in medical, veterinary and legislative corps. By then the Naval rank of Midshipman was revived in the Soviet Navy as an NCO rank, a role lasting until the 1970s.

In early 1943 a unification of the system saw the abolition of all the remaining functional ranks. The word "officer" became officially endorsed, together with the epaulettes that superseded the previous rank insignia. 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. The old functional ranks of Kombat (Battalion or Battery Commander), Kombrig (Brigade Commander) and Komdiv (Division Commander) continue in informal use.

By the end of the Second World War, the

in 1955. In the 1960s however, it became a rank of its own when new regulations revived the Fleet Admiral rank in the Soviet Navy, thus becoming the naval equivalent to General of the Army.

By 1972, the final transformation of military ranks began as the rank of Praporshchik (Warrant officer) ranks being added in the Army and Air Force for contract NCOs since the rank of Starshina (Sergeant Major) was from now on for conscripts. But in the Soviet Navy, it meant that the Naval rank of Midshipman became a rank for Naval warrant officers since the Navy created the new rank of Ship Chief Sergeant Major for its NCOs in naval service. The year of 1974 saw the rank insignia changed for Army Generals and Navy Fleet Admirals in their parade dress and working and combat dress uniforms.

General Staff

On September 22, 1935, the authorities renamed the RKKA Staff as the General Staff, which essentially reincarnated the General Staff of the Russian Empire. Many of the former RKKA Staff officers had served as General Staff officers in the Russian Empire and became General Staff officers in the USSR. General Staff officers typically had extensive combat experience and solid academic training.

Military education

During the

was re-instated; it became a principal school for the senior and supreme commanders of the Red Army and a centre for advanced military studies.

Red Army (and later

.

Manpower and enlisted men

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2008)

The Soviet Armed Forces were manned through conscription, which had been reduced in 1967 from three to two years (with remaining three years service in naval forces). This system was administered through the thousands of

Ethnic Composition and Tension

For years, Soviet leadership argued that Soviet military played a role in decreasing ethnic tensions and nationalist loyalties. According to professor Deborah Yarsike Ball, Soviet historians, such as B. F. Klochkov, argued that, "the Red Army strengthened friendship between soldiers of various nationalities." The official view of the military was that it was a "school of internationalism," where all the various people of the Soviet Union could develop unity and respect for each other.[30] During the Russian Civil War, the Bolshevik government employed non-Slavic ethnic groups, who were known as national military units.

Despite the official view, the history of inter-ethnic relations in the military was more complicated. As the Bolsheviks consolidated power in the late 1910s and early 1920s, the central leadership became suspicious of the size of the national units. Their sizes were restricted, they were put under close supervision, and eventually disbanded by 1938. The national units were briefly brought back during World War II before being disbanded again in the mid-1950s. In 1956, when soldier were ordered to respond to protesters in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, the ethnic-Georgian unit refused to follow orders from their Russian higher-ranking officers.^[31]

Soviet minorities were not treated equally and many carried anti-regime views. According to a 1983

Inter-ethnic relations in the military did not improve after World War II. In fact, although the

By 1990, Slavic troops still made a majority of Soviet soldiers. In total, 69.2% of all military members were ethnic Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian), 1.9% were Baltic people, 20.6% were Muslim-Turkic people and 8.3% were all other types of people.[31]

Purge

The late 1930s saw the "Purges of the Red Army cadres", occurring against the historical background of the Great Purge. The Purges had the objective of cleansing the Red Army of "politically unreliable elements", mainly among the higher-ranking officers. This inevitably provided a convenient pretext for settling personal vendettas and eventually resulted in a witch-hunt. In 1937, the Red Army numbered around 1.3 million, and it grew to almost three times that number by June 1941. This necessitated quick promotion of junior officers, often despite their lack of experience or training, with obvious grave implications for the effectiveness of the Army in the coming war against Germany.

In the highest echelons of the Red Army the Purges removed 3 of the 5 marshals, 13 of 15 generals of the army, 8 of 9 admirals, 50 of 57 army corps generals, 154 out of 186 division generals, 16 of 16 army commissars, and 25 of 28 army corps commissars.

Party control of the Armed Forces

CPSU), #4 Year of entering the VLKSM (Komsomol

), #5 Education, #6 Main specialty, #7 Marital status. (Document number and the name are removed).

The Communist Party had a number of mechanisms of control over the country's armed forces. First, starting from a certain rank, only a Party member could be a military commander, and was thus subject to Party discipline. Second, the top military leaders had been systematically integrated into the highest echelons of the party. Third, the party placed a network of political officers throughout the armed forces to influence the activities of the military.

A political commander (zampolit) served as a political commissar of the armed forces. A zampolit supervised party organizations and conducted party political work within a military unit. He lectured troops on Marxism–Leninism, the Soviet view of international affairs, and the party's tasks for the armed forces. During World War II the zampolit lost veto authority over the commander's decisions but retained the power to report to the next highest political officer or organization on the political attitudes and performance of the unit's commander.

In 1989 over 20% of all armed forces personnel were party members or Komsomol members. Over 90% of all officers in the armed forces were party or Komsomol members.

Weapons and equipment

The Soviet Union established an indigenous arms industry as part of

The Red Army suffered from a shortage of adequate

to use it today.

See also

• List of Soviet Union military bases abroad
• Comparative military ranks of World War II
• List of military aircraft of the Soviet Union and the CIS
• Soviet war crimes
• Mikhail Tukhachevsky

Notes

References

• Donnelly, Christopher, Red Banner: the Soviet military system in peace and war, Coulsdon, Surrey: Janes's Information Group; Alexandria, VA: 1988. [1]
• Fischer, Benjamin B. (1999). "The Katyn Controversy: Stalin's Killing Field". Studies in Intelligence. Archived from the original on 13 June 2007. Retrieved 16 July 2007.
• Krivosheev, G. F. (1997). Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century. Greenhill Books.
  ISBN 978-1-85367-280-4
  .
• Krivosheev, G. F. (1993). "Soviet Armed Forces Losses in Wars, Combat Operations and Military Conflicts: A Statistical Study" (PDF). Translated by U.S. government. Moscow: Military Publishing House. Retrieved 11 March 2018 – via The Black Vault.
• Odom, William E. (1998). The Collapse of the Soviet Military. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
• Schofield, Carey (1991). Inside the Soviet Army. London: Headline Book Publishing PLC.
  ISBN 0-7472-0418-7
  .
• Scott, Harriet Fast; Scott, William Fontaine (1979). The armed forces of the USSR. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. p. [2].
  ISBN 978-0-89158-276-2
  .
• Suvorov, Viktor (1982). Inside the Soviet Army. MacMillan.
• Tsouras, Peter G. (1994). Changing Orders: The Evolution of the World's Armies, 1945 to the Present. New York: Facts on File.
• Zickel, Raymond E; Keefe, Eugene K (1991). Soviet Union: a country study. Washington, D.C.: Library Of Congress. Federal Research Division. For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O.

Further reading

• Lehrke, Jesse Paul. "The Transition to National Armies in the Former Soviet Republics, 1988–2005." Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge (2013). See especially Chapters 1–4 (see: The Transition to National Armies in the Former Soviet Republics, 1988–2005)
• Lester W. Grau and Ali Ajmad Jalali, "The Campaign for the Caves: The Battles for Ahawar in the Soviet-Afghan War" Foreign Military Studies Office, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, reprinted from Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Vol. 14, September 2001, Number 3.
• ISBN 978-0815755524
• Brenda J. Vallance, "Corruption and reform in the Soviet military," The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Volume 7, 1994 - Issue 4

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Soviet Armed Forces.

• Losses Suffered by USSR Armed Forces in Wars, Combat Operations, and Military Conflicts
• Soviet Nuclear Weapons in Hungary 1961–1991