As part of the Soviet troops in. Soviet army. Kazakhstan: soldiers tag for ministers

In the absence of a land front in Europe, the German leadership decided to defeat the Soviet Union during a short campaign in the summer and autumn of 1941. To achieve this goal, the most combat-ready part of the armed forces of Germany was deployed on the border with the USSR.

Wehrmacht

For Operation Barbarossa, out of the 4 army group headquarters available in the Wehrmacht, 3 were deployed (North, Center and South) (75%), out of 13 field army headquarters - 8 (61.5%), out of 46 army corps headquarters - 34 (73.9%), out of 12 motorized corps - 11 (91.7%). In total, 73.5% of the total number of divisions in the Wehrmacht were allocated for the Eastern campaign. Most of the troops had combat experience gained in previous military campaigns. So, out of 155 divisions in military operations in Europe in 1939-1941. 127 (81.9%) participated, and the remaining 28 were partially manned by personnel who also had combat experience. In any case, these were the most combat-ready units of the Wehrmacht (see table 1). The German Air Force deployed to support Operation Barbarossa 60.8% of the air units, 16.9% of the Air Defense Forces and over 48% of the Signal Corps and other units.

Germany satellites

Together with Germany, its allies were preparing for war with the USSR: Finland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Italy, which allocated the following forces for the war (see table 2). In addition, Croatia has allocated 56 aircraft and up to 1.6 thousand people. By June 22, 1941, there were no Slovak and Italian troops on the border, which arrived later. Consequently, the troops of Germany's allies deployed there included 767,100 people, 37 calculation divisions, 5502 guns and mortars, 306 tanks and 886 aircraft.

In total, the forces of Germany and its allies on the Eastern Front totaled 4,329.5 thousand people, 166 calculated divisions, 42,601 guns and mortars, 4,364 tanks, assault and self-propelled guns and 4,795 aircraft (of which 51 were at the disposal of the Air Force High Command and together with 8.5 thousand people of the air force personnel are not taken into account in further calculations).

Red Army

The armed forces of the Soviet Union under the conditions of the outbreak of war in Europe continued to grow and by the summer of 1941 were the largest army in the world (see table 3). In the five western border districts, 56.1% of the ground forces and 59.6% of the air force were deployed. In addition, in May 1941, 70 divisions of the second strategic echelon from the internal military districts and the Far East began to concentrate in the Western theater of military operations (TMD). By June 22, 16 divisions (10 rifle, 4 tank and 2 motorized) arrived in the western districts, in which there were 201,691 people, 2,746 guns and 1,763 tanks.

The grouping of Soviet troops in the Western theater of operations was quite powerful. The general balance of forces on the morning of June 22, 1941 is presented in Table 4, judging by the data of which the enemy was superior to the Red Army only in terms of the number of personnel, for his troops were mobilized.

Mandatory clarifications

Although the above data give a general idea of \u200b\u200bthe strength of the opposing groups, it should be borne in mind that the Wehrmacht completed its strategic concentration and deployment in the theater of operations, while in the Red Army this process was in full swing. As figuratively described this situation A.V. Shubin, "from the West to the East a dense body was moving at high speed. From the East a more massive, but looser block, the mass of which was growing, but not at a fast enough pace, slowly moved forward." Therefore, the balance of forces should be considered at two more levels. Firstly, this is the balance of forces of the parties in different strategic directions on the scale of the district (front) - army group, and secondly, in separate operational directions in the border zone on the scale of the army - army. In this case, in the first case, only the ground forces and the air force are taken into account, and for the Soviet side there are also border troops, artillery and naval aviation, but without information on the personnel of the fleet and internal troops of the NKVD. In the second case, only ground forces are counted for both sides.

Northwest

In the North-West direction, the troops of the German Army Group North and the Baltic Special Military District (PribOVO) confronted each other. The Wehrmacht had a fairly significant superiority in manpower and some in artillery, but inferior in tanks and aircraft. However, it should be borne in mind that only 8 Soviet divisions were located directly in the 50 km of the border strip, and another 10 were located 50-100 km from the border. As a result, in the direction of the main attack, Army Group North managed to achieve a more favorable balance of forces (see Table 5).

Western direction

In the Western direction, the troops of the German Army Group Center and the Western Special Military District (ZAPOVO) with part of the forces of the 11th Army of the PribOVO confronted each other. For the German command, this direction was the main one in Operation Barbarossa, and therefore Army Group Center was the strongest on the entire front. Here 40% of all German divisions deployed from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea (including 50% motorized and 52.9% armored) and the largest Luftwaffe air fleet (43.8% of aircraft) were concentrated. In the offensive zone of Army Group Center, in the immediate vicinity of the border, there were only 15 Soviet divisions, and 14 were located 50-100 km from it. In addition, troops of the 22nd Army from the Ural Military District were concentrated on the territory of the district in the Polotsk region, from which 3 rifle divisions had arrived by June 22, 1941, and the 21st mechanized corps from the Moscow military district - with a total number of 72,016 people. 1241 guns and mortars and 692 tanks. As a result, the ZAPOVO troops contained in the peacetime states were inferior to the enemy only in personnel, but surpassed him in tanks, aircraft and insignificantly in artillery. However, unlike the troops of Army Group Center, they did not complete their concentration, which made it possible to smash them in parts.

Army Group Center was supposed to carry out double coverage of the ZapOVO troops located in the Bialystok salient with a blow from Suwalki and Brest to Minsk, so the main forces of the army group were deployed on the flanks. From the south (from Brest) the main blow was delivered. On the northern flank (Suwalki), the 3rd Panzer Group of the Wehrmacht was deployed, which was opposed by units of the 11th Army of the PribOVO. Troops of the 43rd Army Corps of the 4th German Army and the 2nd Panzer Group were deployed in the zone of the Soviet 4th Army. In these areas, the enemy was able to achieve significant superiority (see table 6).

Southwest

In the South-West direction, Army Group South, which united German, Romanian, Hungarian and Croatian troops, was opposed by units of the Kiev Special and Odessa Military Districts (KOVO and ODVO). The Soviet grouping in the Southwestern direction was the strongest on the entire front, since it was she who was supposed to deliver the main blow to the enemy. However, even here the Soviet troops did not complete their concentration and deployment. So, in KOVO, in the immediate vicinity of the border, there were only 16 divisions, and 14 were located 50-100 km from it. In the OdVO, in the 50-km border zone, there were 9 divisions, and 6 were located in the 50-100-km zone. In addition, troops of the 16th and 19th armies arrived on the territory of the districts, of which 10 divisions (7 rifle, 2 tank and 1 motorized) were concentrated by June 22, with a total strength of 129,675 people, 1505 guns and mortars, and 1,071 tanks. Even without being staffed in wartime, the Soviet troops outnumbered the enemy grouping, which had only some superiority in manpower, but was significantly inferior in tanks, aircraft and somewhat less in artillery. But in the direction of the main attack of Army Group South, where the Soviet 5th Army was opposed by units of the 6th German Army and the 1st Panzer Group, the enemy managed to achieve a better balance of forces for themselves (see Table 7).

Situation in the North

The most favorable for the Red Army was the ratio on the front of the Leningrad Military District (LVO), where it was opposed by Finnish troops and units of the German army "Norway". In the Far North, the troops of the Soviet 14th Army were opposed by the German units of the Norway Mountain Corps and the 36th Army Corps, and here the enemy had superiority in manpower and insignificant in artillery (see Table 8). True, it should be borne in mind that, since military operations on the Soviet-Finnish border began in late June - early July 1941, both sides were building up their forces, and the data given does not reflect the number of troops of the sides by the beginning of hostilities.

Outcome

Thus, the German command, having deployed the main part of the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front, was unable to achieve overwhelming superiority not only in the zone of the entire future front, but also in the zones of individual army groups. However, the Red Army was not mobilized and did not complete the process of strategic concentration and deployment. As a result, units of the first echelon of covering troops were significantly inferior to the enemy, whose troops were deployed directly at the border. Such an arrangement of Soviet troops made it possible to smash them in parts. In the directions of the main attacks of the army groups, the German command managed to create superiority over the troops of the Red Army, which was close to overwhelming. The most favorable balance of forces developed for the Wehrmacht in the zone of Army Group Center, since it was in this direction that the main blow of the entire Eastern campaign was delivered. In other directions, even in the zones of the covering armies, Soviet superiority in tanks affected. The general balance of forces allowed the Soviet command to prevent enemy superiority even in the directions of its main attacks. But in reality the opposite happened.

Since the Soviet military-political leadership incorrectly assessed the degree of threat of a German attack, the Red Army, having begun strategic concentration and deployment in the Western theater of operations in May 1941, which was to be completed by July 15, 1941, was caught on June 22 by surprise and did not have neither an offensive nor a defensive group. Soviet troops were not mobilized, did not have deployed rear structures and were only completing the creation of command and control bodies in the theater of operations. On the front from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathians, out of 77 divisions of the covering forces of the Red Army in the first hours of the war, only 38 incompletely mobilized divisions could repulse the enemy, of which only a few managed to take equipped positions on the border. The rest of the troops were either in places of permanent deployment, or in camps, or on the march. If we take into account that the enemy immediately threw 103 divisions into the offensive, it is clear that the organized entry into the battle and the creation of a continuous front of the Soviet troops was extremely difficult. Having preempted the Soviet troops in strategic deployment, creating powerful operational groupings of their fully combat-ready forces in the selected directions of the main attack, the German command created favorable conditions for seizing the strategic initiative and successfully conducting the first offensive operations.

Notes
1. For more details see: M.I. Meltyukhov. Stalin's missed chance. Clash for Europe 1939-1941 (Documents, facts, judgments). 3rd ed., Revised. and add. M., 2008.S. 354-363.
2. Shubin A.V. The world is on the edge of the abyss. From global crisis to world war. 1929-1941 years. M., 2004.S. 496.

“… From the taiga to the British seas: the Red Army is the strongest of all,” - this is how they sang in a Soviet song. During the Second World War, the Red Army became Soviet and, together with the Navy, Civil Defense Troops, Border and Internal Troops, formed the Armed Forces of the USSR.
In this issue you will see photos from the Soviet photo album of the 80s, and you will find out what the Great Soviet Encyclopedia told about the Armed Forces of the USSR.

Text: Great Soviet Encyclopedia

1.
The Armed Forces of the USSR are the military organization of the Soviet state designed to defend the socialist gains of the Soviet people, the freedom and independence of the Soviet Union. Together with the armed forces of other socialist countries, they ensure the security of the entire socialist community from the encroachments of the aggressors.

2. Stroybatovites at the BAM.

3.

4. Sappers in action.

5.
The Armed Forces of the USSR are divided into types: Strategic Missile Forces, Ground Forces, Air Defense Forces of the country, Air Force, Navy, and also include the Logistics of the Armed Forces, headquarters and Civil Defense troops. The types of the Armed Forces, in turn, are divided into branches of the armed forces, branches of the armed forces (Navy) and special troops, which organizationally consist of subunits, units, formations. The Armed Forces also include border and internal troops. The Armed Forces of the USSR have a unified system of organization and recruitment, centralized control, unified principles of training and education of personnel and training of command personnel, a general procedure for service by privates, sergeants and officers.

7. Fire during exercises.
The direct leadership of the Armed Forces is exercised by the USSR Ministry of Defense. All branches of the Armed Forces, Logistics of the Armed Forces, headquarters and troops of the Civil Defense are subordinate to him. Each branch of the Armed Forces is led by the corresponding commander-in-chief, who is the deputy. Minister of Defense. The border and internal troops are led respectively by the State Security Committee under the USSR Council of Ministers and the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Ministry of Defense includes the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR, directorates of the commanders-in-chief of the Armed Forces, the Logistics Directorate of the Armed Forces, main and central directorates (Main Directorate of Personnel, Central Financial Directorate, Directorate of Affairs, etc.), as well as military command and control bodies and institutions of the Civil defense. The Ministry of Defense, among other tasks, is entrusted with: drafting plans for the construction and development of the Armed Forces in peacetime and wartime, improving the organization of troops, military equipment, providing the Armed Forces with weapons and all types of material supplies, guiding the operational, combat training of troops and a number of other functions, determined by the requirements of state protection. The leadership of party political work in the Armed Forces is carried out by the Central Committee of the CPSU through the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and the Navy, which works as a department of the Central Committee of the CPSU. It directs political bodies, army and naval party and Komsomol organizations, ensures party influence on all aspects of the life of military personnel, directs the activities of political agencies, party organizations to increase the combat readiness of troops, strengthen military discipline and the political and moral state of personnel.

8. Crossing on a pontoon.

9. Artillery crew during exercises.
The material and technical support of the Armed Forces is carried out by the Directorates and Logistics Services, subordinate to the Deputy Minister of Defense - the Chief of Logistics of the Armed Forces.

10.
The territory of the USSR is divided into military districts. A military district can cover the territory of several territories, republics or regions. To fulfill allied obligations to jointly ensure the security of the socialist states, groups of Soviet troops are temporarily located on the territories of the GDR, Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. In the branches of the Armed Forces, military districts, groups of forces, air defense districts, fleets, military councils have been created, which have the right to consider and decide all important issues of the life and activities of the troops of the corresponding branch of the Armed Forces, the district. They bear full responsibility before the Central Committee of the CPSU, the government and the Minister of Defense of the USSR for the implementation of decisions of the party and government in the Armed Forces, as well as orders of the Minister of Defense.

12. Against the background of the Motherland-Mother monument in the hero-city of Volgograd.

13.
The recruitment of the Armed Forces with privates, sergeants and petty officers is carried out by calling Soviet citizens into active military service, which, according to the Constitution of the USSR and the Law on General Military Duty of 1967, is an honorary duty of citizens of the USSR (see Conscription in the USSR). The conscription is carried out by order of the Minister of Defense everywhere 2 times a year: in May - June and in November - December. Male citizens who have reached 18 years of age by the day of conscription are called up for active military service, for a service life of 1.5 to 3 years, depending on their education and type of Armed Forces. An additional source of recruitment is the admission of servicemen and persons in reserve, on a voluntary basis, to the posts of warrant officers and warrant officers, as well as to long-term service. Officers are recruited on a voluntary basis. Officers are trained in higher and secondary military schools of the corresponding branches of the Armed Forces and combat arms; political officers - in higher military-political schools. Suvorov and Nakhimov schools exist to prepare young men for entering higher military educational institutions. Further training of officers is carried out at the higher advanced training courses for officers, as well as in the system of combat and political training. Leading command, political, engineering and other officer cadres are trained in the military, air force, naval and special academies.

14. Communication with the commander.

15. Solemn ceremony of taking the oath.

16.
The Soviet Army and Navy began together with the formation of the world's first socialist state. After the victory of the October Revolution of 1917, the Soviet people had not only to build a new society, but also to defend it with arms in hand from internal counter-revolution and repeated attacks by international imperialism. The Armed Forces of the USSR were created directly by the Communist Party under the hands. VI Lenin, based on the provisions of the Marxist-Leninist teaching on war and the army. By the decree of the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets of October 26 (November 8), 1917, during the formation of the Soviet government, a Committee on Military and Naval Affairs was created consisting of V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko, N. V. Krylenko, P. Ye. Dybenko; from October 27 (November 9), 1917, it was called the Council of People's Commissars for Military and Naval Affairs, from December 1917 - the Collegium of Military Commissars, from February 1918 - 2 People's Commissars: for military and naval affairs. The main armed force in overthrowing the rule of the bourgeoisie and landlords and conquering power of the working people were the Red Guard and the revolutionary sailors of the Baltic Fleet, soldiers of the Petrograd and other garrisons. Relying on the working class and the peasant poor, they played a crucial role in the victory of the October Revolution of 1917, in the defense of the young Soviet Republic in the center and in the localities, in the defeat at the end of 1917 - the beginning of 1918 of the counter-revolutionary revolts of Kerensky - Krasnov near Petrograd, Kaledin on the Don, Dutov in the South Urals, in ensuring the Triumphal procession of Soviet power throughout Russia.

17. Army amateur performances.

18.
"... The Red Guards did the noblest and greatest historical deed of liberating the working people and the exploited from the oppression of the exploiters" (VI Lenin, Poln. Sobr. Soch., 5th ed., Vol. 36, p. 177).

19.
At the beginning of 1918, it became obvious that the forces of the Red Guard, as well as detachments of revolutionary soldiers and sailors, were clearly insufficient for reliable defense of the Soviet state. In an effort to strangle the revolution, the imperialist states, primarily Germany, undertook an intervention against the young Soviet Republic, which merged with the uprising of an internal counter-revolution: White Guard revolts and conspiracies of Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, remnants of various bourgeois parties. They needed regular armed forces capable of defending the Soviet state from numerous enemies.

22.
On January 15 (28), 1918, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA), and on January 29 (February 11), a decree on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Fleet (RKKF) on a voluntary basis. The direct leadership of the formation of the Red Army was carried out by the All-Russian Collegium, established by the SNK on January 15 (28), 1918 under the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs. In connection with the violation by Germany of the armistice and the transition of its troops to the offensive, the Soviet government on February 22 addressed the people with a decree-appeal written by Lenin "The socialist fatherland is in danger!" This decree laid the foundation for the mass enrollment of volunteers in the Red Army and the formation of many of its parts. In commemoration of the general mobilization of revolutionary forces to defend the socialist Fatherland, as well as the courageous resistance of the Red Army units to the invaders, February 23 is annually celebrated in the USSR as a national holiday - the Day of the Soviet Army and the Navy.

23. In the army bath.

24. Physical fitness.

25.
During the Civil War of 1918-20, the construction of the RKKA and RKKF was carried out in extremely difficult conditions. The country's economy was undermined, railway transport was disorganized, the supply of food to the army was carried out irregularly, weapons and uniforms were in short supply. The army did not have the required number of command personnel; means. some of the officers of the old army were on the side of the counter-revolution. The peasantry, from which the rank and file and junior command staff, devastated by the First World War of 1914-18, were mainly recruited, were not inclined to voluntarily join the army. All these difficulties were aggravated by the sabotage of the old bureaucratic apparatus, the bourgeois intelligentsia and the kulaks.

26. Veteran and conscript.

27.
From January to May 1918, the RKKA and RKKF were recruited with volunteers, the command staff (up to the regiment commander) was selected; the number of volunteer units was extremely insufficient. By April 20, 1918, the Red Army numbered only 196 thousand people. The recruitment of the army with volunteers and the election of the command staff could not ensure the creation of a massive regular army, which was necessary in the international situation and in the context of the expansion of the scale of the Civil War. On March 4, 1918, the Supreme Military Council was formed to direct the military operations and the organization of the army. On April 8, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree on the establishment of volost, district, provincial and district military commissariats; on May 8, instead of the All-Russian Collegium for the formation of the Red Army, the All-Russian General Headquarters (Vseroglavshtab) was created - the supreme executive body in charge of the mobilization, formation, organization and training of troops ... On April 22, a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee introduced general military training of workers (Vsevobuch), and the military department began to appoint the command staff. Due to the lack of qualified command personnel, former officers and generals were recruited into the army and navy; the institute of military commissars was formed.

28. Military ID.

29.
On July 10, 1918, the 5th All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted a resolution "On the Organization of the Red Army" on the basis of universal military service for workers aged 18 to 40 years. The transition to compulsory military service made it possible to dramatically increase the size of the Red Army. By the beginning of September 1918, there were already 550 thousand people in its ranks. On September 6, 1918, simultaneously with the declaration of martial law in the country, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RVSR) was created instead of the Supreme Military Council, whose functions included operational and organizational command and control of troops. In September 1918, the RVSR was transferred to the functions and personnel of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs, and in December 1918 - the People's Commissariat for Naval Affairs (became part of the RVSR as the Naval Department). The RVSR led the active army through its member - the commander-in-chief of all the armed forces of the Republic (commander-in-chief: from September 1918 - I. I. Vatsetis, from July 1919 - S. S. Kamenev). On September 6, 1918, the Field Headquarters of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic was established (on February 10, 1921, it was merged with the All-Russian Headquarters into the Headquarters of the Red Army), subordinate to the commander-in-chief and engaged in the training of troops and the leadership of military operations.

31. Political information.

32.
Party-political work in the army and navy was carried out by the Central Committee of the RCP (b) through the All-Russian Bureau of Military Commissars (created on April 8, 1918), which on April 18, 1919, by decision of the 8th Party Congress, was replaced by the RVSR department, renamed on May 26, 1919 to the Political Administration (PUR) under the RVSR, which was also a department of the Central Committee of the RCP (o). In the troops, party political work was carried out by political departments and party organizations (cells).

35.
In 1919, on the basis of the decisions of the 8th Party Congress, the transition to a regular mass army was completed, with a strong proletarian, politically conscious, cadre core of personnel, a unified manning system, a stable organization of troops, centralized control and an effective party-political apparatus. The construction of the USSR Armed Forces took place in an acute struggle against the "military opposition", which opposed the creation of a regular army, defended the remnants of partisanism in command and control of troops and the conduct of war, underestimated the role of old military specialists.

38.
By the end of 1919, the size of the Red Army reached 3 million people, by the fall of 1920 - 5.5 million people. The share of workers was 15%, peasants - 77%, others - 8%. In 1918-20, 88 rifle and 29 cavalry divisions, 67 air detachments (300-400 aircraft), as well as a number of artillery and armored units and subunits were formed. There were 2 spare (reserve) armies (of the Republic and the South-Eastern Front) and parts of the Vsevobuch, which trained about 800 thousand people. During the years of the Civil War, 6 military academies and over 150 courses and schools (October 1920) trained 40,000 commanders from workers and peasants. As of August 1, 1920, there were about 300,000 Communists in the Red Army and the Navy (about 1/2 of the entire party), who were the cementing core of the army and navy. About 50 thousand of them died a heroic death during the Civil War.

40.
In the summer and autumn of 1918, the active forces began to be brought together in the armies and fronts, headed by revolutionary military councils (RVC) of 2-4 members. By the fall of 1919, there were 7 fronts, each of 2-5 armies. In total, there were 16-18 combined-arms armies in the fronts, one Cavalry Army (1st) and several separate cavalry corps. The 2nd Cavalry Army was formed in 1920.

42.
In the course of the struggle against the interventionists and the White Guards, the weapons of the old army were mainly used. At the same time, the extraordinary measures taken by the party to establish the war industry and the unparalleled heroism of the working class made it possible to switch to the organized supply of the Red Army with weapons, ammunition and uniforms of Soviet production. The average monthly production of rifles in 1920 amounted to more than 56 thousand pieces, cartridges - 58 million pieces. In 1919, aviation enterprises built 258 and repaired 50 aircraft.

44.
Along with the creation of the Red Army, Soviet military science was born and developed, based on the Marxist-Leninist doctrine of war and the army, the practice of the revolutionary struggle of the masses, the achievements of the military theory of the past, creatively reworked to suit new conditions. The first regulations of the Red Army were published: in 1918 - the Charter of the Internal Service, the Charter of the Garrison Service, the Field Charter, in 1919 - the Disciplinary Charter. Lenin's provisions on the essence and nature of war, the role of the masses, the social system, and the economy in achieving victory were a great contribution to Soviet military science. Already at that time the characteristic features of Soviet military art were clearly manifested: revolutionary creative activity; irreconcilability to the template; the ability to determine the direction of the main blow; a reasonable combination of offensive and defensive actions; pursuit of the enemy up to its complete destruction, etc.

47.

49.
After the victorious end of the Civil War and the infliction of a decisive defeat on the combined forces of the interventionists and White Guards, the Red Army was transferred to a peaceful position, and by the end of 1924 its number had decreased tenfold. Simultaneously with the demobilization, the Armed Forces were strengthened. In 1923, the united People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs was recreated. As a result of the military reform of 1924-25, the central apparatus was reduced and updated, new staffs of units and formations were introduced, the social composition of command personnel was improved, and new regulations, instructions and guidelines were developed and implemented. The most important issue of military reform was the transition to a mixed system of manning the troops, which made it possible in peacetime to have a small cadre army with a minimum expenditure of funds for its maintenance in combination with territorial militia formations of the internal districts (see Territorial militia structure). Most formations and units of border districts, technical and special forces, and the Navy remained cadres. Instead of L.D. Trotsky (since 1918 - People's Commissariat for Military Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic), who sought to tear the Red Army and Navy from the party leadership, on January 26, 1925, M.V. Frunze was appointed Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR and People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, after which became the people's commissar K. E. Voroshilov.

51.
The first all-Union law "On compulsory military service", adopted on September 18, 1925 by the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, consolidated the measures taken in the course of the military reform. This law determined the organizational structure of the Armed Forces, which included the Ground Forces (infantry, cavalry, artillery, armored forces, engineering troops, signal troops), the Air and Naval Forces, the troops of the United State Political Administration (OGPU) and the USSR convoy guard. Their number in 1927 was 586 thousand people.

53.
In the 30s. on the basis of the successes achieved in building socialism, the Armed Forces were further improved; their territorial and personnel structure ceased to meet the needs of the state's defense. In 1935-38, a transition was made from a territorial personnel system to a unified personnel structure of the Armed Forces. In 1937 there were 1.5 million people in the ranks of the army and navy, in June 1941 there were about 5 million people. On June 20, 1934, the Central Executive Committee of the USSR abolished the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR and renamed the People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs into the People's Commissariat for Defense of the USSR. In November 1934, the Military Council of the People's Commissariat of Defense was created, in 1937 military councils in the districts, in 1935 the Headquarters of the Red Army was transformed into the General Staff. In 1937, the All-Union People's Commissariat of the Navy was created; The political administration of the Red Army was renamed the Main Directorate of Political Propaganda, and the political administrations of the districts and the political departments of formations were renamed into administrations and departments of political propaganda. On May 10, 1937, by a decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the institution of military commissars was introduced, responsible, together with the commanders, for the political and moral state of the troops, operational and mobilization readiness, the state of weapons and military equipment; the main military councils of the Red were established in 1938; Army and Navy.

55.
On September 1, 1939, the law "On universal military duty" was adopted, which abolished the previous restrictions on conscription into the army and navy for certain categories of the population and proclaimed military service an honorary duty of all citizens of the USSR, regardless of their class.

58.
The social composition of the army improved: from 40 to 50% of the soldiers and junior commanders were representatives of the working class. In 1939 there were 14 military academies, 63 military schools for the Ground Forces and 14 navies, and 32 flight and flight technical schools. On September 22, 1935, personal military ranks were introduced (see Military ranks), and on May 7, 1940, general and admiral ranks. In terms of the technical equipment of the Armed Forces during the years of the pre-war five-year plans (1929-40), they rose to the level of the armies of the advanced capitalist states. In the Land Forces in 1939 the amount of artillery increased in comparison with 1930; 7 times, including anti-tank and tank - 70 times. The number of tanks from 1934 to 1939 increased 2.5 times. Along with the quantitative growth of weapons and military equipment, their quality has improved. A notable step has been taken in increasing the rate of fire of small arms. The mechanization and motorization of all types of troops increased. The air defense, engineering, communications, and chemical defense troops were armed with new technical means. Based on the successes of aircraft and engine building, the Air Force received further development. In 1939, compared with 1930, the total number of aircraft increased 6.5 times. The navy began building surface ships of various classes, submarines, torpedo boats, and naval aircraft. Compared with 1939, the volume of military production in 1940 increased by more than one-third. Through the efforts of the teams of the design bureaus of A.I. Mikoyan, M.I.Gurevich, A.S. Yakovlev, S.A.Lavochkin, S.V. Ilyushin, V.M. Petlyakov, and others, and workers of the aviation industry, various types of fighter aircraft: Yak-1, MiG-Z, LaGG-Z, Pe-2 dive bomber, Il-2 attack aircraft. The design teams of Zh.Ya. Kotin, M.I.Koshkin, A.A.Morozov, I.A.Kucherenko put the world's best heavy and medium tanks KV-1 and T-34 into mass production. The design bureaus of V.G. Grabin, I.I.Ivanov, F.I.Petrov, and others created new original types of artillery pieces and mortars, many of which entered mass production. From May 1940 to the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, the gun park increased more than 1.2 times. Designers Yu. A. Pobedonostsev, I. I. Gvay, V. A. Artemyev, F. I. Poyda and others created a rocket weapon for salvo fire across areas. A large group of designers and scientists - A. N. Krylov, P. N. Papkovich, V. L. Pozdyunin, V. I. Kostenko, A. N. Maslov, B. M. Malinin, V. F. Popov and others. , developed several new models of warships, which were put into mass production. In 1940-41 factories for the production of small arms, ammunition, fuels and lubricants, etc., achieved great success.

59.
The increased technical equipment made it possible to significantly improve the organizational structure of the troops on the eve of the war. The rifle divisions included tanks, powerful divisional artillery, anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery, which significantly increased their firepower. The organization of the artillery reserve of the High Command (RGK) received further development. Instead of separate tank and armored brigades, which from 1939 had been the main formations of armored forces, the formation of larger formations began - tank and mechanized divisions. In the airborne troops, they began to form airborne corps, and in the Air Force, from 1940 to the divisional organization. In the Navy, formations and formations were organized, intended for joint actions with the ground forces and for conducting independent operations.

61.
Military strategy, operational art, and tactics were further developed. In the mid-30s. a theory of deep combat and deep operation is being developed, reflecting qualitative changes in the technical equipment of troops - a fundamentally new theory of conducting operations by massive, highly mobile, well-equipped armies. The theoretical positions were tested during maneuvers and exercises, as well as during the hostilities of the Red Army in the area of \u200b\u200bLake Khasan, r. Khalkhin-Gol, in the Soviet-Finnish war 1939-40. Many charters and instructions were developed anew. In 1940, the troops entered the Infantry Combat Regulations (part 1), the draft Field Regulations and the Infantry Combat Regulations (part 2), the Tank Troops Combat Regulations, the Combat Regulations, the Guard Service Regulations, etc. On May 7, 1940, S. K. Timoshenko.

63.
Despite the measures taken, the preparation of the Armed Forces to repel the aggression prepared by German fascism was not completed. The reorganization of the Armed Forces on a new technical basis was not completed by the beginning of the war. Most of the units transferred to the new states were not fully equipped with weapons and military equipment, as well as vehicles. Many middle and senior commanders lacked experience in modern warfare.

65. Military men from different socialist countries.
Great Fatherland. the war of 1941-45 was the hardest test for the Soviet people and the Armed Forces of the USSR. Due to the surprise of the attack, the lengthy preparation for war, the 2-year experience of hostilities in Europe, superiority in the number of weapons, the number of troops and other temporary advantages, the German-fascist troops managed in the first months of the war, regardless of losses, to advance hundreds of kilometers deep into Soviet territory. The CPSU and the Soviet government did everything necessary to eliminate the mortal threat hanging over the country. From the beginning of the war, the deployment of the Armed Forces was carried out in an organized and short time. By July 1, 1941, 5.3 million people were called up from the reserve. The whole life of the country was rebuilt in a military manner. The main sectors of the economy switched to the production of military products. In July-November 1941, 1,360 large enterprises, mainly of defense importance, were evacuated from the front-line areas. On June 30, 1941, an emergency body was formed - the State Defense Committee (GKO) under the chairmanship of I. V. Stalin. On July 19, 1941, JV Stalin was appointed People's Commissar of Defense, and on August 8 he also became the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The GKO directed the entire life of the country, combining the efforts of the rear and the front, the activities of all state bodies, party and public organizations for the complete defeat of the enemy. Fundamental questions of state leadership and warfare were decided by the Party Central Committee - the Politburo, the Orgburo and the Secretariat. The decisions made were implemented through the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the State Defense Committee and the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, created on August 8, 1941. The Headquarters carried out strategic leadership of the Armed Forces with the help of its working body - the General Staff. The most important issues of waging war were discussed at joint meetings of the Politburo of the Central Committee, GKO and Headquarters.

66.
Since the beginning of the war, the training of officers has been expanded by increasing the contingent of students of academies, cadets of schools and reducing the duration of training, creating a large number of courses for the accelerated training of junior officers, especially from among the soldiers and sergeants. From September 1941, the distinguished formations began to be given the name of the Guards (see Soviet Guard).
Thanks to the extraordinary measures taken by the CPSU and the Soviet government, massive heroism and the unprecedented self-sacrifice of the Soviet people, army and navy soldiers, by the end of 1941 it was possible to stop the enemy on the approaches to Moscow, Leningrad and other vital centers of the country. During the Moscow battle of 1941-42, the first major defeat was inflicted on the enemy in the entire 2nd World War. This battle dispelled the myth of the invincibility of the German fascist army, thwarted the "blitzkrieg" plan, and was the beginning of a decisive turn in the war in favor of the USSR.

68.
In the summer of 1942, the center of hostilities moved to the southern wing of the Soviet-German front. The enemy rushed to the Volga, the oil of the Caucasus, the grain regions of the Don and Kuban. The party and the Soviet government made every effort to stop the enemy and continued to build up the power of the Armed Forces. By the spring of 1942, 5.5 million people were in the Armed Forces alone. From the middle of 1942, industry began to increase the output of military products and more fully meet the needs of the front. If in 1941 15 735 aircraft were produced, then in 1942 already 25 436, tanks 6590 and 24 446 respectively, the release of ammunition almost doubled. In 1942, 575 thousand officers were sent to the army. In the Battle of Stalingrad 1942-1943, Soviet troops defeated the enemy and seized the strategic initiative. This victory marked the beginning of a radical turning point not only in the Great Patriotic War, but in the entire 2nd World War.

70.
In 1943, military production developed at a rapid pace: the production of aircraft increased by 137.1% compared to 1942, warships by 123%, submachine guns by 134.3%, shells by 116.9%, and bombs by 173.3%. In general, the production of military products increased by 17%, and in Nazi Germany by 12%. The Soviet defense industry was able to surpass the enemy not only in the quantity of weapons, but also in their quality. The massive release of artillery pieces made it possible to strengthen divisional artillery, to create corps, army artillery and powerful artillery of the Supreme Command (RVGK) reserve, new units and subunits of rocket, anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery. A significant number of tank and mechanized corps were formed, most of which were later reduced to a tank. army. Armored and mechanized troops became the main striking force of the Ground Forces (by the end of 1943 they included 5 tank armies, 24 tank and 13 mechanized corps). The composition of aviation divisions, corps and air armies has increased.
A significant increase in the power of the Soviet Armed Forces and the increased military leadership skills of its military leaders allowed inflicting a major defeat on the Nazi troops in the Battle of Kursk in 1943, which put Nazi Germany in front of a military catastrophe.

71. Warriors-internationalists and pioneers.

72.
Decisive victories were won by the Armed Forces of the USSR in 1944-45. By this time, they had enormous combat experience, possessed colossal power, and by the beginning of 1945 they numbered 11 365 thousand people. The advantages of the socialist economic system, the vitality of the economic policy of the CPSU and the Soviet government were clearly revealed. Between 1943 and 1945, an average of 220,000 artillery pieces and mortars, 450,000 machine guns, 40,000 aircraft, 30,000 tanks, self-propelled guns and armored vehicles were produced annually. New types of aircraft were produced in large numbers - La-7, Yak-9, Il-10, Tu-2, heavy tanks IS-2, self-propelled artillery mounts ISU-122, ISU-152 and SU-100, rocket launchers BM- 31-12, 160-mm mortars and other military equipment. As a result of strategic offensive operations, including those near Leningrad and Novgorod, in the Crimea, in the Right-Bank Ukraine, in Belarus, Moldova, the Baltic States and in the Arctic, the Armed Forces cleared Soviet land of invaders. Developing a swift offensive, Soviet troops in 1945 conducted the East Prussian, Vistula-Oder and other operations. In the Berlin operation, they achieved the final defeat of Nazi Germany. The Armed Forces fulfilled a great liberation mission - they helped to get rid of the fascist occupation of the peoples of the countries of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.
Fulfilling its allied obligations, the Soviet Union entered the war with Japan in August 1945. The armed forces of the USSR, together with the armed forces of the Mongolian People's Republic, defeated the Japanese Kwantung Army and thus played a decisive role in ending World War II (see Manchurian Operation 1945).

73.
The leading force of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War was the Communist Party. During the war, it sent over 1.6 million communists to the front; during the war, about 6 million people joined the ranks of the Communist Party.

75. In the Afghan gorge.
The Party and the Soviet government appreciated the heroic deeds of the soldiers on the war fronts. Over 7 million soldiers were awarded orders and medals; over 11,600 of them - representatives of 100 nations and nationalities - were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. About half of all awarded soldiers are communists and Komsomol members.

77. Wall newspaper.

78.
In the course of the war, the Armed Forces of the USSR acquired vast combat experience. Soviet military science was further developed, especially the art of war and all its constituent parts - strategy, operational art and tactics. The issues of front-line and strategic offensive operations of a group of fronts were comprehensively developed, the problems of breaking through enemy defenses, the continuity of the development of the offensive by introducing mobile - tank and mechanized formations and formations into the breakthrough, achieving a clear interaction of forces and means, sudden delivery of strikes, and comprehensive support of operations, strategic defense and counteroffensive issues

79. In the army canteen.

80.
Having defeated the armies of fascist Germany and imperialist Japan, the Armed Forces of the USSR emerged from the war organizationally stronger, equipped with the latest technology, with a sense of their duty to the Soviet people and all mankind. Mass layoffs of personnel began. On September 4, 1945, the GKO was abolished, and the Supreme Command Headquarters ceased its activities. On February 25, 1946, instead of the People's Commissariats of Defense and the Navy, a single People's Commissariat of the SS Armed Forces was created

81. Young family.

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THE ARMED FORCES OF THE USSR

Twice a year, Soviet people could watch a wonderful and grandiose spectacle - a military parade on Red Square. The parade on November 7 symbolized the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution, and on May 9 - the Victory over fascism in the Great Patriotic War. Printing a step under the march of a military orchestra, slender columns of troops of the Moscow Military District, cadets of military academies, pupils of the Suvorov and Nakhimov military schools kept alignment with the podium of the Mausoleum, from which they were greeted by the leaders of the Party and the Government. Then tanks, self-propelled guns, armored personnel carriers (APCs) and infantry fighting vehicles (BMPs) of the Guards divisions, rocket launchers and - on huge tractors - giant intercontinental missiles entered the square along the paving stones. The whole country followed the parade - for the Soviet people it was a real holiday.
By tradition, February 23 was also celebrated - the Day of the Soviet Army and Navy. Not only warriors and veterans received congratulations and gifts, but in general all men and even boys - as future defenders of the Fatherland. Return gifts and congratulations to the wife, mother and friends of the defenders of the Fatherland were received on International Women's Day - March 8. Every boy brought up on films about the Great Patriotic War, about Chapaev, Shchors, Kotovsky and the "elusive avengers" dreamed of becoming a soldier - tanker, pilot, sailor, astronaut - until information about hazing in the army began to leak out ("bullying") and zinc coffins from Afghanistan.

Great confrontation

During its heyday, the Soviet Union had perhaps the most powerful army and navy in the world, which, according to the Constitution, stood guard over "the socialist gains of the Soviet people, freedom and independence of the USSR." At the same time, the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union "ensured the security of the entire socialist community from the encroachments of the reactionary imperialist forces and restrained their aggressive aspirations." The Armed Forces of the USSR played a leading role in the military organization of the Warsaw Pact (OVD). The Warsaw Pact on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance of a number of socialist countries - Bulgaria, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Romania, the USSR, Czechoslovakia (and until 1968 Albania) entered into force on June 5, 1955.
The troops of the Joint Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact were located on the territory of the participating countries, and the main command and headquarters were located in Moscow. They opposed the military bloc NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, concluded in 1949 - the year of the creation of nuclear weapons in the USSR). NATO included the United States, Great Britain, France, Canada, Italy, the Federal Republic of Germany, Turkey, Greece, Portugal, Norway, Belgium and some other states of Western Europe. Such a confrontation between the two military blocs in the era of the Cold War and peaceful coexistence served as the basis for an arms race - the development of the most modern types of weapons and military equipment, as well as their production on an ever-growing scale. The burden of the arms race (from the side of the Warsaw Pact) was largely borne by the USSR and its Armed Forces. In this area, the Soviet Union managed not only to "catch up and overtake America" \u200b\u200b(in the words of NS Khrushchev), but also to come out on top in the world in terms of the number of personnel of the Armed Forces (about 4.5 million people), as well as the level and quantity of many types of weapons.
Along with the fierce military competition with the West in the 60s and 70s. tense relations with the People's Republic of China remained, which also led to a significant build-up of armed forces in the East.

Types of the Armed Forces of the USSR

The Soviet Union had five main species Armed Forces: Ground Forces, Strategic Missile Forces, Air Defense Forces (Air Defense), Air Force (Air Force) and Navy (Navy). Moreover, the Strategic Missile Forces as a type of troops, except for the USSR, existed only in China, and air defense - as a separate type - was not in any other country in the world. In addition to the main services, the Armed Forces included the Rear Services of the Armed Forces, headquarters and troops of the Civil Defense, as well as Border and Internal Troops. (Special forces - special forces - were not part of this structure.)
The types of the Armed Forces, in turn, were divided into kind troops. For example, the Navy had a submarine fleet, a fleet of surface ships, coastal missile and artillery troops, as well as naval aviation and marines. The Air Force was subdivided into long-range (strategic) aviation, military transport aviation and front-line aviation - bombers, attack aircraft (once called "flying fortress") and interceptor fighters. The ground forces had their own missile and air defense forces, artillery; motorized rifle, airborne and tank troops; in addition, - special troops - engineering, radio engineering, communications, automobile, road, etc.
The Airborne Forces (Airborne Forces) as a branch of troops were formed in 1946. The Airborne Forces, intended for airborne delivery into the enemy's rear, consisted of airborne, tank, artillery, self-propelled artillery and other units and subunits. In order to fulfill their "international duty" and preserve the power of the communist governments, the paratroopers took part in the brutal suppression of the uprisings in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968). They were the first to enter Afghanistan (1979).
The command and control structure of the Armed Forces was rather complex. Each type of troops had a commander-in-chief of these troops. In addition, the entire vast territory of the Soviet Union was divided into military districts - with the district commander at the head. Therefore, in terms of the number of generals, the Soviet Union was in first place in the world - there was one general for every 700 servicemen (in the United States, for 3400).
Direct leadership was exercised by the Ministry of Defense - except for the Border and Internal Troops, which were subordinate to their ministries - the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The development of all military plans and operations, as well as the coordination of actions of all military bodies, was directed by the General Staff. The leadership of party political work was entrusted to the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and the Navy (as a department of the Central Committee of the CPSU). The Party Program directly stated: "The basis of the foundations of military development is the leadership of the CPSU Armed Forces ..." The post of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces was held by the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. Therefore, the history of the Soviet Army and Navy, as well as the methods of their solution of military-strategic tasks, are inextricably linked both with the history of the party and with the names of its general secretaries.

"The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger!"

The Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army and Navy were created during difficult peace negotiations with Germany and her allies in Brest-Litovsk. Negotiations reached an impasse, and on February 18, 1918, German forces launched an offensive along the entire front. A threat arose to Petrograd, where the Bolshevik government was still located. On February 22, the appeal of the Council of People's Commissars was published: "The Socialist Fatherland is in danger!" And on February 23, the first detachments of volunteers had already appeared - they chose their own commanders. The basis of the new armed forces was made up of revolutionary-minded soldiers and sailors. Gradually, the Red Guard joined them - the people's militia, created back in March 1917 by the Petrograd Soviet. Later, units of the Red Army were formed from detachments of workers.
On March 4, 1918, the day after the signing of the Brest Treaty, the Supreme Military Council of the Republic was created (from September 2 - the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic). Lenin's closest ally, LD Trotsky, became the chairman of the Council and the first people's commissar for military and naval affairs. Trotsky abolished the elected commanders - they still did not know how to command or fight - and immediately insisted that officers of the old tsarist army - "military experts" - be appointed commanders. In addition to the commander, the party appointed a commissar in each unit. He made sure that the orders of the high command were carried out - and without the signature of the commissar, the order of the unit commander was invalid.
There weren't enough volunteers. Therefore, on May 29, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued a decree on the transition to general mobilization in the Red Army. In June, there were already 360 thousand people in the Red Army, in July - 725 thousand, and by the end of 1920 - 5.5 million (at the same time, the number of deserters, mainly from peasants who were tired of the war, reached 1 million people). The maintenance and armament of such a number of people was expensive - 2/3 of the country's annual budget. Half of all clothing, footwear, tobacco, sugar produced in the country went to the needs of the army. With the end of the war, demobilization was carried out - by the end of 1923 there were only about half a million Red Army soldiers. The freed up funds went to the construction of artillery, tanks and aircraft.

Between two wars

At the end of 1924, the Revolutionary Military Council adopted a 5-year plan for the national military development of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, which was approved by the III Congress of Soviets of the USSR six months later. It was necessary to preserve the core of the army and train as many people as possible in military affairs at the lowest cost. National-territorial formations, consisting of representatives of indigenous nationalities, by that time accounted for only 10% of the total number of the Red Army. In ten years, 3/4 of all divisions became territorial. Recruits were in them at training camps for two to three months a year for five years, almost "on the job."
However, by this time there was already a need for a new reform in order to increase the size and combat power of the Red Army. In June 1934, the Revolutionary Military Council was abolished, and the People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs became the People's Commissariat for Defense, which returned to building the armed forces on a personnel basis. KE Voroshilov was appointed People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. In just one year, the opposite ratio was achieved - 3/4 of all divisions became personnel.
On September 1, 1939, the day of the outbreak of World War II, the Law on Universal Military Obligation was adopted - all men fit for health reasons had to serve in the army for three years, in the navy for five years. (According to the previous law of 1925, the "disenfranchised" - deprived of voting rights - did not serve in the army, but served their labor service.) By this time, all the Armed Forces of the USSR were completely cadre, and their number increased to 2 million people. A song appeared: "The soldier is always away from home ...".
During the Civil War, the Red Army men had neither shoulder straps, nor military ranks - first of all, it was necessary to abandon the traditions of the tsarist army. If the white armored trains were called "Dmitry Donskoy" and "Prince Pozharsky", then the red ones - "Lenin" and "Trotsky". Almost all the first set of Red Army men were illiterate - in the army they were taught to read and write, and at the same time to "think correctly." Many of them later became commanders themselves and joined the party. In 1925, an attempt was made to introduce (incomplete) one-man command: if the commander was a member of the party, then he simultaneously performed the duties of a commissar, that is, he was responsible for both operational combat and political training of personnel. The reform of 1929 set itself the task of raising the "party saturation of command personnel": among company commanders - up to 60% (in 1923 it was 41.5%), among commanders of regiments, divisions and corps - up to 100% (in 1923 - up to 100%). 33, 34 and 58% respectively). However, since 1937, commissars appeared again in all units who could intervene in the solution of operational issues - even Napoleon said: "Better one bad general than two good ones." Therefore, in 1942 they had to be subordinated to the commander, and they became deputies for political work - political commanders. However, political officers and members of the military councils of the fronts continued to secretly monitor the activities of the commanders.

Army of socialism

From the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army suffered terrible losses. A lot of fighters were on leave, and officers were on leave. Military units were in camps, and ammunition was locked in warehouses. The Western Front lost almost all its aviation, a huge number of tanks and other military equipment. The Red Army was poorly led by young lieutenants, who, by the will of 1937, were elevated to colonels, and colonels, who were elevated to generals by the same force. During the years of repression, she lost 43 thousand officers, and by June 1941 this figure more than doubled. About 1,800 generals were repressed, and the vacated positions were filled with a stream of those whose suitability for military affairs was often determined only by "party maturity" and "political vigilance."
No one even dared to think that the Red Army could retreat. On the contrary, they were preparing only for an offensive war. This was due to a number of imbalances in the development of the military economy, in the determination of its main directions. In the second half of the 30s. the number of cavalry increased by one and a half times. Having by June 1941 about 23 thousand tanks (of which 1,860 new types - KV and T-34) and 35 thousand aircraft (including 2,700 new types - Yak-1, Lagg-3 and Mig-3), The USSR created cavalry at an accelerated pace. Until the end of 1941, when it was already clear that there was a war of engines, another hundred cavalry divisions were formed. Funds were spent on this five times more than on the construction of the Navy.
JV Stalin, who became the People's Commissar of Defense on July 19, and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief on August 8, summoned responsible persons on each separate issue and, after talking with them, personally made a decision on behalf of Headquarters. Soldiers and commanders paid for this on the battlefields with their lives. As Marshal of the Soviet Union A.M. Vasilevsky, who worked in the General Staff for many years, recalled, it was only after the Battle of Stalingrad that the Supreme Commander began to listen more to the opinion of the professional military, and more and more often one could hear from him: “Damn it, why have you not said! "
By the end of the war, the army and navy numbered more than 11 million people, after demobilization - about three million.
Since the 50s. the stake was placed on a new weapon. In 1957, the first artificial Earth satellite was launched in the Soviet Union. For military specialists around the world, this meant that the Armed Forces of the USSR henceforth have intercontinental ballistic missiles with a nuclear charge - soon the United States deployed its missiles in Turkey. At the same time, the role of armored forces has increased significantly: the armor of a tank and an armored personnel carrier is a good protection against penetrating radiation. In terms of the number of tanks, the USSR not only came out on top in the world - by the 80s. there are more tanks than all other countries combined.
Everything that concerned the Armed Forces of the USSR - except for military parades - was done under cover of secrecy. The idea of \u200b\u200bsecret deployment of Soviet missiles in Cuba was put forward personally by NS Khrushchev - in his memoirs it is said that the "imperialist beast" had to be forced to swallow a hedgehog, which he could not digest. In Moscow, this idea was approved in the summer of 1962, after a visit to Havana by a delegation, which under the guise of "engineer Petrov" included the commander-in-chief of the Strategic Missile Forces, Marshal SS Biryuzov. Both surface-to-air missiles and surface-to-surface missiles with nuclear warheads were at the disposal of and under the command of Soviet military personnel in Cuba. And although none of the missiles was installed and the launch was supposed to be carried out only in the event of an attack by the United States and only on command from Moscow, the very fact of the deployment of Soviet missiles with a range of up to two and four thousand kilometers at a distance of 150 kilometers from the shores of the United States caused a major crisis nuclear age ... Since then, the intensive construction of cruisers and, first of all, submarines with nuclear engines and missiles on board began.
Fifteen to twenty years after the Cuban missile crisis, having learned its lessons, especially after the removal of Khrushchev, the Soviet Union made up for its lag in strategic nuclear warheads (300 to 5 thousand), increasing their number by more than 30 times.
The name of Leonid I. Brezhnev is associated with the beginning of the Afghan war, which lasted for nine years, for the conduct of which the concepts of "the international duty of the Soviet soldier" and "defense of socialism" were significantly expanded. Only in May 1988, just before the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the Soviet people learned from Soviet newspapers that the 40th Army was hiding under the pseudonym "limited contingent of Soviet troops" - about 100 thousand people. At the same time, the head of the Main Political Directorate of the SA and the Navy, General of the Army A.D. Lizichev, reported losses: killed - more than 13 thousand people, wounded and missing - about 36 thousand.
The Soviet Union sought military equality, and not only with the United States, but with almost the entire West, and achieved it by the early 70s. “Parity was a historic achievement,” the Soviet people heard from Yu. V. Andropov during his short tenure at the top post. The Soviet people had to pay dearly for this. Instead of raising the standard of living, which is natural for peacetime, the main direction of the country's economy has become the building up of military potential. Priority was given to the status of a military superpower. Then, under the yoke of unbearable military spending, during the "perestroika" period, more modest and much more reasonable positions of "defensive sufficiency" were developed.
Mikhail Gorbachev withdrew his troops from Afghanistan. Medium and shorter-range missiles were destroyed. From the UN rostrum in December 1988, Gorbachev announced unilateral measures to reduce the Soviet Armed Forces. The Soviet people learned that the total number of the Armed Forces is being reduced by 500 thousand people (12%). That the Soviet military contingents in Eastern Europe are unilaterally reduced by 50 thousand people, and six tank divisions (about two thousand tanks) are withdrawn from the GDR, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and disbanded. That in total in the European part of the USSR, the number of tanks is reduced by 10 thousand, artillery systems - by 8.5 thousand, combat aircraft - by 820. That half of 10 thousand tanks (worth about 1 million dollars each) should be physically destroyed, the rest have been converted into civilian tractors and training simulators. That 75% of Soviet troops are being withdrawn from Mongolia, and the number of troops in the Far East, again unilaterally, is decreasing by 120 thousand people - this was met with approval in Beijing ...
However, in the days of “democracy” and “glasnost”, the Soviet people never found out who gave the order to use weapons against civilians - in Dushanbe and Chisinau, in Tbilisi and Sumgait. Blood was pouring in Baku, Vilnius, Riga, and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief had nothing to do with it. It turned out to be “nothing to do with it” in August 1991, when the “last parade” of the Soviet Armed Forces took place in Moscow ... The company of the 15th motorized rifle regiment of the Taman division was on its way to Smolenskaya Square. Stones, bottles, pieces of asphalt and shouts - “Executioners! The killers!" In the underground tunnel, several infantry fighting vehicles were blocked - in front of a barricade of trolley buses, in the back - sprinklers. The rebels managed to throw a tarpaulin over the BMP numbered 536 and thus close the viewing slots - to blind the crew. The BMP opened fire indiscriminately into the air. Five or six people jumped on the armor - the car was doused with gasoline and set on fire. The flash threw the crowd back several meters. The commander jumped out of the opened hatch. Drawing his pistol, he fired into the air and shouted in a heart-rending voice: “I'm not a killer, but an officer! I don't want more victims! Get away from the cars, the soldiers are following the order! .. "

The main military potential of the ATS was the USSR Armed Forces. Their development after 1945 can be conditionally divided into 3 periods. 1st period - after the end of the Great Patriotic War until the creation of a new type of the Armed Forces - the Strategic Missile Forces (Strategic Missile Forces) in the late 1950s; 2nd period - late 1950s - early 1970s; 3rd period - from the early 1970s to the early 1990s. After the end of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Union began to reduce the Armed Forces. A massive demobilization of soldiers and officers was carried out, as a result of which the number of the Armed Forces decreased by almost 3.4 times (from 11 365 thousand people in May 1945 to 2874 thousand people by the beginning of 1948). On September 4, 1945, the State Defense Committee was abolished by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The Supreme Command Headquarters also ceased its activities.

In February - March 1946, the People's Commissariats of Defense and the Navy merged into the Ministry of the Armed Forces, and in February 1950 the latter was divided into the Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Navy. The Supreme Military Council, created in March 1950 under the Council of Ministers, became the highest state body for the leadership of all the Armed Forces. In March 1953, both ministries were reunited into the USSR Ministry of Defense. Under him, the Main Military Council was formed. This structure existed until the collapse of the USSR.

JV Stalin remained the People's Commissar and then the Minister of the Armed Forces until March 1947. From March 1947 to March 1949, Marshal of the Soviet Union N. A. Bulganin was at the head of the ministry. From April 1949 to March 1953, Marshal of the Soviet Union A.M. Vasilevsky was the Minister of the Armed Forces, and then the Minister of War.

One of the main directions in the military development of the USSR was the creation and improvement of new means of armed struggle, and above all atomic weapons. On December 25, 1946, an atomic reactor was launched in the USSR, in August 1949, an experimental explosion of an atomic bomb was carried out, and in August 1953, the world's first hydrogen bomb was tested. At the same time, the creation of means for the delivery of nuclear weapons and the formation of missile units went on. The first of them - special-purpose brigades equipped with R-1 and R-2 missiles in conventional equipment - began to be created in 1946.

1st period. The USSR Armed Forces in 1946 had three types: Land Forces, Air Force and Navy. The Air Defense Forces of the country and the Airborne Forces possessed organizational independence. The Armed Forces included the Border Troops and the Internal Troops.

In connection with the end of the war, the formations, formations and units of the USSR Armed Forces were moved to areas of permanent deployment and were transferred to new states. In order to quickly and orderly reduce the army and transfer it to a peaceful position, the number of military districts was significantly increased. The administrations of the fronts and some armies were directed to their formation.

The main and most numerous type of the Armed Forces remained the Ground Forces, which included rifle, armored and mechanized troops, artillery, cavalry and special troops (engineering, chemical, communications, automobile, road, etc.).

The main operational formation of the Ground Forces was the combined arms army. In addition to combined arms formations

in it consisted of units of army anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery, mortar, engineer-sapper and other army units. With the motorization of divisions and the inclusion of a heavy tank-self-propelled regiment in the combat composition of the army, it essentially acquired the properties of a mechanized formation.

The main types of combined arms formations were rifle, mechanized and tank divisions. The rifle corps was considered the highest combined arms tactical formation. The combined arms army included several rifle corps.

There was a military-technical and organizational-staff strengthening of rifle regiments and rifle divisions. In units and formations, the number of automatic weapons and artillery was increased (standard tanks and self-propelled guns appeared in them). So, an ACS battery was introduced into the rifle regiment, and a self-propelled tank regiment, a separate anti-aircraft artillery battalion, a second artillery regiment and other units were added to the rifle division. The widespread introduction of motor vehicles into the troops led to the motorization of the rifle division.

Rifle units were armed with hand-held and heavy-duty anti-tank grenade launchers, which ensured effective combat against tanks at ranges of up to 300 m (RPG-1, RPG-2 and SG-82). In 1949, a set of new small arms was adopted, which included a Simonov self-loading carbine, a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a Degtyarev light machine gun, an RP-46 company machine gun, and a modernized Goryunov heavy machine gun.

Instead of tank armies, mechanized armies are created, which included 2 tank, 2 mechanized divisions and army units. The mechanized army fully retained the mobility of the previous tank army with a significant increase in the number of tanks, self-propelled guns, field and anti-aircraft artillery. The tank and mechanized corps were transformed into tank and mechanized divisions, respectively. At the same time, the combat and maneuverability of armored vehicles has significantly increased. A light amphibious tank PT-76 was created, the medium tank T-54, heavy tanks IS-4 and T-10, which had stronger weapons and armor protection, were adopted.

Under the conditions of the technical revolution, cavalry units did not develop and were abolished in 1954.

The military artillery and artillery of the Supreme Command reserve underwent major changes. Development was carried out mainly in the direction of increasing the number of guns and mortars in artillery subunits, units and formations, as well as improving artillery fire control. At the same time, the number of formations of anti-tank, anti-aircraft and rocket artillery grew in the composition of combined-arms formations and operational formations. Moreover, along with an increase in firepower, artillery units and formations acquired high maneuverability. Equipping engineering, chemical and other special forces with new, more advanced equipment entailed a change in their organizational structure with a simultaneous increase in the number of formations. In the engineering troops, this found expression in the inclusion in all subdivisions, units and formations, including in the reserve brigades of the Supreme Command, technical units. In the chemical troops, under the influence of a real threat of the use of weapons of mass destruction by the enemy, subunits and units designed to carry out measures for chemical and anti-nuclear protection have been strengthened. In the signal troops, formations arose, equipped with radio relay stations and other modern control facilities. Radio communications covered all levels of command and control of troops up to a platoon, a combat vehicle, inclusive.

The country's air defense forces in 1948 became an independent type of the Armed Forces. In the same period, the country's air defense system was reorganized. The entire territory of the USSR was divided into a border strip and an internal territory. The air defense of the border zone was assigned to the commanders of the districts, and the naval bases - to the commanders of the fleets. They were subordinate to the military air defense systems located in the same zone. The internal territory was defended by the country's Air Defense Forces, which became a powerful and reliable means of covering important centers of the country and groupings of troops.

Since 1952, the country's Air Defense Forces began to be equipped with anti-aircraft missile technology, the first units were created to service them. Air defense aviation was strengthened. In the early 1950s. The country's air defense forces received a new all-weather all-weather fighter-interceptor Yak-25. All this significantly increased the ability to combat enemy air targets.

The Air Force was subdivided into front-line aviation and long-range aviation. Airborne transport aviation was formed (later, transport aviation, and then - military transport aviation). The organizational structure of front-line aviation was improved. The re-equipment of aviation was carried out from piston to jet and turboprop aircraft.

The Airborne Forces in 1946 were withdrawn from the Air Force. On the basis of individual airborne brigades and some rifle divisions, airborne and landing forces and units were formed. The airborne corps was a combined-arms operational-tactical formation intended for operations behind enemy lines in the interests of troops advancing from the front.

The navy consisted of the arms of the forces: surface ships, submarines, naval aviation, coastal defense units and marines. Initially, the development of the fleet proceeded mainly along the path of creating squadrons of surface ships. However, subsequently there was a tendency towards an increase in the proportion of submarine forces, which have great prospects in conducting combat operations in the vastness of the World Ocean, far from their main bases.

Thus, in the first post-war years, a major reorganization of the Soviet Armed Forces was carried out, caused by the reduction of the army and navy, their transfer to a more advanced material and technical base, as well as the need to increase the combat readiness of the troops. The improvement of the organization went mainly along the path of creating new and improving the structure of existing types of the Armed Forces, increasing the combat power of military formations.

The introduction of nuclear weapons into the troops, radical changes in views on the methods of unleashing and the nature of a future war required significant adjustments to the development of the army and navy. The main work in this direction was entrusted to the USSR Ministry of Defense, headed by the Minister of Defense.

2nd period. Since the mid-1950s. special attention was paid to equipping the army and navy with nuclear missiles. The most important organizational measure was the creation in December 1959 of a new type of the USSR Armed Forces - the Strategic Missile Forces. The second period in the development of the Armed Forces began.

Organizationally, the USSR Armed Forces began to include the Strategic Missile Forces, Ground Forces, Air Defense Forces, Air Force, Navy, Civil Defense Troops. The border troops of the USSR State Security Committee and the Internal Troops of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.

With the development of the Strategic Missile Forces, the main thing was not to build up conventional weapons, but to reduce them to a level of reasonable sufficiency for defense, which was supposed to ensure savings in manpower and resources.

The ground forces continued to be the largest branch of the Armed Forces in terms of numbers. The main striking force of the ground forces was tank troops, and the basis of firepower was rocket troops and artillery, which became a new single branch of the military. In addition, the ground forces included: air defense troops, airborne troops and army aviation. The special forces were replenished with units that were intended to conduct electronic warfare (EW).

The air defense systems of the Ground Forces developed rapidly. A fundamentally new weapon was created - highly mobile anti-aircraft missile systems "Krug", "Kub", "Wasp", which provide reliable cover for troops, as well as portable anti-aircraft missile systems "Strela-2" and "Strela-3". At the same time, self-propelled anti-aircraft guns ZSU-23-4 "Shilka" entered service. New radio equipment made it possible not only to carry out detection, identification and observation of the target, but also to ensure the issuance of data on the air situation, aiming weapons at the target and fire control.

The change in the nature and methods of combat operations necessitated the development of army aviation. The speed and carrying capacity of transport helicopters have increased. Transport-tailor-combat and combat helicopters were created.

Equipping the Airborne Forces with new weapons and military equipment continued, while improving the organizational structure of their formations and units. They were armed with self-propelled airborne artillery, jet, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, special automatic small arms, paratrooper equipment, etc.

The technical equipment of special forces, primarily communications, engineering, chemical, electronic warfare units and subunits, has changed significantly, their organization has become more perfect. EW units and subunits have received new jamming stations for short-wave and ultra-short-wave radio communications, as well as on-board radars of enemy aircraft.

The chemical troops had subdivisions of chemical protection, special control, degassing and disinfection of the area, radiation and chemical reconnaissance, flamethrower, smoke launcher, etc. They received a small-sized radiometer-roentgenometer "Mete-or-I" 2 "and other equipment.

The engineering troops consisted of engineer-sapper, transfer-landing, pontoon, engineering-road and other subdivisions and units. Engineering equipment was replenished with minelayers, track mine trawls, high-speed trench machines, a regimental earth-moving machine, a debris clearing machine, road-pavers, bridge-laying machines, excavation machines, a new pontoon-bridge park and other equipment.

The Air Force consisted of long-range, front-line and military transport aviation. Long-range aviation was part of the strategic nuclear forces. Its units were armed with Tu-95MS strategic bombers, Tu-22M long-range missile bombers. Aircraft missiles, both nuclear and conventional, could strike enemy targets without aviation entering the zone of action of its air defense means.

The structure of front-line aviation was improved, its share increased. Fighter-but-bomber aviation was established in it as a new kind. Frontline aviation units were equipped with more and more advanced fighters (from MiG-19 to MiG-23, Yak-28), fighter-bombers Su-17, Su-7b, reconnaissance aircraft, as well as combat and transport helicopters. Combat aircraft with variable wing sweep and vertical take-off and landing did not require sophisticated runway equipment and had a long duration of subsonic flight. The aircraft were equipped with missiles of various classes and aviation bombs with nuclear and conventional weapons, remote mining systems and other weapons.

Military transport aviation, armed with modern military transport aircraft with a long range and various carrying capacities - An-8, An-12, An-22, was able to quickly airlift troops and heavy equipment, including tanks and missile systems, over long distances.

The navy was a balanced system of various types of forces, including submarines, surface ships, naval aviation, coastal missile and artillery forces, marines, and various special services. Organizationally, the Navy consisted of the Northern, Pacific, Black Sea, Baltic fleets, the Caspian naval flotilla, and the Leningrad naval base.

The development of the Navy followed the path of creating submarine and naval aviation formations in the fleets, which were armed with missiles of various classes and purposes. Their nuclear missile weapons were an important component of the Armed Forces' nuclear potential.

As a result of the widespread introduction of new types of weapons and military equipment, radio electronics, nuclear energy in submarines and the improvement of the organizational structure, the combat capabilities of the Navy have sharply increased. It became oceanic, capable of performing strategic and operational tasks not only in coastal waters and inland seas, but also in the vastness of the World Ocean.

3rd period. The main attention was paid to building a diversified army and navy, maintaining a harmonious and balanced development of all branches, branches of the armed forces and forces, equipping them with the latest weapons and military equipment. By the mid-1970s. military-strategic (military) parity was achieved between the USSR and the USA, the ATS and NATO. Until the end of the 1980s. On the whole, it was possible to maintain the organizational structure of the Armed Forces at an optimal level, corresponding to the level of technical progress, the development of military affairs, the quality of weapons and the requirements of the time.

Taking into account the trends in the development of weapons in the armies of the United States and NATO, the Soviet Union continued to improve its nuclear missile weapons - a deterrent weapon: missile systems were improved and modernized, their reliability and combat effectiveness increased, the power of nuclear charges and the accuracy of hitting single-warhead and multiple warheads on target increased. Strictly observing the provisions of the SALT-2 Treaty, the Soviet Union redistributed nuclear weapons between the components of the strategic "triad". In the mid-1980s, ground-based ICBMs accounted for up to 70% of nuclear weapons in the USSR. The number of nuclear weapons placed on strategic missile submarine cruisers has increased. The strategic missile forces as a whole, the strategic forces of the Navy and the Air Force were in constant readiness for a retaliatory strike.

In accordance with the country's defense plans, other types of the Armed Forces were also improved - the Ground Forces and the Air Defense Forces, as well as the general-purpose forces of the Air Force and the Navy, and the structures and weapons systems were optimized.

Particular attention was paid to the equipment of the Air Defense Forces. The development of air defense systems was focused on increasing their effectiveness in combating both aircraft and ballistic missiles of the enemy, which led to the creation of a new generation of highly effective anti-aircraft missile systems "S-300", "Buk", "Tor", anti-aircraft missile systems. the cannon complex "Tunguska" and the portable anti-aircraft missile system "Igla". The air defense systems of the Ground Forces possessed high mobility, could be used in any weather conditions, quickly detect and reliably hit air targets at different altitudes.

In general, the combat power of the USSR Armed Forces was in no way inferior to the potential capabilities of the armies of the United States and other NATO countries.

Despite all the attempts of the USSR and other Eastern European countries to create after the end of World War II a reliable system for ensuring international security on the principles of the UN, the Western powers refused to cooperate with the socialist countries. Former allies of the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition followed the path of escalating military-political tensions and creating a military-political alliance (NATO) directed against the USSR and other socialist countries.

Achieving a military-strategic balance between the USSR and the USA, NATO and the Internal Affairs Directorate played a positive role in ensuring the security and political stability of the countries of the socialist camp. This was a factor of restraining the aggressive aspirations of the leading Western powers, led by the United States, towards the countries of Eastern Europe and the USSR.

Achieving military-strategic parity in the 1970s made it possible to prevent the threat of unleashing a third world war and focus the efforts of the socialist countries on the development of the economy and political system. However, the Cold War and the threat of a world nuclear military conflict caused a radical redistribution of capital investments in all allied countries in favor of the defense industry, which affected other industries and the material well-being of peoples.

1. Babakov AL. Armed Forces of the USSR after the war (1945-1986): History of construction. M., 1987.

2. Warsaw Pact: history and modernity / Ed. P.G. Lusheva. M., 1990.

3. Zolotarev V.A. Military security of the Fatherland (historical and legal research). 2nd ed. M, 1998.

4. NATO. Strategy and military forces. The role of the military organization of the North Atlantic bloc in the aggressive policy of imperialism 1945-1975. Berlin, 1976.

5. Organization of the Warsaw Pact: Documents and Materials 1955-1980. M, 1980.

6. The Soviet Armed Forces guard peace and socialism. M., 1988.

Among the many poorly studied issues of the pre-war history of the Red Army, the question of its strength in 1939-1941 stands out for its almost complete undevelopedness. The documents currently available on this issue are rather fragmentary, often using rounded numbers. Nevertheless, these data give a general idea. There are usually two types of personnel statistics used: regular and payroll. The first is a purely calculated indicator, and the second reflects the real state of the armed forces. Units outside the norms were considered to be formations that could be used in peaceful production and were supported by the budget of civilian departments. These included a special railway corps, operational railway regiments, a building corps, construction battalions and other similar formations. "

By the beginning of 1939, the strength of the Red Army was 1 910 477 people (of which 1 704 804 in the ground forces and the Air Force, 205 673 in units outside the norms). As statistics show, at the beginning of 1939, there were 7 Red Army men for 1 person in command personnel, 27 Red Army men for 1 person in political personnel, 10 Red Army soldiers for 1 person of other command personnel, and 3 Red Army men for 1 person of junior command personnel. The total number of the reserve for military service on July 1, 1939 was 11,902,873 people born in 1899-1918, of which 7,892,552 people were trained, and 4,010,321 were not trained. It was supposed in 1940 in 1 - 1.5-month training to train 3 million people, mostly in deficit military specialties.

In the summer of 1939, the size of the army was 1,698.6 thousand personnel (apparently, units outside the norms were not taken into account). The military conflict on Khalkhin-Gol demanded the conscription of 173 thousand people in reserve to reinforce the troops of the ZabVO and the 1st AG. Formally, this contingent was called up for training camps, but on July 16, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and by order of the People's Commissar of Defense No. 0035 of July 17, it was mobilized for the period until February 1, 1940. During the partial mobilization that began on September 7 in 7 military districts (BUS ), 2 610 136 people were called up (see table 5), who on September 22, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and by order of the People's Commissar of Defense No. 177 of September 23, were declared mobilized "until further notice."

At the same time, according to the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR No. 1348-268ss of September 2, 1939, on September 5, the next call for active military service for the troops of the Far East and 1 thousand people for each newly formed division should have begun, and from September 15 for all the rest districts. In total, 1,076 thousand people were drafted into the Red Army until December 31, 1939. In addition, according to the new Law on General Military Duty of September 1, 1939, the service life of 190 thousand conscripts in 1937 was extended by 1 year.By September 20, 1939, the number of Red Army exceeded 5 million people (including 659 thousand recruits). The normalization of the situation on the western borders of the USSR made it possible to begin to reduce the size of the Red Army on September 29, and by January 7, 1940

Army of the USSR: strength and composition

1,613,803 people were dismissed. On October 2, 1939, the government approved the proposal of the People's Commissar of Defense to dismiss those called up for training camps for the Far East. By December 1, the troops of the LVO and KalVO remained mobilized, the BOVO and KOVO continued to dismiss those called up from the reserve, and the MVO, OVO and KhVO ended their dismissal and switched to peacetime. On December 27, the total strength of the Red Army was up to 3,568 thousand people (units outside the norms are not taken into account).

However, the outbreak of war with Finland demanded that the losses be replenished and the size of the Red Army increased. On December 28, 1939, it was decided to call up 546,400 people to the Red Army to reinforce the troops of the western military districts and 50,000 reserve commanders. At the same time, 5 junior draft ages - 376 thousand people - were conscripted in PrivO, Ural Military District and Siberian Military District. Thus, it took 972,400 to reinforce the army. During the Soviet-Finnish war, 550,000 men were drafted into the Red Army. All in all, from September 1939 to March 12, 1940, 3,160 thousand people were drafted into the Red Army from the reserve, of which 1,613 thousand were dismissed, and 1,547 thousand people remained in the army.

After the end of the war with Finland, the Soviet command again faced the question of reducing the size of the army. In a memo No. 16314 / ss dated March 29, the People's Commissar of Defense informed the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR that as of March 1, there were 4,416 thousand people in the Red Army, of which 1,591 thousand were reservists who came from the reserve and 163 thousand - Red Army men of the 1937 draft. The People's Commissar asked for permission to dismiss 88,149 people from the rear units and institutions formed for the active army, and 160 thousand people of the assigned personnel, called up in September 1939 in BOVO, KOVO, KalVO and OdVO. In addition, the People's Commissar announced the dismissal of 80 thousand volunteers ^. All these measures were approved on April 1 by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and formalized by Resolution of the Defense Committee No. 159ss.

The beginning of the reduction of the Red Army led to the fact that by November 10, 1940, 1,205,120 people of the junior command and rank of the reserve were dismissed, and the remaining 9,101 people who were detained were to be dismissed before January 1, 1941. People's Commissar of Defense, order No. 0110 should have "detained until further notice the middle and senior commanding staff of the reserve" and until November 1, 1940, the Red Army men of the 1937 draft. On January 1, 1941, on January 20, 1941, the People's Commissar of Defense issued order No. 023, according to which the “meeting the requirements of service” reserve command personnel, detained until further notice by an order dated June 3, 1940, were to be enlisted in the Red Army. All the rest were subject to dismissal "to the reserve by February 15, 1941"

The dismissal of the assigned personnel led to the fact that from the fall of 1940 the payroll of the Red Army was below the regular one. It was not possible to find documents reflecting the number of personnel of the Red Army in the winter - spring 1940-1941. It is only known that both the staff and the payroll strength of the army grew. From March 25 to April 5, 1941, in all military districts, except for the PribOVO and the Far Eastern Front, citizens who were born after September 1, 1921 and did not pass the draft in 1940 were partially conscripted into the Red Army.A total of 394 thousand people were drafted ... The call passed in an orderly manner, on a strictly fixed date, without publicity in the press and at meetings. The conscripts were notified only with personal summons, and the recruiting offices were equipped only from the inside, no posters and slogans were hung from the outside. On May 15, 1941, the call-up of the assigned reserve personnel began on the BUS, which were supposed to last until July 1. In total, by June 22, 1941, 805,264 people were drafted, which was 24% of the contingent called up for mobilization, and the number of the Red Army again exceeded 5 million people.

During the two pre-war years, the Red Army was significantly increased, its number, excluding units outside the norms, increased by almost 2.7 times. Naturally, such a rapid organizational development of the Red Army was accompanied by an increase in the number of weapons and military equipment (see Table 1), the production of which also increased.

Table 1

In total for 1939 - the first half of 1941, the troops received from industry 81 857 guns and mortars, 7448 tanks and 19 458 combat aircraft. By the summer of 1941, the Soviet Armed Forces were the largest army in the world.

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The state of the armed forces of the countries participating in the Second World War by the beginning of 1945

Armed Forces of the USSR. As a result of the measures taken by the Communist Party and the Soviet government, the heroic efforts of the entire people, the composition, technical equipment and armament of the army and navy by the beginning of 1945 increased compared with the summer of 1944. As part of the active army, in the reserve of the Headquarters of the Supreme Command, in the western , southern and Far Eastern borders, there were 9,412 thousand people, 144.2 thousand guns and mortars, 15.7 thousand tanks and self-propelled artillery units and 22.6 thousand combat aircraft. The Ground Forces numbered 8 118 thousand people, the Air Force - 633 thousand, the Navy - 452 thousand and the Air Defense Forces of the country - 209 thousand people 51. Compared to June 1944, the number of Soviet Armed Forces increased by more than 400 thousand people, the number of guns and mortars - by 11.2 thousand tanks and self-propelled artillery installations - by more than 3.9 thousand and combat aircraft - at 800 52. After three and a half years of bloody war, the Soviet Army became more powerful and well armed. This once again reflected the great advantages of the socialist system and its enormous potentialities.

The improvement of the structure of large formations, formations and units of ground forces continued with the aim of improving command and control, increasing their maneuverability, strike and fire power. In connection with the reduction of the front line, the number of front-line and army formations decreased. By the end of 1944, the Karelian and 3rd Baltic fronts, the 7th and 54th armies were disbanded. This allowed the Soviet command to replenish the freed up forces and means of the fronts and armies, as a result of which their combat strength increased significantly. They began to possess greater striking and firepower, mobility.

On the balance of forces on June 22, 1941

The equipping of troops with machine guns, heavy and medium tanks, aircraft and cars has increased. The technical equipment of the troops of the active army has especially increased (Table 1).

Table 1. Growth in the technical equipment of the Soviet Army by January 1, 1945 (as a percentage of June 1, 1944) 53

What are the ratio of losses in the Second World War, the Germans and ours, without the civilian population?

Mike piligrim Sage (13915), closed 4 years ago

Eternal student Higher Mind (144830) 4 years ago

According to careful calculations of historians, demographers and other specialists, domestic and foreign (see the list of sources at the end, which can be consulted and get a more detailed personal idea of \u200b\u200bthe losses). combat losses of the Red (Soviet) army in the Second World War amounted to about 6.6 million people who died on the battlefield. The German army (only the German, excluding the losses of the allies) in the battles with us alone lost 3.7 million people (about 4.6 million in total). In other words, we lost 1.8 times more soldiers and officers in battle than the Germans who fought with us.

In addition, 1.2 million of our captured soldiers died in German captivity, and 0.6 million German prisoners of war died in our captivity. In total, about 2.4 million Germans were taken prisoner (together with their allies - 3.5 million see above) and about 3 million of our soldiers.

If we compare the overall figures of the so-called. Of "irrecoverable losses" of the armies, ie, all killed, captured, commissioned for injury or illness, all soldiers who died or were discharged for various reasons, then the figures for both us and the Germans will be much higher.

By May 1945, the size of the Soviet Army was 11 million. Thus, 23 million were lost (recall that the total conscripted army in 1941-45 was 34 million). The size of the German army (again, only German, no allies). surrendered in May 1945 was about 4 million people. Thus, in the German army, about 17 million servicemen (out of 21 million conscripted) have departed and, if we consider the ratio of losses according to this indicator, then we have them 1.3-1.4 times higher than that of the Germans. That is, in the end we arrive at an approximate ratio on which most researchers now agree, and which was named at the very beginning.

As a result, we lost more, mainly due to the heavy losses of the first year of the war - from mid-1941 to mid-1942. In addition, we suffered heavy losses during the liberation of the Eastern European countries and Germany itself. Naturally, the Germans managed to prepare well for the defense, realizing even after the Battle of Kursk the most likely development of the situation, and the attacking side always loses more people.

From October 1944 to May 1945 the death toll of the Soviet Army was about 1 million. During the same period, our allies (USA, Great Britain, Canada, France). advancing on the Germans from the west, lost about 500 thousand.

But at the same time, it must be borne in mind that, as already mentioned, more than 190 German forces were deployed against us (it is also known that at the end of 1944 and in 1945 a huge number of the most efficient German units were urgently transferred from the western front to the eastern one). And during the same period we have advanced significantly further: the Allies are 500-600 km from the Atlantic coast to West Germany, we are more than 1000 km from the western borders of the USSR to Berlin.

Nina Siciliana Expert (400) 4 years ago

Sergey Makarevich Oracle (95626) 4 years ago

Information about the size of the Red Army, replenishment and losses for the period from the beginning of the war to March 1, 1942

REFERENCE

On the size of the Red Army, replenishment and losses

1. By the beginning of the war, the total strength of the Red Army was 4,924,000. of them called up for large training fees before the announcement of the mobilization of 668,000 people.

2. From the beginning of the war until August 1, 2,456,000 were received by the Red Army, of which 126,000 were marching replenishment and 2,330,000 as part of formations and units.

As of August 1, 1941, that is, forty days after the start of the war, the actual strength of the Red Army was 6,713,000. of them: on active fronts 3.242.000 people. and in the districts 3.464.000 people.

Losses during this period were equal to 667,000 people.

If we take into account the losses, then the size of the Red Army on August 1 would have been 7,380,000 people.