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70-602: The AL-7 and its BARS system were never adopted by the Soviet Army . The project was overshadowed by the acceptance of the AK-74 due to cost considerations. The passage of time has allowed manufacturing technology to advance, finally making the AL-7 concept economically viable, presenting itself in the form of the AK-107 and AK-108 rifles. Other rifles that use the balanced automatics system are

140-889: A Soviet Navy Fleet. From the 1950s to the 1980s the branches ("rods") of the Ground Forces included the Motor Rifle Troops ; the Soviet Airborne Forces , from April 1956 to March 1964; Air Assault Troops ( Airborne Assault Formations of the Ground Forces of the USSR  [ ru ] , from 1968 to August 1990); the Tank Troops ; the Rocket Forces and Artillery  [ ru ] ( Ракетные войска и артиллерия СССР , from 1961); Army Aviation (see ru:Армейская авиация Российской Федерации ), until December 1990; Signals Troops ;

210-466: A high amount of military, economic, and political cost. After Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev realized the economic, diplomatic, and human toll the war was placing on the Soviet Union, he announced the withdrawal of six regiment of troops (about 7,000 men) on 28 July 1986. In January 1988 Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze announced that it was hoped that "1988 would be the last year of

280-878: A member of the GKChP during the 1991 coup attempt . ^ On 14 February 1992, by the decision of the Council of CIS Heads of State, Marshal Yevgeny Shaposhnikov was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the United Armed Forces of the CIS . References [ edit ] ^ Решение Совета глав государств Содружества Независимых Государств от 14 февраля 1992 года о назначении Главнокомандующего Объединенными Вооруженными Силами Содружества ^ Постановление Верховного Совета СССР от 29 августа 1991 г. N 2370-I «О членах Кабинета Министров СССР» v t e Ministers of Defence of

350-683: A new social group known as " Afgantsy ". These men would become influential in popular culture and politics of the time. The extent military districts in 1990 were: From 1985 to 1991, General Secretary Gorbachev attempted to reduce the strain the Soviet Armed Forces placed on the USSR's economy . Gorbachev slowly reduced the size of the Armed Forces, including through a unilateral force reduction announcement of 500,000 in December 1988. A total of 50,000 personnel were to come from Eastern Europe,

420-938: A regional basis, with Soviet soldiers from Russia becoming part of the new Russian Ground Forces , while Soviet soldiers originating from Kazakhstan became part of the new Kazakh Armed Forces . As a result, the bulk of the Soviet Ground Forces, including most of the Scud and Scaleboard surface-to-surface missile (SSM) forces, became incorporated in the Russian Ground Forces . 1992 estimates showed five SSM brigades with 96 missile vehicles in Belarus and 12 SSM brigades with 204 missile vehicles in Ukraine , compared to 24 SSM brigades with over 900 missile vehicles under Russian Ground Forces' control, some in other former Soviet republics. By

490-426: A series of radical modernization reforms throughout the country. Vigorously suppressing any opposition from among the traditional Muslim Afghans, the government arrested thousands and executed as many as 27,000 political prisoners. By April 1979 large parts of the country were in open rebellion and by December the government had lost control of territory outside of the cities. In response to Afghan government requests,

560-435: A single military or civilian leader in the headquarters complexes. The Soviet Union supplied North Vietnam with medical supplies, arms, tanks, planes, helicopters, artillery, anti-aircraft missiles and other military equipment. Soviet crews fired Soviet-made surface-to-air missiles at U.S. F-4 Phantoms , which were shot down over Thanh Hóa in 1965. Over a dozen Soviet soldiers lost their lives in this conflict. Following

630-660: A tank regiment, for a total of ten motor rifle battalions and six tank battalions; tank divisions had the proportions reversed. The Land Forces Main Command was created for the first time in March 1946. Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov became Chief of the Soviet Ground Forces in March 1946, but was quickly succeeded by Ivan Konev in July 1946. By September 1946, the army decreased from 5 million soldiers to 2.7 million in

700-767: A whole. After the Soviet Union ceased to exist in December 1991, the Ground Forces remained under the command of the Commonwealth of Independent States until it was formally abolished on 14 February 1992. The Soviet Ground Forces were principally succeeded by the Ground Forces of the Russian Federation in Russian territory; beyond, many units and formations were taken over by the post-Soviet states ; some were withdrawn to Russia, and some dissolved amid conflict, notably in

770-543: The AEK-971 , AO-38 , SA-006 , AKB and AKB-1 . This article relating to rifles is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Soviet Army The Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union (Russian: сухопутные войска , romanized : Sovetskiye sukhoputnye voyska ) was the land warfare service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1946 to 1992. In English it

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840-1666: The CIS Armed Forces (1992–1993) Minister of Defence (Russian Federation) The Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union ( Russian : Министр обороны СССР ) refers to the head of the Ministry of Defence who was responsible for defence of the socialist / communist Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1917 to 1922 and the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1992. People's Commissars for Military and Naval Affairs (1917–1934) [ edit ] No. Portrait People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs Took office Left office Time in office 1 [REDACTED] Council 8 November 1917 15 November 1917 7 days 2 [REDACTED] Podvoisky, Nikolai Nikolai Podvoisky (1880–1948) 15 November 1917 13 March 1918 118 days 3 [REDACTED] Trotsky, Leon Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) 14 March 1918 25 January 1925 6 years, 317 days 4 [REDACTED] Frunze, Mikhail Mikhail Frunze (1885–1925) 25 January 1925 31 October 1925 † 279 days 5 [REDACTED] Voroshilov, Kliment Kliment Voroshilov (1881–1969) 6 November 1925 20 June 1934 8 years, 232 days People's Commissars for Defence (1934–1946) [ edit ] No. Portrait People's Commissar for Defence Took office Left office Time in office 1 [REDACTED] Voroshilov, Kliment Marshal of

910-665: The Caucasus . At the end of World War II the Red Army had over 500 rifle divisions and about a tenth that number of tank formations. Their war experience gave the Soviets such faith in tank forces that the infantry force was cut significantly. A total of 130 rifle divisions were disbanded in the Groups of Forces in Eastern Europe in summer 1945, as well as 2nd Guards Airborne Division , and by

980-482: The Central Office for South Vietnam , North Vietnam's southern headquarters. Using airspeed and direction, COSVN analysts would calculate the bombing target and tell any assets to move "perpendicularly to the attack trajectory." These advance warnings gave them time to move out of the way of the bombers, and, while the bombing runs caused extensive damage, because of the early warnings from 1968 to 1970 they did not kill

1050-736: The Engineer Troops ; the Air Defence Troops of the Ground Forces ; the Chemical Troops; and the Rear of the Ground Forces. In 1955, the Soviet Union established the Warsaw Pact with its Eastern European socialist allies, solidifying military coordination between Soviet forces and their socialist counterparts. The Ground Forces created and directed the Eastern European armies in its image for

1120-793: The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 . In 1958, Soviet troops were withdrawn from Romania . The Central Group of Forces in Czechoslovakia was established after Warsaw Pact intervention against the Prague Spring of 1968. In 1969, in the far east of the Soviet Union, the Sino-Soviet border conflict (1969) prompted establishment of a 16th military district, the Central Asian Military District, at Alma-Ata , Kazakhstan. From 1947 to 1989, Western intelligence agencies estimated that

1190-656: The Ministry of Public Security recruit foreigners within high-level diplomatic circles among the Western-allies of the US, under a clandestine program known as "B12,MM" which produced thousands of high-level documents for nearly a decade, including targets of B-52 strikes. In 1975, the SIGINT services had broken information from Western US-allies in Saigon, determining that the US would not intervene to save South Vietnam from collapse. In 1979,

1260-585: The NKVD in suppressing anti-Soviet resistance in Western Ukraine (1941–1955) and the Forest Brothers in the three Baltic states . Soviet troops, including the 39th Army , remained at Port Arthur and Dalian on the northeast Chinese coast until 1955. Control was then handed over to the new Chinese communist government. Within the Soviet Union, the troops and formations of the Ground Forces were divided among

1330-612: The Soviet Armed Forces were reduced from about 11.3 million to about 2.8 million men, a demobilisation controlled first, by increasing the number of military districts to 33, then reduced to 21 in 1946. The personnel strength of the Ground Forces was reduced from 9.8 million to 2.4 million. To establish and secure the USSR's eastern European geopolitical interests, Red Army troops who liberated eastern Europe from Nazi rule in 1945 remained in place to secure pro-Soviet régimes in Eastern Europe and to protect against attack from Europe. Elsewhere, they may have assisted

1400-530: The Soviet Union People's Commissars for Military and Naval Affairs (1917–1934) Council (1917) Nikolai Podvoisky (1917–18) Leon Trotsky (1918–25) Mikhail Frunze (1925) Kliment Voroshilov (1925–34) [REDACTED] People's Commissars for Defence (1934–1946) Kliment Voroshilov (1934–40) Semyon Timoshenko (1940–41) Joseph Stalin (1941–46) People's Commissars for

1470-493: The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian Federation officials acknowledged that the Soviet Union had stationed up to 3,000 troops in Vietnam during the war. Some Russian sources give more specific numbers: Between 1953 and 1991, the hardware donated by the Soviet Union included 2,000 tanks, 1,700 APCs , 7,000 artillery guns, over 5,000 anti-aircraft guns, 158 surface-to-air missile launchers, and 120 helicopters. During

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1540-544: The signals intelligence (SIGINT) capabilities of the North Vietnamese, through an operation known as Vostok (also known as Phương Đông, meaning "Orient" and named after the Vostok 1 ). The Vostok program was a counterintelligence and espionage program. These programs were pivotal in detecting and defeating CIA and South Vietnamese commando teams sent into North Vietnam, as they were detected and captured. The Soviets helped

1610-502: The 19–21 August 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt to depose President Gorbachev. Commanders despatched tanks into Moscow, yet the coup failed. On 8 December 1991, the presidents of Russia , Belarus , and Ukraine formally dissolved the USSR, and then constituted the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Soviet President Gorbachev resigned on 25 December 1991; the next day, the Supreme Soviet dissolved itself, officially dissolving

1680-674: The Armed Forces Took office Left office Time in office 1 [REDACTED] Stalin, Joseph Marshal of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) 15 March 1946 3 March 1947 353 days 2 [REDACTED] Bulganin, Nikolai Marshal of the Soviet Union Nikolai Bulganin (1895–1975) 3 March 1947 24 March 1949 2 years, 21 days 3 [REDACTED] Vasilevsky, Aleksandr Marshal of

1750-440: The Armed Forces (1946) [ edit ] No. Portrait People's Commissar for the Armed Forces Took office Left office Time in office 1 [REDACTED] Stalin, Joseph Marshal of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) 25 February 1946 15 March 1946 18 days Ministers of the Armed Forces (1946–1950) [ edit ] No. Portrait Minister of

1820-549: The Ground Forces contained about 210 divisions . About three-quarters were motor rifle divisions and the remainder tank divisions. There were also a large number of artillery divisions, separate artillery brigades, engineer formations, and other combat support formations. However, only relatively few formations were fully war ready. By 1983, Soviet divisions were divided into either "Ready" or "Not Ready" categories, each with three subcategories. The internal military districts usually contained only one or two fully Ready divisions, with

1890-535: The Ground Forces. Nonetheless, Soviet forces possessed too few theater-level nuclear weapons to fulfill war-plan requirements until the mid-1980s. The General Staff maintained plans to invade Western Europe whose massive scale was only made publicly available after German researchers gained access to files of the East German National People's Army following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Red Army advanced into northern Korea in 1945 after

1960-604: The Navy (1937–1946) Pyotr Smirnov (1937–38) Mikhail Frinovsky (1938–39) Nikolai Kuznetsov (1939–46) People's Commissar for the Armed Forces (1946) Joseph Stalin Ministers of the Armed Forces (1946–1950) Joseph Stalin (1946–47) Nikolai Bulganin (1947–49) Aleksandr Vasilevsky (1949–50) Minister of War (1950–1953) Aleksandr Vasilevsky Ministers of

2030-583: The Navy (1950–1953) Ivan Yumashev (1950–51) Nikolai Kuznetsov (1951–53) Ministers of Defence (1953–1992) Nikolai Bulganin (1953–55) Georgy Zhukov (1955–57) Rodion Malinovsky (1957–67) Andrei Grechko (1967–76) Dmitry Ustinov (1976–84) Sergei Sokolov (1984–87) Dmitry Yazov (1987–91) Yevgeny Shaposhnikov (1991–92) Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Minister_of_Defence_(Soviet_Union)&oldid=1252934739 " Categories : Ministers of defence of

2100-747: The Navy (1937–1946) [ edit ] No. Portrait People's Commissar for the Navy Took office Left office Time in office 1 [REDACTED] Smirnov, Pyotr Army Commissar of 1st rank Pyotr Smirnov (1897–1939) 30 December 1937 30 June 1938 182 days 2 [REDACTED] Frinovsky, Mikhail Komandarm 1st rank Mikhail Frinovsky (1898–1940) 8 September 1938 20 March 1939 193 days 3 [REDACTED] Kuznetsov, Nikolai Vice Admiral Nikolai Kuznetsov (1904–1974) 28 April 1939 25 February 1946 6 years, 303 days People's Commissar for

2170-867: The Navy (1950–1953) [ edit ] No. Portrait Minister of the Navy Took office Left office Time in office 1 [REDACTED] Yumashev, Ivan Admiral Ivan Yumashev (1895–1972) 25 February 1950 20 July 1951 1 year, 145 days 2 [REDACTED] Kuznetsov, Nikolai Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Nikolai Kuznetsov (1904–1974) 20 July 1951 15 March 1953 1 year, 238 days Ministers of Defence (1953–1992) [ edit ] No. Portrait Minister of Defence Took office Left office Time in office Leader Premier 1 [REDACTED] Bulganin, Nikolai Marshal of

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2240-776: The Russian Empire List of heads of the military of Imperial Russia Ministry of Defense (Soviet Union) Ministry of Defense Industry (Soviet Union) Ministry of Defence (Russia) General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Chief of the General Staff (Russia) Cheget Notes [ edit ] ^ The committee of the People's Commissars for Military and Naval Affairs consisted of Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko , Pavel Dybenko , and Nikolai Krylenko . On 10 November 1917 Ovseenko

2310-702: The Soviet Ground Forces were estimated to possess the following equipment. The 1991 estimates are drawn from the IISS Military Balance and follow the Conventional Forces in Europe data exchange which revealed figures of November 1990. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported in 1992 that the USSR had previously had over 20,000 tanks, 30,000 armoured combat vehicles, at least 13,000 artillery pieces, and just under 1,500 helicopters. Minister of Defence (Soviet Union) From Misplaced Pages,

2380-412: The Soviet Ground Forces' strength remained c. 2.8 million to c. 5.3 million men. In 1989 the Ground Forces had two million men. To maintain those numbers, Soviet law required a three-year military service obligation from every able man of military age, until 1967, when the Ground Forces reduced it to a two-year draft obligation. By the 1970s, the change to a two-year system seems to have created

2450-660: The Soviet Union Kliment Voroshilov (1881–1969) 20 June 1934 7 May 1940 5 years, 322 days 2 [REDACTED] Timoshenko, Semyon Marshal of the Soviet Union Semyon Timoshenko (1895–1970) 7 May 1940 19 July 1941 1 year, 73 days 3 [REDACTED] Stalin, Joseph Marshal of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) 19 July 1941 25 February 1946 4 years, 221 days People's Commissars for

2520-566: The Soviet Union Aleksandr Vasilevsky (1895–1977) 24 March 1949 25 February 1950 338 days Minister of War (1950–1953) [ edit ] No. Portrait Minister of War Took office Left office Time in office 1 [REDACTED] Vasilevsky, Aleksandr Marshal of the Soviet Union Aleksandr Vasilevsky (1895–1977) 25 February 1950 15 March 1953 3 years, 18 days Ministers of

2590-892: The Soviet Union Dmitry Ustinov (1908–1984) 30 July 1976 20 December 1984 † 8 years, 143 days Leonid Brezhnev Yuri Andropov Konstantin Chernenko Alexsei Kosygin Nikolai Tikhonov 6 [REDACTED] Sokolov, Sergei Marshal of the Soviet Union Sergei Sokolov (1911–2012) 22 December 1984 29 May 1987 2 years, 158 days Konstantin Chernenko Mikhail Gorbachev Nikolai Tikhonov Nikolai Ryzhkov 7 [REDACTED] Yazov, Dmitry Marshal of

2660-620: The Soviet Union Dmitry Yazov (1924–2020) 30 May 1987 28 August 1991 4 years, 90 days Mikhail Gorbachev Nikolai Ryzhkov Valentin Pavlov 8 [REDACTED] Shaposhnikov, Yevgeny Marshal of Aviation Yevgeny Shaposhnikov (1942–2020) 29 August 1991 14 February 1992 169 days Mikhail Gorbachev (until Dec. 1991) Ivan Silayev See also [ edit ] College of War Ministry of War of

2730-542: The Soviet Union Nikolai Bulganin (1895–1975) 15 March 1953 9 February 1955 1 year, 331 days Georgy Malenkov Nikita Khrushchev Georgy Malenkov 2 [REDACTED] Zhukov, Georgy Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov (1896–1974) 9 February 1955 26 October 1957 2 years, 259 days Nikita Khrushchev Nikolai Bulganin 3 [REDACTED] Malinovsky, Rodion Marshal of

2800-737: The Soviet Union Rodion Malinovsky (1898–1967) 26 October 1957 31 March 1967 † 9 years, 156 days Nikita Khrushchev Leonid Brezhnev Nikolai Bulganin Nikita Khrushchev Alexsei Kosygin 4 [REDACTED] Grechko, Andrei Marshal of the Soviet Union Andrei Grechko (1903–1976) 12 April 1967 26 April 1976 † 9 years, 14 days Leonid Brezhnev Alexsei Kosygin 5 [REDACTED] Ustinov, Dmitry Marshal of

2870-572: The Soviet Union in 1991, a considerable number of weapons were transferred to the national forces of emerging states on the periphery of the former Soviet Union, such as Armenia , Azerbaijan and Tajikistan . Similarly, weapons and other military equipment were also left behind in the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989. Some of these items were sold on the black market or through weapons merchants, whereof, in turn, some ended up in terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda . A 1999 book argued that

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2940-407: The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to prop up its puppet government, provoking a 10-year Afghan mujahideen guerrilla resistance. Between 850,000 and 1.5 million civilians were killed and millions of Afghans fled the country as refugees, mostly to Pakistan and Iran . Prior to the arrival of Soviet troops, the pro-Soviet Nur Mohammad Taraki government took power in a 1978 coup and initiated

3010-657: The Soviet Union and from 2 million to 1.5 million in Europe. Four years later the Main Command was disbanded, an organisational gap that "probably was associated in some manner with the Korean War ". The Main Command was reformed in 1955. On February 24, 1964, the Defense Council of the Soviet Union decided to disband the Ground Forces Main Command, with almost the same wording as in 1950 (the corresponding order of

3080-551: The Soviet Union to support Korea's growth directly. When northern Korea eventually wished to invade South Korea in 1950, Kim Il Sung traveled to Moscow to gain approval from Stalin. It was granted with full support, leading to the full-scale invasion of South Korea on June 25. Soviet ships in the South China Sea gave vital early warnings to PAVN/VC forces in South Vietnam. The Soviet intelligence ships would pick up American B-52 bombers flying from Okinawa and Guam . Their airspeed and direction would be noted and then relayed to

3150-414: The Soviet government under leader Leonid Brezhnev first sent covert troops to advise and support the Afghan government, but, on December 24, 1979, began the first deployment of the 40th Army . Arriving in the capital Kabul on December 27, they staged a coup , killing the president Hafizullah Amin , and installing a rival socialist Babrak Karmal , who was viewed as more moderate and fit to lead

3220-538: The Soviet official newspaper of record . First, the combined arms formations, divisions and armies, would be reorganised, and as a result division numbers would be reduced almost by half; second, tank regiments would be removed from all the motor rifle (mechanised infantry) divisions in East Germany and Czechoslovakia, and tank divisions would also lose a tank regiment; air assault and river crossing units would be removed from both Eastern Germany and Czechoslovakia; fourth, defensive systems and units would rise in number under

3290-407: The Soviet troops stay"; the forces pulled out in the bitter winter cold of January–February 1989. The cost for the military due to the war is estimated to have been roughly 15 billion rubles in 1989. The combat casualties estimates at 30,000–35,000. During 1984–1985, more than 300 aircraft were lost, and thus a significant military cost of the war is attributed to air operations. Since the first year,

3360-443: The USSR Minister of Defense on disbandment was signed on March 7, 1964). Its functions were transferred to the General Staff, while the chiefs of the combat arms and specialised forces came under the direct command of the Minister of Defence . The Main Command was then recreated again in November 1967. Army General Ivan Pavlovsky was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Ground Forces with effect from 5 November 1967. From 1945 to 1948,

3430-479: The USSR on 26 December 1991. During the next 18 months, inter-republican political efforts to transform the Army of the Soviet Union into the CIS Armed Forces failed; eventually, the forces stationed in the republics formally became the militaries of the respective republican governments. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union , the Ground Forces dissolved and the fifteen Soviet successor states divided their assets among themselves. The divide mostly occurred along

3500-444: The changes implicit in the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty began to create more disruption. The withdrawals became extremely chaotic; there was significant hardship for officers and their families, and "large numbers of weapons and vast stocks of equipment simply disappeared through theft, misappropriation and the black market." In February 1989, Defence Minister Dmitri Yazov outlined five major planned changes in Izvestiya ,

3570-430: The end of World War II , with the intention of aiding in the process of rebuilding the country. Marshals Kirill Meretskov and Terentii Shtykov explained to Joseph Stalin the necessity of Soviet help in building infrastructure and industry in northern Korea. Additionally, the Soviets aided in the creation of the North Korean People's Army and Korean People's Air Force . The Soviets believed it would be strategic to

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3640-414: The end of 1946, another 193 rifle divisions ceased to exist. Five or more rifle divisions disbanded contributed to the formation of NKVD convoy divisions, some used for escorting Japanese prisoners of war . The Tank Corps of the late war period were converted to tank divisions, and from 1957 the rifle divisions were converted to motor rifle divisions (MRDs). MRDs had three motorized rifle regiments and

3710-405: The end of 1992, most remnants of the Soviet Army in former Soviet Republics had disbanded or dispersed. Forces garrisoned in Eastern Europe (including the Baltic states ) gradually returned home between 1992 and 1994. This list of Soviet Army divisions sketches some of the fates of the individual parts of the Ground Forces. In mid-March 1992, Russian President Boris Yeltsin appointed himself as

3780-442: The first of the new High Commands, for the Far East, was created at Ulan-Ude in Buryatia under Army General Vasily Petrov . In September 1984, three more were established to control multi-Front operations in Europe (the Western and South-Western Strategic Directions) and at Baku to supervise three southern military districts. Western analysts expected these new headquarters to control multiple Fronts in time of war, and usually

3850-428: The forces in Mongolia (totaling five divisions and 75,000 troops) were to be reduced, but the remainder was to come from units inside the Soviet Union. There were major problems encountered in trying to organise the return of 500,000 personnel into civilian life, including where the returned soldiers were to live, housing, jobs, and training assistance. Then the developing withdrawals from Czechoslovakia and Hungary and

3920-720: The 💕 Soviet government minister Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union Министр обороны СССР [REDACTED] Standard of the Minister of Defence (1964–1991) [REDACTED] Longest serving Kliment Voroshilov 6 November 1925 – 7 May 1940 Ministry of Defense Status Abolished Reports to Premier Nominator Council of Defence Appointer Politburo Precursor Minister of War (Russian Empire) Formation 8 November 1917 First holder Council on War and Navy Affairs Final holder Yevgeny Shaposhnikov Abolished 14 February 1992 Succession Commander-in-Chief of

3990-423: The government spend roughly 2.5–3.0% of the yearly military budget on funding the war in Afghanistan, increasing steadily in cost until its peak in 1986. The Soviet Army also suffered from deep losses in morale and public approval due to the conflict and its failure. Many injured and disabled veterans of the war returned to the Soviet Union facing public scrutiny and difficulty re-entering civilian society, creating

4060-399: The greatest opportunity for terrorist organizations to procure weapons was in the former Soviet Union. In 2007, the World Bank estimated that out of the 500 million total firearms available worldwide, 100 million were of the Kalashnikov family , and 75 million were AKMs . However, only about 5 million of these were manufactured in the former USSR. In 1990 and 1991,

4130-400: The hazing practice known as dedovshchina , "rule of the grandfathers", which destroyed the status of most NCOs. Instead the Soviet system relied very heavily on junior officers. Soviet Armed Forces life could be "grim and dangerous": a Western researcher talking to former Soviet officers was told, in effect that this was because they did not "value human life". By the middle of the 1980s,

4200-439: The military districts. There were 32 of them in 1945. Sixteen districts remained from the mid-1970s to the end of the USSR (see table). Yet, the greatest Soviet Army concentration was in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany , which suppressed the anti-Soviet Uprising of 1953 in East Germany . East European Groups of Forces were the Northern Group of Forces in Poland, and the Southern Group of Forces in Hungary , which put down

4270-420: The nation. While the Soviet government initially hoped to secure Afghanistan's towns and road networks, stabilize the communist regime, and withdraw from the region within the span of one year, they experienced major difficulties in the region, due to rough terrain and fierce guerrilla resistance. Soviet presence would reach near 115,000 troops by the mid-1980s, and the complications of the war increased, causing

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4340-416: The new Russian minister of defence, marking a crucial step in the creation of the new Russian Armed Forces , comprising the bulk of what was left of the Soviet Armed Forces. The last vestiges of the old Soviet command structure were finally dissolved in June 1993, when the paper Commonwealth of Independent States Military Headquarters was reorganized as a staff for facilitating CIS military cooperation. In

4410-461: The new divisional organisation; and finally the troop level in the European part of the USSR would drop by 200,000, and by 60,000 in the southern part of the country. A number of motor-rifle formations would be converted into machine gun and artillery forces intended for defensive purposes only. Three-quarters of the troops in Mongolia would be withdrawn and disbanded, including all the air force units there. The Armed Forces were extensively involved in

4480-401: The next few years, the former Soviet Ground Forces withdrew from central and Eastern Europe (including the Baltic states ), as well as from the newly independent post-Soviet republics of Azerbaijan , Armenia , Uzbekistan , Kazakhstan , Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan . Now- Russian Ground Forces remained in Tajikistan , Georgia and Transnistria (in Moldova ). After the dissolution of

4550-401: The remainder lower strength formations. The Soviet system anticipated a war preparation period which would bring the strength of the Ground Forces up to about three million. Soviet planning for most of the Cold War period would have seen Armies of four to five divisions operating in Fronts made up of around four armies (and roughly equivalent to Western Army Groups ). On 8 February 1979,

4620-424: The remainder of the Cold War, shaping them for a potential confrontation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). After 1956, Nikita Khrushchev , General Secretary of the Communist Party , reduced the Ground Forces to build up the Strategic Rocket Forces , emphasizing the armed forces' nuclear capabilities. He removed Marshal Georgy Zhukov from the Politburo in 1957 for opposing these reductions in

4690-438: The war, the Soviets sent North Vietnam annual arms shipments worth $ 450 million. From July 1965 to the end of 1974, fighting in Vietnam was observed by some 6,500 officers and generals, as well as more than 4,500 soldiers and sergeants of the Soviet Armed Forces. In addition, Soviet military schools and academies began training Vietnamese soldiers—in all more than 10,000 military personnel. The KGB had also helped develop

4760-410: Was often referred to as the Soviet Army. Until 25 February 1946, it was known as the Red Army . In Russian, the term armiya (army) was often used to cover the Strategic Rocket Forces first in traditional Soviet order of precedence; the Ground Forces, second; the Air Defence Forces , third, the Air Forces , fourth, and the Soviet Navy , fifth, among the branches of the Soviet Armed Forces as

4830-425: Was stripped of all posts and revoked membership in the Bolshevik Party due to desertion. On 25 November 1917 Krylenko was appointed the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army . ^ Dismissed by Nikita Khrushchev in the aftermath of the Anti-Party Group affair. ^ Dismissed by Mikhail Gorbachev as a result of the Mathias Rust affair. ^ Dismissed by Mikhail Gorbachev for being

4900-401: Was taken hostage during the Petrograd Junker mutiny and was released next day with the help of American journalist Williams. Later Ovseenko headed the Petrograd Military District until December when he was dispatched to Ukraine. Dybenko continued to supervise the naval affairs as the Supreme Navy College that was formed sometime in late November. He stayed in charge until 16 March 1918 when he

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