Red Army

This article is about the army of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. For the Red Army of the People's Democratic Social Republic of Ariddia, see: Military of Ariddia. For the Red Army of the Halladi Workers' Republic, see: Halladi Red Army.

The short forms Red Army and RKKA refer to the "Workers' and Peasants' Red Army", (Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия - Raboche-Krest'yanskaya Krasnaya Armiya in Russian), the armed forces organised by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918. This organisation became the army of the Soviet Union after its establishment in 1922. "Red" refers to the blood shed by the working class in its struggle against capitalism.

Early History

The Council of People's Commissars set up the Red Army by decree on January 15, 1918 (Old Style) (January 28, 1918), basing it on the already-existing Red Guard. The official Red Army Day of February 23, 1918 marked the day of the first mass draft of the Red Army in Petrograd and Moscow, and of the first combat action against the occupying imperial German army. February 23 became an important national holiday in the Soviet Union, later celebrated as "Soviet Army Day", and it continues as a day of celebration in present-day Russia as Defenders of the Motherland Day. Credit as the founder of the Red Army generally goes to Leon Trotsky, the People's Commissar for War from 1918 to 1924.

At the beginning of its existence, the Red Army functioned as a voluntary formation, without ranks and insignia. Democratic elections selected the officers. However, a decree of May 29, 1918 specified obligatory military service was decreed for men of ages 18 to 40. To service the massive draft, the Bolsheviks formed regional military commissariats (военный комиссариат, военкомат (voenkomat)), which still exist in Russia in this function and under this name as of 2005. (Note: do not confuse military commissariats with the institution of military political commissars.)

Following Aleksei Brusilov's offering his professional services, Bolsheviks decided to permit conscription of officers of the army of Imperial Russia. A special commission under the chair of Lev Glezarov (Лев Маркович Глезаров) was set, and by August 1920, about 315,000 of them had been drafted. Most often they held a position of military advisor (voyenspets: "военспец" for "военный специалист", i.e., "military specialist"), and a number of prominent Soviet Army commanders were former Imperial generals. In fact, a number of former Imperial military men, notably, a member of the Supreme Military Council Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich, joined Bolsheviks earlier.

The Bolshevik authorities assigned to every unit of the Red Army a political commissar, or politruk, who had the authority to override unit commanders' decisions if they ran counter to the principles of the Communist Party. Although this sometimes resulted in inefficient command, the Party leadership considered political control over the military necessary.

Officer Corps

Titles and ranks

The institution of a professional officer corps was abandoned as a "heritage of tsarism" in the Revolution. In particular, the word officer was condemned and the word commander was used instead. Epaulettes and ranks were abolished, and the titles were purely functional, e.g. “Division Commander”, “Corps Commander”, etc. In 1924, the system was supplemented with “service categories”, from K-1 (lowest) to K-14 (highest). The service categories were essentially ranks in disguise, they were indicative of the experience and qualification of a commander; the insignia now denoted the category, not position of a commander. However, the functional titles still had to be used to address commanders, which could be as awkward as “comrade deputy head of staff of corps” and was simply impossible if the position was not known, in which case one of the possible positions was used, e.g., “Regiment Commander” for K-9.

On September 22, 1935 the service categories were abolished and personal ranks introduced. These ranks, however, were a peculiar mix of functional titles and “normal“ ranks. For example, there was a rank of Lieutenant and there was a rank of “Comdiv” (Комдив, Division Commander). It was further complicated by functional and categorical ranks for political officers (e.g., “Brigade Commissar”, “Army Commissar 2nd Rank”), for technical corps (e.g., “Engineer 3rd Rank”, “Division Engineer”), for administrative, medical and other non-combatant branches.

On May 7, 1940, the system was modified again. The senior functional ranks of Combrig, Comdiv, Comcor, Comandarm were replaced with General or Admiral ranks; the other senior functional ranks (“Division Commissar”, “Division Engineer”, etc.) were not affected. On November 2, 1940, the system was further modified by abolishing functional ranks for NCOs and introducing the Podpolkovnik (sub-colonel) rank.

In early 1942 all the functional ranks in technical and administrative corps were replaced with regularised ranks (e.g., “Engineer Major”, “Engineer Colonel”, “Captain Intendant Service”, etc.). On October 9, 1942 the system of military commissars was abolished, together with the commissar ranks. The functional ranks were only retained in medical, veterinary and legislative corps. This system has been used ever since with only minor changes made.

General Staff

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

Military Education

During the Civil War, the commander cadres were trained at the General Staff Academy of RKKA (Академия Генерального штаба РККА). On August 5, 1921 the Academy was renamed as the Military Academy of RKKA (Военная академия РККА), and in 1925 as the Frunze (М.В. Фрунзе) Military Academy of RKKA. The senior and supreme commanders were trained at the Higher Military Academic Courses (Высшие военно-академические курсы), renamed in 1925 as the Advanced Courses for Supreme Command (Курсы усовершенствования высшего начальствующего состава); in 1931, the courses were supplemented by establishing an Operations Faculty at the Frunze Military Academy. On April 2, 1936, the General Staff Academy was re-installed, and it was to become a principal school for the senior and supreme commanders of the Red Army, as well as a centre for advanced military studies.

Major conflicts

The RKKA has spent many years in war and has been a cold, hard, and rugged military. The following is a list of the conflicts the RKKA fought in:

• Russian Civil War
• Battle of Halhin Gol
• World War II
• Cold War
• North American War
• First Great Balkan Conflict
• Second Great Balkan Conflict
• The Holiday Revolution
• The Spectre War

Images

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Flag of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.

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RKKA soldiers marching in Nuremburg, German S.S.R., U.S.S.R.

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RKKA soldiers marching outside of the Moscow Kremlin.