See what "rkka" is in other dictionaries. Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army What is the Red Army during the Second World War

Alexey Zakvasin, Vladimir Sibirtsev

On February 23, 1918, a new military force appeared in Russia - the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA). The members of the young military organization received their baptism of fire in clashes with the White Guards, as well as German and Polish troops. Despite the lack of professional personnel and proper combat training, the soldiers of the Red Army were able to turn the tide of world history by winning the Great Patriotic War. Despite the political upheavals of the last hundred years, the Russian army has remained faithful to military traditions. About the main stages of the creation and development of the Red Army - in the material RT.

• Red Army cavalry during the Civil War
• RIA News

The Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) originated on the territory of the former Russian Empire. Since November 1917, the nominal leadership of the state has been exercised by the Bolsheviks (RSDLP (b), the radical wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party).

Most of the "old regime" generals were in opposition to them. It was he, together with the Cossacks, who formed the backbone of the White Guard movement. In addition, the main external opponents of the new political system in Russia were Kaiser's Germany (until November 1918), Poland, Great Britain, France and the United States.

A powerful military group was supposed to defend the young socialist republic from political opponents and foreign troops. The Bolsheviks took the first steps in this direction in the winter of 1917-1918.

The Soviet authorities eliminated the manning system for the tsarist army, abolishing all ranks and ranks. On January 28, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a Decree on the creation of the Red Army, and on February 11, on the creation of a fleet. Nevertheless, the day of the founding of the Red Army is February 23 - the date of publication of the appeal of the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) "The socialist fatherland is in danger!"

The document spoke about the expansionist plans of "German militarism". In this regard, the citizens of the RSFSR were called upon to throw all their forces and resources into the "cause of the revolutionary struggle." Soldiers in the western regions had to defend "every position to the last drop of blood."

From workers, peasants and "able-bodied members of the bourgeois class" battalions were created for digging trenches under the leadership of military specialists. Speculators, hooligans, agents and spies of the enemy, as well as counterrevolutionaries, were to be shot at the scene of the crime.

• German troops in Kiev, March 1918
• RIA News

At the stage of formation

The Red Army was formed in the most difficult military-political and economic conditions. Before coming to power, the Bolsheviks tried to demoralize the tsarist military personnel, calling the war with Germany and Austria-Hungary "imperialist". The leader of the RSDLP (b) Vladimir Lenin demanded to conclude a separate peace with the Germans and predicted an imminent change of the regime in Berlin.

After the seizure of power, the Bolsheviks refused to fight the Kaiser Germany, but they failed to agree on peace. Taking advantage of Russia's weakness, German troops occupied Ukraine and became a real threat to the Bolshevik government.

At the same time, “counterrevolutionary” forces were strengthening in the former Russian Empire. In the south of Russia, in the Volga region and in the Urals, White Guard formations were formed. The opposition of the RSDLP (b) was supported by Western countries, which in 1918-1919 occupied part of the country's coastal territories.

The Bolsheviks needed to create an efficient army, and as soon as possible. For some time this was hampered by the excessively democratic views of the ideologists of Bolshevism.

However, this view of the purpose of the armed forces of the SNK, which was headed by Lenin, had to be abandoned. In January 1918, the Bolsheviks actually embarked on a course of building a typical regular army, based on the principles of one-man command, a "vertical of power" and the inevitability of punishment for non-observance of orders.

• Vladimir Lenin on Sverdlov Square in front of the troops, Moscow, May 5, 1920
• RIA News
• G. Goldstein

The paper approves the recruiting system for manning the troops. Citizens of at least 18 years of age could serve in the Red Army. The Red Army men were assigned a monthly salary of 50 rubles. The Red Army was proclaimed a tool for protecting the rights of workers and was to consist of "exploited classes."

The Red Army was declared "the worst enemy of capitalism", and therefore it was recruited according to the class principle. The command staff were to include only workers and peasants. The term of service in the infantry of the Red Army was established in the region of one and a half years, in the cavalry - two and a half years. At the same time, the Bolsheviks tried to convince citizens that the regular character of the Red Army would gradually change to the "militia" one.

In their achievements, the Bolsheviks recorded a significant reduction in the number of troops in comparison with the tsarist period - from 5 million to 600 thousand people. However, by 1920, about 5.5 million soldiers and officers were serving in the ranks of the Red Army.

Young army

An enormous contribution to the formation of the Red Army was made by the People's Commissar for Military Affairs of the RSFSR (since March 17, 1918) Lev Trotsky. He removed any indulgences, restoring the authority of commanders and the practice of executions for desertion.

Iron discipline, combined with active propaganda of revolutionary ideas and the fight against the occupiers, became the key to the success of the Red Army on the eastern, southern and western fronts. By 1920, the Bolsheviks had conquered the regions rich in natural resources, which made it possible to provide the troops with food and ammunition.

Changes for the better have also taken place in relations with Western countries. In 1919, German troops left Ukraine, and in 1920 the invaders left the previously occupied Russian territories. However, bloody battles in 1919-1921 unfolded with the re-established Polish state.

The Soviet-Polish war ended with the signing of the Riga Peace Treaty on March 18, 1921. Warsaw, which was previously part of the Russian Empire, received vast lands in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.

At the end of 1920, when the threat of Bolshevik power had passed, Lenin announced a mass demobilization. The size of the army dropped to half a million people, and the serving citizens were recorded in the reserve. In the mid-1920s, the Red Army was recruited according to the territorial-militia principle.

About 80% of the Armed Forces (AF) were citizens who were called up for military training. This approach was generally consistent with Lenin's concept outlined in the book "State and Revolution", but in practice only exacerbated the problem of the lack of qualified personnel.

Fundamental changes took place in the mid-1930s, when the territorial principle was abolished, and a profound reform was carried out in the command and control bodies of the Armed Forces. The size of the army began to grow, reaching about 5 million people by 1941.

“In 1918, the country had a young army, into which many specialists from the tsarist army joined. The command staff was represented mainly by red commanders, who were trained from former non-commissioned officers and officers of the tsarist army. However, the problem of the lack of new command personnel was extremely acute. In the future, it was solved by creating new military schools and academies, ”Mikhail Myagkov, scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society (RVIO), told RT.

Growing power

The achievements of the pre-war period include an unprecedented increase in production in the defense industry. The Soviet government almost completely eliminated dependence on imports of weapons technology and military products.

The Red Army won its first war after the reorganization at the cost of monstrous losses. In 1939, Moscow could not agree with Helsinki on the transfer of the border from Leningrad and threw troops against the Finns. On March 12, 1940, the territorial claims of the USSR were satisfied.

• Soviet troops in the area of ​​Fort Ino on the Karelian Isthmus, 1939-1940
• RIA News

However, in three-month battles, the Red Army lost more than 120 thousand troops against 26 thousand from Finland. The war with Helsinki demonstrated serious logistical problems (lack of warm clothes) and a lack of experience among the command staff.

Historians often explain the major defeats suffered by the Soviet Armed Forces in the first months of 1941 by such shortcomings in the planning of military operations. Despite the superiority in tanks, aircraft and artillery before the war with Germany, the Red Army experienced a shortage of fuel, spare parts, and most importantly, personnel shortage.

In November - December 1941, the Soviet troops managed to win the first and most important victory at that time: to stop the Nazis near Moscow. 1942 was a turning point for the army. Despite the loss of key industrial areas in the west of the country, the Soviet Union established the production of weapons and ammunition and improved the training system for soldiers and junior command echelons.

In the incredible Red Army gained experience and knowledge that was lacking in the fateful 1941. A striking proof of the increased power of the Soviet Armed Forces was (February 2, 1943). Six months later, at the Kursk Bulge, Germany suffered a major tank defeat, and in 1944 the Red Army liberated the entire territory of the USSR.

The Red Army gained immortal worldwide fame thanks to its mission to liberate Central and Eastern Europe from the Nazis. Soviet troops drove the Nazis out of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, East Germany and Austria. The symbol of Victory over Nazism was the assault flag of the 150th Infantry Division, which was hoisted over the Reichstag building on May 1, 1945.

• Soviet military at the Reichstag in Berlin, May 1945
• RIA News

After the end of the Second World War, the leadership of the USSR disbanded all the fronts, established military districts and began a large-scale demobilization, reducing the number of armed forces from 11 to 2.5 million people. On February 25, 1946, the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army was renamed the Soviet Army. Instead of the People's Commissariat of Defense, the Ministry of the Armed Forces appeared. However, the "Red Army" did not leave the vocabulary of servicemen.

With the growing tension in relations with the West, the size and role of the Soviet Armed Forces increased again. Since the 1950s, Moscow has begun to prepare for the prospect of a large-scale land war with NATO. By the end of the 1960s, the USSR possessed an arsenal of tens of thousands of pieces of armored vehicles and artillery.

The Soviet military machine reached its peak in the mid-1980s. With the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev (1985), the confrontation with the United States has noticeably decreased. The Soviet army (in parallel with the American Armed Forces) entered a period of disarmament, which lasted until the late 1990s.

The Soviet army ceased to exist with the registration of documents on the collapse of the USSR in December 1991. However, some researchers believe that the de facto Soviet Armed Forces continued to exist until 1993, that is, until the withdrawal of the group of forces from East Germany.

• Group of Soviet Forces in Germany at tactical exercises
• RIA News

Return of traditions

In an interview with RT, Vladimir Afanasyev, chief researcher at the Central Museum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, noted that the Red Army, despite radical political changes, absorbed many of the traditions of the tsarist army.

“The old traditions were being restored from the first months of the existence of the Red Army. Personal military ranks were returned. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, general ranks were reintroduced, and during the war years many traditions found a second life: shoulder straps, honorary names of units and formations, salutes in honor of the liberation of cities returned, "Afanasyev said.

The bearers of traditions were not only cadres of the tsarist period, but also military institutions. According to the expert, the Soviet authorities created Suvorov schools in the image and likeness of cadet corps. Their education was initiated by the tsarist general Alexei Alekseevich Ignatiev. Also, the tradition has returned to enroll distinguished soldiers in the lists of units forever.

• Servicemen at the Victory Parade
• RIA News
• Alexander Wilf

“A significant part of the military schools that functioned in tsarist times continued to operate after the revolution. This is the Mikhailovskaya Military Artillery Academy and the Academy of the General Staff. Therefore, we can say that practically all Soviet military leaders were students of the tsarist military minds, ”Afanasyev said.

Myagkov believes that the most intense stage of the return of pre-revolutionary traditions fell on the period of the Great Patriotic War.

“In 1943, shoulder straps were introduced. Many WWI veterans who fought in the 1940s wore royal decorations. These were symbolic examples of continuity. Also during the Great Patriotic War, the Order of Glory was introduced, which by its statute and colors resembled St. George's awards, "the expert said in an interview with RT.

Historians are sure that they are the successors of the Soviet troops. They inherited both the traditions of the Red Army and the pre-revolutionary imperial army: patriotism, loyalty to the people, loyalty to the banner and their military unit.

After the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) in 1923-1925 and on the eve of the Great Patriotic War, reforms were carried out aimed at improving the combat element of the army: equipping it with modern technical means of struggle, using more rational methods of manpower recruitment, finding the best organizational structure troops, techniques and methods of armed struggle. The first, after the establishment of the Red Army, the Soviet military reform of 1923-1925, due to the fact that the national economy of Soviet Russia, exhausted after the First World War and the Civil War, could not withstand the burden of maintaining a modern combat-ready army, was forced. The maintenance of an army of almost five million was a heavy burden on the economy USSR, therefore, since 1921, a gradual reduction of the country's Armed Forces began.

Within three to four years, the total number of the armed forces was increased to 500 thousand people, that is, in fact, it was reduced by more than 10 times. The decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of September 28, 1922 "On compulsory military service for all male citizens of the RSFSR" confirmed the principle of compulsory service of workers, but now they began to be called up to the army not from 18, but from 20 years of age. Later, since 1925, the draft age was raised to 21, which gave significant reserves of labor for use in the national economy. Reducing the costs of maintaining the army, and at the same time maintaining its combat capability and combat readiness at a high level, were achieved mainly due to the infringement of the social sphere and household needs of servicemen.

One of the main innovations of the reform was the introduction of a mixed system of manning and training of the Armed Forces, which consisted of a combination of a territorial-militia system with a personnel system. This transition to a mixed territorial-personnel system was announced by the decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated August 8, 1923 "On the organization of territorial military units and the conduct of military training of workers" and took a primary place in the reorganization of the Red Army in peacetime. By the end of 1923, 20% of the rifle divisions were transferred to a territorial position, by the end of 1924 - 52%, and in 1928 - 58%. Territorial units occupied a predominant place in the Red Army until the second half of the 1930s. The local troops, staffed according to the territorial-militia principle, constantly had only 16% of the full-time command and rank staff, while the main part of the military contingent was a variable composition - the Red Army men called up for military service, who were in the barracks position only during short periods of training sessions, and the rest of the time they lived at home and were engaged in their daily work activities.

This significantly reduced the military expenditures of the state budget and contributed to an increase in labor resources in the national economy, but could not but be reflected in the level of the army's combat readiness. MV Frunze put it this way: “Of course, if we had a choice between 1.5-2 million cadre army and the current militia system, then from a military point of view, all the data would be in favor of the first decision. But we don’t have such a choice ”. 2 A significant part of the divisions of the border districts, technical units, and the navy, which constituted personnel formations, were constantly manned and armed and were in a relatively high degree of combat readiness.

The content of the Red Army was transferred from a mixed monetary-in-kind to a paid principle. Instead of the previous 35 kopecks per month, the Red Army soldier began to receive 1 ruble 20 kopecks. The pay for the commanding staff was increased by 38%, but even with this increase, it continued to be less than a third of the norm of the former tsarist army. The monetary allowance of the company commander of that time (when recalculating the exchange rate) by countries: USSR - 53 rubles; Germany - 84 rubles; France - 110 rubles; England - 343 rubles. A bad situation with the financial support also developed among the command staff of the reserve, which was involved in non-military training. For one academic hour they were paid 5 kopecks, and the command staff from the unemployed - 9 kopecks. All privates of territorial units involved in military training had to provide themselves with clothing, bedding and food at their own expense.

Maximum reduction armies made it possible not only to save substantial funds for the restoration and development of the war-destroyed economy of the country, but also to increase allocations for the reconstruction of the defense industry. However, the already difficult living conditions, service and life of the personnel of the cadre troops were socially worsened. The barracks fund, which was created in the pre-revolutionary period at a rate of 1.5 square meters per person, was badly destroyed and outdated, and the state did not have the funds either to repair it or to create any basic amenities. The command staff was also in a difficult situation with housing: some apartments were provided only 30%, and the rest were located either in private apartments, or huddled in several families in one room. The troops did not have enough clothing, and what was available was of poor quality.

A very crisis situation developed with bedding, with which military units were provided with less than 50%. Only 30 kopecks were allocated for the bath and laundry per month for each Red Army soldier, so the threat of epidemics remained. The food allowance per day contained 3012 calories, but it was, in comparison with the norms of the bourgeois armies, 300-600 calories lower than the optimal one. In the course of the reform, such a problem as pension provision and employment of command personnel dismissed from the ranks of the army did not find proper reflection. Most of them found themselves unemployed and without a livelihood. The number of the Red Army was 183 thousand less than in France, 17 thousand less than that of Poland, Romania and the Baltic countries combined. IN USSR for every 10 thousand inhabitants it contained 41 soldiers, Poland - about 100, France - 200. The fighting efficiency of the Red Army up to the beginning of the Great Patriotic War was negatively affected by the low general educational and cultural level of servicemen.

Therefore, in the military units, teachers were added to the staff, more than 4500 “Lenin's corners” were created, in which soldiers could spend their leisure time and self-education. In the army, club, circle and library work developed, which played a huge role in the cultural education of millions of future defenders of the country. If in 1923 6.4 million books were taken from the army libraries for reading, then in 1924 this figure increased to 10 million books. In many garrisons, Red Army Houses were opened, the network of cinema installations grew to 420. During two years of army service, the number of illiterate Red Army soldiers was reduced to 12%. The cost of social services and the maintenance of one serviceman increased from 1924 to 1926 by 90 rubles. The number of cases of such a serious crime as desertion has sharply decreased. The number of deserters from the total strength of the armed forces: 1923 - 7.5%; 1924 - 5%; 1925 - 0.1%.

In the resolution of the III Congress of Soviets of the Union "On the Red Army" in May 1925, the military reform of 1923-1925 was approved and instructions were given to the government to involve all all-Union and Union-republican departments, as well as public organizations, in active participation in strengthening the country's defense capability. The congress instructed the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars to carry out the following practical measures in the budget year 1925-1926 to increase the amount of funds allocated: - to improve the material and living conditions of the army; - qualitative and quantitative improvement of all types of allowances, housing and barracks conditions (repairs, new construction, equipping barracks), expanding the housing and housing stock of the command staff by booking living space at the quarters of military units; - making reservations in all civilian institutions, enterprises and institutions for positions subject to exclusive replacement by those demobilized from the ranks of the army and navy and equating them with respect to the conditions of employment with members of trade unions; - improving the provision of benefits to disabled war veterans; - the adoption of a special provision on pension provision for the commanding officers of the army; - ensuring the real implementation of the Code of Benefits for the Red Army. This decree significantly contributed to the removal of socio-economic tension in the army environment.

In parallel with the growth of the economic power of the USSR, there was a development of its military-technical base of defense, with the level of which the Red Army was gradually brought into conformity, as well as its social status. The military-doctrinal concept was revised, according to which in the field of military development it was required to be guided by the following provision: “In terms of the size of the army, not be inferior to our potential adversaries in the main theater of war, and in the field of military technology, be stronger than them in decisive types of weapons: aviation, tanks, artillery , automatic fire weapons ". 3 New types of troops are being created: tank, aviation, airborne, air defense, engineering troops, signal troops, chemical troops, military transport troops. The principle of the formation of artillery units is changing - corps artillery, artillery of the reserve of the main command, anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery are being created. There was a gradual curtailment and transfer of territorial-militia formations to the personnel position. Fundamental organizational transformations also affected military command and control bodies.

So, in order to increase centralization and establish one-man command in the highest echelons of the leadership of the armed forces, the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR was abolished in June 1934, and the People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs was transformed into the People's Commissariat of Defense. In 1935, the Headquarters of the Red Army was renamed the General Staff. In 1937, instead of the Defense Commission under the Council of People's Commissars, a Defense Committee was created and at the same time an independent People's Commissariat of the Navy was allocated. Main Military Councils were established under each of the military commissariats. Based on the results of consideration during the summer and autumn of 1937, more than seven options for the development of the Red Army, it was decided to completely abandon the territorial-militia and national formations and the transition to a single cadre army. In 1937, more than 60% of the divisions became personnel, in the subsequent pre-war years, the territorial units were completely eliminated (see table below).

The "Law on General Military Duty", adopted on September 1, 1939, became the core of a new military reform. According to this law, the draft age was reduced from 21 to 19 years old (for those who graduated from a complete secondary school - from 18 years old). Such a change in the legislation of the USSR made it possible in a short time to call for active service a replenishment of more than three ages (boys 19, 20 and 21 years old and partially 18 years old). The term of active military service for the rank and file of the ground forces was set at 2 years, for junior command personnel - 3 years, for the Air Force - 3 years, for the Navy - 5 years, and for persons with higher education, the term of service remained 1 year. In order to complete and equal replenishment of the Armed Forces, the circle of persons exempted from conscription was significantly reduced, and deferrals for university students, teachers and other categories of citizens were canceled.

For the entire private and commanding staff, the age of the state in the reserve increased by 10 years (from 40 to 50), which was caused by the need to increase the army reserve for wartime. The new law introduced a long duration of the training of liable military reserves. For the command personnel, it increased three times, for junior commanders - almost five times, for the rank and file, the duration of military training camps increased 3.5 times. At the same time, primary military training of students in grades 5-7 and pre-conscription training in grades 8-10 of general education schools, technical schools and higher educational institutions was introduced without fail. Instead of the previously existing system of registration of conscripts by enterprises, a system of registration of persons liable for military service in the military registration and enlistment offices at the place of residence was introduced.

The size of the army, navy, aviation increased several times: - 1936 - did not exceed 1.1 million people; - autumn 1939 - about 2 million people; - June 1941 -5.4 million people. By June 22, 1941, the Red Army had more than 303 rifle, tank, motorized, and cavalry divisions, although 125 (over 40%) of them were still in the formation stage. To avoid a catastrophic cadre situation as a result of massive repression, the government has taken a firefighting decision to deploy dozens of new military schools and short-term courses to train junior officers.

The number of military schools in USSR: - 1937 - 47; - 1939 - 80; - 1940 - 124; - January 1941 - 203. All infantry, artillery, tank, technical schools were transferred from three years to two years of training. The short-term advanced training courses for command personnel (in 1938-1939 about 80 thousand people graduated from them), the study lasted only a few months. All this determined the low level of training of commanders.

As for costs, 1,660 million rubles were spent on the first military reform of 1923-1926, and 154.7 billion rubles on the reform of 1937-1941.

Sources of information: 1. Klevtsov "Social and organizational problems of military reforms of the 20s - 30s" 2. Frunze "Selected Works" 3. TsAMO RF (f.7)

RED ARMY - Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) from January 1918 to February 1946, the official name of the ground forces, air and naval forces of the RSFSR, then the USSR. From February 1946 - Soviet Army.

Created by the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars dated January 15 (28), 1918, signed by V.I. Lenin. At the same time, the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Air Fleet (KVF - the first squadron was organized on October 28 (November 10) to fight the troops of A.F. Kerensky - P.N. Krasnov, advancing on Petrograd) and the SNK Decree of 29 January (February 11) - Workers 'and Peasants' Red Fleet (RKKF). One of the active organizers of the Red Army was L. D. Trotsky - People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs since the spring of 1918. The SNK was the supreme governing body of the Red Army, and the Commissariat for Military Affairs exercised direct leadership and control.

Initially, the Red Army was formed on a class basis and principles of voluntariness from among the most conscientious citizens of the Republic. To join the army, a recommendation was required from military committees, party, trade union, and other mass organizations supporting Soviet power. However, the escalation of the Civil War in Russia in 1918-1922. demanded a massive recruitment into the army, and then a general, compulsory mobilization - on July 10, 1918, the V All-Russian Congress of Soviets legislated the transition to manning the army and navy on the basis of universal conscription. In addition, it was decided to use the military experience and knowledge of the "old" military specialists, who made up 48% of the highest command personnel. An important role in the construction and victories of the Red Army in the Civil War was played by its first commanders I.I.Vatsetis (September 2, 1918 - July 9, 1919) and S.S. , front commanders A.I. Egorov and M.N. Tukhachevsky, as well as the "young" military leaders who have come forward: V.A. F. Frunze, I. E. Yakir and others. The military commissars who acted under the leadership of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) carried out party-political work in the Red Army: K. E. Voroshilov, S. M. Kirov, G. K. Ordzhonikidze, JV Stalin and others. The Institute of Military Commissars existed (with interruptions) until 1942.

In Soviet times, the birthday of the Red Army was celebrated annually (since 1919) on February 23, but it was the day of the first mass recruitment into the army in Petrograd and Moscow in connection with the need to repulse the German troops advancing near Petrograd. The recruitment was carried out on the basis of the decree-appeal "The socialist fatherland is in danger!" (February 21, 1918) published February 22.

Orlov A.S., Georgieva N.G., Georgiev V.A. Historical Dictionary. 2nd ed. M., 2012, p. 251-252.

The Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army was the name of the Ground Forces of the young Soviet state of 1918-1922 and up to 1946. The Red Army was created from almost nothing. Its prototype was the detachments of the Red Guards, which were formed after the February coup of 1917, and parts of the tsarist army that went over to the side of the revolutionaries. Regardless of everything, she was able to become a formidable force and won during the civil war.

The guarantee of success in building the Red Army was the use of the combat experience of the old pre-revolutionary army cadres. Massively, the so-called military experts began to be called up into the ranks of the Red Army, namely, officers and generals who served "the tsar and the fatherland." Their total number during the civil war in the Red Army numbered up to fifty thousand people.

The beginning of the formation of the Red Army

In January 1918, the decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On the Red Army" was published, which noted that all citizens of the new Republic at least eighteen years of age could join its ranks. The date of the release of this decree can be considered the beginning of the formation of the Red Army.

Organizational structure, composition of the Red Army

At first, the main unit of the Red Army was made up of separate detachments, which were military units with independent economies. The head of the detachments were the Soviets, which included one military leader and two military commissars. They had small headquarters and inspectorates.

When combat experience was gained with the involvement of military experts, in the ranks of the Red Army they began to form full-fledged subdivisions, units, formations (brigades, divisions, corps), institutions and institutions.

Organizationally, the Red Army corresponded to its class characteristics and military needs at the beginning of the last century. The structure of the combined arms formations of the Red Army consisted of:

• The rifle corps, in which there were two to four divisions;
• A division with three rifle regiments, an artillery regiment and a technical unit;
• The regiment, which included three battalions, an artillery battalion and technical divisions;
• A cavalry corps with two cavalry divisions;
• A cavalry division with 4-6 regiments, artillery, armored units, technical units.

Uniforms of the Red Army

The Red Guards did not have any established rules for dressing. She differed only in a red armband or a red ribbon on the headdresses, and some detachments - in the Red Guard breast badges. At the beginning of the formation of the Red Army, it was allowed to wear an old uniform without insignia or an arbitrary uniform, as well as civilian clothes.

French and American-made jackets have been very popular since 1919. The commanders, commissars and political workers had their own preferences, they could be seen in leather caps and jackets. The cavalrymen gave preference to hussar trousers (chakchirs) and dolomans, as well as uhlan jackets.

In the early Red Army, officers were rejected as "a relic of tsarism." The use of this word was banned and was replaced by "commander". At the same time, shoulder straps and military ranks were canceled. Their names were replaced by positions, in particular, "division commander" or "corps commander".

In January 1919, a Report card was introduced describing the insignia, and eleven insignia were installed in it for command personnel from the squad leader to the front commander. The report card determined the wearing of signs, the material for which was a red instrument cloth, on the left sleeve.

The presence of a red star as a symbol of the Red Army

The first official emblem, testifying to the fighter's belonging to the Red Army, was introduced in 1918 and was a wreath of laurel and oak branches. A red star was placed inside the wreath, as well as a plow and hammer in the center. In the same year, headdresses began to be decorated with badges-cockades with a red enameled five-pointed star with a plow and a hammer in the center.

The composition of the workers 'and peasants' red army

Infantry troops of the Red Army

The rifle troops were considered the main branch of the army, the main backbone of the Red Army. In 1920, it was the rifle regiments that made up the largest number of soldiers of the Red Army; later, separate rifle corps of the Red Army were organized. They consisted of: rifle battalions, regimental artillery, small units (communications, sapper and others), and the headquarters of the Red Army regiment. The rifle battalions included rifle and machine-gun companies, battalion artillery and the headquarters of the Red Army battalion. Rifle companies included rifle and machine gun platoons. The rifle platoon included squads. The squad was considered the smallest organizational unit in the infantry forces. The squad was armed with rifles, light machine guns, hand grenades and a grenade launcher.

Artillery of the Red Army

Also, the number of the Red Army included artillery regiments. They included artillery divisions and the headquarters of the Red Army regiment. The artillery division included batteries and battalion control. The battery contains platoons. The platoon consisted of 4 guns. It is also known about the breakthrough artillery corps. They were part of the artillery included in the reserves, which were led by the Supreme High Command.

Red Army cavalry

The main units in the cavalry were cavalry regiments. The regiments included saber and machine-gun squadrons, regimental artillery, technical units and the headquarters of the Red Army cavalry. Saber and machine gun squadrons included platoons. Platoons were built from squads. Cavalry units began to organize together with the Red Army in 1918. From the disbanded units of the former army, the Red Army received cavalry regiments in the amount of only three units.

Armored troops of the Red Army

Red Army tanks manufactured at KhPZ

Since the 1920s, the Soviet Union began to produce its own tanks. At the same time, they laid down the concept for the combat use of troops. Later, the charter of the Red Army especially noted the combat use of tanks, as well as their interaction with the infantry. In particular, the second part of the charter approved the most important conditions for success:

• The sudden appearance of tanks along with attacking infantry, simultaneous and massive use over a wide area in order to disperse artillery and other anti-armor means of the enemy;
• The use of separation of tanks in depth with the simultaneous formation of a reserve from their number, which will allow the development of attacks to great depths;
• close interaction of tanks with the infantry, which secures the points occupied by them.

There were two configurations for the use of tanks in battle:

• To directly support the infantry;
• As a forward echelon, operating without fire and visual communication with it.

The armored forces had tank units and formations, as well as units that were armed with armored vehicles. The main tactical units were tank battalions. They included tank companies. Tank companies included tank platoons. The tank platoon had five tanks. The armored car company included platoons. The platoon included three to five armored vehicles.

The first tank brigade was created in 1935 as a reserve of the Commander-in-Chief, and already in 1940, a tank division of the Red Army was formed on its basis. The same connections were included in the mechanized corps.

Air Force (Red Army Air Force)

The Red Army Air Force was formed in 1918. They included separate aviation detachments and were in the district directorates of the air fleet. Later they were reformed, and they became front-line and army field directorates of aviation and aeronautics at the front and combined-arms army headquarters. Such reforms took place all the time.

From 1938-1939, aviation in the military districts was transferred from brigade to regimental and divisional organizational structures. The main tactical units were air regiments in the amount of 60 aircraft. The activities of the Red Army Air Force were based on inflicting quick and powerful air strikes on enemies at long distances, inaccessible to other types of troops. The aircraft were armed with high-explosive, fragmentation and incendiary bombs, cannons and machine guns.

The main units of the Air Force were air regiments. The regiments included air squadrons. The air squadron included links. There were 4-5 aircraft in the links.

Chemical Troops of the Red Army

The formation of the chemical troops in the Red Army began in 1918. In the autumn of the same year, the Republican Revolutionary Military Council issued order No. 220, according to which the Chemical Service of the Red Army was created. By the 1920s, all rifle and cavalry divisions and brigades had acquired chemical units. From 1923, rifle regiments began to be supplemented with gas mask teams. Thus, chemical units could be encountered in all branches of the military.

Throughout the Great Patriotic War, the chemical troops possessed:

• Technical teams (to install smoke screens, as well as to disguise large or important objects);
• Anti-chemical protection brigades, battalions and companies;
• Flamethrower battalions and companies;
• Bases;
• Warehouses, etc.

Signal Corps of the Red Army

The mention of the first subdivisions and units of communication in the Red Army dates back to 1918, at the same time they were formed. In October 1919, the Signal Troops were given the right to be independent special forces. In 1941, a new position was introduced - Chief of the Signal Corps.

Automobile troops of the Red Army

The automobile troops of the Red Army were an integral part of the Logistics of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union. They formed back in the Civil War.

Railway troops of the Red Army

The railway troops of the Red Army were also part of the Logistics of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union. They also formed back in the Civil War. Mainly railroad troops laid communication routes, erected bridges.

Road troops of the Red Army

The road troops of the Red Army were also part of the Logistics of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union. They also formed back in the Civil War.

By 1943, the Road Troops possessed:

• 294 separate road battalions;
• 22 directorates of military highways, in which there were 110 road commandant sections;
• 7 military road departments, in which there were 40 road detachments;
• 194 government transport companies;
• Repair bases;
• Bases for the production of road bridge devices;
• Educational and other institutions.

Military training system, training of the Red Army

Military education in the Red Army, as a rule, was divided into three levels. The basis of higher military education consisted of a well-developed network of higher military schools. All students in them bore the title of cadets. The training period was from four to five years. Graduates generally received the military ranks of lieutenants or junior lieutenants, which corresponded to the first positions of "platoon commanders".

During peacetime, the training program at military schools provided for higher education. But during the wartime it was reduced to secondary special. The same thing happened with the terms of training. They were rapidly decreasing, and then short-term six-month command courses were organized.

A feature of the military education of the Soviet Union was the presence of a system in which there were military academies. Training in such an academy provided a higher military education, while the academies of the Western states trained junior officers.

Service of the Red Army: personnel

In each Red Army unit, a political commissar was appointed, or the so-called political leaders (political instructors), who had almost unlimited powers, this was reflected in the Charter of the Red Army. In those years, political instructors could easily cancel at their own discretion the orders of the commanders of subunits and units that they did not like. Such measures were presented as necessary.

Armament and military equipment of the red army

The formation of the Red Army was in line with general trends in military-technical development around the world, including:

• Formed tank forces and air forces;
• Mechanization of infantry units and their reorganization as motorized rifle troops;
• Disbanded cavalry;
• Emerging nuclear weapons.

The total number of the Red Army in different periods

Official statistics present the following data on the total number of the Red Army at different times:

• From April to September 1918 - almost 200,000 military men;
• In September 1919 - 3,000,000 military men;
• In the autumn of 1920 - 5,500,000 military men;
• In January 1925 - 562,000 military men;
• In March 1932 - more than 600,000 military men;
• In January 1937 - more than 1,500,000 military men;
• In February 1939 - more than 1,900,000 military men;
• In September 1939 - more than 5,000,000 military men;
• In June 1940 - more than 4,000,000 military men;
• In June 1941 - more than 5,000,000 military men;
• In July 1941 - more than 10,000,000 military men;
• Summer 1942 - more than 11,000,000 military men;
• In January 1945 - more than 11.3 million military men;
• In February 1946, more than 5,000,000 military men.

Losses of the Red Army

There are different data in the human losses of the USSR in the Second World War. The official figures for the losses of the Red Army changed many times.

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the irrecoverable losses in battles on the territory of the Soviet-German front amounted to more than 8,800,000 Red Army soldiers and their commanders. Such information came from declassified sources in 1993, according to data obtained during search operations, as well as from archival data.

Repression in the Red Army

Some historians believe that if there were no pre-war repressions against the commanding staff of the Red Army, it is possible that history, including the Great Patriotic War, could have developed differently.

During the 1937-1938-ies from the command staff of the Red Army and the Navy were executed:

• Kombrigs and equated to them from 887 - 478;
• Divisional commander and those equated to them from 352 - 293;
• Corps corps and equated to them - 115;
• Marshals and commanders - 46.

In addition, many commanders simply died in prisons, unable to withstand torture, many of them committed suicide.

Subsequently, each military district was subjected to a change of 2-3 or more commanders, mainly due to arrests. Their deputies were repressed many times more. On average, 75% of the top military echelon had little (up to a year) experience in their posts, while the lower echelons had even less experience.

In August 1938, a report was made to Berlin on the results of the repressions by the German military attaché, General E. Kestring, which indicated approximately the following.

Due to the elimination of many senior officers who had improved their professionalism for decades by practical and theoretical studies, the Red Army was paralyzed in its operational capabilities.

The lack of experienced command personnel negatively affected the training of troops. There was a fear of making decisions, which also had a negative effect.

Thus, due to the massive repressions of the 1937-1939s, the Red Army approached 1941 completely unprepared. She had to go through the "school of severe blows" directly during the conduct of hostilities. However, the acquisition of such experience has cost millions of human lives.

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In 1918, the Red Army was created in Russia, which, having won the civil war, became the strongest army in the world during World War II.

At first, the Red Army was volunteer

On January 15, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, headed by Lenin, issued a decree on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army "from the most conscious and organized elements of the working classes", but at the same time, it was proposed to join all citizens of the country who wanted to "give their strength , his life to defend the conquered October Revolution and the power of the Soviets and socialism. "

Decree on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army. January 1918

Its core was the Red Guard detachments that had arisen during the February Revolution, 95% staffed by workers, almost half of whom were in the Bolshevik Party. But for a war with a large, technically equipped army, the Red Guard was not suitable.

The Red Army was created as an instrument of the dictatorship of the proletariat, as an army of workers and peasants, a foundation for replacing a standing army with nationwide armament, which in the near future was to support the coming socialist revolution in Europe.

Therefore, each volunteer had to submit recommendations to the military committees, party and other organizations supporting the Soviet regime. And if they entered in whole groups, a collective guarantee was required. The fighters of the Red Army were promised full state support and, moreover, they were paid 50 rubles a month, and from the middle of 1918, 150 rubles for lonely and 250 rubles for families. Help was also promised to disabled dependent members of their families.

At the same time, the imperial Russian army was officially disbanded on January 29, 1918 by order of the revolutionary commander-in-chief, former warrant officer Nikolai Krylenko. "Peace. The war is over. Russia is no longer at war. End of the damned war. The army, which has borne three and a half years of suffering with honor, has waited for a well-deserved rest, ”- said in the sent out radiogram.

However, by this time only separate units remained from the old army: the soldiers, who were utterly tired of sitting in the trenches, in the fall of 1917, hearing about the adoption of the decree on peace, decided that the war was over, and began to go home.

At the same time, generals Mikhail Alekseev and in the south of Russia, according to the same principle, created an officer's army, the so-called Volunteer army.

Opponents of the Soviet regime also thought that the armed confrontation would be short-lived. In Samara, the Socialist-Revolutionary People's Army of the Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly was recruited at the beginning of only three months of service.

The order in this army was reminiscent of the times: the commanders had power only in the campaign and in battle, while the rest of the time, the "Comrade Disciplinary Court" operated.

It got to the point of curiosities - among the officers there was no one willing to command the Samara volunteers. It was proposed to cast lots. Then a modest-looking lieutenant colonel, who had recently arrived in Samara, stood up and said: "Since there are no volunteers, then temporarily, until a senior is found, allow me to lead a unit against the Bolsheviks."

This was Vladimir Kappel, later one of the best White Guard generals in Siberia.

After that, the core of the emerging army was no longer the Socialist-Revolutionaries, but career officers who did not make their way to the south of Russia and settled on the Volga. And a few weeks later, mobilization was carried out among the civilian population, and a month later - among the officers there.

The system of military registration and enlistment offices will celebrate its centenary in May

The influx of volunteers to the Red Army also began to dry up. Seeing this, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, by a special decree, introduced in the country universal military training of workers (vsevobuch). Every worker between the ages of 18 and 40, without interrupting his main job, had to complete a military training course in 96 hours, register as a person liable for military service, and at the first call of the Soviet government to join the ranks of the Red Army.

But those wishing to join its ranks became less and less. Even the proclaimed shock week of the creation of the Red Army under the slogan "The socialist fatherland is in danger!" from 17 to 23 February 1918. And the government, postponing for a while the slogan of "world revolution" and raising the old-regime word "fatherland" on the shield, quickly moved on to the compulsory formation of an army.

On May 29, 1918, a "compulsory" (as it is written in the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee) was announced, the recruitment of persons aged 18 to 40 years into the Red Army, and a network of military commissariats was created to carry out this decree. By the way, the system of military registration and enlistment offices turned out to be so perfect that it still exists today.

The election of commanders was canceled, a system was introduced for appointing commanders from those who had military training or showed themselves well in battles. The V All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted a resolution "On the building of the Red Army", which spoke of the need for centralized control and revolutionary iron discipline in the troops.

The congress demanded that the Red Army be built using the experience of the old military, although it seemed to many that there was no place for the former "gold diggers" in the army of the dictatorship of the proletariat. But Lenin insisted that it was impossible to build a regular army without military science, and that it could only be learned from military specialists.

The date of February 23 appeared by accident, but it was mythologized

The Red Army won no victories on this day in 1918. Therefore, there are a variety of versions on this score. For example, that the date was set according to an appeal published on that day in the newspaper Pravda for workers, soldiers and peasants to defend the Soviet Republic from the shock German battalions, called in the appeal "German White Guards."

February 23, 1918. A still from a Soviet filmstrip showing a battle that never took place. "The timing of the celebration of the anniversary of the Red Army on February 23 is rather random and difficult to explain and does not coincide with historical dates," Klim Voroshilov admitted in 1933

However, according to the ideological myth that was implanted in the 1930s-1940s, on February 23, 1918, the first, barely formed detachments of the Red Army stopped the German offensive near Pskov and Narva. These supposedly "severe battles" became the baptism of fire for the Red Army.

In fact, after Trotsky actually thwarted the first attempt at peace talks with the Germans and declared that Soviet Russia was ending the war, demobilizing the army but not signing peace, the Germans interpreted this as an automatic “end to the armistice” and launched an offensive along the entire Eastern Front.

By the evening of February 23, 1918, they were 55 km from Pskov and more than 170 km from Narva. No battles on this day were recorded in either German or Russian archives.

Pskov was occupied by the Germans on February 24. And on February 25, they stopped the offensive in this direction: on the night of February 24, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR accepted the German peace terms and immediately reported this to the German government. On March 3, 1918, the Treaty of Brest was signed.

Narva - the second city that has long figured as the site of the heroic victory of the Red Army - was taken by the Germans without a fight at all. The Red Navy Dybenko and the Hungarian internationalists of Bela Kun, who were supposed to defend it, fearing encirclement, fled to Yamburg, and then further to Gatchina. Although after the entry into force of the Brest Treaty, the Germans (who had many problems of their own) themselves stopped on the Narva-Pskov line and did not make any attempts to pursue the enemy.

For several years, they did not remember any memorable date at all - until January 27, 1922, when the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR ordered that February 23 be celebrated as the Day of the Red Army and Navy.

Klim Voroshilov himself in 1933 at a ceremonial meeting dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the Red Army, admitted: « By the way, the timing of the celebration of the anniversary of the Red Army on February 23 is rather random and difficult to explain and does not coincide with historical dates. "

The statement about "victory at Pskov and Narva" first appeared in a material published in Izvestia on February 16, 1938 under the heading "For the 20th anniversary of the Red Army and the Navy. Theses for propagandists ". And in September of the same year it was enshrined in the chapter “A short course in the history of the CPSU (b)” published in Pravda. At the same time, the "Short Course", edited by Stalin, does not even mention Lenin's January decree on the creation of the Red Army, issued in 1918.

Later, in his order of February 23, 1942, Stalin explained what happened on that day 24 years ago: “The young detachments of the Red Army, who first entered the war, utterly(my italics - S.V.) defeated the German invaders near Pskov and Narva on February 23, 1918. That is why February 23, 1918 was declared the birthday of the Red Army ”.

Nobody dared to object to this. It was this version that was included in school and university textbooks. And only on January 18, 2006, the State Duma of the Russian Federation decided to exclude from the official description of the holiday in the law the words "Day of the victory of the Red Army over the Kaiser's troops in Germany (1918)".

The civil war in Russia was in many ways similar to the American one.

At the beginning of the US War of 1861-1865, the North and South also recruited volunteers into their armies. Both of them began mobilization only after a series of fierce battles, when it became clear that the war would last not a few months, but much longer. Johnny (as the opponents called the Southerners) did it in April 1862, the Yankees (northerners) - in July of the same year.

Don Troiani. An Illustrated History of the American Civil War. That civil war has many parallels with ours.

Mobilization into the Red Army was announced on May 29, 1918. By this time, Denikin's regiments captured Yekaterinodar, the mutiny of the 40,000th Czechoslovak corps cut off the Volga region, the Urals and Siberia from the European part of the RSFSR, and the Entente troops occupied Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. The opponents of the Soviet Republic also switched to the mobilization principle, when they realized that the volunteers did not make up for the losses.

The ideological attitudes of the opposing sides were similar among Russians and Americans - whites, like southerners, advocated the preservation of "traditional values", while reds, like northerners, advocated active changes and universal equality.

At the same time, one of the parties to the conflict abandoned epaulettes - in Russia they were not worn by the Red Army, in the United States - by soldiers and officers of the Confederation opposing the federal government.

Tankmen of a separate Tank Regiment of the Red Army in front of their combat vehicles

Denikinians, like the soldiers of General Robert Edward Lee, despite the enemy's superiority in manpower, for a long time inflicted defeat after defeat on the enemy, fighting in Suvorov style - "not by number, but by skill." One of their main trump cards at first was the advantage in the cavalry.

However, the revolutionary forces learned quickly. And the preponderance in weapons and ammunition was initially on their side, since (again, by analogy with the United States) behind them were industrial centers with the largest weapons factories and military depots. In Russia, the Bolsheviks controlled Moscow, Petrograd, Tula, Bryansk, Nizhny Novgorod.

Like the Southerners, the White Guards were supplied by Great Britain and France, but this aid was clearly insufficient, which ultimately led to the strategic defeat of both Lee's North Virginia army and Denikin's AFSR.

There was one more "argument" in favor of the Red Army: it was supported by a part of the officer corps of the former tsarist army.

Tsarist officers fought for both whites and reds

Former officers, generals, military officials and military doctors became the core of the Red Army, who, along with the rest of the population, began to be actively recruited into the Armed Forces of the RSFSR, although they belonged to the "hostile exploiting class."

Lenin and Trotsky insisted on this. In 1919, at the VIII Congress of the RCP (b), there was a heated discussion about the involvement of military specialists: according to the opposition, the "bourgeois" military experts could not be appointed to command posts. But Lenin persuaded: “You, being connected with this partisan by your experience ... do not want to understand that now the period is different. Now the regular army should be in the foreground, it is necessary to move to a regular army with military specialists. " And he convinced.

However, the decision itself was made earlier. As early as March 19, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars made a decision on the widespread involvement of military experts in the Red Army, and on March 26, the Supreme Military Council issued an order to abolish the election principle in the army, which opened access to the army for former generals and officers.

By the summer of 1918, several thousand officers had voluntarily entered the Red Army. Among them were Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich, Boris Shaposhnikov, Alexander Egorov, Dmitry Karbyshev, who later became famous Soviet military leaders.

The longer the civil war lasted, the more numerous the Red Army became, the greater the need for experienced military personnel became. The principle of voluntariness no longer suited the Bolsheviks, and on June 29, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree on the mobilization of former officers and officials.

Until the end of the civil war, 48.5 thousand officers and generals, as well as 10.3 thousand military officials and about 14 thousand military doctors were drafted into the ranks of the Red Army. In addition, up to 14 thousand officers who served in the white and national armies were enrolled in the Red Army until 1921, including the future marshals of the Soviet Union Leonid Govorov and Ivan Baghramyan.

In 1918, military experts made up 75% of the command staff of the Red Army. And their total number in the Red Army, as a result, exceeded 72 thousand people, accounting for approximately 43% of the total officer corps of the tsarist army.

639 people (including 252 generals) served in various positions, including key ones, from among the officers of the General Staff, who at all times and in all armies are considered the military elite.

And the first commander-in-chief of all the Armed Forces of the RSFSR was the former General Staff Colonel Joachim Vatsetis. And then in this post he was replaced by the former General Staff Colonel Sergei Kamenev.

For comparison, during the years of the civil war, about 100 thousand officers, generals and military specialists fought in the ranks of the anti-Bolshevik formations, primarily in the Volunteer Army. That is, approximately 57% of the total number of czarist military personnel. Of these, officers of the General Staff - 750 people. More than in the Red Army, of course, but the difference is not so fundamental.

Trotsky introduced detachments and penal units to strengthen discipline

One of the founders of the Red Army is rightfully considered Lev Trotsky, who during the Civil War was the People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, the chairman of the Supreme Military Council and the head of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR.

Despite the fact that by the beginning of the bloody feud, there were no military academies behind Lev Davydovich, he knew firsthand what an army and war were.

L. D. Trotsky in the Red Army in 1918

During the Balkan Wars in 1912-1913 (during which the Balkan Union - Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Romania - won almost all of its European territories from the Ottoman Empire) Trotsky, as a war correspondent for the liberal newspaper Kievskaya Mysl, was in the zone hostilities and even wrote a number of articles that have become for the inhabitants of many countries serious information about what is happening. And in the First World War he, as a special correspondent of the same “Kiev thought”, was on the Western Front.

In addition, it was under his direct leadership as chairman of the Petrograd Soviet that the Bolsheviks took power in Petrograd in October 1917 and repulsed attempts by General Krasnov to take the city by storm. The latter circumstance was later noted even by his future worst enemy, Stalin.

“It can be said with confidence that the party owes, first of all, and mainly to Comrade V. Trotsky, ”he noted.

On March 14, 1918, Trotsky received the post of People's Commissar for Military Affairs, on March 28 - Chairman of the Supreme Military Council, in April - People's Commissar for Naval Affairs, and on September 6 - Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR.

He consistently defends the widespread use of military experts in the Red Army, and to control them introduces a system of political commissars and ... hostages. The officers recruited knew that their families would be shot if they went over to the enemy. Trotsky's order declared: "Let the defectors know that they are simultaneously betraying their own families: fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, wives and children."

Convinced that the army, built on the basis of universal equality and voluntariness, turned out to be incapable of combat, it was Trotsky who insisted on its reorganization, the restoration of mobilization, unity of command, insignia, uniform uniforms, military greetings and parades.

And of course, the energetic and active "demon of the revolution" took up the strengthening of revolutionary discipline, establishing it with the most severe methods.

On his submission, on June 13, 1918, a decree was adopted on the restoration of the death penalty, abolished in March 1917. And already in June 1918, Rear Admiral Aleksey Shchastny, who saved the Baltic Fleet from the Germans during the Ice Campaign in 1918, was executed. He did not admit his guilt, but was sentenced to death on the basis of the testimony of Trotsky, who stated in court that Shastny claimed the role of the naval dictator.

Penalty units (which at first were called "defamed units") first appeared in the Red Army not under Stalin in 1942, but in 1919 - by order of Trotsky. And the units, which were officially called the detachments, back in 1918.

On August 11, 1918, Trotsky signed the famous Order No. 18, which read: "If any unit retreats without permission, the unit commissar will be shot first, the commander second." And near Sviyazhsk, when the 2nd Petrograd regiment arbitrarily retreated from the front line, after the battle all the fugitives were arrested, brought to trial by a military tribunal, and the commander, commissar and part of the regiment's soldiers were shot in front of the formation.

As a result, in the first seven months of 1919 alone, one and a half million Red Army soldiers were detained, of which almost 100 thousand people were recognized as malicious deserters, and 55 thousand were sent to penal companies and battalions.

Despite all the draconian measures, soldiers, often forcibly mobilized, continued to defect at the earliest opportunity, and relatives hid the fugitives.

Therefore, in one of his next orders, Trotsky provided for severe punishments not only for deserters, but also for those who were hiding them. In particular, the order said: "For harboring deserters, the guilty are subject to execution ... Houses in which deserters are discovered will be burned."

“You cannot build an army without repression. It is impossible to lead masses of people to death without having in the arsenal of the command of the death penalty, "- said the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs of the RSFSR.

These measures made it possible to end the guerrilla in the army ranks and, ultimately, to achieve a turning point in the war with the whites.

The red army could not become a factor in the world revolution

In the logic of the revolution, such a victory was supposed to be a prelude to new revolutionary wars, and, as a result, to global changes. And it seemed that there was a real opportunity for the development of this scenario.

On April 25, 1920, the Polish army, equipped with funds from France, invaded Soviet Ukraine and captured Kiev on May 6.

Red Army soldiers in Polish captivity. The history of thousands and thousands of prisoners turned out to be tragic

On May 14, a successful counteroffensive by the troops of the Western Front under the command of Mikhail Tukhachevsky began, and on May 26, the South-West Front, commanded by Alexander Yegorov. In mid-July, they approached the borders of Poland.

And then the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) set a new strategic task for the command of the RKKA: enter the territory of Poland with battles, take its capital and create conditions for the proclamation of Soviet power in the country. According to the party leaders themselves, this was an attempt to push the "red bayonet" deep into Europe and thereby "stir up the West European proletariat", push it to support the world revolution, one of the main hopes of the Bolsheviks in the early years of the RSFSR.

Tukhachevsky's order to the troops of the Western Front No. 1423 of July 2, 1920 read: “The fate of the world revolution is being decided in the West. Through the corpse of Belopanskaya Poland lies the path to a world conflagration. Let us carry happiness to working mankind on bayonets! "

It all ended in disaster. Already in August, the troops of the Western Front were completely defeated near Warsaw and rolled back. Of the five armies, only the third survived, which managed to retreat, the rest were destroyed. More than 120 thousand Red Army soldiers were captured, another 40 thousand fighters ended up in East Prussia in internment camps. Up to half of them died from hunger, disease, torture and execution.

In October, the parties concluded an armistice, and in March 1921 - a peace treaty. Under its terms, a significant part of the lands in the west of Ukraine and Belarus with a population of 10 million people went to Poland.

Internal factors also came into force. The white movement was defeated, but the peasantry entered a desperate struggle, giving rise to their own insurgent movement. It was a protest against the policy of food requisition and the prohibition of free market trade. In addition, the impoverished country simply could not dress and feed the more than five million Red Army.

Along with news of peasant uprisings, there were alarming messages from the localities in Moscow: discipline is falling, the Red Army men are robbing the population because of the famine that has begun in the country and the deterioration of supplies, and the commanders are gradually beginning to return the old order to the army, right up to the massacre. The party and the higher army authorities decided to correct the mistake and prohibited the demobilization of the communists, but in response what Trotsky called spiritual demobilization began: the Red Army began to leave the RCP (b) en masse.

I had to urgently look for a solution to the peasant problem (punitive measures in combination with the NEP, the new economic policy). And in parallel - the reduction of the composition of the Red Army and the preparation of military reform. The chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the republic, Trotsky, wrote: “In December 1920, the era of widespread demobilization and reduction in the size of the army, compression and restructuring of its entire apparatus began. This period lasted from January 1921 to January 1923, the army and navy decreased during this time from 5,300,000 to 610,000 souls ”.

Finally, in March 1924, the decisive stage of military reform began. Frunze on April 1, 1924 was appointed chief and commissar of the Red Army Headquarters. Tukhachevsky and Shaposhnikov became his assistants. The limit for the permanent strength of the Red Army was set at 562 thousand people, not counting the variable (assigned) composition.

For all branches of the ground forces, a single two-year service life was determined, for the air fleet - 3 years and the navy - 4 years. The call for active service was carried out once a year, in the fall, and the draft age was raised to 21 years.

The next stage of the radical restructuring of the Red Army began in 1934 and continued until 1941, taking into account the experience of hostilities in Khalkhin Gol and the Finnish War. The Revolutionary Military Council was disbanded, the headquarters of the Revolutionary Military Council was renamed the General Staff, and the People's Commissariat of Military and Naval Affairs became the People's Commissariat of Defense. The idea of ​​an imminent "world revolution" was no longer recalled.

Stalin ended the Red Army after defeating Germany and Japan

This happened on February 25, 1946, when his order was published on the transformation of the Red Army into the Soviet.

Officially, this was explained by the fact that during the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet system withstood a most serious test, its positions should be further strengthened, and the new name of the army should clearly emphasize the path of socialism chosen by the country.

In fact, since 1935, Stalin took a course towards curtailing revolutionary traditions in the Red Army, introducing personal military ranks, including returning the "White Guard" names - in the form of "lieutenant", "senior lieutenant", "captain", " colonel ”, and since 1940 - general and admiral ranks. The rank of "lieutenant colonel" appeared later than all.

In 1937, it was the turn of many prominent figures of the Red Army, who made a rapid military career during the Civil War. During the Great Terror, they were accused by the NKVD of counter-revolutionary activities and shot. Among them are Marshals Mikhail Tukhachevsky and Alexander Egorov, commanders of the 1st rank Iona Yakir and Ieronim Uborevich, corps commander Vitaly Primakov, division commander Dmitry Schmidt and many others.

The repressions also affected military experts from the career officers of the tsarist army: they were thoroughly "cleaned out" in 1929 - 1931, and many were "cleaned up" in 1937 - 1938. However, not all. Lieutenant colonel of the tsarist army Shaposhnikov (in 1941-1942 - the head of the Soviet General Staff) and the former staff captain Alexander Vasilevsky, who replaced him in this post, will also take part in the Great Patriotic War.

Finally, the "Law on General Military Obligation" in 1939 legally formalized the creation of a mass conscript army. The term of active military service was 3 years in the ground forces and the air force, and 5 years in the navy. The draft age is set from 19 years old, and for those who graduated from high school - from 18 years old.

The commanders and soldiers of the Red Army in 1930 ...

And by 1940, the RKKA had gradually lost the definition of "workers and peasants", even in official documents, simply becoming the Red Army.

In January 1943, Stalin introduced shoulder straps, pre-revolutionary tunics with a standing collar, as well as the reference “soldiers” and officers ”- that is, the attributes of the old, tsarist army. The institution of commissars was abolished, and political workers turned into political commissars.

Many in the military greeted the innovation with approval, although some did not like it. So, Semyon Budyonny objected to new tunics, and Georgy Zhukov opposed shoulder straps.

In short, after it became clear that an imminent "world revolution" would not work, and the world was entering a phase of a new, extremely complex systemic confrontation, Stalin headed for a new look for the country as a whole. The Soviet Union, having won the Second World War, turned into a world superpower, in need of symbols corresponding to its new status, in reuniting the connection between the centuries-old experience of the Russian army and modernity.

... And here is a group portrait of the soldiers of the reconnaissance platoon of the 63rd Guards Chelyabinsk Tank Brigade. 1945 year. Compare the photo with the 1930s. A vivid "portrait" of the reform of the Red Army

It is no coincidence that during the Great Patriotic War the legendary civil heroes in the official rhetoric were seriously pushed not only by the "tsarist commanders" Suvorov and Kutuzov, but also by the "princes-exploiters" Dmitry Donskoy and Alexander Nevsky.

This process of revising military history was reflected in literature, art, and history textbooks, and in a comprehensive change in the perception of the White movement and the experience of the First World War. The rethinking did not end with the collapse of the USSR, it continues to this day, giving rise to heated disputes and disagreements.

The strategic victory in World War II brought about a new position for the Soviet Union in the world system. And this explains many processes - from the renaming of the people's commissariats into ministries, to the replacement of the national anthem from “Internationale” with “Anthem of the Bolshevik Party” with words by Sergei Mikhalkov and El-Registan, first performed on the night of January 1, 1944. Anthem, which (with a modified text, but the same musical basis) is the official anthem of modern Russia.

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are the heirs of not only the Red Army, but also the pre-revolutionary army of Russia

The post-war Soviet army was seriously different from the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army of 1918-1943. And she kept on changing. Long before the collapse of the USSR and the formation of the modern Armed Forces of Russia, there was a search for the necessary balance between pre-revolutionary traditions and the experience of the bloody 20th century.

As a result, for example, in the Brezhnev era, few people remembered that the word "officer" had once been abusive. And in our time, officers and soldiers are not embarrassed by the presence of military priests among them.

However, there is an extremely important lesson, which would be a huge omission to forget. This is, first of all, the perception of our army as a truly people's army, with an extremely high level of public confidence in it. And, secondly, the absence of caste: a rigid division between soldiers and officers, which was characteristic (with the exception of some episodes) for the tsarist army. That is outwardly still expressed in the address “comrade (sergeant, lieutenant, captain, general)”.

For 100 years, the Russian army has passed a difficult path from a radical and atheistic force, called upon to participate in the world revolution, to returning to the idea of ​​protecting their fatherland and all the inhabitants of Russia, regardless of their property status and religion, at near and far borders. Although the strategic nuclear forces and the aerospace forces are giving these new tasks the same global scale.

On the splash screen is a fragment of a photo: Commanders and soldiers of the Red Army in 1930