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An army, besides the generalized meanings of ‘a country's armed forces’ or its ‘land forces’, is a type of formation in militaries of various countries, including the Soviet Union. This article serves a central point of reference for Soviet armies without individual articles, and explains some of the differences between Soviet armies and their U.S. and British counterparts.

During the Russian Civil War, most Soviet armies consisted of independent rifle and cavalry divisions, and corps were rare.

During World War II, Soviet armies included the all-arms (общевойсковые), tank (танковые), air (воздушные), and air-defence (противо-воздушной обороны (ПВО)) armies which included a number of corps, divisions, brigades, regiments and battalions belonging largely to the appropriate branch of the armed forces or of the arm of service, such as the rifle corps. In the emergency of June 1941 it was found that inexperienced commanders had difficulty controlling armies with more than two or three subordinate corps, so several armies were disbanded, to be reformed later in the war. Thus Soviet High Command's (Stavka's) Circular 01, of July 15, 1941, directed several changes to Red Army force structure, including the elimination of rifle corps headquarters and subordination of rifle divisions directly to rifle army headquarters. Following the Second World War, an army was reorganised with four or five divisions, often equivalent to a corps in the militaries of other countries. During a war, an Army of the Soviet military was typically subordinated to a front. In peacetime, an army was usually subordinated to a military district.

History

There were large variations in structure and size. For example, in the October 1944 Battle of Debrecen, the 27th Army was a massive organization with nine rifle divisions, an artillery division, and four attached Romanian infantry divisions. The 40th Army, by comparison, had only five rifle divisions. Both armies were part of the Second Ukrainian Front.

Special titles given to Soviet armies included red banner army, following the award of the Order of the Red Banner and shock army. The famous image of the flag over the Reichstag was of men from the 3rd Shock Army's 150th Rifle Division. In accordance with prewar planning that saw shock armies as special penetration formations, the 1st Shock Army was formed in November–December 1941 to spearhead the December counteroffensive north of Moscow. A total of five shock armies were formed by the winter campaigns of 1942–43, the 2nd (former 26th Army), 3rd, and 4th (the former 27th Army). During the Stalingrad counteroffensive the 5th Shock Army was the last such formation formed. The 2nd Shock Army was reformed three times, most famously after being encircled in the Lyuban operation south of Leningrad, after which its commander, General Andrey Vlasov, went over to the German side.

Armies which distinguished themselves in combat during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 often became Guards armies. These included the 8th Guards Army.

As World War II went on, the complement of supporting units attached to a Soviet army became larger and more complex. By 1945, a Soviet army typically had attached mortar, antitank, anti-aircraft, howitzer, gun–howitzer, rocket launcher, independent tank, self-propelled gun, armored train, flamethrower, and engineer-sapper units. In particular, the ratio of artillery pieces to riflemen increased as the war went on, reflecting the Soviet need for increased firepower as manpower reserves began to decline after staggering infantry losses.

1963 CIA/DIA assessments were already describing combined arms armies as four motor rifle divisions and a tank division, and tank armies as including four tank divisions, in terms of a 'representative wartime organisation used for planning and instructional purposes'. (p. 16/105)

From the Soviet Air Force, air armies were attached to fronts. They were made up of two to three aviation corps. The 16th Air Army was one of the longest serving, and was active until 2009 in the Moscow Military District.

List of Soviet armies in the Civil War

Regular armies

Cavalry armies

List of Soviet armies from 1930

Combined arms armies

There were 79 Combined Arms army headquarters created during the Second World War, with 16 permanently disbanded during the war, and over 20 converted to other army, Front or military district headquarters. After World War II, Soviet armies were known as combined arms armies (obshchevoyskovyye armiyi), sometimes translated during the early Cold War as all-arms armies.

Guards armies

Shock armies

Tank and mechanised armies

Normally made up of two or three tank and mechanised corps. Guards tank armies were made up of a number of Guards tank and mechanised corps.

Reserve armies

The Stavka formed ten reserve armies in mid-1942 to bolster the Reserve of the Supreme High Command (RVGK).

People's Militia Army

The Leningrad People's Militia Army (Armiya Leningradskogo Narodnogo Opolcheniya) was born mostly from the 168 battalions of "fighters" previously raised to deal with expected saboteurs and parachutists. It reported directly to the commander of the Northern Front. The initial intention was to create an army with seven divisions.

Operational groups

• The Novgorod Army Operational Group was first established on 13 August 1939 by the order No. 0129 of the Chairman of the People's Commissariat for Defence, Marshal of the Soviet Union K.E. Voroshilov. The Group was created for operations in Estonia and Latvia. It became the 8th Army in October 1939 (or 14 September 1939) It had the task of providing security of the Northwestern borders of the USSR. Was reestablished on July 31, 1941, troops from the east and the management of the defense sector (from 23 July 1941) Luga Operational Group. It was part of the 'operational army' from 31 July 1941 to 6 August 1941 when it was redesignated as the 48th Army. Reformed as an operational group of the Volkhov Front under the command of Major General Korovnikov formed on August 16, 1941, bringing together units to the east of Novgorod, including remnants of the 28th Tank Division. Active 16 August 1941 to 15 May 1942. See ru:Новгородская армейская оперативная группа.
• Luga Operational Group (ru:Лужская оперативная группа)
• Neva Operational Group (ru:Невская оперативная группа)
• other operational groups

See also

• Air Army (Soviet Union)
• List of armies of the Soviet Union 1991

References

Notes

1. The 47th Army in January 1945 had nine rifle divisions, a Guards gun-artillery brigade, a rocket launcher regiment, five anti-aircraft regiments, an independent tank regiment, four regiments of self-propelled guns, an armoured train unit, a DUKW truck battalion, an engineer-sapper brigade, and two flamethrower units.

Citations

1. David M. Glantz and Jonathan House, When Titans Clashed, Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995. ISBN 0-7006-0899-0, p. 65
2. Boyevoy sostav sovetskoy armiyi (Soviet Army Order of Battle) 1941-1945
3. Glantz 2005, p 144.
4. The ratio of field guns to ration strength in the Red Army increased from 6 guns per 1,000 men in June 1941, to 9 guns by April 1945. Sources are Krivosheev, pp 250–51, and Glantz (When Titans Clashed), pp 301, 305.
5. Hillman, Tom. "History of the Red 5th Army". Charlotte Garrison. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
6. Fes'kov V.I., Kalashnikov K.A., Golikov V.I., Red Army in victories and defeats 1941–1945, Tomsk University, 2003 (Феськов В. И., Калашников К. А., Голиков В. И., Красная Армия в победах и поражениях 1941–1945 гг) p.6
7. ^ Feskov et al 2013, pp. 130–131.
8. Glantz, 2005, p.712n98, 100
9. See also http://niehorster.org/012_ussr/41_oob/western/army_10.html.
10. Glantz, 2005, p.231
11. Feskov et al. and (Russian)http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=191077
12. Lenskii 2001
13. Steven Zagola, Operation Bagration, p.13, via Amazon.com
14. David Glantz, "Leavenworth Papers No. 7 (August Storm: The Soviet 1945 Strategic Offensive in Manchuria)". Archived from the original on 2008-03-02. Retrieved 2013-07-15.
15. List No.2; Appendix No. 3 to General Staff Directive No. D-043 of 1970
16. David Glantz, personal correspondence, December 2007
17. Lenskii, St. Petersburg, 2001
18. The suffix symbols are exact depictions of the Russian letter β
19. Machine translated and clarified a little from Feskov et al., 2004.
20. David M. Glantz, Stumbling Colossus: The Red Army on the Eve of World War, University Press of Kansas, 1998
21. Erickson, The Road to Stalingrad, 1975, p.203
22. David Glantz, Companion to Colossus Reborn, 2005, p.54
23. Feskov et al 2013, p. 525.
24. Dunn, p.163
25. Bonn, Slaughterhouse, 2005, p.325
26. See also "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2003-09-17. Retrieved 2015-12-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
27. 54-я АРМИЯ [54th Army]. bdsa.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2015-11-02.
28. David Glantz, Companion to Colossus Reborn, 2005, p.59
29. David Glantz, From the Don to the Dnepr, Frank Cass, 1991, p.152, 382
30. Feskov et al., The Soviet Army during the Years of the Cold War 1945–91, Tomsk 2004
31. David M. Glantz; After Stalingrad; Helion and Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2009; p 258
32. "Archived copy" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2001-04-24. Retrieved 2006-12-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
33. Feskov et al 2013, p. 440.
34. Glantz, The Soviet Airborne Experience, 1984, 33, 167, citing Sukhorukov, Sovetskie vozdushno, 238–239. See also Airborne Corps (Soviet Union).
35. K.E. Bonn, Slaughterhouse, Aberjona Press, 2005/Feskov et al. 2004
36. Holm, 10th Guards Combined Arms Army, 2015.
37. Source Feskov et al. 2004
38. ^ "20 общевойсковая армия" [20th Combined Arms Army]. gsvg88.narod.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 12 July 2016.
39. Glantz, Companion to Colossus Reborn, 2005, p.62
40. Glantz, 2005, Table 7.10, p.260
41. Glantz 2005, p 97.
42. Armchair General Forums
43. Craig Crofoot, Armies of the Bear, Vol. I Part 1
44. People's militia in the Battle for Leningrad (A short chronology), compiled by candidate of historical sciences Yu.N. Yablochkin, taken from a reader Opolchentsy, Lenizdat (pub.), 1975 (НАРОДНОЕ ОПОЛЧЕНИЕ В БИТВЕ ЗА ЛЕНИНГРАД (Краткая хроника) Составлена канд. ист. наук Ю. Н. Яблочкиным. Из сборника "Ополченцы", (Лениздат, 1975).
45. Meltukhov M.I., Stalin's missed chance: Soviet Union and the struggle for Europe 1939–1941 (documents, facts, judgments), Moscow, Veche, 2000 (Russian: Мельтюхов М.И. Упущенный шанс Сталина. Советский Союз и борьба за Европу: 1939–1941 (Документы, факты, суждения). — М.: Вече, 2000.

Bibliography

• Kursk order of battle.
• John Erickson, The Road to Stalingrad, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1975
• Feskov et al., The Soviet Army during the Years of the Cold War 1945–91, Tomsk 2004
• Feskov, V.I.; Golikov, V.I.; Kalashnikov, K.A.; Slugin, S.A. (2013). Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской [The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II: From the Red Army to the Soviet: Part 1 Land Forces] (in Russian). Tomsk: Scientific and Technical Literature Publishing. ISBN 9785895035306. - revised version of 2004 work with many errors corrected.
• David Glantz, Colossus Reborn: The Red Army at War 1941–43, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, 2005,
• David Glantz, When Titans Clashed, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, 1995
• Krivosheev, G. F., Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century, Greenhill Books, London, 1997
• Aberjona Press, Slaughterhouse: The Handbook of the Eastern Front, Bedford, PA, 2005 (especially for army HQ raising/disbandment dates)
• http://samsv.narod.ru/Arm/arm.html - (Russian)

v t e Armies of the Soviet Army
Armies	1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd 23rd 24th 25th 26th 27th 28th 29th 30th 31st 32nd 33rd 34th 35th 36th 37th 38th 39th 40th 41st 42nd 43rd 44th 45th 46th 47th 48th 49th 50th 51st 52nd 53rd 54th 55th 56th 57th 58th 59th 60th 61st 62nd 63rd 64th 65th 66th 67th 68th 69th 70th Separate Coastal Special Red Banner Far Eastern Red Banner Caucasus
Guards	1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 14th 18th 20th 22nd
Tank/Mechanized	1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Special
Guards Tank/Mechanized	1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
Shock	1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
Cavalry	1st 2nd
Sapper	1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th
Reserve Army	1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Southern Front Black Sea Group

• Field armies of the Soviet Union
• Lists of Russian and Soviet military units and formations