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Soviet armed forces

Armed Forces of the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Вооружённые Силы Союза Советских Социалистических Республик
Vooruzhonnyye Sily Soyuza Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik
Communist star.svg
Founded 15 January 1918
Current form 23 February 1946
Disbanded 25 December 1991
Service branches Red Army flag Soviet Army
Flag of the Soviet Air Force Soviet Air Forces
Naval Ensign of the Soviet Union Soviet Navy
Soviet Air Defence Forces
Strategic Missile Troops
Headquarters Moscow, Russian SFSR
Leadership
Supreme Commander Joseph Stalin (1941–1953)
Mikhail Gorbachev (1990–1991)
Minister of Defence Joseph Stalin (1946–1947)
Yevgeny Shaposhnikov (1991)
Chief of the General Staff Aleksandr Vasilevsky (1946–1948)
Vladimir Lobov (1991)
Manpower
Military age 18–27
Conscription 18
Available for
military service
92,345,764 (1991), age 18–27
Active personnel 4,230,920 (1991)
Expenditures
Budget $124–128 billion (1989)
Percent of GDP 8.4% (1989)
Related articles
History Military history of the Soviet Union
Ranks Military ranks of the Soviet Union

The Soviet Armed Forces, also called the Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Armed Forces of the Soviet Union (Russian: Вооружённые Силы Союза Советских Социалистических Республик Vooruzhonnyye Sily Soyuza Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, Вооружённые Силы Советского Союза) refers to the armed forces of the Russian SFSR (1917–1922), and Soviet Union (1922–1991) from their beginnings in the aftermath of the Russian Civil War to its dissolution in December 1991.

According to the all-union military service law of September 1925, the Soviet Armed Forces consisted of five components: the Ground Forces, the Air Forces, the Navy, the State Political Directorate (OGPU), and the convoy guards. The OGPU was later made independent and amalgamated with the NKVD in 1934, and thus its Internal Troops were under the joint management of the Defense and Interior Commisariats. After World War II the Strategic Missile Troops (1959), Air Defence Forces (1948) and troops of the All-Union National Civil Defence Forces (1970) were added, standing first, third and sixth in the official Soviet reckoning of comparative importance (with the Ground Forces being second, the Air Forces fourth, and the Navy fifth).

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 rapidly advancing 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.


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