Soviet forces
| Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Вооружённые Силы Союза Советских Социалистических Республик Vooruzhonnyye Sily Soyuza Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik |
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| Founded | 15 January 1918 |
| Current form | 23 February 1946 |
| Disbanded | 25 December 1991 |
| Service branches |
 Soviet Army Soviet Air Forces Soviet NavySoviet 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[update] 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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