The history of the Red Army and the lists of personnel until recently were fairly secret information. In addition to legends of power, the armed forces of the Soviet Union recognized the joy of victories and the bitterness of defeat.
Red army
The decree on the creation of the Red Army was signed by V.I. Lenin in January 1918 after the formation of the political police of the Cheka. At that time, the lists of personnel of the military forces consisted of workers, soldiers and sailors, who sided with the Bolsheviks.
Such forces of all opponents could not be defeated, because the new army should defend the revolution. It was possible to join the army only with two class recommendations - workers and peasants. It was formed on a voluntary basis according to Marxist canons - the lack of military discipline, discussion of orders, the election of commanders. Lenin did not see the need to create regular troops. Therefore, the tsarist army was replaced by the people's militia.
The civil war at that time was only hardened, and the need for trained troops was simply obvious.
In 1926, a book was published that contains a personal list of personnel of the workers 'and peasants' army. It contains data on origin, date of birth and death.
Regular troops
But from the middle of 1918 a universal military duty of workers from 18 to 40 years and universal military training was introduced, the election of commanders was canceled, and the Red Army took the oath. Armed forces are starting to form: infantry, artillery, cavalry, armored forces, consisting of 200 armored vehicles and two armored trains. The first Soviet design bureau of automatic weapons appears in the city of Kovrov.
An active creator of the regular troops of that time was L. Trotsky, who believed that professionals should deal with the war.
The battleship "Potemkin"
The Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Empire was armed with the famous battleship Potemkin. The list of personnel indicates the presence in the team of a huge number of Mensheviks, anarchists and Socialist-Revolutionaries. The uprising of the sailors occurred during the first attempt at a revolution in Russia, but it ended in defeat. There were many reasons. This list of personnel, which are simply crowded with immigrants from Austria and Germany, and the lack of support from other vessels of the Black Sea Fleet.
Features
In fact, there were no fundamental differences between the Red and Tsarist armies. They were based on the reform activities of Milyukov since the second half of the XIX century. The principle of dividing the country into military districts and the draft army has survived with some changes to this day.
Russia has always sought to have an army more than it was able to support. And this trend can be traced through the entire history of the country. The lists of Red Army personnel have always been inflated, but in practice, with the outbreak of hostilities, there was no one to fight.
Zhukovsky reforms
The new chief of the General Staff G.K. Zhukov writes in his memoirs how the army leadership demanded the creation of special mechanical corps from Stalin.
At this time, military tank, artillery schools and other educational institutions began to actively open to provide military personnel. 21 tank schools and tank academies were opened in the USSR. The same forced training took place in the Navy and in the artillery troops.
Tank forces
At the beginning of World War II, there were 1.5 million people in the tank troops. And the release of the tanks themselves also did not lag behind.
But without trained and mobile infantry, they were ineffective and did not allow the Red Army to conduct deep strategic operations, the need for which was caused by the German invasion.
Even the most professional cadres were helpless on the battlefields without infantry.
Warrant officers and captains — the lower military strata of the tsarist army — could not form a new military thought. Cavalry, as a rudiment, lasted until the end of World War II. And the list of irreparable loss of personnel in the entire history of the Red Army is simply colossal.
First victories and defeats
The Finnish war showed the Germans the weaknesses of the Red Army, but it also taught Soviet strategists something. In the summer of 1940, a whole list of orders for the personnel of the People’s Commissar of Defense Semyon Tymoshenko appears, which obliges the military to train only what is needed during the war. The gradual rearmament of the army begins, new models of weapons and powerful new tanks are created, the armor of which could not be pierced by any weapon of that time.
The loss of many positions of the Red Army in 1941 showed all the flaws, and the front line was gradually approaching Moscow. But it was not possible to break through the Wehrmacht.
Colds also fell into the hands of the Soviet Union, and the Germans, dressed in a summer-like fashion, did not tolerate them well. In the cold, their machine guns were also not quite combat-ready. In December 1941, the Red Army threw the enemy back 300 km. So they managed to save the capital. The moral significance of this victory was enormous, and the Soviet command once again overestimated the offensive capabilities of the army exhausted in battle, and the forces of the Germans were far from exhausted.
In the spring of 1942, the advance of the Red Army stopped, and several major defeats in the south exacerbated the situation. This is the battle of Kharkov, and surrendered Kiev, and the defense of Simferopol. Germany opened the way to the Caucasus, Kuban and Stalingrad. The famous Stalin’s order “Not a step back” even more “cleaned” the lists of personnel of the armed forces of the Soviet Union.