List of senior command personnel of the Red Army on June 22, 1941.

• June 22, 2019
• Events
• Denis Andreev

Today, many people do not know the answer to the question, what is the Red Army? This gap occurs among people who are not familiar with history. The Red Army is the name of the USSR ground formations in 1917-1946.

Thanks to the definition, you can understand that this abbreviation is associated with the army. Transcript of the Red Army - Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. The name is associated with the color red. In the labor movement, red symbolized blood shed in the fight against oppression. Over time, the decoding of the Red Army became quite popular.

Historical background

To understand more clearly how the Red Army stands for, you need to study a little the history of this organization. The Red Army was founded immediately after the Russian Revolution of 1917, when the Bolshevik Party came to power. But the official day of its creation is considered to be February 23, 1918. It was then that the Soviet Republic declared the first victory of the Red Army over the Germans in the very last days of the Russian campaign of the First World War.

Two weeks later, the Bolsheviks signed a peace agreement with Germany because it was difficult to finance an army that lacked everything: weapons, ammunition and manpower. Some historians argue that the victory would never have happened. However, February 23 is still celebrated in Russia and Belarus as Defender of the Fatherland Day. It is important to note that the decryption of the Red Army was then well known to everyone.

Down with the army!

At first everything was like that. After the publication of the decree “On Peace,” the Bolsheviks abolished the army and ended the war unilaterally, which brought incredible joy to their former opponents—Austria-Hungary and Germany. Soon, again, it became clear that these actions were hasty, and the young Soviet republic had more than enough enemies, but there was no one to defend it.

Red Army during the Civil War

Within two months after the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, a civil war began between the Bolsheviks and the remnants of the tsarist army. These two opposing forces were called the Red and White Guards. The latter was largely supported by the British and Americans, as well as regiments from other countries that tried to oppose the Bolsheviks in 1918.

As a result, the Republic of Soviets found itself surrounded by opposing forces: with the Cossacks in the south, the Kolchak and Czech battalions in Siberia, the British and American corps in the North of Russia. This was a real test for the newly born Red Army. After several defeats in 1918, she managed to turn the situation around. One of the masterminds behind this change was Leon Trotsky, a close ally of Lenin. He managed to gather resources for a counterattack.

In 1919, the Red Army repelled an attack by General Kolchak in Siberia, and then launched a massive assault on General Denikin's forces in central Russia. One of the most threatening forces at that time was the First Cavalry, led by Semyon Budyonny, who later became the USSR Minister of Defense.

By 1920, the Red Army managed to suppress all resistance in European Russia, and then moved on to battle in the Far East, where battles continued until 1922. In 1920-1921, the Red Army entered the war with Poland, but after a successful offensive, exhausted Soviet troops had to retreat.

List of senior command personnel of the Red Army on June 22, 1941.

Source: https://istmat.info/node/26051

Victory of the Red Army

No one denies that the Red Army was able to seize power due to the following factors:

• Intensive propaganda to convince workers and peasants to fight on their side.
• Well structured military training.
• Worked persistently to force the White Guard officers to change sides and join the Red Army, since there was a huge shortage of well-trained officers to lead the troops.

Army structure

The Bolsheviks introduced a new system of leadership of military units of the Red Army. In addition to the commanders, each unit also had a political leader (political leader). These officers were appointed by the Bolsheviks to monitor the morale of the troops, as well as the every move of the leading officers.

If the commander's order contradicted the line of the Bolshevik Party, the political instructor could cancel it. The country's leadership realized the danger of this measure: soldiers could become confused about whose orders should be followed. But at the same time, it was more important to keep track of those whom the Bolsheviks could not fully trust, including officers who switched sides during the civil war.

This tight control was relaxed in the mid-1920s, when the country had enough officers trained on the basis of Soviet ideology. Virtually all power in the Red Army belonged to the Soviets - an alliance of workers and peasants - as in the rest of the country. One of their tasks was to elect commanders to their posts, and also to relieve them of these duties when necessary.

Brigade, division and army commanders were elected by larger councils (regional or national). However, this choice was strictly controlled: each candidate had to have professional and communication skills in order to lead a military unit.

Orders in the Red Army

The Bolsheviks introduced another principle that did not exist in the Russian army - the so-called joint responsibility. If one soldier makes a mistake or harms civilians in any way, the entire unit is to blame. This principle was also used later in the Soviet Army: many soldiers hated it.

Almost three quarters of all Red Army soldiers came from villages. Soldiers received from 50 to 250 rubles per month depending on their rank, marital status and time spent in the army. At that time, this was more than enough to survive in a poor and starving country.

During the Second World War

At the beginning of Hitler's assault, the Red Army numbered five million troops. Another thirty million were called into service within two years. The defeat of Hitler's army in Stalingrad became one of the turning points of the Second World War. Here the talents of marshals Georgy Zhukov, Vasily Chuikov, Ivan Konev, Alexander Vasilievsky and others were revealed. These were the new leaders of the Russian army, from the great tank battle of Kursk in 1943 and the liberation of besieged Leningrad in 1944 to the capture of Berlin in 1945.

This article should have helped you understand what the Red Army is, and the decoding of this abbreviation should now be clear. The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ceased to be called that way on February 25, 1946.

Insignia and buttonholes of the Red Army 1924-1943.

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in abbreviated form ( RKKA ), the term Soviet Army (SA) appeared later, the beginning of the Second World War, oddly enough, was met in a military uniform of the 1925 model. The People's
the Red Army for all personnel , new uniforms and insignia . The old official ranks were partially retained for military-political, military-technical. military legal, military medical and junior command and control personnel.

This article is about the military ranks of private and junior commanding personnel of the Red Army; we will touch a little on the changes in the middle, senior and senior commanding personnel.

Lapel insignia , used since 1924, existed virtually unchanged until 1943, when shoulder straps .

Lapel insignia since 1924, existed without changes until 1943

Over the 19 years of the existence of lapel insignia, minor changes were made to the Insignia and buttonholes of the Red Army.

The appearance of the emblems of the military branches and services changed, the colors of the edgings and buttonholes, the number of badges in the buttonholes, and the technology for producing badges underwent changes.

patches were introduced and abolished as an additional element to buttonholes .

But by and large, the insignia of the military uniform of the Red Army, the entire pre-war period and the first year and a half of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War remained practically unchanged. With the exception of changes in production technologies towards cheaper products, cheaper materials were used. But the degradation of the quality of the materials used was not as catastrophic as in the Wehrmacht troops, which, as is known, steadily reduced the quality of the materials used for the production of military uniforms.

The branches of the military differed in the colors of their buttonholes, the colors of their caps, the piping on their uniforms and their emblems. Here everything is described in more detail about the samples of uniforms of the Red Army of 1940-43.

The width of the buttonholes for tunics and jackets was 32.5 mm including piping, the length of the buttonhole was about 10 cm. Diamond-shaped overcoat buttonholes diagonally measured 11 x 9 centimeters; the Marshal of the Soviet Union had a larger size of 13.5 x 9.

The buttonholes of senior military personnel were edged with gold embroidery; for the rest, cloth edging was used, depending on the type of troops.

Brass was used to make emblems; the emblems were silvered and covered with gold, but mainly with red enamel.

Interestingly, by order, the emblems on the buttonholes of the rank and file were supposed to be painted using a stencil, but this was rare; metal emblems were used on the tabs or screws.

military ranks of private and junior commanding officers of the Red Army

Order No. 391 of November 2, 1940, established the following military ranks .

Rank and file: 0. Red Army soldier.

Junior command staff:

1. junior sergeant , 2. sergeant , 3. senior sergeant , 4. sergeant major .

Many people get confused about military ranks; it’s all about changes in 391 orders.

Buttonholes and sleeve insignia for sergeant major up to 40 years and after

For example, before the age of 40, the sergeant major had three triangles in his buttonhole and three stripes on his sleeve, and from the age of 40, four.

Squares and rectangles defining military rank were colloquially called “kubari” or “cubes”, respectively, rectangles “sleepers”.

Diamonds and triangles did not have slang names, with the exception of the foreman , his four triangles were called “saw”.

Emblems and sleeve patches of the Red Army

• (A) Sleeve chevron . Junior lieutenant , model 1935
• (B) Sleeve chevron of deputy politov
• (C) Air Force Airman's patch , khaki , field uniform
• Air Force Airman sleeve insignia "casual" dress uniform
• (E) Traffic Controller's Patch
• (F) Artillery chevron

Artillerymen and motorized armored troops used black buttonholes , but tank commanders buttonholes . The emblem of artillerymen and motorists was introduced in the First World War, crossed cannons and winged wheels with a steering wheel for drivers. Both are still used today with minimal changes. The tankers have emblems in the form of miniature BT tanks. The chemists had two cylinders and a gas mask on their emblem. In March 1943 they were changed to hammer and wrench.

private and junior commanding officers of the Red Army

The corporal received a red cloth stripe regardless of the branch of service. And the corporal began to look like a student of a sergeant's school, which also caused some confusion. With further assignments of ranks, the triangles were applied to the fabric strip.

• 1st Red Army soldier, autobat
• 2nd corporal, artilleryman
• 3 ml. Sergeant , technical service
• 4th Sergeant, Air Force
• 5th Sergeant , Automotive Armored Forces
• 6th sergeant, sapper

The petty officer's buttonholes were different from the rest of the junior command staff. Between the edging and the field of the buttonhole , along the edge there is a golden braid, the same as that of senior officers.

The pilots' emblem has also remained virtually unchanged to this day, the same winged propeller, on blue buttonholes with black edging.

A golden or silver bowl with a snake (exactly the same as today) for military doctors and veterinary services.

The year 1937 marked the creation of military schools. to the buttonholes according to the color of the troops. The letters MPU, for example, corresponded to the Moscow Border School.

Metal letters were applied
to the buttonholes

For Academy students, the letter A had enamel triangles attached in front of it, indicating military rank.