Russian Ground Forces

Russian Ground Forces

The Ground Forces of the Russian Federation (Russian: Сухопутные войска Российской Федерации, Suhoputnye voyska Rossiyskoy Federatsii) are the land forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, formed from parts of the collapsing Soviet Army in 1992. The formation of these forces posed economic challenges after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and required reforms to professionalize the force during the transition. While the Russian Ground Forces in their present form are only about twenty years old, Russian officers trace their antecedents' history through the Imperial Russian Army era back to the time of Kievan Rus'.

Since 1992, the Ground Forces have withdrawn many thousands of troops from former Soviet garrisons abroad, while remaining extensively committed to the Chechen Wars, peacekeeping, and other operations in the Soviet successor states (what is known in Russia as the "near abroad"). The most recent clash was the 2008 South Ossetia war with Georgian forces.

Read more about Russian Ground Forces:  Mission, History, Personnel, Crime and Corruption in The Ground Forces, Organisation, Equipment, Ranks and Insignia

Famous quotes containing the words russian, ground and/or forces:

    A country is strong which consists of wealthy families, every member of whom is interested in defending a common treasure; it is weak when composed of scattered individuals, to whom it matters little whether they obey seven or one, a Russian or a Corsican, so long as each keeps his own plot of land, blind in their wretched egotism, to the fact that the day is coming when this too will be torn from them.
    Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)

    The mode of clearing and planting is to fell the trees, and burn once what will burn, then cut them up into suitable lengths, roll into heaps, and burn again; then, with a hoe, plant potatoes where you can come at the ground between the stumps and charred logs; for a first crop the ashes suffice for manure, and no hoeing being necessary the first year. In the fall, cut, roll, and burn again, and so on, till the land is cleared; and soon it is ready for grain, and to be laid down.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    The popularity of disaster movies ... expresses a collective perception of a world threatened by irresistible and unforeseen forces which nevertheless are thwarted at the last moment. Their thinly veiled symbolic meaning might be translated thus: We are innocent of wrongdoing. We are attacked by unforeseeable forces come to harm us. We are, thus, innocent even of negligence. Though those forces are insuperable, chance will come to our aid and we shall emerge victorious.
    David Mamet (b. 1947)