Soviet Military
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, 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. After World War II the Strategic Missile Troops (1960), 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 Nuclear power of the Soviet Union was the largest ever second, the Air Forces fourth, and the Navy fifth). Soviet military power at the time was the largest and most powerful in the world.
Read more about Soviet Military: Origins, Party Control of The Armed Forces, Weapons and Equipment, Polish-Soviet War, Far East, The Cold War, The End of The Soviet Union, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words soviet and/or military:
“If the Soviet Union let another political party come into existence, they would still be a one-party state, because everybody would join the other party.”
—Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)
“There was somewhat military in his nature, not to be subdued, always manly and able, but rarely tender, as if he did not feel himself except in opposition. He wanted a fallacy to expose, a blunder to pillory, I may say required a little sense of victory, a roll of the drum, to call his powers into full exercise.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)