The Red Army was created, as they say, from scratch. Despite this, she managed to become a formidable force and win the civil war. The key to success was the construction of the Red Army using the experience of the old, pre-revolutionary army.

On the ruins of the old army

By the beginning of 1918, Russia, having survived two revolutions, finally emerged from the First World War. Her army was a pitiful sight - the soldiers deserted en masse and headed for their native places. Since November 1917, the Armed Forces have not existed and de jure - after the Bolsheviks issued an order to dissolve the old army.

Meanwhile on the outskirts former empire A new civil war broke out. In Moscow, battles with the junkers had just died down, in St. Petersburg - with the Cossacks of General Krasnov. Events grew like a snowball.

On the Don, generals Alekseev and Kornilov formed the Volunteer Army, in the Orenburg steppes an anti-communist uprising of Ataman Dutov unfolded, in the Kharkov region there were battles with the cadets of the Chuguev military school, in the Yekaterinoslav province - with detachments of the Central Rada of the self-proclaimed Ukrainian Republic.

Labor activists and revolutionary sailors

The external, old enemy did not doze off either: the Germans intensified their offensive against Eastern Front, capturing a number of territories of the former Russian Empire.

At the disposal of the Soviet government at that time were only Red Guard detachments, created on the ground mainly from activists of the working environment and revolutionary-minded sailors.

In the initial period of general partisanship in the civil war, the Red Guards were the backbone of the Council of People's Commissars, but it gradually became clear that the draft principle should replace voluntariness.

This was clearly shown, for example, by the events in Kyiv in January 1918, where the uprising of the workers' detachments of the Red Guard against the authorities of the Central Rada was brutally suppressed by national units and officer detachments.

The first step towards the creation of the Red Army

On January 15, 1918, Lenin issued a decree on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army. The document emphasized that access to its ranks is open to all citizens. Russian Republic not younger than 18 years old, ready "to give their strength, their lives to defend the conquered October Revolution and the power of the Soviets and socialism."

This was the first but half step towards the creation of an army. For the time being, it was proposed to join it voluntarily, and in this the Bolsheviks followed the path of Alekseev and Kornilov with their voluntary recruitment of the White Army. As a result, by the spring of 1918, there were no more than 200 thousand people in the ranks of the Red Army. And its combat effectiveness left much to be desired - most of the front-line soldiers rested from the horrors of the world war at home.

A powerful incentive to create big army given by the enemies - the 40,000th Czechoslovak corps, which in the summer of that year revolted against Soviet power throughout Trans-Siberian Railway and overnight captured vast expanses of the country - from Chelyabinsk to Vladivostok. In the south of the European part of Russia, Denikin's troops did not doze off, who, having recovered from the unsuccessful assault on Yekaterinodar (now Krasnodar), in June 1918 again launched an offensive against the Kuban and this time achieved their goal.

Fight not with slogans, but with skill

Under these conditions, one of the founders of the Red Army, the People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, Lev Trotsky, proposed moving to a more rigid model of building an army. According to the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars on July 29, 1918, military conscription was introduced in the country, which made it possible to bring the number of the Red Army to almost half a million people by mid-September.

Along with quantitative growth, the army was strengthened and qualitatively. The leadership of the country and the Red Army realized that slogans alone that the socialist fatherland was in danger would not win the war. We need experienced cadres, albeit not adhering to revolutionary rhetoric.

En masse, the so-called military experts, that is, officers and generals of the tsarist army, began to be called up to the Red Army. Their total number during civil war in the ranks of the Red Army numbered almost 50 thousand people.

The best of the best

Many then became the pride of the USSR, such as, for example, Colonel Boris Shaposhnikov, who became a marshal Soviet Union and Chief of the General Staff of the Army, including during the Great Patriotic War. Another head of the General Staff of the Red Army during the Second World War, Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky entered the Civil War as a staff captain.

Another effective measure to strengthen the middle command level was military schools and accelerated training courses for red commanders from among the soldiers, workers and peasants. In battles and battles, yesterday's non-commissioned officers and sergeants quickly grew to commanders of large formations. Suffice it to recall Vasily Chapaev, who became a division commander, or Semyon Budyonny, who led the 1st Cavalry Army.

Even earlier, the election of commanders was abolished, which had an extremely harmful effect on the level of combat effectiveness of units, turning them into anarchist spontaneous detachments. Now the commander was responsible for order and discipline, albeit on a par with the commissar.

Kamenev instead of Vatsetis

It is curious that a little later, whites also came to the draft army. In particular, the Volunteer Army in 1919 largely remained so only in name - the bitterness of the Civil War imperiously demanded that the opponents replenish their ranks by any means.

The first commander in chief of the Armed Forces of the RSFSR in the autumn of 1918 was appointed former Colonel Joakim Vatsetis (since January 1919 he simultaneously led the actions of the army of Soviet Latvia). After a series of defeats by the Red Army in the summer of 1919 in the European part of Russia, Vatsetis was replaced at his post by another tsarist colonel, Sergei Kamenev.

Under his leadership, things went much better for the Red Army. The armies of Kolchak, Denikin, Wrangel were defeated. Yudenich's attack on Petrograd was repulsed, the Polish units were driven out of Ukraine and Belarus.

Territorial-militia principle

By the end of the Civil War, the total strength of the Red Army was over five million people. The red cavalry, initially numbering only three regiments, in the course of numerous battles grew to several armies, which operated on the widely stretched communications of countless fronts of the civil war, performing the role of shock troops.

The end of hostilities required a sharp reduction in the number of personnel. First of all, the war-exhausted economy of the country needed this. As a result, in 1920-1924. demobilization was carried out, which reduced the Red Army to half a million people.

Under the leadership of People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs Mikhail Frunze, most of the remaining troops were transferred to the territorial-militia principle of recruitment. It consisted in the fact that a small part of the Red Army soldiers and unit commanders were in permanent service, and the rest of the staff was called up for five years for training camps lasting up to a year.

Strengthening combat capability

Over time, the Frunze reform led to problems: the combat readiness of the territorial units was much lower than the regular ones.

The thirties, with the arrival of the Nazis in Germany and the Japanese attack on China, began to smell distinctly of gunpowder. As a result, the transfer of regiments, divisions and corps to a regular basis began in the USSR.

At the same time, not only the experience of the First World War and the Civil War was taken into account, but also participation in new conflicts, in particular, a clash with Chinese troops in 1929 on the CER and by the Japanese on Lake Khasan in 1938.

The total number of the Red Army increased, the troops were actively re-equipped. First of all, this concerned artillery and armored forces. New troops were created, for example, airborne. Mother infantry became more motorized.

Premonition of World War

Aviation, which previously carried out mainly reconnaissance missions, was now becoming a powerful force, increasing the proportion of bombers, attack aircraft and fighters in its ranks.

Soviet tankers and pilots tried their hand at local wars taking place far from the USSR - in Spain and China.

In order to increase the prestige of the military profession and the convenience of serving in 1935, personal military personnel were introduced military ranks from marshal to lieutenant.

The law on universal conscription of 1939, which expanded the composition of the Red Army and established longer terms of service, finally drew a line under the territorial-militia principle of manning the Red Army.

And there was a big war ahead.

In 1918, the Red Army was created in Russia, which, having won the civil war, became the strongest army in the world during World War II.

At first, the Red Army was a volunteer

On January 15, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, headed by Lenin, issued a decree on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army "from the most conscious and organized elements of the working classes", but at the same time it was proposed to join all citizens of the country who wish to "give their strength , his life to defend the conquered October Revolution and the power of the Soviets and socialism.

Decree on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army. January 1918

Its core was formed during the February Revolution detachments of the Red Guard, 95% staffed by workers, almost half of whom were members of the Bolshevik Party. But for a war with a large, technically equipped army, the Red Guard was not suitable.

The Red Army, on the other hand, was created as an instrument of the dictatorship of the proletariat, as an army of workers and peasants, a foundation for replacing the standing army with nationwide weapons, which in the near future was to serve as support for the coming socialist revolution in Europe.

Therefore, each volunteer had to submit recommendations from military committees, party and other organizations supporting the Soviet government. And if they entered in whole groups, collective responsibility was required. The fighters of the Red Army were promised full state support and, moreover, they were paid 50 rubles a month, and from the middle of 1918, 150 rubles for singles and 250 rubles for families. Assistance was also promised to disabled members of their families who were dependents.

At the same time, the imperial Russian army was officially dissolved on January 29, 1918 by order of the revolutionary commander-in-chief, former ensign Nikolai Krylenko. "Peace. The war is over. Russia is no longer at war. End of the damned war. The army, with honor bearing three and a half years of suffering, waited for a well-deserved rest, ”the radiogram was sent out.

However, by this time only a few parts of the old army actually remained: the soldiers, who were utterly tired of sitting in the trenches, in the fall of 1917, having heard about the adoption of the decree on peace, decided that the war was over and began to go home,

At the same time, generals Mikhail Alekseev and in the south of Russia, on the same principle, created an officer army, which was also called the Volunteer Army.

Opponents of the Soviet government also thought that the armed confrontation would not last long. In Samara, the Socialist-Revolutionary People's Army The Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly was recruited at the beginning for only three months of service.

The order in this army was reminiscent of the times: the chiefs had power only in the campaign and in battle, while the rest of the time the "Comrades' Disciplinary Court" operated.

It came to oddities - among the officers there were no people willing to command the Samara volunteers. It was proposed to cast lots. Then a modest-looking lieutenant colonel, who had recently arrived in Samara, stood up and said: “Since there are no people who want it, then temporarily, until a senior one is found, let me lead units against the Bolsheviks.”

It was Vladimir Kappel, later one of the best White Guard generals in Siberia.

After that, the core of the emerging army was no longer the Socialist-Revolutionaries, but regular officers who did not make their way to the south of Russia and settled on the Volga. And a few weeks later, mobilization was carried out among the civilian population, and a month later, among the local officers.

The military enlistment office system will celebrate its centenary in May

The influx of volunteers into the Red Army also began to dry up. Seeing this, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, by a special decree, introduced universal military training for the working people (vsevobuch) in the country. Every worker between the ages of 18 and 40 had to complete a military training course within 96 hours, be registered as a military man, and, at the first call of the Soviet government, join the Red Army on the first call of the Soviet government.

But those wishing to join its ranks became less and less. Even the proclaimed shock week of the creation of the Red Army under the slogan "The socialist fatherland is in danger!" failed! from 17 to 23 February 1918. And the government, putting aside the slogan of "world revolution" for a while and raising the old-fashioned word "fatherland" to its shield, quickly moved on to the forced formation of an army.

On May 29, 1918, a "compulsory" (as it is written in the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee) recruitment of persons aged 18 to 40 years into the Red Army was announced, and a network of military commissariats was created to implement this decree. By the way, the system of military registration and enlistment offices turned out to be so perfect that it exists to this day.

The election of commanders was canceled, an appointment system was introduced commanders of those who had military training or performed well in battle. The 5th All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted a resolution "On the construction of the Red Army", which spoke of the need for centralized control and revolutionary iron discipline in the troops.

The congress demanded that the Red Army be built using the experience of the old military, although it seemed to many that there was no place for former "gold chasers" in the army of the dictatorship of the proletariat. But Lenin insisted that it was impossible to build a regular army without military science, and that it could only be learned from military specialists.

The date of February 23 appeared by chance, but it was mythologized

No victories were won on this day in 1918 by the Red Army. Therefore, there are various versions of this. For example, that the date was set according to an appeal published on that day in the newspaper Pravda to the workers, soldiers and peasants to come out in defense of the Soviet Republic from German shock battalions, called in the appeal “German White Guards”.

February 23, 1918. A shot from a Soviet filmstrip showing a battle that never happened. “The timing of the celebration of the anniversary of the Red Army on February 23 is rather random and difficult to explain and does not coincide with historical dates,” Klim Voroshilov admitted in 1933

However, according to the ideological myth planted in the 1930s and 40s, on February 23, 1918, the first, barely formed detachments of the Red Army stopped the German offensive near Pskov and Narva. These allegedly "severe battles" became the baptism of fire of the Red Army.

In fact, after Trotsky actually thwarted the first attempt at peace negotiations with the Germans and announced that Soviet Russia was ending the war, demobilizing the army, but not signing peace, the Germans regarded this as an automatic “termination of the truce” and launched an offensive along the entire Eastern Front.

By the evening of February 23, 1918, they were 55 km from Pskov and more than 170 km from Narva. No fights on this day were recorded either in the German or in the Russian archives.

Pskov was occupied by the Germans on February 24. And on February 25, they stopped the offensive in this direction: on the night of February 24, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR accepted the German peace conditions and immediately informed the German government about this. On March 3, 1918, the Brest Treaty was signed.

Narva - the second city that for a long time figured as the place of the heroic victory of the Red Army - was taken by the Germans without a fight at all. The Red Navy Dybenko and the Hungarian internationalists Bela Kun, who were supposed to defend it, fearing encirclement, fled to Yamburg, and then further to Gatchina. Although after the entry into force of the Brest Treaty, the Germans (who had many own problems) themselves stopped on the Narva-Pskov line and did not make any attempts to pursue the enemy.

For several years, nothing memorable date they didn’t remember at all - until January 27, 1922, when the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR ordered that February 23 be celebrated as the Day of the Red Army and Navy.

Klim Voroshilov himself in 1933, at a solemn meeting dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the Red Army, admitted: « By the way, the timing of the celebration of the anniversary of the Red Army on February 23 is rather random and difficult to explain and does not coincide with historical dates.

The statement about the “victory near Pskov and Narva” first appeared in an article published in Izvestia on February 16, 1938 under the heading “On the 20th anniversary of the Red Army and the Navy. Theses for propagandists. And in September of the same year, he was enshrined in the chapter “A Short Course in the History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks” published in Pravda. Wherein " Short course” edited by Stalin, does not mention the January Leninist decree on the creation of the Red Army, issued in 1918, at all.

Later, in his order of February 23, 1942, Stalin explained what happened on that day 24 years ago: “The young detachments of the Red Army, who entered the war for the first time, utterly(emphasis mine - S.V.) defeated the German invaders near Pskov and Narva on February 23, 1918. That is why February 23, 1918 was declared the birthday of the Red Army.”

No one dared to object to this. It was this version that was included in school and university textbooks. And only on January 18, 2006, the State Duma of the Russian Federation decided to exclude from official description holiday in the law the words "Day of the victory of the Red Army over the Kaiser troops of Germany (1918)".

The civil war in Russia largely repeated the American one.

At the beginning of the 1861-1865 US War, the North and South also recruited volunteers into their armies. Both began to mobilize only after a series of fierce battles, when it became clear that the war would last not a few months, but much longer. Johnny (as the opponents called the southerners) did it in April 1862, the Yankees (northerners) did it in July of the same year.

Don Troiani. An Illustrated History of the American Civil War. That civil war has many parallels with ours.

Mobilization into the Red Army was announced on May 29, 1918. By this time, Denikin's regiments had captured Yekaterinodar, the rebellion of the 40,000-strong Czechoslovak corps cut off the Volga region, the Urals and Siberia from the European part of the RSFSR, and the Entente troops occupied Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. Opponents of the Soviet Republic also switched to the mobilization principle when they realized that the volunteers did not make up for the losses.

The ideological attitudes of the opposing sides were also similar among Russians and Americans - whites, like southerners, advocated the preservation of "traditional values", while reds, like northerners, advocated active changes and universal equality.

At the same time, one of the parties to the conflict refused shoulder straps - in Russia they were not worn by the Red Army, in the USA - soldiers and officers of the Confederation opposing the federal government.

Tankers of a separate Tank Regiment of the Red Army against the background of their combat vehicles

Denikin's men, like the fighters of General Robert Edward Lee, despite the superiority of the enemy in manpower, for a long time inflicted defeat after defeat on the enemy, fighting in the Suvorov style - "not by numbers, but by skill." One of their main trump cards at first was the advantage in the cavalry.

However, the revolutionary forces learned quickly. And the preponderance in weapons and ammunition was initially on their side, since (again, by analogy with the United States) behind them were industrial centers with the largest arms factories and military depots. In Russia, under the control of the Bolsheviks were Moscow, Petrograd, Tula, Bryansk, Nizhny Novgorod.

Like the southerners, the Whites were supplied by Great Britain and France, but this assistance was clearly insufficient, which ultimately led to the strategic defeat of both Lee's Northern Virginia army and Denikin's AFSR.

There was another "argument" in favor of the Red Army: it was supported by part of the officer corps of the former tsarist army.

Tsarist officers fought for both whites and reds

The core of the Red Army was former officers, generals, military officials and military doctors, who, along with other categories of the population, began to be actively drafted into the Armed Forces of the RSFSR, although they belonged to the "hostile exploiting class."

Lenin and Trotsky insisted on this. In 1919, at the VIII Congress of the RCP (b), a heated discussion took place regarding the involvement of military specialists: according to the opposition, “bourgeois” military experts could not be appointed to command posts. But Lenin urged: “You, being connected with this partisanship with your experience ... do not want to understand that now the period is different. Now the regular army should be in the foreground, we must move to a regular army with military specialists. And convinced.

However, the decision itself was made earlier. As early as March 19, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars decided on the wide involvement of military experts in the Red Army, and on March 26, the Supreme Military Council issued an order to abolish the elective principle in the army, which opened up access to the army for former generals and officers.

By the summer of 1918, several thousand officers voluntarily joined the Red Army. Among them were Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich, Boris Shaposhnikov, Alexander Egorov, Dmitry Karbyshev, who later became famous Soviet military leaders.

The longer the civil war went on, the more numerous the Red Army became, the greater the need for experienced military personnel became. The principle of voluntariness no longer suited the Bolsheviks, and on June 29, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree on the mobilization of former officers and officials.

Until the end of the civil war, 48.5 thousand officers and generals, as well as 10.3 thousand military officials and about 14 thousand military doctors were called up to the ranks of the Red Army. In addition, until 1921, up to 14 thousand officers were enrolled in the Red Army, serving in white and national armies, including future marshals of the Soviet Union Leonid Govorov and Ivan Bagramyan.

In 1918, military experts made up 75% of the command staff of the Red Army. And their total number in the Red Army, as a result, exceeded 72 thousand people, amounting to approximately 43% of the total officer corps of the tsarist army.

639 people (including 252 generals) served in various positions, including key ones, from among the officers of the General Staff, who at all times and in all armies are considered the military elite.

And the first commander in chief of all armed forces The RSFSR became the former General Staff Colonel Joachim Vatsetis. And then in this post he was replaced by the former General Staff Colonel Sergei Kamenev.

For comparison, during the years of the Civil War, about 100 thousand officers, generals and military specialists fought in the ranks of the anti-Bolshevik formations, primarily in the Volunteer Army. That is, approximately 57% of the total number of royal military personnel. Of these, officers of the General Staff - 750 people. More than in the Red Army, of course, but the difference is not so fundamental.

Trotsky introduced detachments and penal units to strengthen discipline

One of the founders of the Red Army is considered to be Leon Trotsky, who during the years of the Civil War was People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, Chairman of the Supreme Military Council and head of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR.

Despite the fact that by the beginning of the bloody civil strife, there were no military academies behind Lev Davydovich's shoulders, he knew firsthand what the army and war were.

L. D. Trotsky in the Red Army in 1918

During Balkan Wars in 1912-1913 (during which the Balkan Union - Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Romania - conquered almost all of its European territories from the Ottoman Empire), Trotsky, as a war correspondent for the liberal newspaper Kievskaya Thought, was in the combat zone and even wrote a number of articles that became serious information about what was happening for the inhabitants of many countries. And in the first world war he, as a special correspondent for the same Kievskaya Mysl, was on the Western Front.

In addition, it was under his direct leadership as chairman of the Petrograd Soviet that the Bolsheviks took power in Petrograd in October 1917 and repulsed General Krasnov's attempts to take the city by storm. The latter circumstance was subsequently noted even by his future worst enemy Stalin.

“It can be said with certainty that the Party owes the rapid transfer of the garrison to the side of the Soviet and the skillful organization of the work of the Military Revolutionary Committee, first of all, and mainly to Comrade. Trotsky," he said.

On March 14, 1918, Trotsky received the post of People's Commissar for Military Affairs, on March 28 - Chairman of the Supreme Military Council, in April - People's Commissar for Naval Affairs, and on September 6 - Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR.

He consistently defends the widespread use of military experts in the Red Army, and to control them introduces a system of political commissars and ... hostages. Commissioned officers knew that their families would be shot if they went over to the enemy. Trotsky's order declared: "Let the defectors know that they are simultaneously betraying their own families: fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, wives and children."

Convinced that the army, built on the principles of universal equality and voluntariness, turned out to be unfit for combat, it was Trotsky who insisted on its reorganization, the restoration of mobilization, unity of command, insignia, uniform uniforms, military greetings and parades.

And of course, the energetic and active "demon of the revolution" set about strengthening revolutionary discipline, establishing it by the most severe methods.

With his submission, already on June 13, 1918, a decree was adopted on the restoration death penalty, canceled in March 1917. And already in June 1918, Rear Admiral Alexei Shchastny, who saved the Baltic Fleet from the Germans during the Ice Campaign in 1918, was executed. He pleaded not guilty, but was sentenced to death on the basis of the testimony of Trotsky, who stated in court that Shastny claimed to be a naval dictator.

Penal units (which at first were called "discredited units") first appeared in the Red Army not under Stalin in 1942, but in 1919 - by order of Trotsky. And the units that were officially called detachments - back in 1918.

On August 11, 1918, Trotsky signed the famous order No. 18, in which it was written: “If any unit retreats without permission, the commissar of the unit will be shot first, the commander second.” And near Sviyazhsk, when the 2nd Petrograd Regiment arbitrarily retreated from the front line, after the battle all the fugitives were arrested, tried by a military tribunal, and the commander, commissar and part of the regiment's fighters were shot in front of the ranks.

As a result, in the first seven months of 1919 alone, one and a half million Red Army soldiers were detained, of which almost 100 thousand people were recognized as malicious deserters, and 55 thousand were sent to penal companies and battalions.

Despite all the draconian measures, soldiers, often forcibly mobilized, continued to desert at the first opportunity, and relatives hid the fugitives.

Therefore, in one of his next orders, Trotsky provided for severe punishments not only for deserters, but also for those who sheltered them. In particular, the order stated: "For harboring deserters, the guilty are to be shot ... Houses in which deserters will be discovered will be burned."

“You can't build an army without repression. You can’t lead masses of people to death without having the command of the death penalty in the arsenal, ”the People’s Commissar of the RSFSR claimed.

These measures made it possible to put an end to partisanship in the army ranks and, ultimately, to achieve a turning point in the war with the whites.

The Red Army could not become a factor in the world revolution

In the logic of the revolution, such a victory should have been a prelude to new revolutionary wars, and as a result, global changes. And it seemed that there was a real opportunity for the development of this scenario.

April 25, 1920 Polish army, equipped with French funds, invaded Soviet Ukraine and captured Kyiv on May 6.

Red Army soldiers in Polish captivity. The story of thousands and thousands of prisoners turned out to be tragic

On May 14, a successful counter-offensive of the troops of the Western Front under the command of Mikhail Tukhachevsky began, and on May 26, the South-Western Front, commanded by Alexander Yegorov. In mid-July, they approached the borders of Poland.

And then the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) set a new strategic task for the command of the Red Army: to enter the territory of Poland with battles, take its capital and create conditions for the declaration of Soviet power in the country. According to the statements of the party leaders themselves, this was an attempt to push the “red bayonet” deep into Europe and thereby “stir up the Western European proletariat”, push it to support the world revolution, one of the main hopes of the Bolsheviks in the early years of the existence of the RSFSR.

Tukhachevsky’s order to the troops of the Western Front No. 1423 of July 2, 1920 read: “The fate of the world revolution is being decided in the West. Through the corpse of White Pan Poland lies the path to the world conflagration. On bayonets we will bring happiness to working mankind!

It all ended in disaster. Already in August, the troops of the Western Front were utterly defeated near Warsaw and rolled back. Of the five armies, only the third survived, which managed to retreat, the rest were destroyed. More than 120 thousand Red Army soldiers were taken prisoner, another 40 thousand fighters ended up in East Prussia in internment camps. Up to half of them died from starvation, disease, torture and execution.

In October, the parties concluded a truce, and in March 1921, a peace treaty. According to its terms, a significant part of the lands in the west of Ukraine and Belarus with a population of 10 million people departed to Poland.

Internal factors also came into play. The White movement was defeated, but the peasantry entered into a desperate struggle, giving rise to their own insurrectionary movement. It was a protest against the policy of food requisition and the prohibition of free market trade. In addition, the impoverished country simply could not clothe and feed the more than five million Red Army.

Alarming messages were sent from places to Moscow (along with news of peasant uprisings): discipline was falling, the Red Army soldiers were robbing the population due to the famine that had begun in the country and deteriorating supplies, and the commanders were gradually beginning to return the old order to the army up to massacre. The party and the top army authorities decided to correct the mistake and forbade the demobilization of the communists, but in response, what Trotsky called spiritual demobilization began: the Red Army began to leave the RCP (b) en masse.

I had to urgently look for a solution to the peasant question (punitive measures in combination with the New Economic Policy, the New Economic Policy). And in parallel - the reduction of the Red Army and the preparation of military reform. Trotsky, chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, wrote: “In December 1920, an era of widespread demobilization and reduction in the size of the army, compression and restructuring of its entire apparatus opened. This period lasted from January 1921 to January 1923, the army and navy were reduced during this time from 5,300,000 to 610,000 souls.

Finally, in March 1924, the decisive stage of the military reform began. On April 1, 1924, Frunze was appointed chief and commissar of the Red Army Headquarters. Tukhachevsky and Shaposhnikov became his assistants. The limit of the constant number of the Red Army was set at 562 thousand people, not counting the variable (assigned) staff.

For all branches of the ground forces, a single two-year service life was determined, for the air fleet - 3 years and for the navy - 4 years. The call to active service was held once a year, in the fall, and the draft age was raised to 21.

The next stage of the radical restructuring of the Red Army began in 1934 and continued until 1941, taking into account the experience of military operations at Khalkhin Gol and Finnish war. The Revolutionary Military Council was disbanded, the headquarters of the Revolutionary Military Council was renamed the General Staff, and the People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs turned into the People's Commissariat of Defense. The idea of ​​an imminent "world revolution" was no longer remembered.

Stalin ended the Red Army after the victory over Germany and Japan

This happened on February 25, 1946, when his order was published on the transformation of the Red Army into the Soviet one.

Officially, this was explained by the fact that during the years of the Great Patriotic War the Soviet system withstood the most serious test, its positions should be further strengthened, and the new name of the army should clearly emphasize the path of socialism chosen by the country.

In fact, back in 1935, Stalin took a course towards curtailing revolutionary traditions in the Red Army, introducing personal military ranks, including returning the “White Guard” names - in the form of “lieutenant”, “senior lieutenant”, “captain”, “ colonel”, and since 1940 - general and admiral ranks. The rank of “lieutenant colonel” appeared later than all.

In 1937, the turn came to many prominent figures of the Red Army, who made a rapid military career during the years of the civil war. During the Great Terror, they were accused by the NKVD of counter-revolutionary activities and shot. Among them are marshals Mikhail Tukhachevsky and Alexander Yegorov, commanders of the 1st rank Iona Yakir and Ieronim Uborevich, commander Vitaly Primakov, commander Dmitry Schmidt and many others.

The repressions also concerned military experts from the regular officers of the tsarist army: they were thoroughly “cleaned out” back in 1929-1931, and many were “cleaned up” in 1937-1938. However, not all. The lieutenant colonel of the tsarist army Shaposhnikov (in 1941-1942 - the head of the Soviet General Staff) and the former staff captain Alexander Vasilevsky who replaced him in this post will also participate in the Great Patriotic War.

Finally, the "Law on General Conscription" in 1939 legally formalized the creation of a mass draft army. Valid military service was in the ground forces and the Air Force - 3 years, in the Navy - 5 years. The draft age is set from 19 years old, and for graduates high school- from the age of 18.

Commanders and soldiers of the Red Army in 1930 ...

And by 1940, the Red Army gradually lost the definition of "worker-peasant", turning even in official documents simply into the Red Army.

In January 1943, Stalin introduced epaulets, pre-revolutionary tunics with a standing collar, as well as the treatment “soldiers” and officers” - that is, the attributes of the old, tsarist army. The institute of commissars was abolished, and political workers turned into political officers.

Many of the military greeted the innovation with approval, although some did not like it. So, Semyon Budyonny objected to the new tunics, and Georgy Zhukov opposed the shoulder straps.

In a word, after it became clear that an imminent "world revolution" would not work, and the world was entering a phase of a new, extremely complex systemic confrontation, Stalin set a course for a new image of the country as a whole. The Soviet Union, having won the Second World War, turned into a world superpower that needed symbols corresponding to its new status, to reunite the connection between the centuries-old experience of the Russian army and modernity.

... And here is a group portrait of the soldiers of the intelligence platoon of the 63rd Guards Chelyabinsk tank brigade. 1945 Compare the photo with the one from the 1930s. A visual "portrait" of the reform of the Red Army

It is no coincidence that during the Great Patriotic legendary heroes civil in official rhetoric was seriously pressed not only by the "royal commanders" Suvorov and Kutuzov, but also by the "exploiting princes" Dmitry Donskoy and Alexander Nevsky.

This revision process military history was reflected in literature, art, and in history books, and in a comprehensive change in the perception of the White movement and the experience of the First World War. The rethinking did not end with the collapse of the USSR, it continues to this day, giving rise to sharp disputes and disagreements.

The strategic victory in World War II led to a new position for the Soviet Union in the world system. And this explains many processes - from the renaming of people's commissariats into ministries, to the replacement of the national anthem from the "Internationale" to the "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" with the words of Sergei Mikhalkov and El-Registan, first performed on the night of January 1, 1944. An anthem, which (with a modified text, but the same musical basis) is the official anthem of modern Russia.

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are the heirs of not only the Red Army, but also the pre-revolutionary army of Russia

Postwar Soviet army was seriously different from the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army of 1918-1943. And she kept changing. Long before the collapse of the USSR and the formation of the modern Russian Armed Forces, the search for the necessary balance between pre-revolutionary traditions and the experience of the bloody 20th century took place.

As a result, for example, in the Brezhnev era, few people remembered that the word "officer" was once a swear word. And in our time, officers and soldiers are not embarrassed by the presence of military priests among them.

However, there is also an extremely important lesson, which would be a huge omission to forget. This is, first of all, the perception of our army as a truly popular one, with an extremely high level of public confidence in it. And, secondly, the absence of caste: a rigid division between soldiers and officers, which was characteristic (with the exception of some episodes) for the tsarist army. Which outwardly is still expressed in the appeal “comrade (sergeant, lieutenant, captain, general)”.

For 100 years domestic army has passed a difficult path from a radical and atheistic force called to participate in the world revolution, to returning to the idea of ​​protecting their fatherland and all the inhabitants of Russia, regardless of their property status and religion, at near and far frontiers. Although strategic nuclear forces and the aerospace forces give these new tasks the same global scale.

On the screen saver, a photo fragment: Commanders and soldiers of the Red Army in 1930

After October coup 1917 (this is what Soviet historiographers called this event until the end of the thirties), almost throughout the entire territory of the former Russian Empire, Marxism became the dominant ideology. It immediately became clear that not all the provisions of this theory, declared science, have immediate practical value. In particular, Karl Marx declared the uselessness of the armed forces in the country of victorious socialism. In order to protect the frontiers, in his opinion, it was quite enough just to arm the proletarians, and they would somehow ...

Down with the army!

At first it was like that. After the publication of the decree "On Peace", the Bolsheviks abolished the army, and the war was stopped unilaterally, which made the former opponents, Austria-Hungary and Germany, unspeakably happy. Soon, again, it turned out that these actions were hasty, and the young Soviet republic had more than enough enemies, but there was no one to defend it.

"Kom according to the warmorde" and its creators

At first, the new defense department was not called the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (decoding of the Red Army), but much more simply - the Committee on Maritime Affairs (the notorious "commander in military morde"). The leaders of this department - Krylenko, Dybenko and Antonov-Ovsienko - were uneducated people, but resourceful. Further fate them, as well as the creator of the Red Army comrade. L. historians interpreted ambiguously. At first they were declared heroes, although from the article by V. I. Lenin “A hard but necessary lesson” (02/24/1918) one can understand that some of them screwed up pretty badly. Then they were shot or destroyed in other ways, but this is later.

Creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army

At the beginning of 1918, things on the fronts became completely gloomy. The socialist fatherland was in danger, which was announced in the corresponding appeal of February 22. The next day, the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was created, at least on paper. Less than a month later, L. D. Trotsky, who became the People's Commissar of the military and the chairman of the RVS (Revolutionary Military Council), realized that the situation could be rectified only by applying the most stringent measures. There were not enough willing volunteers to fight for the power of the councils, and there was no one to lead them at all.

The formations of the Red Guard looked more like peasant gangs than regular troops. Without the involvement of the tsarist military experts (officers), it was practically impossible to set things right, and these people seemed extremely unreliable in the class sense. Then Trotsky, with his characteristic resourcefulness, came up with the idea of ​​placing a commissar with a Mauser next to each competent commander in order to "control".

The decoding of the Red Army, like the abbreviation itself, was hard for the Bolshevik leaders. Some of them did not pronounce the letter "r" well, and those who could master it still stumbled from time to time. This did not prevent further many streets in major cities give names in honor of the 10th anniversary, and later the 20th anniversary of the Red Army.

And, of course, the “workers' and peasants'” could not do without forced mobilization, as well as without the most severe measures to improve discipline. The decoding of the Red Army indicated the right of the proletarians to defend the socialist fatherland. At the same time, they should remember the inevitability of punishment for any attempts to evade this duty.

Differences between the SA and the Red Army

The decoding of the Red Army as the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army retained its name until 1946, having gone through very painful stages in the development of the Armed Forces of the USSR, defeat and victory. Having become Soviet, it retained many traditions that originated in the Civil era and the Institute of military commissars (political officers) either gained strength or weakened depending on the political and strategic situation on the fronts. The tasks that were set for the Red Army changed, as did its

Ultimately, internationalism, which assumed an imminent world revolution, was replaced by a special Soviet patriotism. The military personnel of the USSR were inspired by the idea that the working people of capitalist countries had no homeland, only the happy inhabitants of the Soviet republics and other "people's democratic" entities had it. This was not true, all people have a fatherland, and not just the soldiers of the Red Army.

After the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) in 1923 - 1925 and on the eve of the Great Patriotic War, reforms were carried out aimed at improving the combat element of the army: equipping it with modern technical means of combat, using more rational methods of recruiting human resources, finding the best organizational structure troops, techniques and methods of armed struggle. The first, after the establishment of the Red Army, the Soviet military reform of 1923-1925, due to the fact that the national economy of Soviet Russia, exhausted after the First World War and the Civil War, could not withstand the burden of maintaining a modern combat-ready army, was forced. The maintenance of an almost five million army was a heavy burden on the economy the USSR, therefore, since 1921, a consistent reduction in the country's Armed Forces began.

Within three to four years, the total strength of the armed forces was brought up to 500 thousand people, that is, in fact, reduced by more than 10 times. The Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of September 28, 1922 “On Compulsory Military Service for All Male Citizens of the RSFSR” confirmed the principle of compulsory service for workers, but now they began to call for the army not from 18, but from 20 years of age. Later, from 1925, the draft age was raised to 21, which provided significant labor reserves for use in national economy. Reducing the cost of maintaining the army, and at the same time maintaining its combat capability and combat readiness at a high level, were achieved mainly due to the infringement social sphere and household needs of military personnel.

One of the main innovations of the reform was the introduction of a mixed system of recruitment and training of the Armed Forces, which consisted in combining the territorial-militia system with personnel. This transition to a mixed territorial-personnel system was announced by the decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of August 8, 1923 "On the organization of territorial military units and conducting military training of the working people "and took a paramount place in the reorganization of the Red Army in peacetime. By the end of 1923, 20% of rifle divisions were transferred to the territorial position, by the end of 1924 - 52%, and in 1928 - 58%. Territorial units occupied a predominant place in the Red Army until the second half of the 1930s. The local troops, staffed according to the territorial-militia principle, constantly had only 16% of the regular command and rank and file, while the main part of the military contingent was a variable composition - the Red Army men called up for military service, who were in the barracks position only during short periods of training camps, and the rest of the time they lived at home and were engaged in their daily work activities.

This significantly reduced the military spending of the state budget and contributed to an increase in labor resources in the national economy, but could not but affect the level of combat readiness of the army. M. V. Frunze put it this way on this occasion: “Of course, if we had a choice between a 1.5-2 million cadre army and the current militia system, then from a military point of view, all the data would be in favor of the first decision. But we don't have that choice." 2 A significant part of the divisions of the border districts, technical units, the navy, which made up personnel formations, were constantly manned and armed and were in relatively high degree combat readiness.

The content of the Red Army was transferred from a mixed cash-in-kind to a paid principle. Instead of the previous 35 kopecks a month, the Red Army soldier began to receive 1 ruble 20 kopecks. The salaries of command personnel were increased by 38%, but even with this increase, it continued to be less than a third of the norm of the former tsarist army. The monetary allowance of the company commander of that time (when recalculating the exchange rate) by country: USSR - 53 rubles; Germany - 84 rubles; France - 110 rubles; England - 343 rubles. A bad situation with the monetary content has also developed among the command staff of the reserve, which was involved in non-military training. For one academic hour they were paid 5 kopecks, and the unemployed command staff - 9 kopecks. All rank and file of the territorial units involved in military training had to provide themselves with clothing, bedding and food at their own expense.

Maximum reduction armies made it possible not only to save significant funds for the restoration and development of the country's economy destroyed by the war, but also to increase appropriations for the reconstruction of the defense industry. However, the already difficult living conditions, service and life of the personnel of the personnel troops were socially worsened. The barracks fund, which was created back in the pre-revolutionary period at a rate of 1.5 square meters per person, was severely damaged and outdated, and the state did not have the means to either repair it or create any basic amenities. The commanding staff was also in a difficult situation with housing: only 30% were provided with some apartments, and the rest were placed either in private apartments or huddled in several families in one room. There were not enough clothes among the troops, and what was available was of poor quality.

A very crisis situation has developed with bedding, with which the military units were provided with less than 50%. Only 30 kopecks were allocated for a bath and laundry per month for each Red Army soldier, so the threat of epidemics remained. The food allowance for the day contained 3012 calories, but it was, in comparison with the norms of the bourgeois armies, lower than the optimum by 300-600 calories. In the course of the reform, such a problem as the provision of pensions and the employment of command personnel dismissed from the army did not find due reflection. Most of them were unemployed and without means of subsistence. The number of the Red Army was 183 thousand people less than in France, 17 thousand people less than in Poland, Romania and the Baltic countries combined. IN the USSR for every 10 thousand inhabitants, 41 soldiers were kept, Poland - about 100, France - 200. The combat effectiveness of the Red Army until the beginning of World War II was negatively affected by the low general educational and cultural level of military personnel.

Therefore, teachers were introduced to the staff in the military units, more than 4,500 "Lenin's corners" were created in which the soldiers could spend their leisure time and self-education. Club, circle and library work was unfolding in the army, which played a huge role in the cultural education of millions of future defenders of the country. If in 1923 6.4 million books were taken from army libraries for reading, then in 1924 this figure increased to 10 million books. Houses of the Red Army were opened in many garrisons, the network of cinema installations grew to 420. During the two years of army service in the troops, it was possible to reduce the number of illiterate Red Army soldiers to 12%. The cost of social services and the maintenance of one soldier increased from 1924 to 1926 by 90 rubles. The number of cases of such a serious crime as desertion has sharply decreased. The number of deserters from the total number of armed forces: 1923 - 7.5%; 1924 - 5%; 1925 - 0.1%.

In the resolution of the III Congress of Soviets of the Union "On the Red Army" in May 1925, the military reform of 1923-1925 was approved and instructions were given to the government to involve all all-Union and Union-Republican departments, as well as public organizations. The congress instructed the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars to carry out in the budget year 1925-1926 the following practical measures to increase the release of funds: - to improve the material and living conditions of the army; - qualitative and quantitative improvement of all types of allowances, apartment and barrack conditions (repair, new construction, equipment of barracks), expansion of the apartment and housing stock of command personnel by booking living space at quartering points of military units; - making reservations in all civil institutions, enterprises and establishments for positions subject to exclusive replacement by demobilized from the ranks of the army and navy and equating them in terms of employment conditions to members of trade unions; - improving the provision of benefits to disabled war veterans; - adoption of a special provision on pension provision for the command and command personnel of the army; - ensuring the real implementation of the Code of Benefits for the Red Army. This resolution significantly contributed to the removal of socio-economic tension in the military environment.

In parallel with the growth of the economic power of the USSR, its military-technical defense base was developing, with the level of which the Red Army was gradually brought into line, as well as its social status. The military-doctrinal concept was revised, according to which in the field of military construction it was required to be guided by the following provision: “In terms of the size of the army, not to be inferior to our probable opponents in the main theater of war, and in the field of military equipment to be stronger than them in decisive types of weapons: aviation, tanks, artillery , automatic fire weapons. 3 New types of troops are being created: tank, aviation, airborne, air defense, engineering troops, signal troops, chemical troops, military transport troops. The principle of formation is changing artillery units- corps artillery, reserve artillery of the main command, anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery are being created. There was a gradual curtailment and transfer of territorial-militia formations to a personnel position. Fundamental organizational transformations also affected the military command and control bodies.

Thus, in order to increase centralization and establish unity of command in the highest levels of leadership of the armed forces, the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR was abolished in June 1934, and the People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs was transformed into the People's Commissariat of Defense. In 1935, the Red Army Headquarters was renamed the General Staff. In 1937, instead of the Defense Commission under the Council of People's Commissars, the Defense Committee was created and at the same time an independent People's Commissariat was allocated Navy. Under each of the military people's commissariats, the Main Military Councils were established. Based on the results of consideration during the summer and autumn of 1937 of more than seven options for the development of the Red Army, it was decided to completely abandon the territorial militia and national formations and move to a single cadre army. In 1937, more than 60% of the divisions became personnel; in the subsequent pre-war years, the territorial units were completely liquidated (see table below).

The "Law on General Conscription", adopted on September 1, 1939, became the core of the new military reform. According to this law, the draft age was reduced from 21 to 19 years (for those who graduated from high school - from 18 years). Such a change in the legislation of the USSR made it possible in a short time to call for active service replenishment of more than three ages (boys 19, 20 and 21 years old and partly 18-year-olds). The term of active military service for the rank and file of the ground forces was set at 2 years, for junior command personnel - 3 years, for the Air Force - 3 years, for the Navy - 5 years, and for persons with higher education service life was 1 year. In order to complete and equal replenishment of the Armed Forces, the circle of persons exempted from conscription was significantly reduced, deferrals for university students, teachers and other categories of citizens were abolished.

For the entire private and commanding staff, the age of the state in the reserve was increased by 10 years (from 40 to 50), which was caused by the need to increase the reserve of the army by war time. The new law introduced a longer duration of training for military reserve. For the command staff, it increased three times, for junior commanders - almost 5 times, for the rank and file, the duration of military training camps increased by 3.5 times. At the same time, the initial military training of students in grades 5-7 and pre-conscription training in grades 8-10 were introduced on a mandatory basis. general education schools, technical schools and higher educational institutions. Instead of the previously existing system of registration of conscripts by enterprises, a system of registration of those liable for military service in the military enlistment offices at the place of residence was introduced.

The size of the army, navy, aviation increased several times: - 1936 - did not exceed 1.1 million people; - autumn 1939 - about 2 million people; - June 1941 -5.4 million people. By June 22, 1941, the Red Army had more than 303 rifle, tank, motorized, cavalry divisions, although 125 (over 40%) of them were still in the formation stage. In order to avoid a catastrophic situation with personnel as a result of mass repressions, the government, in a fire order, decided to deploy dozens of new military schools and short-term courses for the training of junior command personnel.

Number of military schools in the USSR: - 1937 - 47; - 1939 - 80; - 1940 - 124; - January 1941 - 203. All infantry, artillery, tank, technical schools were transferred from a three-year to a two-year term of study. At short-term courses for the improvement of command personnel (in 1938-1939, about 80 thousand people graduated from them), studies lasted only a few months. All this determined low level training of commanders.

As far as costs are concerned, the first military reform In 1923-1926, 1,660 million rubles were spent, and 154.7 billion rubles were spent on the reform of 1937-1941.

Sources of information: 1. Klevtsov "Social and organizational problems of military reforms in the 20-30s" 2. Frunze "Selected works" 3. TsAMO RF (form 7)

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near Narva on February 23, 1918

With the coming to power of the Communist Party of the Bolsheviks in November 1917, the country's leadership, relying on the thesis of K. Marx about replacing the regular army with the general armament of the working people, began to actively liquidate imperial army Russia. On December 16, 1917, the Bolsheviks issued decrees of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars "On the elective beginning and organization of power in the army" and "On the equalization of the rights of all military personnel." To protect the gains of the revolution, under the leadership of professional revolutionaries, Red Guard detachments began to form, headed by a military revolutionary committee, which directly led the October armed uprising, led by L.D. Trotsky.

On November 26, 1917, the "Committee for Military and Naval Affairs" was created, instead of the old military ministry, under the leadership of V.A. Antonova-Ovseenko, N.V. Krylenko and P.E. Dybenko.

V.A. Antonov-Ovseenko N.V. Krylenko

Pavel Efimovich Dybenko

The "Committee on Military and Naval Affairs" was intended to form armed detachments and lead them. The committee was expanded to 9 people on November 9 and transformed into the "Council of People's Commissars for Military and Naval Affairs", and from December 1917 it was renamed and became known as the Collegium of People's Commissars for Military and Naval Affairs (Narkomvoen), the head of the collegium was N. AND. Podvoisky.

Nikolai Ilyich Podvoisky

The collegium of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs was the leading military body of the Soviet power; at the first stages of its activity, the collegium relied on the old military ministry and the old army. By order of the People's Commissar for Military Affairs, at the end of December 1917, in Petrograd, the Central Council for the Management of Armored Units of the RSFSR, Tsentrabron, was formed. He supervised the armored units and armored trains of the Red Army. By July 1, 1918, Tsentrobron formed 12 armored trains and 26 armored detachments. The old Russian army could not provide the defense of the Soviet state. There was a need to demobilize the old army and create a new Soviet army.

At the meeting military organization at Ts.K. RSDLP (b) December 26, 1917, it was decided, according to the installation of V.I. Lenin to create a new army of 300,000 people in a month and a half, the All-Russian Collegium for the organization and management of the Red Army was created. IN AND. Lenin set before this collegium the task of developing, in the shortest possible time, the principles of organizing and building a new army. The fundamental principles of army building developed by the collegium were approved by the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which met from January 10 to 18, 1918. To protect the gains of the revolution, it was decided to create an army of the Soviet state and call it the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army.

On January 15, 1918, a decree was issued on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, and on February 11 - the Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet on a voluntary basis. The definition of "workers' and peasants'" emphasized its class character - the army of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the fact that it should be completed only from the working people of the city and countryside. The "Red Army" said that it was a revolutionary army.

10 million rubles were allocated for the formation of volunteer detachments of the Red Army. In mid-January 1918, 20 million rubles were allocated for the construction of the Red Army. As you create the governing body In the Red Army, all departments of the old military ministry were reorganized, reduced or abolished.

In February 1918, the Council of People's Commissars appointed the leading five of the All-Russian Collegium, which issued its first organizational order on the appointment of responsible department commissars. German and Austrian troops, more than 50 divisions, violating the truce, February 18, 1918 launched an offensive in the entire strip from the Baltic to the Black Sea. On February 12, 1918, the offensive of Turkish troops began in Transcaucasia. The demoralized old army could not resist the advancing and left their positions without a fight. From the old Russian army, the only ones military units the regiments of Latvian riflemen who retained military discipline were those who went over to the side of Soviet power.

In connection with the offensive of the German and Austrian troops, some of the generals of the tsarist army proposed to form detachments from the old army. But the Bolsheviks, fearing the performance of these detachments against the Soviet regime, abandoned such formations. To recruit officers of the tsarist army, a new form organization called the "veil". A group of generals, led by M.D. Bonch-Bruevich, consisting of 12 people on February 20, 1918, who arrived in Petrograd from Headquarters and formed the basis of the Supreme Military Council, began to recruit officers to serve the Bolsheviks.

Mikhail Dmitrievich Bonch-Bruevich

By mid-February 1918, the "First Corps of the Red Army" was created in Petrograd. The detachment became the basis of the corps special purpose, consisting of Petrograd workers and soldiers, consisting of 3 companies of 200 people. During the first two weeks of formation, the number of corps was increased to 15,000 people.

Part of the corps, about 10,000 people, was trained and sent to the front near Pskov, Narva, Vitebsk and Orsha. By the beginning of March 1918, the corps had 10 infantry battalions, a machine-gun regiment, 2 cavalry regiments, an artillery brigade, a heavy artillery battalion, 2 armored battalions, 3 air squadrons, an aeronautic detachment, engineering, automotive, motorcycle units and a searchlight team. In May 1918 the corps was disbanded; its personnel were sent to staff the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th rifle divisions, which were being formed in the Petrograd military district.

By the end of February, 20,000 volunteers had signed up in Moscow. Near Narva and Pskov, the first test of the Red Army took place, it entered into battle with German troops and rebuffed them. February 23 was the birthday of the young Red Army.

When forming the army, there were no approved states. Combat units were formed from detachments of volunteers based on the capabilities and needs of their area. The detachments consisted of several dozen people from 10 to 10,000 and more people, the created battalions, companies and regiments were of various types. The size of the company consisted of 60 to 1600 people. The tactics of the troops were determined by the legacy of the tactics of the Russian army, the geographical, political and economic conditions of the combat area, and also reflected the individual traits of their leaders, such as Frunze, Shchors, Chapaev, Kotovsky, Budyonny and others. This organization ruled out the possibility of centralized command and control of troops. A gradual transition began from the volunteer principle to the construction of a regular army on the basis of universal military service.

The Defense Committee was disbanded on March 4, 1918 and the Supreme Military Council (VVS) was formed. One of the main creators of the Red Army was Commissar of War L.D. Trotsky, who became the head of the People's Commissariat for military affairs and chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic. As a psychologist, he was engaged in the selection of personnel in order to know the state of affairs in the army, Trotsky created on March 24 .

commissioner's death

The Revolutionary Military Council decided to create cavalry as part of the Red Army. On March 25, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars approved the creation of new military districts. At a meeting in the Air Force on March 22, 1918, a project was discussed for organizing a Soviet rifle division, which was adopted as the main combat unit of the Red Army.

Upon admission to the army, the fighters took an oath, approved on April 22 at a meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the oath was taken and signed by each fighter.

Solemn promise formula

approved at the meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', Peasants' and Cossacks' Deputies on April 22, 1918

1. I, the son of the working people, a citizen of the Soviet Republic, accept the title of soldier of the workers' and peasants' army.

2. In the face of the working classes of Russia and the whole world, I undertake to bear this title with honor, conscientiously study military affairs and, like the apple of my eye, protect people's and military property from damage and plunder.

3. I undertake to strictly and unswervingly observe revolutionary discipline and unquestioningly carry out all orders of commanders appointed by the authorities of the Workers' and Peasants' Government.

4. I undertake to refrain myself and refrain my comrades from any actions that discredit and degrade the dignity of a citizen of the Soviet Republic, and to direct all my actions and thoughts towards the great goal of the liberation of all working people.

5. I undertake, at the first call of the Workers' and Peasants' Government, to defend the Soviet Republic from all dangers and attempts from all its enemies, and in the struggle for the Russian Soviet Republic, for the cause of socialism and the brotherhood of peoples, to spare neither my strength nor life itself .

6. If, through malicious intent, I deviate from this my solemn promise, then let universal contempt be my lot and let the harsh hand of the revolutionary law punish me.

Chairman of the CEC Ya. Sverdlov;

The first knight of the order was Vasily Konstantinovich Blucher.

VC. Blucher

The command staff consisted of former officers and non-commissioned officers who went over to the side of the Bolsheviks and commanders from the Bolsheviks, so in 1919 1,500,000 people were called up, of which about 29,000 were former officers, but the combat strength of the army did not exceed 450,000 people. The bulk of the former officers who served in the Red Army were wartime officers, mainly ensigns. The Bolsheviks had very few cavalry officers.

From March to May 1918, a lot of work was done. Were written, based on experience three years First World War, new field manuals for all branches of the military and their combat interaction. A new mobilization scheme was created - the system of military commissariats. The Red Army was commanded by dozens the best generals who have gone through two wars, and 100 thousand excellent military officers.

By the end of 1918, the organizational structure of the Red Army and its administrative apparatus were created. The Red Army reinforced all the decisive sectors of the fronts with communists, in October 1918 there were 35,000 communists in the army, in 1919 - about 120,000, and in August 1920 - 300,000, half of all members of the RCP (b) of that time. In June 1919, all the republics that existed at that time - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia - entered into a military alliance. A unified military command, a unified management of finance, industry, and transport was created.

By order of the RVSR 116 of January 16, 1919, insignia were introduced only for combat commanders - colored buttonholes, on collars, according to the types of troops and commander's stripes on the left sleeve, above the cuff.

By the end of 1920, the Red Army numbered 5,000,000 people, but due to the lack of uniforms, weapons and equipment, the combat strength of the army did not exceed 700,000 people, 22 armies, 174 divisions (of which 35 were cavalry), 61 air squadron (300-400 aircraft) , artillery and armored units (subdivisions). During the war years, 6 military academies and more than 150 courses trained 60,000 commanders of all specialties from workers and peasants.

During the Civil War, about 20,000 officers died in the Red Army. 45,000 - 48,000 officers remained in the service. Losses during the Civil War amounted to 800,000 killed, wounded and missing, 1,400,000 dead from serious illnesses.

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