Editing Red Army (section)

==Organization==
{{Details|Formations of the Soviet Army}}
{{See also|Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Soviet Navy}}
[[File:Снайпер Роза Егоровна Шанина.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Roza Shanina]] was a graduate of the [[Central Women's Sniper Training School]] credited with 59 confirmed kills.]]

At the beginning of its existence, the Red Army functioned as a voluntary formation, without ranks or insignia. Democratic elections selected the officers. However, a decree on 29 May 1918 imposed obligatory military service for men of ages 18 to 40.{{Sfn | Scott | Scott | 1979 | p = 5}}  To service the massive draft, the Bolsheviks formed regional military commissariats (''voyennyy komissariat'', abbr. ''voyenkomat''), which as of 2023 still exist in Russia in this function and under this name. Military commissariats, however, should not be confused with the institution of military [[political commissar]]s.

In the mid-1920s, the territorial principle of manning the Red Army was introduced. In each region, able-bodied men were called up for a limited period of active duty in territorial units, which constituted about half the army's strength, each year, for five years.{{Sfn|Scott|Scott|1979|p=12}} The first call-up period was for three months, with one month a year thereafter. A regular cadre provided a stable nucleus. By 1925, this system provided 46 of the 77 infantry divisions and one of the eleven cavalry divisions. The remainder consisted of regular officers and enlisted personnel serving two-year terms. The territorial system was finally abolished, with all remaining formations converted to the other cadre divisions, in 1937–1938.{{Sfn|Glantz|2005|p=717 note 5}}

===Mechanization===
The Soviet military received ample funding and was innovative in its technology. An American journalist wrote in 1941:<ref name="knickerbocker1941">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RwGwpIBHhgcC&pg=PA93 | title=Is Tomorrow Hitler's? 200 Questions on the Battle of Mankind | publisher=Reynal & Hitchcock | last =Knickerbocker | first = HR | year=1941 | page=93| isbn=978-1417992775 }}</ref>

{{blockquote|Even in American terms the Soviet defence budget was large. In 1940 it was the equivalent of $11,000,000,000, and represented one-third of the national expenditure. Measure this against the fact that the infinitely richer United States will approximate the expenditure of that much yearly only in 1942 after two years of its greatest defence effort.

Most of the money spent on the Red Army and Air Force went for machines of war. Twenty-three years ago when the Bolshevik Revolution took place there were few machines in Russia. Marx said Communism must come in a highly industrialized society. The Bolsheviks identified their dreams of socialist happiness with machines which would multiply production and reduce hours of labour until everyone would have everything he needed and would work only as much as he wished. Somehow this has not come about, but the Russians still worship machines, and this helped make the Red Army the most highly mechanized in the world, except perhaps the German Army now.

Like Americans, the Russians admire size, bigness, large numbers. They took pride in building a vast army of tanks, some of them the largest in the world, armored cars, airplanes, motorized guns, and every variety of mechanical weapons.}}

Under Stalin's campaign for mechanization, the army formed its first mechanized unit in 1930. The 1st Mechanized Brigade consisted of a tank regiment, a motorized infantry regiment, as well as reconnaissance and artillery battalions.<ref>{{Citation | first = Charles | last = Sharp | title = Soviet Order of Battle World War II | volume = I: The Deadly Beginning | chapter = Soviet Tank, Mechanized, Motorized Divisions and Tank Brigades of 1940–1942 | publisher = [[George Nafziger]] | year = 1995 | pages = 2–3}}, cited at {{Citation | url = http://www.redarmystudies.net/0411030.htm | title = Red army studies | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20041015092534/http://www.redarmystudies.net/0411030.htm | archive-date = 15 October 2004}}.</ref> From this humble beginning, the Soviets would go on to create the first operational-level armored formations in history, the [[11th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)|11th]] and [[45th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)|45th Mechanized Corps]], in 1932. These were tank-heavy formations with combat support forces included so they could survive while operating in enemy rear areas without support from a parent [[front (Soviet Army)|front]].

Impressed by the German campaign of 1940 against France, the Soviet [[People's Commissariat of Defense of the Soviet Union|People's Commissariat of Defence]] (Defence Ministry, Russian abbreviation NKO) ordered the creation of nine mechanized corps on 6 July 1940. Between February and March 1941, the NKO ordered another twenty to be created. All of these formations were larger than those theorized by [[Mikhail Tukhachevsky|Tukhachevsky]]. Even though the Red Army's 29 mechanized corps had an authorized strength of no less than 29,899 tanks by 1941, they proved to be a paper tiger.{{Sfn | House | 1984 | p = 96}} There were actually only 17,000 tanks available at the time, meaning several of the new mechanized corps were badly under strength. The pressure placed on factories and military planners to show production numbers also led to a situation where the majority of armored vehicles were obsolescent models, critically lacking in spare parts and support equipment, and nearly three-quarters were overdue for major maintenance.{{Sfn | Zaloga | Grandsen | 1984 | p = 126}} By 22 June 1941, there were only 1,475 of the modern T-34s and KV series tanks available to the Red Army, and these were too dispersed along the front to provide enough mass for even local success.{{Sfn | House | 1984 | p = 96}}  To illustrate this, the [[20th Guards Motor Rifle Division|3rd Mechanized Corps]] in Lithuania was formed up of a total of 460 tanks; 109 of these were newer KV-1s and T-34s. This corps would prove to be one of the lucky few with a substantial number of newer tanks. However, the [[4th Army (Soviet Union)|4th Army]] was composed of 518 tanks, all of which were the obsolete T-26, as opposed to the authorized strength of 1,031 newer medium tanks.{{Sfn | Glantz |2011|p=220}} This problem was universal throughout the Red Army and would play a crucial role in the initial defeats of the Red Army in 1941 at the hands of the German armed forces.{{Sfn | Glantz | 1998 | p = 117}}

===Wartime===
{{See also|Red Army tactics in World War II}}[[File:RIAN archive 44732 Soviet soldiers attack house.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|The [[Battle of Stalingrad]] is considered by many historians as a decisive turning point of World War II.]]

War experience prompted changes to the way frontline forces were organized. Following six months of combat against the Germans, the [[Stavka]] abolished the rifle corps which was intermediate between the [[List of Soviet armies|army]] and [[Division (military)|division]] level because, while useful in theory, in the state of the Red Army in 1941, they proved ineffective in practice.{{Sfn | Glantz | 2005 | p = 179}}  Following the decisive victory in the [[Battle of Moscow]] in January 1942, the high command began to reintroduce rifle corps into its more experienced formations. The total number of rifle corps started at 62 on 22 June 1941, dropped to six by 1 January 1942, but then increased to 34 by February 1943, and 161 by New Year's Day 1944. Actual strengths of front-line rifle divisions, authorized to contain 11,000 men in July 1941, were mostly no more than 50% of establishment strengths during 1941,{{Sfn | Glantz | 2005 | page = 189}} and divisions were often worn down, because of continuous operations, to hundreds of men or even less.

On the outbreak of war, the Red Army deployed mechanized corps and tank divisions whose development has been described above. The initial German attack destroyed many and, in the course of 1941, virtually all of them, (barring two in the [[Transbaikal Military District]]). The remnants were disbanded.{{Sfn | Glantz | 2005 | pp = 217–230}}  It was much easier to coordinate smaller forces, and separate tank brigades and battalions were substituted. It was late 1942 and early 1943 before larger [[Tank corps (Soviet Union)|tank formations of corps size]] were fielded to employ armor in mass again. By mid-1943, these corps were being grouped together into tank armies whose strength by the end of the war could be up to 700 tanks and 50,000 men.