Red Army was the national army of Russia and the Soviet Union from 1918 to 1946. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, a group known as the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia and established a Communist government. In January 1918, the government formed the Red Army—officially called the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army. The army was called “Red” because of the red flag and red star that symbolized Communism. The Red Army was created from the Red Guards, a workers’ militia that defended the Communist Party. Initially, the Red Army was a volunteer force led by Leon Trotsky, a Bolshevik leader and commissar (minister) of war.
From 1918 to 1920, Communists and anti-Communists fought a civil war for control of Russia. During this time, the Red Army grew from about 300,000 soldiers to around 5 million. In the civil war, the Red Army defeated the anti-Communist “Whites,” who were supported by troops from several other countries, including Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1920, the Red Army lost a brief war with Poland. In 1922, the Communist government joined Russia with three other territories to create the Soviet Union.
By 1925, the Red Army had decreased in size to roughly 500,000 troops. It also underwent a reform program. Mikhail Tukhachevsky, one of the highest-ranking officers in the Red Army, helped create large tank, mechanized, and airborne units. In 1937, however, Tukhachevsky was murdered in one of the purges ordered by the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. The purges sought to eliminate anyone who might threaten Stalin’s power. By 1941, Stalin had expanded the Red Army to about 5 million soldiers. He also equipped the Army with new tanks and warplanes.
In August 1939, just before the start of World War II, the Soviet Union and Germany signed a nonaggression pact. The pact was an agreement that neither nation would attack the other. Stalin then lowered Soviet defenses. However, in June 1941, Germany launched a surprise attack on the Soviet Union, and the Red Army suffered massive losses. Despite this disaster and the ongoing war, the Red Army grew into a modern force of over 9 million troops. The army stopped major German offensives at Moscow in 1941, Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in 1942, and Kursk in 1943. The Germans were driven back and eventually surrendered in May 1945. In 1946, the Red Army was renamed the Soviet Army.
See also Operation Barbarossa; Stalin, Joseph; Trotsky, Leon; Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.); World War II.
