Red Army History

[3rd Herd]

just chanced across this site: http://www.redarmystudies.net/index_sort.htm

"Below is a large collection of articles from Soviet journals and newspapers, mostly the Soviet Military History Journal, or Voyenno-Istoricheskiy Zhurnal, from the 1980s. All of these articles are now available online. For now, the best way to access the articles is through the Listing Page. When you've decided which articles to read here, go to the Listing Page, find the specific issue containing the article, then download the issue. Be aware that the pdf files are large, ranging from 2-8 Mb in size, so be prepared to wait."

Note: Requesting articles by email is now no longer an option.

Examples of topics

ID Title Author Issue Year Keywords
4 Wartime Experience in Troop Combat Training Before Operations Ladanov 2 1982  
6 Wartime Experience in the Use of Engineer Obstacles Zlatkovskiy 2 1982  
7 Wartime Experience on Cooperation With Partisan Forces Perezhogin 2 1982  
8 Wartime Experience on Tank Unit Breakthrough Operations Kireyev 2 1982  
9 Wartime Experience: Air Support in Czechoslovakia Plyachenko 2 1982  
53 Wartime Organization of Fire in Offensive Operations Portugalskiy 3 1982  
54 Wartime Experience in Amphibious Landing Operations Ammon 3 1982  
55 Wartime Experience in Reconnaissance During Offensive Operations Korotchenko 3 1982  
56 Wartime Experience in Control of Coalition Forces Altukhov 3 1982  
57 Seminar on Wartime Experience of Black Sea Fleet Kosov 3 1982  
58 Wartime Experience: Combat Training of Air Defense Troops Svetlishin 4 1982  
59 Wartime Experience in Camouflage, Concealment and Deception Melnikov 4 1982  
60 Origins of Soldier's Service and Pay Book Recounted Skryabin 4 1982  
61 Comments on 'Bourgeois Falsification' of Battle of Moscow in WW II Nevzorov 4 1982  
62 Mobilization of Ground Forces in World War II Described Kharkov 4 1982  
63 Review of War Memoirs of Rifle Division Commander Tereshchenko 4 1982  
64 Review of Book on Partisan Operations Against Germans Medvedev 4 1982  
65 Wartime Experience: Breakthrough Tactics of Tank Troops Maryshev 6 1982  
66 Wartime Experience: Rifle Division Reconnaissance in Force Nikitin 6 1982  
67 Wartime Experience of Rifle Division Commander Recounted Rakitskiy 6 1982  
68 Wartime Experience in Technical Support of Mobile Groups Krupchenko 6 1982  
69 Wartime Operations: Allied Cooperative Efforts Against Germany Radziyevskiy 6 1982  
70 Soviet Military Leadership: Improvements Made Between 1929-1939 Danilov 6 1982  
71 Review of Book About Higher Schools During Wartime Nikitin 6 1982  
72 Trends in Soviet Military Organization Development Reviewed Nikitin 7 1982  
73 Gorshkov on Development of Naval Art of Warfare Gorshkov 7 1982  
74 Wartime Experience in Organizing Air Defense of Ground Forces Morgulets 7 1982  
75 Wartime Experience in Methods of Chemical Reconnaissance Yakubov 7 1982  
76 Wartime Operations: The 64th Army in Battle of Stalingrad Balashov 7 1982  
77 Role of Military Strategy in Preparing a Country for War Korzun 7 1982  
78 Stages in Development of Soviet Military Shipbuilding Kotov 7 1982  
79 Wartime Experience in Repair of Armored Materiel Syropyatov 7 1982  
80 Wartime Experience in Air Defense of Northern Sea Lanes Inozemtsev 8 1982  
81 Wartime Experience in Improving the Transportation System Popov 8 1982  
82 Battle of Stalingrad: Preparatory Phase Documents Gurkin 8 1982  
83 Battle of Stalingrad: Fighting for Bridgeheads on the Upper Don Shtykov 8 1982  
84 Battle of Stalingrad: Combat Operations of the 308th Rifle Division Loskutov 8 1982  
85 Military School Development During 1937-1941 Cheremnykh 8 1982  


VP

 

[TN2IC]

Wow... good find... thanks for the link.

 

[duffrey]

I am currently rereading Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor, having just finished his work on Vasily Grossman. "A Writer at War. Vasily Grossman with the Red Army 1941-1945". Because he wrote for the Army and was subject to Party and NKVD scrutiny in both his life and writing, his notes and journals are all the more remarkable. Grossman was well aware for example of  (and made private notes about) the thousands of pointless and unjust executions of Russian soldiers at the hands of the NKVD. Hard to comprehend the ferocity of that regime or of war on that scale in this age of precision bombing and concern for civilian casualties.

 

[PAT-Platoon]

I am currently rereading Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor, having just finished his work on Vasily Grossman. "A Writer at War. Vasily Grossman with the Red Army 1941-1945". Because he wrote for the Army and was subject to Party and NKVD scrutiny in both his life and writing, his notes and journals are all the more remarkable. Grossman was well aware for example of  (and made private notes about) the thousands of pointless and unjust executions of Russian soldiers at the hands of the NKVD. Hard to comprehend the ferocity of that regime or of war on that scale in this age of precision bombing and concern for civilian casualties.

Anthony Beevor's history isn't real history, it's laymen's history. Take everything you read from him with a grain of salt...the numbers he got for rape victims were from one German GP in Berlin, and it has no historical evidence to back it up. There were rapes, but no where near the number he claims. If you want better history with regards to the War in the eastern front, pick up David Glantz.

 

[Mike Baker]

Nice find, should be some good reading. 

 

[duffrey]

thanks for all the great comments and references to great material, lots of stuff to read now! As pointed out in an earlier post, all it awaits is the release of Russian archives. Even those sources must on occasion be questioned though, case in point FYI below...

I researched an American Commodore for a history book we were contemplating and I gathered from many sources what I was sure was an accurate account of his life and times, I then happened on the website of the Naval Academy where they were in the process of building a "memorial chapel" to said Commodore. They also had a link to a history of his life... it was TOTALLY wrong! Dates confused, ships served on out by decades etc etc I contacted the librarian of the archive where the material resided and told her of the errors, her comment was "sir, I am a librarian and can't make changes to material in the archive, but I will pass on the information".

The errant information is still in the University archive to this day (although the Naval Academy now links to my work on the Commodore.)

 

[R.O.S]

On a related note, if anyone is interested to pre-WW2 red army. Read "white eagle, red star" by Norman Davis. It is about the polish-soviet war, which im my opinion is probably one of the most understated important wars. It was an attempt by the soviets to take on europe, but where held back by the poles. It is definatly one of the most desisive battle of the Western world. Heavily outnumbered, and outgunned, it is no wonder why this battle was called the "miracle of vistula". Very well written, I give it 5 stars.

 

[PAT-Platoon]

On a related note, if anyone is interested to pre-WW2 red army. Read "white eagle, red star" by Norman Davis. It is about the polish-soviet war, which im my opinion is probably one of the most understated important wars. It was an attempt by the soviets to take on europe, but where held back by the poles. It is definatly one of the most desisive battle of the Western world. Heavily outnumbered, and outgunned, it is no wonder why this battle was called the "miracle of vistula". Very well written, I give it 5 stars.

How was the Polish-soviet war an attempt by the soviets to take on europe, when Poland was the one who invaded and attacked Russia?

 

[R.O.S]

How was the Polish-soviet war an attempt by the soviets to take on europe, when Poland was the one who invaded and attacked Russia?

If you know the history of Poland in this time, they tried to secure parts of Brest-Litovsk territory that was under civil dispute (just because Russia claimed the land to be theirs, Poland , Belrus, and Ukraine all were doing the same). This was Ukraine, and as many poles resided in this area so poles wanted to secure it. This was Ukraine... Not Russian territory.

As for the attempt by the Soviets to take on europe, Vladimir Lenin was happy with the soviets ability to cruse the white russian revolutions (unkrain and belrus), and decided to link the russian revolution with the German revoltution. It is well documented that the Soviets were preparing a large offensive on western europe when Poland would lose.

As for being specific, the war did not start with an order from niether national goverment. It was started by Polish militant and Bolshevik militant units clashing along the disputed area. The polish newly formaed army then sent their tropps to help the polich communities in the troubled region, as did the Russians send their units to help with the spreading of commnuism in the area.