Theatre of Military Operations These theatres were the area of operations for military operations in a large geographic area. During and after the
Second World War, six strategic direction headquarters existed as part of the
Stavka, the Soviet military high command: The Chief Command of the troops of the North Caucasus Direction included the
Crimean Front; the Sevastopol defensive area; the
North Caucasus Military District; the
Black Sea Fleet; the
Azov Flotilla, two rifle divisions, two rifle brigades, and a cavalry corps of four cavalry divisions. Marshal
Semyon Budyonny was appointed as the commander-in-chief. On 19 May 1942 the Stavka dissolved both the North Caucasus High Command and the Crimean Front, and a North Caucasus Front was formed in their place. In 1979, new headquarters in the theatres of military operations were established: • In their most modern form, High Commands for the TMOs were first re-established in February 1979 for the Far East. Harrison wrote in the 2020s that the new command encompassed the
Far East Military District and the
Transbaikal Military District. An official military encyclopedia published after the fall of the Soviet Union stated, said Harrison, that the
Soviet Pacific Fleet, an
air army, and an air defence corps were also operationally subordinated to the new formation; and that the high command "coordinated" with the armies of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Mongolia. The headquarters was set up at
Ulan-Ude, near
Lake Baikal. The
RAND Corporation said in 1984 that the Soviet air and ground forces in Mongolia [subordinate to the Transbaikal Military District] and elements of the
Mongolian Ground Forces and
Mongolian Air Force were also at its disposal. • In September 1984 three more High Commands were established: the Western (HQ
Legnica, Military Unit Number 30172), South-Western (HQ
Kishinev), and Southern (HQ
Baku). The experience of creating the main commands of the troops of directorates during the Great Patriotic War, when their improvised creation, as a rule, did not improve, and often worsened the leadership of the troops, was critically considered. The main task was to create a workable control system both in peacetime and in wartime. Despite the widespread reporting that the new High Commands would control both Soviet and allied forces, in a 1993 article Colonel General M.N. Tereschenko (ru:Терещенко, Михаил Никитович), chief of staff and first deputy commander-in-chief of the Western High Command 1984–88, wrote that the Western High Command was "only for Soviet forces." The new system was tested in the course of the Soyuz-83 operational-strategic exercises, when for the first time the headquarters of the main command in the Western theater of operations was expanded to its full staff. On 1 July 1991 the Western High Command moved to
Smolensk.
General of the Army was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Forces of the Southern High Command from September 1984 to July 1985. The Southern Direction's forces in total included the North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, and Turkestan MDs, five armies, five army corps (
12th,
31st, 34th, 36th, and 42nd), the
Caspian Flotilla, and the 12th and 19th Armies of the
Soviet Air Defence Forces.
Army General Mikhail Zaitsev was commander-in-chief of the Southern High Command from 1985 to 1989, by which time he was thus supervising the
Limited Contingent of Soviet Forces in Afghanistan (40th Army; air forces; forces of the
Rear Services and special troops; and Border and KGB forces) as well. • In 1986 the U.S. Department of Defense's
Soviet Military Power identified ten continental and four oceanic TVDs, possibly better translated in modern terms as Theatres of Strategic Military Action. However most were merely geographical areas without forces or headquarters: North American, South American, African, Australian, Antarctic, Arctic Ocean, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and Pacific. Plans appears to have existed to form a Northwestern TVD headquarters on the basis of the Staff of the
Leningrad Military District.
Military districts Military districts (MDs) were under the direct control of the
Ministry of Defence. They existed primarily to "train and mobilise troops so as to ensure a high level of combat readiness." Had a war broken out, many of the districts were likely slotted for service under one of the four existing TMOs at the time, with a fifth being contemplated if necessary. The
Moscow,
Volga and
Urals Military Districts would have likely formed the Wartime Central Reserve. The most combat-ready formations within any MD would conduct operations in adjacent theatres under the direction of the appropriate TMO headquarters, while the MD itself would continue to form, equip, and train new military formations for subsequent service abroad while also maintaining domestic political and economic order and conducting local defence.
Group of Forces These peacetime administrative units would provide support to between one and six fronts during wartime. Groups of forces in Eastern Europe included the
Central Group of Forces (Czechoslovakia), the
Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, the
Northern Group of Forces (Poland), and the
Southern Group of Forces (Balkans initially, then Hungary).
Front Fronts were the largest wartime field formation, equivalent to an army group in many other forces. The
Imperial Russian Army designated "fronts" in World War I; the Soviets used the concept from the
Russian Civil War of 1917–1922 onwards. A frontal Air Army was "ordinarily assigned to each Front (Army Group) of the ground forces, to provide cover, support, interdiction, and reconnaissance for the appropriate sector of the front. In peacetime, those military districts designated for activation, as fronts in wartime are generally each assigned a tactical air army."
Army Armies were the largest peacetime field formation. Each army was designated a combined arms army or a tank army. During World War II, the
Fortified Region usually corresponded to an Army frontage formation. See
Karelian Fortified Region and
Kiev Fortified Region.
Sub-army formations Corps Corps were large, specialised groups that included Rifle, Cavalry, Artillery, Mechanised, Tank, and
Airborne Corps. There were also corps as part of the Soviet Air Forces and the
Soviet Air Defence Forces. The
64th Fighter Aviation Corps was formed to fight in the
Korean War, 1950–53. • Rifle Corps: formations that existed in the pre-Revolutionary
Imperial Russian Army were inherited by the
Red Army. • The formation of large mechanised or tank formations in the Soviet Union was first suggested based on development of doctrine for publication as PU-36, the field regulations of 1936, largely authored by Marshal
Mikhail Tukhachevsky. The Red Army put the concept into practice where "In the attack tanks must be employed in mass", envisaged as "Strategic cavalry". Although the name of "mechanised" may seem to the modern reader as referring to the infantry components of the Corps, in 1936 the term referred to armoured vehicles only with the word "motorised" referring to the units equipped with trucks.
Divisions Divisions were a smaller formation, and originally were designated as rifle or
cavalry divisions, but later included motor-rifle, tank, artillery, aviation, sapper or airborne divisions. By the mid-1980s, the Ground Forces contained about 210 manoeuvre divisions. About three-quarters were motor rifle divisions and the remainder tank divisions. == Administrative groupings ==