Wikipedia

Soviet Army

This article is about the Soviet Army between 1946 and 1991. For the Soviet Army from 1918 to 1946, seeRed Army.

TheGround Forces of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union(Russian:сухопутные войска,romanized:Sovetskiye sukhoputnye voyska)[2]was theland warfareservice branchof theSoviet Armed Forcesfrom 1946 to 1992. In English it was often referred to as theSoviet Army.[a]

Soviet Army
Советская армия
Emblem of the Soviet Army
Founded25 February 1946
Disbanded14 February 1992
Country
TypeArmy
RoleLand warfare
Size
  • 3,668,075 active (1991), peak 14,332,483 in 1945
  • 4,129,506 reserve (1991), peak 17,383,291 in 1945
Nickname(s)"Red Army"
Motto(s)За нашу Советскую Родину!
Za nashu Sovetskuyu Rodinu!
"For our Soviet Motherland!"
ColorsRed and yellow
Equipment
  • About 55,000 tanks (1991)[1]
  • Over 70,000 armored personnel carriers[1]
  • 24,000 infantry fighting vehicles
  • 33,000 towed artillery pieces
  • 9,000 self-propelled howitzers
Engagements
Commanders
Notable
commanders		Georgy Zhukov

Until 25 February 1946, it was known as theRed Army.[3]In Russian, the termarmiya(army) was often used to cover theStrategic Rocket Forcesfirst in traditional Soviet order of precedence; the Ground Forces, second; theAir Defence Forces,third, theAir Forces,fourth, and theSoviet Navy,fifth, among the branches of the Soviet Armed Forces as a whole.[4]

After theSoviet Unionceased to existin December 1991, the Ground Forces remained under the command of theCommonwealth of Independent Statesuntil it was formally abolished on 14 February 1992. The Soviet Ground Forces were principally succeeded by theGround Forcesof theRussian Federationin Russian territory; beyond, many units and formations were taken over by thepost-Soviet states;some were withdrawn to Russia, and some dissolved amid conflict, notably in theCaucasus.

After World War II

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Atthe endofWorld War IIthe Red Army had over 500 rifledivisionsand about a tenth that number of tank formations.[5]Their war experience gave the Soviets such faith in tank forces that the infantry force was cut significantly. A total of 130 rifle divisions were disbanded in the Groups of Forces in Eastern Europe in summer 1945, as well as2nd Guards Airborne Division,and by the end of 1946, another 193 rifle divisions ceased to exist.[6]Five or more rifle divisions disbanded contributed to the formation ofNKVDconvoy divisions, some used for escorting Japaneseprisoners of war.TheTank Corpsof the late war period were converted to tank divisions, and from 1957 the rifle divisions were converted to motor rifle divisions (MRDs). MRDs had three motorized rifleregimentsand a tank regiment, for a total of ten motor riflebattalionsand six tank battalions; tank divisions had the proportions reversed.

The Land Forces Main Command was created for the first time in March 1946.Marshal of the Soviet UnionGeorgy Zhukovbecame Chief of the Soviet Ground Forces in March 1946, but was quickly succeeded byIvan Konevin July 1946.[7]By September 1946, the army decreased from 5 million soldiers to 2.7 million in the Soviet Union and from 2 million to 1.5 million in Europe.[8]Four years later the Main Command was disbanded, an organisational gap that "probably was associated in some manner with theKorean War".[9]The Main Command was reformed in 1955. On February 24, 1964, the Defense Council of the Soviet Union decided to disband the Ground Forces Main Command, with almost the same wording as in 1950 (the corresponding order of the USSR Minister of Defense on disbandment was signed on March 7, 1964). Its functions were transferred to the General Staff, while the chiefs of the combat arms and specialised forces came under the direct command of theMinister of Defence.[10]The Main Command was then recreated again in November 1967.[11]Army GeneralIvan Pavlovskywas appointed Commander-in-Chief of Ground Forces with effect from 5 November 1967.[7]

From 1945 to 1948, theSoviet Armed Forceswere reduced from about 11.3 million to about 2.8 million men,[12]a demobilisation controlled first, by increasing the number ofmilitary districtsto 33, then reduced to 21 in 1946.[13]The personnel strength of the Ground Forces was reduced from 9.8 million to 2.4 million.[14][verification needed]

To establish and secure the USSR's eastern European geopolitical interests, Red Army troops who liberatedeastern EuropefromNazirule in 1945 remained in place to secure pro-Soviet régimes in Eastern Europe and to protect against attack from Europe. Elsewhere, they may have assisted theNKVDin suppressing anti-Soviet resistance inWestern Ukraine(1941–1955) and theForest Brothersin the threeBaltic states.[15]Soviet troops, including the39th Army,remained atPort ArthurandDalianon the northeast Chinese coast until 1955. Control was then handed over to the new Chinese communist government.

Within the Soviet Union, the troops and formations of the Ground Forces were divided among the military districts. There were 32 of them in 1945. Sixteen districts remained from the mid-1970s to the end of the USSR (see table). Yet, the greatest Soviet Army concentration was in theGroup of Soviet Forces in Germany,which suppressed the anti-SovietUprising of 1953 in East Germany.East European Groups of Forces were theNorthern Group of Forcesin Poland, and theSouthern Group of ForcesinHungary,which put down theHungarian Revolution of 1956.In 1958, Soviet troops were withdrawn fromRomania.TheCentral Group of Forcesin Czechoslovakia was established afterWarsaw Pact intervention against the Prague Springof 1968. In 1969, in the far east of the Soviet Union, theSino-Soviet border conflict(1969) prompted establishment of a 16th military district, the Central Asian Military District, atAlma-Ata,Kazakhstan.[13]

Cold War

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US tanks and Soviet tanks at Checkpoint Charlie, October 1961

From 1947 to 1989, Western intelligence agencies estimated that the Soviet Ground Forces' strength remained c. 2.8 million to c. 5.3 million men.[12]In 1989 the Ground Forces had two million men.[16]To maintain those numbers, Soviet law required a three-year military service obligation from every able man of military age, until 1967, when the Ground Forces reduced it to a two-year draft obligation.[17]By the 1970s, the change to a two-year system seems to have created the hazing practice known asdedovshchina,"rule of the grandfathers", which destroyed the status of most NCOs.[18]Instead the Soviet system relied very heavily on junior officers.[19]Soviet Armed Forces life could be "grim and dangerous": a Western researcher talking to former Soviet officers was told, in effect that this was because they did not "value human life".[20]

By the middle of the 1980s, the Ground Forces containedabout 210 divisions.About three-quarters were motor rifle divisions and the remainder tank divisions.[21]There were also a large number of artillery divisions, separate artillery brigades, engineer formations, and other combat support formations. However, only relatively few formations were fully war ready. By 1983, Soviet divisions were divided into either "Ready" or "Not Ready" categories, each with three subcategories.[22]The internal military districts usually contained only one or two fully Ready divisions, with the remainder lower strength formations. The Soviet system anticipated a war preparation period which would bring the strength of the Ground Forces up to about three million.[23]

Soviet planning for most of theCold Warperiod would have seenArmiesof four to five divisions operating inFrontsmade up of around four armies (and roughly equivalent to WesternArmy Groups). On 8 February 1979, the first of the new High Commands, for the Far East, was created atUlan-Udein Buryatia underArmy GeneralVasily Petrov.[24][25]In September 1984, three more were established to control multi-Front operations in Europe (the Western and South-Western Strategic Directions) and atBakuto supervise three southern military districts.[26]Western analysts expected these new headquarters to control multiple Fronts in time of war, and usually a Soviet Navy Fleet.

From the 1950s to the 1980s the branches ( "rods" ) of the Ground Forces included the Motor Rifle Troops; theSoviet Airborne Forces,from April 1956 to March 1964; Air Assault Troops (Airborne Assault Formations of the Ground Forces of the USSR[ru],from 1968 to August 1990); theTank Troops;theRocket Forces and Artillery[ru](Ракетные войска и артиллерия СССР,from 1961);Army Aviation(seeru:Армейская авиация Российской Федерации), until December 1990;Signals Troops;theEngineer Troops;theAir Defence Troops of the Ground Forces;the Chemical Troops; and the Rear of the Ground Forces.[27]

In 1955, the Soviet Union established theWarsaw Pactwith its Eastern European socialist allies, solifying military coordination between Soviet forces and their socialist counterparts. The Ground Forces created and directed the Eastern European armies in its image for the remainder of the Cold War, shaping them for a potential confrontation with theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO). After 1956,Nikita Khrushchev,General Secretary of the Communist Party,reduced the Ground Forces to build up theStrategic Rocket Forces,emphasizing the armed forces'nuclearcapabilities. He removed MarshalGeorgy Zhukovfrom thePolitburoin 1957 for opposing these reductions in the Ground Forces.[28]Nonetheless, Soviet forces possessed too few theater-level nuclear weapons to fulfill war-plan requirements until the mid-1980s.[29]TheGeneral Staffmaintained plans to invade Western Europe whose massive scale was only made publicly available after German researchers gained access to files of the East GermanNational People's Armyfollowing the dissolution of the Soviet Union.[30][31]

Korean War

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The Red Army advanced intonorthern Koreain 1945 after the end ofWorld War II,with the intention of aiding in the process of rebuilding the country.[32]MarshalsKirill MeretskovandTerentii Shtykovexplained toJoseph Stalinthe necessity of Soviet help in building infrastructure and industry in northern Korea.[33]Additionally, the Soviets aided in the creation of theNorth Korean People's ArmyandKorean People's Air Force.The Soviets believed it would be strategic to the Soviet Union to support Korea's growth directly. When northern Korea eventually wished to invadeSouth Koreain 1950,Kim Il Sungtraveled to Moscow to gain approval from Stalin. It was granted with full support, leading to the full-scale invasion of South Korea on June 25.[34]

Vietnam War

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Leonid Brezhnev(left) was the Soviet Union'sleaderduring the Vietnam War.

Soviet ships in theSouth China Seagave vital early warnings to PAVN/VC forces in South Vietnam. The Soviet intelligence ships would pick up AmericanB-52 bombersflying fromOkinawaandGuam.Their airspeed and direction would be noted and then relayed to theCentral Office for South Vietnam,North Vietnam's southern headquarters. Using airspeed and direction, COSVN analysts would calculate the bombing target and tell any assets to move "perpendicularly to the attack trajectory." These advance warnings gave them time to move out of the way of the bombers, and, while the bombing runs caused extensive damage, because of the early warnings from 1968 to 1970 they did not kill a single military or civilian leader in the headquarters complexes.[35]

TheSoviet Unionsupplied North Vietnam with medical supplies, arms, tanks, planes, helicopters, artillery, anti-aircraft missiles and other military equipment. Soviet crews fired Soviet-madesurface-to-air missilesat U.S.F-4 Phantoms,which were shot down overThanh Hóain 1965. Over a dozen Soviet soldiers lost their lives in this conflict. Following thedissolution of the Soviet Unionin 1991,Russian Federationofficials acknowledged that the Soviet Union had stationed up to 3,000 troops in Vietnam during the war.[36]

Soviet anti-air instructors and North Vietnamese crewmen in the spring of 1965 at an anti-aircraft training center in Vietnam

Some Russian sources give more specific numbers: Between 1953 and 1991, the hardware donated by the Soviet Union included 2,000 tanks, 1,700APCs,7,000 artillery guns, over 5,000 anti-aircraft guns, 158 surface-to-air missile launchers, and 120 helicopters. During the war, the Soviets sent North Vietnam annual arms shipments worth $450 million.[37]: 364–371 From July 1965 to the end of 1974, fighting in Vietnam was observed by some 6,500 officers and generals, as well as more than 4,500 soldiers and sergeants of the Soviet Armed Forces. In addition, Soviet military schools and academies began training Vietnamese soldiers—in all more than 10,000 military personnel.[38]

TheKGBhad also helped develop thesignals intelligence(SIGINT) capabilities of the North Vietnamese, through an operation known as Vostok (also known as Phương Đông, meaning "Orient" and named after theVostok 1).[39]The Vostok program was acounterintelligenceandespionageprogram. These programs were pivotal in detecting and defeating CIA and South Vietnamese commando teams sent into North Vietnam, as they were detected and captured.[39]The Soviets helped theMinistry of Public Securityrecruit foreigners within high-level diplomatic circles among the Western-allies of the US, under a clandestine program known as "B12,MM" which produced thousands of high-level documents for nearly a decade, including targets of B-52 strikes.[39]In 1975, the SIGINT services had broken information from Western US-allies in Saigon, determining that the US would not intervene to save South Vietnam from collapse.[39]

Soviet-Afghan War

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In 1979, the Soviet Unioninvaded Afghanistanto prop up its puppet government, provoking a 10-yearAfghan mujahideenguerrilla resistance.[40]Between 850,000 and 1.5 million civilians were killed[41][42]and millions of Afghans fled the country as refugees, mostly toPakistanandIran.

Prior to the arrival of Soviet troops, the pro-SovietNur Mohammad Tarakigovernment took power in a 1978 coup and initiated a series of radical modernization reforms throughout the country.[43][self-published source?]Vigorously suppressing any opposition from among the traditional Muslim Afghans, the government arrested thousands and executed as many as 27,000 political prisoners. By April 1979 large parts of the country were in open rebellion and by December the government had lost control of territory outside of the cities.[44]In response to Afghan government requests, the Soviet government under leaderLeonid Brezhnevfirst sent covert troops to advise and support the Afghan government, but, on December 24, 1979, began the firstdeploymentof the40th Army.[45]Arriving in the capitalKabulon December 27, they staged acoup,[46]killing the presidentHafizullah Amin,and installing a rival socialistBabrak Karmal,who was viewed as more moderate and fit to lead the nation.[44]

While the Soviet government initially hoped to secure Afghanistan's towns and road networks, stabilize the communist regime, and withdraw from the region within the span of one year, they experienced major difficulties in the region, due to rough terrain and fierce guerrilla resistance. Soviet presence would reach near 115,000 troops by the mid-1980s, and the complications of the war increased, causing a high amount of military, economic, and political cost.[47]AfterSoviet general secretaryMikhail Gorbachevrealized the economic, diplomatic, and human toll the war was placing on the Soviet Union, he announced the withdrawal of six regiment of troops (about 7,000 men) on 28 July 1986.[48]In January 1988 Foreign MinisterEduard Shevardnadzeannounced that it was hoped that "1988 would be the last year of the Soviet troops stay"; the forces pulled out in the bitter winter cold of January–February 1989.

Military costs

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The cost for the military due to the war is estimated to have been roughly 15 billion rubles in 1989. The combat casualties estimates at 30,000–35,000. During 1984–1985, more than 300 aircraft were lost, and thus a significant military cost of the war is attributed to air operations. Since the first year, the government spend roughly 2.5–3.0% of the yearly military budget on funding the war in Afghanistan, increasing steadily in cost until its peak in 1986.[49]

The Soviet Army also suffered from deep losses in morale and public approval due to the conflict and its failure. Many injured and disabled veterans of the war returned to the Soviet Union facing public scrutiny and difficulty re-entering civilian society, creating a new social group known as "Afgantsy".These men would become influential in popular culture and politics of the time.[50]

Military districts

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The extent military districts in 1990 were:[51]

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

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A Russian soldier of the2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Divisionin Moscow, January 1992, a few weeks after the dissolution of the USSR. He is wearing the Soviet winterAfghankauniform.

From 1985 to 1991, General Secretary Gorbachev attempted to reduce the strain the Soviet Armed Forces placed on the USSR'seconomy.

Gorbachev slowly reduced the size of the Armed Forces, including through a unilateral force reduction announcement of 500,000 in December 1988.[52]A total of 50,000 personnel were to come from Eastern Europe, the forces in Mongolia (totaling five divisions and 75,000 troops) were to be reduced, but the remainder was to come from units inside the Soviet Union. There were major problems encountered in trying to organise the return of 500,000 personnel into civilian life, including where the returned soldiers were to live, housing, jobs, and training assistance. Then the developing withdrawals fromCzechoslovakiaandHungaryand the changes implicit in theConventional Forces in Europetreaty began to create more disruption. The withdrawals became extremely chaotic; there was significant hardship for officers and their families, and "large numbers of weapons and vast stocks of equipment simply disappeared through theft, misappropriation and the black market."[53]

In February 1989, Defence MinisterDmitri Yazovoutlined five major planned changes inIzvestiya,the Soviet officialnewspaper of record.[54]First, the combined arms formations, divisions and armies, would be reorganised, and as a result division numbers would be reduced almost by half; second, tank regiments would be removed from all the motor rifle (mechanised infantry) divisions in East Germany and Czechoslovakia, and tank divisions would also lose a tank regiment; air assault and river crossing units would be removed from both Eastern Germany and Czechoslovakia; fourth, defensive systems and units would rise in number under the new divisional organisation; and finally the troop level in the European part of the USSR would drop by 200,000, and by 60,000 in the southern part of the country. A number of motor-rifle formations would be converted into machine gun and artillery forces intended for defensive purposes only. Three-quarters of the troops in Mongolia would be withdrawn and disbanded, including all the air force units there.

The Armed Forces were extensively involved in the 19–21 August1991 Soviet coup d'état attemptto depose President Gorbachev.[55]Commanders despatched tanks into Moscow, yet the coup failed. On 8 December 1991, the presidents ofRussia,Belarus,andUkraineformally dissolved the USSR, and then constituted theCommonwealth of Independent States(CIS). Soviet President Gorbachev resigned on 25 December 1991; the next day, the Supreme Soviet dissolved itself, officially dissolving the USSR on 26 December 1991. During the next 18 months, inter-republican political efforts to transform the Army of the Soviet Union into the CIS Armed Forces failed; eventually, the forces stationed in the republics formally became the militaries of the respective republican governments.

After thedissolution of the Soviet Union,the Ground Forces dissolved and the fifteen Sovietsuccessor statesdivided their assets among themselves. The divide mostly occurred along a regional basis, with Soviet soldiers from Russia becoming part of the newRussian Ground Forces,while Soviet soldiers originating fromKazakhstanbecame part of the newKazakh Armed Forces.As a result, the bulk of the Soviet Ground Forces, including most of theScudandScaleboardsurface-to-surface missile(SSM) forces, became incorporated in theRussian Ground Forces.1992 estimates showed five SSM brigades with 96 missile vehicles inBelarusand 12 SSM brigades with 204 missile vehicles inUkraine,compared to 24 SSM brigades with over 900 missile vehicles under Russian Ground Forces' control, some in other former Soviet republics.[56]By the end of 1992, most remnants of the Soviet Army in former Soviet Republics had disbanded or dispersed. Forces garrisoned in Eastern Europe (including theBaltic states) gradually returned home between 1992 and 1994. Thislist of Soviet Army divisionssketches some of the fates of the individual parts of the Ground Forces.

In mid-March 1992, Russian PresidentBoris Yeltsinappointed himself as the new Russian minister of defence, marking a crucial step in the creation of the newRussian Armed Forces,comprising the bulk of what was left of the Soviet Armed Forces. The last vestiges of the old Soviet command structure were finally dissolved in June 1993, when the paperCommonwealth of Independent StatesMilitary Headquarters was reorganized as a staff for facilitating CIS military cooperation.[57]

In the next few years, the former Soviet Ground Forces withdrew from central and Eastern Europe (including theBaltic states), as well as from the newly independent post-Soviet republics ofAzerbaijan,Armenia,Uzbekistan,Kazakhstan,TurkmenistanandKyrgyzstan.Now-Russian Ground Forcesremained inTajikistan,GeorgiaandTransnistria(inMoldova).

Post-dissolution influence

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After thedissolution of the Soviet Unionin 1991, a considerable number of weapons were transferred to the national forces of emerging states on the periphery of the former Soviet Union, such asArmenia,AzerbaijanandTajikistan.[58]Similarly, weapons and other military equipment were also left behind in theSoviet withdrawal from Afghanistanin 1989.[58]Some of these items were sold on the black market or through weapons merchants, whereof, in turn, some ended up interroristorganizations such asal-Qaeda.[58]A 1999 book argued that the greatest opportunity for terrorist organizations to procure weapons was in the former Soviet Union.[59]

In 2007, theWorld Bankestimated that out of the 500 million total firearms available worldwide, 100 million were of theKalashnikov family,and 75 million wereAKMs.[60]However, only about 5 million of these were manufactured in the former USSR.[61]

Equipment

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A U.S. assessment of the seven most important items of Soviet combat equipment in 1981
Soviet Army T-72A tanks during the 1983 October Revolution celebration in Moscow
Further information:List of equipment of the Soviet Ground Forcesandlist of tanks of the Soviet Union

In 1990 and 1991, the Soviet Ground Forces were estimated to possess the following equipment. The 1991 estimates are drawn from theIISSMilitary Balance and follow theConventional Forces in Europedata exchange which revealed figures of November 1990.

TheStockholm International Peace Research Institutereported in 1992 that the USSR had previously had over 20,000 tanks, 30,000 armoured combat vehicles, at least 13,000 artillery pieces, and just under 1,500 helicopters.[63]

Commanders-in-Chief of the Soviet Ground Forces

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Soviet Army conscript's military service book.#1, Place of birth,#2 Nationality (i.e.ethnicity), #3 Party affiliation (i.e. the year of joining theCPSU), #4 Year of entering theKomsomol,#5 Education, #6 Main specialty, #7 Marital status. (Document number and the name are removed)
Main article:Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^Russian:Советская армия,romanized:Sovetskaya armiya

References

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  1. ^abcdefghiInternational Institute for Strategic Studies 1991,p. 37.
  2. ^Thomas, Nigel (20 January 2013).World War II Soviet Armed Forces (3): 1944–45.Bloomsbury Publishing.ISBN978-1-84908-635-6.
  3. ^Established by decree on 15 (28) January 1918 "to protect the population, territorial integrity and civil liberties in the territory of the Soviet state."
  4. ^Suvorov 1982,p. 51.
  5. ^Urban 1985.
  6. ^Feskov et al 2013,pp. 146, 147.
  7. ^abcFeskov et al 2013,p. 119.
  8. ^P. Leffler, Melvyn(1 March 1985)."Strategy, Diplomacy, and the Cold War: The United States, Turkey, and NATO, 1945–1952".The Journal of American History.71(4).Oxford University Press:811.doi:10.2307/1888505.JSTOR1888505.
  9. ^Scott & Scott 1979,p. 142.
  10. ^Kormiltsev, Nikolai(2005). "The main command of the Ground Forces: history and modernity".Military History.No. 7. pp. 3–8.
  11. ^Tsouras 1994,pp. 121, 172.
  12. ^abOdom 1998,p. 39.
  13. ^abScott & Scott 1979,p. 176.
  14. ^Armed Forces of the Russian Federation – Land Forces,Agency Voeninform of the Defence Ministry of the Russian Federation (2007) p. 14
  15. ^Feskov et al 2013,p. 99.
  16. ^Zickel & Keefe 1991,p. 705.
  17. ^Scott & Scott 1979,p. 305.
  18. ^Odom 1998,pp. 47–48, 286–289.
  19. ^Odom 1998,pp. 290–291.
  20. ^Odom 1998,p. 48.
  21. ^Orr 2003,p. 1.
  22. ^Defense Intelligence Agency (6 September 1983)."Warsaw Pact: Division Categorization DIA IAPPR 102-83".United States:Central Intelligence Agency.Retrieved26 September2022.
  23. ^International Institute for Strategic Studies 1987,p. 34.
  24. ^Feskov et al 2013,p. 90.
  25. ^Holm, Michael (1 January 2015)."High Command of the Far East".Soviet Armed Forces 1945-1991: Organisation and Order of Battle.Retrieved18 August2023.
  26. ^Feskov et al 2013,pp. 91–93.
  27. ^Feskov et al 2004,p. 21.
  28. ^Suvorov 1982,p. 36.
  29. ^Odom 1998,p. 69.
  30. ^Odom 1998,p. 72–80.
  31. ^Parallel History Project,and the documentation on the associated Polish exercise,Seven Days to the River Rhine,1979.[full citation needed]See alsoHeuser, Beatrice,"Warsaw Pact Military Doctrines in the 1970s and 1980s: Findings in the East German Archives",Comparative Strategy,October–December 1993, pp. 437–457
  32. ^Armstrong, Charles K. (2003).The North Korean revolution, 1945-1950.Ithaca: Cornell University Press.ISBN978-0-8014-6880-3.OCLC605327300.
  33. ^"Cable No. 121973, Meretskov and Shytkov to Cde. Stalin".Retrieved20 April2023– via Wilson Center Digital Archive.
  34. ^"Ciphered Telegram No. 9849, Gromyko to the Soviet Ambassador, Pyongyang".Retrieved20 April2023– via Wilson Center Digital Archive.
  35. ^Truong, Nhu Tang; Chanoff, David; Doan, Van-Toai (1985).A Vietcong memoir.San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. p. 168.ISBN978-0-15-193636-6.
  36. ^"Soviet Involvement in the Vietnam War".historicaltextarchive.com. Associated Press.
  37. ^Sarin, Oleg; Dvoretsky, Lev (1996).Alien Wars: The Soviet Union's Aggressions Against the World, 1919 to 1989.Presidio Press. pp.93–4.ISBN978-0-89141-421-6.
  38. ^"Soviet rocketeer: After our arrival in Vietnam, American pilots refused to fly"(in Russian). rus.ruvr. Archived fromthe originalon 17 January 2013.Retrieved26 May2010.
  39. ^abcdPribbenow, Merle (December 2014)."The Soviet-Vietnamese Intelligence Relationship during the Vietnam War: Cooperation and Conflict"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 12 April 2019.Retrieved1 June2018.
  40. ^Ro'i, Yaacov (2022).The Bleeding Wound: The Soviet War in Afghanistan and the Collapse of the Soviet System.Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.ISBN978-1-5036-2874-8.OCLC1258040790.
  41. ^Khalidi, Noor Ahmad (1991)."Afghanistan: Demographic Consequences of War: 1978–1987"(PDF).Central Asian Survey.10(3): 101–126.doi:10.1080/02634939108400750.PMID12317412.
  42. ^Sliwinski, Marek (1995).Le génocide Khmer Rouge: une analyse démographique[The Khmer Rouge genocide: A demographic analysis] (in French).L'Harmattan.pp. 42–43, 48.ISBN978-2-7384-3525-5.
  43. ^Bennett, Andrew (1999)."A bitter harvest: Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and its effects on Afghan political movements"(PDF).Penn State University. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 14 June 2007.Retrieved4 February2007.
  44. ^abKepel, Gilles (2002).Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam.I.B.Tauris. p. 138.ISBN9781845112578.Retrieved14 July2015.
  45. ^"Timeline: Soviet war in Afghanistan".BBC News.17 February 2009.Retrieved22 March2009.
  46. ^"How Soviet troops stormed Kabul palace".BBC News.27 December 2009.Retrieved1 July2013.
  47. ^"Afghan guerrillas' fierce resistance stalemates Soviets and puppet regime".Christian Science Monitor.ISSN0882-7729.Retrieved20 April2023.
  48. ^Schofield, Carey (1993).The Russian elite: inside Spetsnaz and the airborne forces.London: Greenhill.ISBN1-85367-155-X.OCLC28798156.
  49. ^"The Costs of Soviet Involvement in Afghanistan"(PDF).United States:Central Intelligence Agency.
  50. ^Konovalov, Valerii. "Afghan Veterans in Siberia".Radio Liberty Report on the USSR.1(#21).
  51. ^Schofield 1991,pp. 236–237.
  52. ^Odom 1998,pp. 273–278.
  53. ^Odom 1998,p. 278.
  54. ^Odom 1998,p. 161.
  55. ^Odom 1998,pp. 305–346.
  56. ^International Institute for Strategic Studies 1992,pp. 72, 86, 96.
  57. ^Matlock 1995.
  58. ^abcHamm 2011.
  59. ^Lee, Rensselaer (1999) Smuggling Armageddon: The Nuclear Black Market in the Former Soviet Union and Europe. New York: St. Martin's Press, cited in Hamm, Crimes Committed by Terrorist Groups, 2011, p8.
  60. ^Killicoat, Phillip (April 2007)."Post-Conflict Transitions Working Paper No. 10.: Weaponomics: The Global Market for Assault Rifles"(PDF).World Bank.Oxford University. p. 3. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 9 July 2016.Retrieved3 April2010.
  61. ^Valerii N. Shilin; Charlie Cutshaw (1 March 2000).Legends and reality of the AK: a behind-the-scenes look at the history, design, and impact of the Kalashnikov family of weapons.Paladin Press.ISBN978-1-58160-069-8
  62. ^Zickel & Keefe 1991,p. 708.
  63. ^SIPRI(December 1992)."Post Cold War Security in and for Europe"(PDF).Retrieved25 August2020.

Bibliography

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Further reading

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