Red Army

Is it really true that large amounts of Russian soldiers were untrained and weaponless, or poorly trained? To me it almost seems like that can't be altogether true because regardless of the vast materiel advantage the Russians had from 1943 on with their own manufacturing and Lend-Lease, I don't see how they could have pushed the Germans back and smashed them like they did with little to no training. It seems like there just would have been chaos.

 

I suspect a lot of the training was conducted once they were assigned to units. The speed and quantiity with which they raised troops put a rather severe limit on how many could spend much time at a formal training establishement. It will be interesting to see just how far off my guess is.

 

From Intelligence Bulletin dated June 1946 :

http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/redarmyinf/

Soviet soldiers were conscripts liable for a total of 5 years of military service.--- " The average Red Army soldier has completed 10 years of schooling if he is from one of the major cities. If he is from a rural district, he will probably had at least 7 years of schooling. " ----- During which he has been given military training---- "The program included some small -arm training, 2 weeks of summer military camps, and some company tactics. In short, the Red Army soldier gets a large share of what we call 'Basic Training' before he enters the army." ------He then serves 2-years of active service undergoing an intensive training program in weapons, tactics, and a large amount of political indoctrination. After the 2 years of service he is given an "extended furlough" during which he is subject to brief training periods and immediate call-up if there is an emergency.

NCO's served 3 years active service . Most NCO's were volunteers. Before the war they were given 9 months of NCO schooling , but this was shortened to 3 months during the war.

"Officers may come from all ranks or from civil life. In either case, the officer is the product of a series of officer schools. Entrance to the schools is based on educational qualifications or upon the passing of an entrance exams."

 

That's eye opening. Sounds like the Soviet men had more years in school than Americans did.

 

Thanks, I hadn't considered the preinduction training or the universal conscription effects.

 

Shtrafbat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shtrafbat



Soviet penal battalions were often sent into battle unarmed.

They consisted of anyone deemed to have shown a "reluctance to fight", former POW's liberated from German POW camps, Soviet Gulag camp inmates

 

My view is that in 1941 once the major part of the army had been lost, many of the units that were put together had some 2-3 weeks practice and then went to battle. Nothing new really, especially if the men had had any previous army service. I do know Stalin sent the Moscow students practically to hell from university, but buying time was important, students were not.

In the Winter War ( The USSR attacking Finland ) there were quite alot of men in the Red Army who were not familiar with their guns, and as they practiced even on the trip to the front in the truck shooting to the sky, this created havoc among the frontline troops as they thought the Finns had already surrounded them.

Definitely a good lesson to the Red Army as Stalin made massive changes from the lessons learnt in that Winter War, starting with the questioning of the Commanders in March-April 1940 in Moscow.

 

Regarding being poorly equipped, I think it is a well known fact that during the Battle of Stalingrad, the Russians would send soldiers in with weapons and send in troops behind them with no weapons. The thinking behind this was that when the soldier in the front was killed, the soldier behind him who had no weapon could pick up his fallen comrade's weapon and continue fighting. I think this happened more in the beginning stages of the battle.

 

Sounds a bit like Army Reserves/Cadets...do/did they have reserves on top of this?

 

There have been lots of reports from the German side about Soviet soldiers going into battle where only the front rank had rifles, etc. from my readings these were not regular units but penal ones. They were to be sacrificed in order to use up German ammo before the regular troops were sent in. The only way out alive was to be wounded and not any minor wound either. Behind each of these penal units was a rank of NKVD with MGs to make sure every one complied. In the unlikely event that someone survived without being killed or wounded, he was assigned to another unit until he was.

The Germans also had Penal units that were sent to do the most dangerous and dirty jobs. However, in the Heer a soldier was sentenced for a given period of time, say six weeks. If he survived for that time then he was reinstated back into the regular army. Of course he was demoted and had to earn back any rank he might have had.

 

The Germans were afraid of Red Army soldiers who played dead. The Soviets could suddenly get up and shoot or knife you, or cling onto you with an exploding grenade. Once the Germans learnt this, they started to shoot at everyone who was looking like dead to make sure they would stay that way. they might have been engouraged to do this but you cannot train people to give their life to protect the Motherland.