Russia / Soviet Union: A Soviet Red Army lieutenant urging his men to attack German positions, 1942. Photo by RIA Novosti/Max Alpert (CC BY-SA 3.0 License)

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (frequently shortened to Red Army) was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and after 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution (Red October or Bolshevik Revolution) in which the Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations (especially the combined groups summarized under the preamble White Army) of their adversaries, during the Russian Civil War.

Beginning in February 1946, the Red Army, along with the Soviet Navy, embodied the main component of the Soviet Armed Forces, taking the official name 'The Soviet Army' until its dissolution in December 1991.

The Red Army is credited as being the decisive land force in the Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II. During operations on the Eastern Front, it defeated 75%–80% of the German land forces (Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS) deployed in the war.

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RIA Novosti/Max Alpert (CC BY-SA

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