What was Red Army like from 1936 - 1941? What efforts were invested in order to modernize it/equip it? How was the world seen from the perspective of Soviet leadership prior to WW2? Basically: Were they gearing up for a massive slugfest and what measures did they undertake to gear up in all fields of defence?
thanks
>What was Red Army like from 1936 - 1941?
A horrible place to be in if you were ukrainian.. Or anyone else, really
Stalin was busy killing his most experienced officers, so not a great place to be. Other than that, they were experimenting with airborne troops and fast tank tactics.
>Were they gearing up for a massive slugfest and what measures did they undertake to gear up in all fields of defence?
They shit the bed as the purge hurt both the military and the industries that supported it. They had done some pretty groundbreaking stuff prior to the purges but by the time they were over the military saw that it had issues during the early occupation of the Baltic states never mind the catastrophe that was the Winter war.
>ukrainian
Winter war was really about stalin murdering hudreds of thousands of ukrainians
>ukrainians
>who are the 44th Rifle Division
Do you have to worry about blowing your brains out of your ass every time you sneeze?
daily reminder the fingols lost
>What was Red Army
A conscript army of industrialising country.
>What efforts were invested in order to modernize it/equip it
Wide variety of relatively new weaponry was adopted: AVS and SVT semi-autos, PPD SMG, BT-7, lots of other weapons were tested back then (1940 -test of A-32 and A-34 tanks).
>How was the world seen from the perspective of Soviet leadership prior to WW2
The world was seen as a very hostile place. In the west there were such threats as Poland (a french proxy and english ally) and Germany (1933 was a time of the relations cooldown, which has ended in 1939 with Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty). German foreign and internal affairs (appeasement policy, french sabotage of collective security program, militarisation of economics, military backing of Franco movement in Spain) were showing that the war with western nations is just the question of time.
On the east there was an open japanese threat. Kuomintang China had a neutral position towards soviets and soviets have offered their aid to chinese army.
That's why soviets had to get their stuff together, and that's what the industrialisation was needed for.
>Were they gearing up for a massive slugfest
Yes.
> what measures did they undertake to gear up in all fields of defence?
Adopting new weapons, participating in several minor conflicts to find the flaws of the military doctrine and the needs for further rearmament.
>most experienced officers
On the other side, they weren't reliable and many of them (like Yakir) were too stiff to adopt new tactics.
OP here. Thanks. Appreciated.
>had to get their stuff together
You mean invade other countries
How can i tell you are a communist?
It was a shit time for everyone, and a particularly shit time if you were any kind of Red Army officer.
I thought the Russian tank visionary got purged because concentrated tank formations were counter revolutionary.
Butthurt belt detected.
>You mean invade other countries
Oh, here we go.
All the so-called invasions have happened in the 1939-1940, when the war was already going on. Soviet Union wasn't prepared for a large-scale war with Germany, so it tried to delay the beginning of the war by diplomatic measures (Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty) and by military measures (through expanding space between western borders and strategical objects).
Baltic countries haven't been invaded - baltic governments have allowed the soviet presence on their territory.
Poland wasn't a country anymore - the government and its gold have left the country and the majority of its manpower was defeated. Soviets could either stay aside, or try to grab the land they've lost against during 1920s war with Poland.
Everything about Finland is pretty shady.
WAT.
Seriously, WAT. I live in Russia and I know many weird statements about Stalin's regime, but I haven't heard anything as retarded as this.
This guy knows his shit.
>You mean invade other countries
Daily reminder that Allies literally allowed the original German conquests, and Poland itself participated in division of Czechoslovakia.
He's talking about Tukhachevsky without actually reading anything about him. Пидop жoпopылый.
Poland wasn't a French proxy, it was in alliance with both France and UK...
In 1939 it wasn't a treat to USRR since from 1936 Poles were able to decipher messages sent via Enigma. Therefore it was getting ready to fight off German invasion.
Government did not publish information about Nazi invasion becouse it did not want to spread panic, and was conscious about (marginal) chances of winning.
Poland took a little part of Czechoslovakia, but it's worth mentioning that it had it's own motivation and it was not cooperating with Germany during this act.
Yes, they were allies, but Poland was more of a little brother-type.
>Enigma
Well, probably soviets didn't know that, and the fact of german hostility wasn't an obstacle for being unfriendly towards soviets.
Also, speaking of Poland, why was the number of 7TP tanks so low? If they knew about germans and soviets getting more armor, why couldn't they buy more tanks and artillery?
>Poland wasn't a French proxy, it was in alliance with both France and UK...
>gets thrown overboard
>a real ally and not a proxy
Sure thing senpai. But more importantly - it doesn't matter what it was or was not at the moment - the question is, how did it appear to Soviets?
>from 1936 Poles were able to decipher messages sent via Enigma. Therefore it was getting ready to fight off German invasion.
user, listening in on Enigma-encrypted messages allowed for obtaining SOME measure of tactical intel, but almost nothing strategically important, except for bits of bigger picture that could be pierced together from smaller elements. Poland had a plan for German invasion, but it was just one of strategic contingency plans, like a similar one for Soviet invasion - the general consensus among Polish high command was that both USSR and Germany probably won't dare. Case White still was very much a surprise for Poles, as evident from a successful Gleiwitz incident.
>Government did not publish information about Nazi invasion becouse it did not want to spread panic
Yes. Still doesn't contradict the invasion catching Poles with their pants down.
>
> it's worth mentioning that it had it's own motivation and it was not cooperating with Germany during this act
And Soviet Union certainly didn't have it's own motivation and was literally cooperating with Heer on the tactical level during the invasion.
I read some things about him, but only in passing. My current understanding is that the regime preferred tanks to generally be used for infantry support and he didn't.
If you'd like to add more and clear up my ignorance then please do so.
Tukhachevky's ideas mostly concerned fully autonomous armor units. It somewhat relates to deep battle, but overall his works were very futuristic, quite far from reality for the time. To give you a reference, he was actually considering airlifting armor. In 1920s. Decades ahead of it's time. And unfortunately, the bright concepts when given shape were largely complete abortions - in 30s he was strongly pushing the idea of tanks being given detachable wings and prop motors - to allow them a flying advance.
Thus, his ideas failed to contribute to Soviet military doctrine - that would be largely an achievement of Shaposhnikov. Who proposed, among other things, concentrated tank formations in a much more realistic way, and contributed heavily to the theory of Deep Battle. And unlike Tukhachevsky, he wan not persecuted - he was made a Head of General HQ in 37, made Marshall in 40, and spent the entire WWII as a permanent member of Stavka. Overall - the idea of infantry/cruiser(cavalry) tank dichotomy was not quite popular with the Soviets, as can be seen in their products from the moment their tank industry actually took off - largely because it had very little support among Soviet high command, made out of either WWI vets (and WWI Eastern Front was very heavily focused on maneuverable warfare) or crazy experimenters.
Tukhachevsky was sentenced through something else - he was largely THE man responsible for the devastating defeat that was second part of Polish-Soviet war of 1920s. For all his theoretic brilliance that was ahead of it's time by almost a century, guy was an AWFUL general in practice. He retained rank and position by nothing else than a miracle, and still fell into heavy disfavor. He formed a social circle with other disgruntled high officers, and may or may not have planned a coup against Stalin - regardless, Stalin's paranoia was faster than Tukhachevsky's resolve, and he had him and his entire circle purged under a false pretense.
They did. Allies never delivered, and then Polish pilots flew on the purchased planes to defend France.
Also, they didin't know about Case White - UK, France and even USA did, but didin't share the information.