"After the war we will recover for fifteen or twenty years, and then we'll have
 another go at it."

- Joseph Stalin, 1944

The Post-War Soviet Army

The army that emerged as the victor in 1945 soon found itself in a difficult position.  It has stretched itself to its limits to defeat the German war machine and now faced the possibility of going to war with its onetime allies in Europe.  The army also struggled to assert its control over the nations of Eastern Europe while demobilizing large parts of its massive wartime army.

The army would have to be restructured to meet the challenges of the modern era.  The first of these would be a simple name change.  In 1946 the Worker's and Peasants Red Army would be known as the Soviet Army.

The army would also have to incorporate the lessons learned in the previous war.  The new doctrine called for massive armored formations advancing deep into enemy territory with large numbers of mechanized infantry following behind.  These formations would take and hold ground until the traditional foot infantry moved up like a giant steamroller.

The army found that adapting existing equipment to fulfill the new doctrine was very easy.  There were large numbers of T-34/85 medium tanks and Stalin series heavy tanks.  To augment these forces were the SU series assault guns and howitzers (which made up 20% of the Soviet post-war armored vehicles strength).  These vehicles would form the core of the new armored formations.  The next step was to make the infantry more mobile.  This would require large numbers of trucks and armored personnel carriers.  These would first take the form of BTR-40 and BTR-152.

Artillery forces were also selected for modernization.  This was not surprising as horse drawn artillery was still very common in 1946.  These units would be towed by purpose built tractors or trucks by the early 1950's.  Rocket artillery was used to great effect during the war and underwent rapid development.  Several new types of truck mounted rocket launcher entered service in the decade following the war.  Some of these multiple rocket systems like the BM-25 had rockets reaching 250mm in size.  Other vehicles like the FROG-1, FROG-2, and SCUD-1 would carry a single large bombardment rockets would be used as very long range artillery. 

The experience of the war also showed that some units would no longer be needed on the modern battlefield.  Cavalry was seen as obsolete and paratroopers were seen as being overvalued.  In response to this, the cavalry was drastically reduced in size until the last cavalry division was phased out in the early 1950's.  The paratrooper force saw little service during the war and therefore was not seen as essential to the modern doctrine.  They would also be reduced in size and used in a strategic role only.  Because of this they were placed directly under the command of the Ministry for Armed Services.

The commissar's service that had policed the ranks since the creation of the Red Army would also be changed.  A political officer 'zampolit' would fulfill the role of commissar.  He would conduct political education classes and monitor the conditions of the troops.

Another significant reorganization was the forming of a national air defense command known as the PVO.  It would control radar installations and interceptor aircraft, as well as anti-aircraft assets surrounding strategic sites.  They would also command anti-aircraft missiles like the SA-2 'Guideline' when they came into service, replacing the large 85mm and 100mm air defense cannon.

Small Arms Development  

The weapons of Red Army soldiers changed little following the Great Patriotic war.  The primary infantry weapon continued to be the M-44 bolt-action rifle and PPSh submachine gun.  They also still used the machine guns of the previous war such as the M-43 Maxim gun.  This would not remain the same for long.

The army knew that modern weapons would be required to fight any modern nation.  These would come in the form of the SKS-45 carbine (although it would be rapidly replaced by the much more capable AK-47).  The infantry also received its first true anti-tank ability with the introduction of the RPG-2 rocket launcher.  New machine guns were also in the works, but they would not see service until the early 1960's.

Preparing for the Third World War

As the Soviet Army began to make the changes needed to fight in the post-war world, Joseph Stalin began making plans to use this new force.  He believed that a war with the Western powers was inevitable and that the army should prepare for that eventuality.  He ended the demobilization of the army and began to bring it up to its wartime levels.  This was a build-up that would continue until his death in 1953.

Stalin also planned to counter the Western monopoly on nuclear weapons by threatening Europe with his massive army.  He then began testing the resolve of the Western powers.  First with the blockade of Berlin and then by supporting the North Korean forces during the Korean War.

The Khrushchev Era

The Soviet Army began to shift away from this warfighting posture in 1953 with the rise of Nikita Khrushchev.  He felt that nuclear weapons would make large armies a relic of the past.  This was one of the reasons he began dramatic reductions in the size of the Soviet army.

He reduced troop strength by half of its Stalin era levels, cancelled all future heavy tank projects after T-10, and began eliminating heavy artillery systems.  This angered many in the military establishment.  Emphasis was to be placed on nuclear capable rocket artillery and mobile rocket launcher systems.

These reductions didn't mean that he wanted to disarm his country or that he was anti-military.  In fact, he claimed to believe that nuclear war with the West was inevitable.  He simply wanted to reduce force levels to a reasonable degree while the post-war rebuilding of the Soviet Union continued.  Khrushchev was still determined to support and protect the Socialist nations of Europe.  A policy that would became clear during the Hungarian Crisis of 1956.

By the late 1950's Khrushchev had denounced Stalin and reduced tensions with the West.  As a result of this he claimed that he 'believed that a nuclear war with the West was no longer inevitable'.  The military reductions would continue throughout his administration, but would put him at a political disadvantage in the year following the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Major Operations

There were few major operations during the post-war years.  The army spent most of its time reasserting Soviet control over parts of Eastern Europe.  In 1956 the army moved into Hungary to crush a rebellion led by anti-communist forces.