RUSSIAN TANK CREW 1960

At the end of World War II, the Red Army, which would soon (in 1946) be renamed the Soviet Army, had approx. 9.8 million people formed in approx. 500 divisions of various types. This number was reduced relatively quickly, but during the Cold War (1945-1991) the total number of Soviet armed forces ranged from about 2.8 to about 5.3 million people. In the mid-1980s, i.e. during the war in Afghanistan, the Soviet land forces numbered about 210 divisions, of which as many as 40-50 divisions were armored divisions (in the Soviet nomenclature - tank divisions), consisting of conscript soldiers . The armored division consisted of three tank regiments, one mechanized infantry regiment, a self-propelled artillery regiment and numerous support units. The latter include: engineers, communications and chemical reconnaissance units as well as strong anti-aircraft units. The main armament of the Soviet armored division were, of course, tanks. These include such successful designs as the T-54 / T-55, T-72 or T-80, which were often very modern machines when introduced to the line. It is also worth remembering about the complicated but highly innovative T-64, which has never been exported - even to the Warsaw Pact countries. It is assumed that around 1990 there were about 55,000 tanks of various types in the Soviet Army in various technical conditions and mobilization readiness. It is worth adding that the Soviet armored divisions during the Cold War were trained primarily for full-scale conflict with NATO, and Western Europe was considered the most likely area of operations. In such a conflict, it was assumed that the tank division's progress would be from 80 to 100 kilometers in the first 3 days of the operation.