Men within the Soviet Army dropped from around 13 million to approximately 2.8 million in 1948. In order to control this demobilisation process, the number of
military districts was temporarily increased to thirty-three, dropping to twenty-one in 1946.
[20] The size of the Ground Forces throughout most time of the Cold War remained between 4 million and 5 million, according to Western estimates. Soviet law required all able-bodied males of age to serve a minimum of 2 years. As a result, the Soviet Army remained the largest active army in the world from 1945 to 1991. Soviet Army units which had taken over the countries of Eastern Europe from German rule remained in some of them to secure the régimes in what became
satellite states of the Soviet Union and to deter and to fend off pro-independence resistance and later
NATO forces. The greatest Soviet military presence was in
East Germany, in the
Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, but there were also smaller forces elsewhere, including the
Northern Group of Forces in Poland, the
Central Group of Forces in
Czechoslovakia, and the
Southern Group of Forces in Hungary. In the Soviet Union itself, forces were divided by the 1950s among fifteen
military districts, including the
Moscow,
Leningrad, and
Baltic Military Districts.
Toevallig een account daarvoor speciaal aanmaken? Mmm ok dan.
