Soviet Replacement/Reserve Units

[otlichnik]

This is a very interesting thread.

I hope that my old masters thesis may be of interest to some people following this thread. It is entitled "Conscription, Mobilization and Training of Red Army Enlisted Personnel 1939-1945".

I completed it just over 25 years ago in 1997, when access to TsAMO files for a poor Canadian grad student was just a dream and forums like this didn't exist, so obviously many things will have been overtaken by the last 25 years of scholarship.

https://www.academia.edu/76525445/Consc ... _1939_1945

Shawn

[Art]

I completed it just over 25 years ago in 1997, when access to TsAMO files for a poor Canadian grad student was just a dream and forums like this didn't exist, so obviously many things will have been overtaken by the last 25 years of scholarship.

I think it's worth to comment on some inaccuracies or outdated information

page 5.
"In 1935 the Politburo ordered all Territorial Militia units converted to Regular units, a process which was not completed until early 1939"

Territorial militia organization was eliminated during the year 1938.

page 6
"The official table of organization, or shtat, for a Red Army Rifle Division was enlarged in 1939 from 13,000 men to 18,000"

The enlargement of the rifle divisions establishment (by introducing second artillery regiment and other units) was made in 1938. The 1938s TO/Es provided for some 17,000 men in the wartime division:
viewtopic.php?f=79&t=261335&p=2380347

page 7
"Armoured and mechanized formations were broken up and parcelled out amongst the regular rifle divisions."

Generally speaking it's not true. The number of mechanized (tank) brigades didn't decrease after 1937 (actually it even increased), while the number of tanks per brigade became larger. Tanks belonging to rifle divisions started to be combined into tank brigades in the 2nd half of 1939, the process that was completed after the Finnish War.

page 9
"The 1939 law "On Universal Military Obligation" made military service obligatory for all males age 19 to 50. There was no change in the age stipulation from previous years. The 1925 law had stipulated service for men age 19 to 40 and although the minimum age was increased to
21 in 1928 it was again lowered to 19 in 1936."

According to the laws on obligatory military service of 1925, 1928 and 1930 the conscription age was 21 years. It was legally lowered by 2 years to 19 in 1936. The 1939's law actually introduced significant changes. Before that law men were to be conscripted in the year following the year when they turned 19, according to the 1939's law - in the year when they turned 19. So the conscription age was effectively lowered by 1 year. In fact the decrease in the conscription age was gradual and took the period from 1936 to 1940.

pages 9-10
"Young men were called up for military service by annual class, or age group. For example, all men born in 1910 made up the class of 1910 and were eligible for conscription in the annual call up of 1929."

Not really, conscripted during the year 1929 was the annual class that turned 21 by 1.1.1929, i.e. those born in 1907.

page 10
"These men were known as vnevoiskoviki ("outside the rankers") and were obligated to attend one month training sessions each summer for three years."

The law stipulated only the overall length of training (6 months), which was not necessarily attended every year.

page 12
"Military units were given specific conscription areas from where they drew all of their conscript manpower. Generally each division was assigned one oblast, preferably the one in which it was regularly garrisoned. The division's subordinate units, its regiments and battalions, were
assigned their own raion, town or village depending on local population density"

That was true for the territorial militia organization, however after it was abandoned in 1938, conscription to military service became completely exterritorial (i.e. there was no relation between the region where the men was conscripted and where he served). By that start of 1939 nearly 40% of the Soviet military personnel was deployed in the Soviet Far East whose civil population was barely 1/40 of the total Soviet population. That would be completely impossible with territorial conscription.

page 16
"The first of these steps was to determine which basic group they would serve in, the Red Army, the Red Navy or the NKVD"

Quite a large number of conscripts were also assigned to the Railroad Corps and construction units, which were managed and supplied by civil agencies.

"Since conscripts were assigned to a military unit, which was at least administratively based nearby ..."

Again, that was not the case in 1938 or after.

page 20
"The Red Army differed greatly from contemporary western armies in regards to its methods of acquiring leaders. The most important difference surrounds NCOs."

Traditionally in the Russian Army NCO candidates were selected from conscripts of each annual draft after a short initial training and were educated in special schools established at their units. This system was more or less inherited by the RKKA, although short service length (2 years) was a major impediment. Hence NCOs were encouraged to reenlist after the end of their regular service term.

"In western armies NCOs were grown and not made. Western NCOs were enlisted personnel who entered their armies as
privates and worked their way up through the enlisted ranks through corporal and the various levels of sergeant."

"western armies" were not homogeneous. Prior to WWI a large number of career NCOs was characteristic of the German Army, whereas others were mostly similar to the Russian Army.

"The Red Army completely lacked these experienced NCOs. The poor pay and harsh conditions of the army since Tsarist times meant that almost no soldiers volunteered to remain after their conscription term was up. Those that did usually sought officer status."

At the start of 1939 the Red Army had roughly 300,000 NCOs, of them about 2/3 were conscripted and about 1/3 reenlisted (or contracted NCOs). The number of the latter apparently declined after introduction of the 1939's law on military service, which increased the length of service for NCOs of the ground forces from 2 to 3 years. The need to fill most NCOs positions with conscripts was cited as an incentive for this change. Theoretically that provided an economy in salaries and increased accumulation of reservists with NCO ranks. Surprisingly there are few if any sources describing this evolution of the RKKA NCO corps.

Page 22
"Military commissariats were supposed to exist in every raion in the Soviet Union regardless of proximity to a military unit."

Not necessarily. There were "joint" or "united" commissariats covering several adjacent districts. Prior to the reform of 1939 the number of commissariats was much smaller and most districts didn't have them.

Page 24
"While all key decisions and parameters were set by the central Soviet leadership, each raion or gorod was able to provide
conscripts directly to its associated military units with minimal direct guidance or intervention from above"

Again, after 1937 there was no association between territory and military units.

[otlichnik]

Thanks Art! That is really great.

Like I said it is 25 years old and I knew bits would be out of date. But I didn't know all the stuff you pointed out.

Not sure if you are done at page 24 or planning to continue but I look forward to any more comments that you have.

Shawn

[Art]

According to A.Bezugolniy the actual conscription in 1931-1940 was as follows:

1931 - class of 1909 (total 1,724,750 men registered), of them
conscripted to active service (Army, Navy, NKVD) - 301,229
conscripted to territorial service - 232,282
"vnevoiskoviki" (surplus) - 713,509
Others apparently had deferments or were considered unfit for service

1932 - class of 1910, total 1,760,636 men registered:
480,800 - to active service
588,730 - territorial service
301,339 - surplus

1933 - class of 1911, total 1,648,100 men registered:
472,300 - to active service
290,900 - territorial service
530,969 - surplus

1934 - class of 1912, total 1,587,031 men registered:
470,286 - to active service
263,084 - territorial service
377,674 - surplus

1935 - class of 1913, total 1,455,272 men registered
525,128 - active service
499,303 - territorial service
69,267 - surplus

1936 - men born in 1914 - 1st half of 1915
Total 981,067 men conscripted (Army only)

1937 - men born in 2nd half of 1915 - 1916
Total 1,083,755 men conscripted

1938 - men born in 1917 - 1st half of 1918
Total 832,542 men conscripted (Army, Navy and NKVD)

1939 - men born in 2nd half of 1918 - 1919, also secondary school graduates born in 1920-1921
Total 1,876,542 men conscripted

1940 - men born from 1.1.1920 to 21.8.1921, also secondary school graduates born in 1921-1922
Total 1,658,171 men conscripted

From Bezugolniy's thesis, which also contains data on ethnic composition of conscripts:
https://vagsh.mil.ru/upload/site17/docu ... UQPrI7.pdf

[Art]

According to the Administrative-Mobilization Administration of the Red Army, the number of men excluded from annual drafts for various reasons was as follows:

In 1937
- for political and moral grounds - 10.1% of the class
- physically unfit - 4.5%
- deferments due to recent sickness - 4.8%
- exempted for family reasons - 7.3%
- deferments to school pupils and students - 2.5%
Total 537,438 men or 29.2% of the men subject to conscription (about 1,840,000)

In 1938
- for political and moral grounds - 9.2% of the class
- physically unfit - 3.2%
- deferments due to recent sickness - 5%
- exempted for family reasons - 7.6%
- deferments to school pupils and students - 3.5%
Total 446,737 or 28.5% of the men subject to conscription (about 1,570,000)

Not all of the remaining 71% actually conscripted, as seen from the numbers in the previous message, but rather some surplus was left. A large part of this surplus was conscripted in 1939.

[Art]

Let's continue with comments:

Page 37
"A mobilization could only be declared by an edict of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet"

Declaration of mobilization wasn't absolutely necessary, as it could be conducted in a covert way without official declaration. Covert mobilization required only an order from the People's Commissariat for Defense. In the summer of 1941 the Soviet mobilization was combination of open and covert (Central Asia and Far East) mobilization.

The first military action requiring a large scale mobilization was the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland on 17 September 1939

There were also partial mobilizations during the Sudeten crisis (1938) and Khalkhin-Gol conflict (1939)

The Supreme Soviet declared a partial mobilization of the Special Western and Special Kiev military districts on 5 September 1939, just a few days after the German invasion of western Poland began

Covert mobilization was ordered in the western regions (Leningrad, Berlorussian, Kiev, Kalinin, Kharkov, Orel, Moscow military districts) of the USSR on 7 September 1939. Several days earlier on 3 Septmeber a partial call-up of reservists for air defense troops in Soviet western regions was ordered.

Page 39
"During the winter war with Finland the situation remained similar. Only a partial mobilization was declared and thus some areas undertook the full burden of mobilization while other areas were completely unaffected"

Since mobilization already started on 7 September no separate mobilization against Finland was needed. However, during the winter 1939/40 a partial mobilization of 5 younger classes of reservists was conducted in the Volga, Ural, ans Siberian military districts to cover personnel requirements of the army. An additional conscription of a surplus left by the aurumn conscription of 1939 was also made.

"In April 1941 Stalin declared a special state of readiness due to the imminence of war (osoboe ugrozhaemyi voennyi period) which coincided with a partial mobilization"

I don't know where Glantz took that, it's not confirmed by any sources.

"Troops from the class of 1919, who were due to demobilize that spring, were kept in the military"

Conscripts were released from service in the autumn simultaneously with new conscription.

"In late May, 800,000 reservists, mostly specialists and NCOs, were called up to help increase the complement of existing, and newly forming, units"

Formally most were reservists assigned to combat units according to the mobilization plan and called for a period of exercises with their units which was to last from 30 to 90 days. There was also call-up of reservists for training reserve officers and specialis.

Pages 39-40
"This was in addition to the class of 1922 who were undergoing regular conscription at this time"

Regular conscritption of the 1922's class was supposed to be conducted in the autmumn of 1941. However, early conscription of 100,000 recruits belonging to the 1922 class was authorized by the government on 4 May 1941. It doesn't seem that it actually started before the war.

Page 40
"In the first days following the German invasion, between 22 and 30 June 1941, the Supreme Soviet declared mobilizations of all trained reservists from the classes of 1905 to 1918, effective in all military districts, except for the Central Asian, Transbaikal and Far Eastern"

Covert mobilization in the Central Asian, Transbaikal military districts and Far East Front started a month later.

[Art]

Page 42
"The number and circumstances of deferments and exemptions were severely limited"

By the end of the year 1944 thee number of deferments to men reserved in national economy reached 4.3 million which was actually larger than the same number at the start of the war (3.7 million of enlisted men plus some 100,000 officers of reserve). It seems that the lowest point was reached in 1942 or 1943.

"Of course many officer candidates continued to study at military academies"

So-called command departments of military academies provided advanced training for officers, so their students had officers ranks already. Other departments accepted civilian students for specialized training (egineer, medical, veterinary etc).

Page 44
"To overcome this problem each Division formed a Replacement Regiment which remained behind in its home area to handle conscription and mobilization issues."

This information from the US publication of 1946 is wrong. There was no permanent association between replacement and field units (with few exceptions like national units). 1941's mobilization plan provided for 20 replacement divisions, each with 3 replacement rifle regiment, so total 60 replacement rifle regiments. At the same time the number of rifle (motorized rifle or mountain rifle divisions) was 198 or three times larger. Of course, replacement units could use barracks, training grounds and other infrastructure of field units or were formed using cadres detached by field units at mobilization. Yet it didn't mean that replacements were only sent to these "parent" formations. Basically the Soviet military had a complete freedom to sent replacement from any replacement units to any sector of the front or any formation as they saw feet.

The difference was that the replacement unit was manned by a skeleton staff of administration and training personnel and the bulk of the units personnel, gear and weapons were away at the front.

Replacement units had their alotment of weapons and other materiel. However, this allotment was cut to bare skeleton in the summer of 1941 in a search of weapons for the front, see the appendix to the GKO decree here:
viewtopic.php?p=2336113#p2336113
Lack of weapons and equipment was a major problem for quality training, at least in the first half of the war.

Page 45

Each army, which was comprised of approximately seven division (raised to twelve in 1943), had one
confusingly named Replacement Regiment. Unlike the divisional Replacement Regiments which remained in the area where the division was formed and gathered, and processed conscripted and mobilized soldiers, the army Replacement Regiments followed the armies around and handled soldiers sent from the divisional Replacement Regiments or other sources.

Army replacement regiment collected and processed replecements sent from the replacement units of the zone of interior (from any unit, as described above) to the front, and also wounded and sick returning from the hospitals of the operational zone.

All physically able men would be quickly sent from the army Replacement Regiment to one of its subordinate divisions' Replacement Battalion.

There was no divisional field replacement battalions in the Soviet Army (unlike Heer). The army-level replacement regiment was supposed to have the same function of a field pool of replacements. This regiment sent replacement personnel to divisions/brigades where they were distributed by combat elements.

These divisional Replacement Battalions followed their division around and were responsible for handling and training all new soldiers brought into the division, thus they were also known as Divisional School Battalions

The purpose of the school aka training battalions and comanies was to train NCOs from privates belonging to the parent division. It wasn't supposed to be a field pool of replacements.

[otlichnik]

Again, many, many thanks Art. I will save my follow-up questions until you hav reviewed the whole thing, if that is ok.

Shawn

[Art]

The purpose of the school aka training battalions and comanies was to train NCOs from privates belonging to the parent division. It wasn't supposed to be a field pool of replacements.

The NKO order of 4 October 1941 prescribed opening of courses for NCO candidates (selected from division's privates) in all divisions of the front. The strength of each course - 100 men, duration of training - 1 month.
http://docs.historyrussia.org/ru/nodes/ ... e/1/zoom/4

In March 1942 these makeshift courses were expanded to training battalions officially introduced in the organization of the rifle division.

[otlichnik]

Art,
I am finally spending some time integrating the comments you provided above.

I am confused but the following comment:

"page 6
"The official table of organization, or shtat, for a Red Army Rifle Division was enlarged in 1939 from 13,000 men to 18,000"

The enlargement of the rifle divisions establishment (by introducing second artillery regiment and other units) was made in 1938. The 1938s TO/Es provided for some 17,000 men in the wartime division:
viewtopic.php?f=79&t=261335&p=2380347"

When I view the source document in question on the Polish military archive site, all dates are 1939, with the shtat chart dated 02.04.1939. Yet, you called it a 1938 shtat. What am I missing?

Shawn

[Art]

The chart was printed in 1939, but the tables themselves of organization were issued in 1938 (as a part of general reorganization of the RKKA), which is supported by many sources.