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'''The Key Components'''
* Strategic Rocket Forces - the people with [[Mnogo Nukes]], who controlled the USSR's intercontinental ballistic missiles. The name "Rocket" comes from the fact that the Russians, by and large, use the same word (''raketa'') to mean "missile" and "rocket"- which is also why this entry is called [[Reds Withwith Rockets]].
* Ground Forces AKA The Red Army (or the Soviet Army after WWII, there were actually a lot of "armies", the Soviet equivalent to NATO "corps") - The people with Kalashnikovs. Had Mnogo Nukes in the form of tactical ballistic missiles and artillery. You wouldn't believe how many tactical (non-nuclear) rockets they had; some units in the past had more rockets than gun-style artillery.
* Air Defence Forces (PVO Strany until 1981, Voyska PVO after that until 1991) - The people responsible for the air defence of the USSR against [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007:Korean Air Lines Flight 007|civilian 747s that wander off course]], among other things. Famously managed to let in a microlight. Had [[Mnogo Nukes]] in the form of nuclear surface-to-air missiles.
* Air Force (VVS) - The people with the bombers and therefore [[Mnogo Nukes]].
** The VVS was divided into the Long Range Aviation which was the actual organization responsible for the air-delivered [[Mnogo Nukes]], and the Frontal Aviation organized to serve as the tactical air arm of fronts. Long Range Aviation was disbanded in 1980 and its assets were divided between five strategic air armies.
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* Airborne Troops (VDV) - Eight divisions of paratroopers (one training) which was (and still is) directly subordinate to the Ministry of Defence. Had their own version of the BMP-series Infantry Fighting Vehicle, the BMD-series. They also wore the signature blue berets. They were ([[Russians With Rusting Rockets|and are]]) a separate branch of service comparable to [[Semper Fi|the USMC]] in both eliteness and [[Blood Knight]] attitude.
** There were also several Air Assault brigades and battalions assigned to front and army level, respectively. They were airmobile troops using helicopters to be used as one of a Soviet commander's tactical or operational maneuver forces in securing vital targets in NATO's rear, and sometimes had the VDV's BMDs.
* Spetsnaz ('''spet'''sialnogo '''naz'''nacheniya- "Special Purpose Units") - refers to a large collection of units, including Spetsnaz GRU (Glavnoje Razvedyvatel'noje Upravlenije - Main Intelligence Directorate), the KGB's counter-terrorist Alfa Group and internal security forces. Most of these groups still exist in some form among the [[Tricolours With Rusting Rockets|modern Russian military]]. Much of what is known about them comes from [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Suvorov:Viktor Suvorov|a controversial defector]].
 
'''Battle Balalaikas: Their Notable Hand Weapons'''
 
* [http://world.guns.ru/rifle/rfl03-e.htm Mosin-Nagant] - actually entered service in XIX century, long before [[Red October]]. Designed by Captain Sergei Nosin and Belgian Léon Nagant, c.37 million were built. It may look outdated when compared with semi-auto rifles of 1930s, and it was, but it's also powerful and precise. Mosin-Nagant rifle (of another design branch) with iron sights only was [[Weapon of Choice]] of the most deadly sniper ever - [http://www.mosinnagant.net/finland/simohayha.asp Simo Häyhä, "the White Death"]... and he ''has'' choice. During [[World War Two]], a sniper version was made.
** "The one with the rifle shoots. The one without the rifle follows. When the one with the rifle is killed, the one that follows picks up the rifle and fires.". Yep, it's in ''[[Enemy Atat the Gates]]''. Zaytsev and Pavlichenko (a female Soviet sniper with a similar number of kills to Zaytsev) both used this.
*** Slightly misleading, while it was a major problem in WW1 the Soviet Union in WW2 generally had enough rifles. Now ammunition on the other hand...
** Ths Mosin-Nagant was in production until 1956(in China). Because they're available for around $79 at most stores in the US compared to several hundred dollars for a typical bolt-action rifle or shotgun, the Mosin is often a first purchase or hobby gun for those who don't feel like dumping money into the shooting hobby. Ammunition can be bought in "spam cans" by the hundreds of rounds, too.
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** If you're played a [[World War Two]] game involving the Red Army (but '''not''' ''[[Battlefield 1942]]''), you will almost certainly have "fired" this at some point.
** Notable for having ''too much'' [[More Dakka|dakka]]. For an army that had a lot more trouble sourcing ammunition than weapons, a cyclic rate of fire of 900 rounds per minute was very wasteful.
* [http://world.guns.ru/assault/as01-e.htm AK-47] - The ''world-famous'' AK. Most produced firearm in history. Responsible for probably millions of deaths. Appears on the flags of Mozambique and Hezbollah. In fiction, used by every terrorist group going and of course, the [[Reds Withwith Rockets]].
** Don't forget its brother the AK-74. Better accuracy, <s>[[Nerf|better]]</s> lighter ammo but only about half famous.
** Even today Russian army uses the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:AK-103 |AK-103]], a descendant firing the same 7.62 round.
** The most common modern AK is the AK-74M, chambered for 5.45 mm. Lots of older AKs, AKMs and other Kalashnikov models are stockpiled in storage facilities to arm conscripts in case of war.
* [http://world.guns.ru/rifle/autoloading-rifles/rus/simonov-sks-e.html SKS]- Actually produced after the AK-47, the SKS was doomed to early failure, but ended up lasting a lot longer than anyone expected. It was a design heavily influenced by [[WW 2]], firing the same M43 round as the AK-47, but having a non-removable, ten-round magazine and being semi-automatic. It was retained by the Russians as a backup rifle, and everyone from the North Vietnamese Army to the Taliban and even civilian deer hunters have used them in some function.
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* [http://world.guns.ru/handguns/hg21-e.htm Makarov PM] - Standard pistol of Soviet bad guys and popular in real life too. Self-defense pistol that replaced early [http://world.guns.ru/handguns/hg20-e.htm TT] combat pistol as a standard sidearm after WWII. Now being replaced among the [[Tricolours With Rusting Rockets]] with the Yarygin PYa- also known as the MP-443 "Grach" ("rook").
* [http://world.guns.ru/sniper/sn18-e.htm SVD (Dragunov)] - Soviet sniper rifle, pretty much an AK with longer barrel, short-stroke gas system, and a distinctive stock, chambered in 7.62x54 mm. Unlike most Western sniper rifles, it's mostly used for medium range fire support, like the M14.
* [http://world.guns.ru/grenade/gl02-e.htm RPG-7] - RPG does not stand for Rocket Propelled Grenade, which was a [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:Backronym |backronym]]; RPG stands for ''Ruchnoy Protivotankoviy Granatomyot'', "hand-held anti-tank grenade-launcher", so "RPG Launcher" is an incorrect usage. Much loved by terrorists both real and fictional. The version that [[IKEA Weaponry|breaks down into two pieces]] is the paratrooper model.
* Strela-2 ("arrow")/SA-7 "Grail"- the first Soviet man-portable SAM. Terrorists like the thing. Wasn't very powerful (it got better in the Strela-2M/SA-7B version) and loved the Sun too much.
* Igla ("needle")/SA-18 "Grouse"- a modern hand-held SAM exported to a number of countries (including [[Indians With Iglas|India]]) and also used by terrorist groups.
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* MiG-21 "Fishbed": ''Fishbeds! Fishbeds! Roly-poly Fishbeds!'' (Thanks to whoever came up with that in a YKTTW) Despite the very unflattering reporting name, it's the most-produced jet fighter in history (nearly 20,000 when you count the Chinese version, the J-7) and still in service in a number of countries. Capable of Mach 2.2, but it is pig-ugly and not a world-beater. Still very effective though, especially in Vietnam.
* MiG-29 "Fulcrum": this fighter represented a major shift in the way Soviets approached their aircraft. As previously mentioned, the USSR had gone for quantity over quality, preferring large numbers of cheap, easily-operated forces. When the [[Yanks With Tanks]] introduced their fourth-generation aircraft, however, they were simply too good; the F-15 Eagle in particular boasts a record of 101 aerial victories, mostly against 3rd-gen Russian fighters, to ''zero losses''. The Soviets looked at how to beat this kind of plane, and realized that their old [[Zerg Rush]] tactics just wouldn't work; they would need to put more eggs in one basket and build stronger, better-performing planes. The MiG-29 was the first plane designed via this philosophy, and (to Mikoyan and Gurevich's credit) it dropped jaws when Westerners first got a look at it in the late 80s. It's also notable for its NATO reporting name, and its pilots found "Fulcrum" appealing and have adopted it for informal use.
* Su-27 "Flanker": the counterpart to the MiG-29, it fills the air-superiority role, making it the Russian equivalent to the F-15 and F-14. It also entered service in the 80s, flying from both runways and carrier decks. Along with the Fulcrum, the Flanker caused something of a panic in the American military, who had been counting on [[Conservation of Ninjutsu]] and weren't sure if their planes could actually stand up against [[Elite Mook|Elite Mooks]]. (Their concerns are justified, as both the MiG-29 and the Su-27 are excellent fighters by any standard.) Out of this panic and resulting [[Lensman Arms Race]] came America's current air-superiority fighter, a fifth-generation fighter called the F-22 Raptor; Russia is preferring to focus on upgrading its Fulcrum and Flanker designs into 4.5th-gen fighters, but undoubtedly some actual 5th-gen airframes are in development. (The Flanker's replacement, the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_PAK_FA:Sukhoi PAK FA|Sukhoi PAK FA]], is the only one Russia has gone public with; they claim to be holding off decisions on a MiG-29 replacement until the T-50's adoption.) After the collapse of the USSR, both the Flanker and Fulcrum have gone on to be flown by [[Russians With Rusting Rockets]].
* T-34: Designed in 1940, the T-34 was the best tank in the world when it was produced. It was a bit outdated by the end, but it was still very useful. By then the upgraded version, the T-34/85, was being mass produced - this tank is sometimes considered the best all-around tank design of World War II. Yes, even when compared with the German Tiger and Panther, as it was cheap to make, with modest maintenance requirements while being reliable and sturdy (all characteristics that the two aforementioned tanks didn't have) and, right up to the end, had decent amour, excellent speed (especially in the snow) and a good gun (in the early years, needless to say, these characteristics were even more impressive). Was the most produced model of tank in the world until the T-55.
** In contrast to the overengineered German tanks, the T-34 was designed so that it could be maintained and repaired by a conscript soldier with minimal training and equipment. This proved something of an advantage on the Eastern Front.
* T-55: The most produced tank in history, with up to 100,000 built and many still in use.
** In ''[[Goldeneye (Film)|Goldeneye]]'', [[James Bond (Filmfilm)|James Bond]] takes one of these to chase after Natalya, causing quite a bit of damage to St. Petersburg in the process. James, [[Heroes Want Redheads|just because she's a redhead...]]
* T-64: The first Soviet tank to use a 125mm main gun in the T-64A variant and nearly every tank from the former USSR has followed its basic design concept of a low profile hull, small turret and carousel autoloader. It was never exported outside of the Soviet Union. This tank, along with the later T-80 were the main tanks of the high-category groups of forces stationed outside of the Soviet Union.
* T-72: The main tank up from the 1970s up to the collapse of the [[Soviet Union]] in their western military districts. The poor performance of export versions against tanks of the M1 Abrams generation has damaged its reputation, but Iraq proved its superiority over a comparable force of exported M60 Pattons in the Iran-Iraq War.
** In ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'', Kryten, rather annoyed at the fact that everyone else on the ship is in "Jane Austen World", enters the VR game. In this tank (the same prop from the Bond film in fact), he then proceeds to blow up the gazebo.
** The Iraqi Army's T-72s were eaten alive by the U.S., although that's hardly surprising. The T-72s were either cheap Soviet exports or inferior locally-built clones. Iraqi crews were poorly trained and inexperienced, and the U.S. enjoyed complete air superiority as well as the advantage of the M1A1 Abrams' fire control computer and thermal optics, which allowed it to fire accurately on the move, at night, in a sandstorm. Many Iraqi tanks were also using mild-steel penetrator ammunition rendered obsolete 30 years earlier, and some were even using training rounds with half the normal propellant charge.
** The Polish PT-90 is a modern tank based on the T-72 design.
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* ZSU-23-4 Shilka: A mobile anti-aircraft gun system (just as effective against "soft" ground targets), one of the best in the world due to progressive upgrades despite being first deployed over 45 years ago. Can easily be identified by its [[More Dakka|quad autocannons]].
* 9K22 Tunguska "Grison": The ZSU-23-4’s successor, combining a pair of 30mm autocannons with a surface-to-air missile system. It was designed specifically to shoot down heavily armored American aircraft like the A-10 and the AH-64 Apache that Shilka couldn't deal with.
* [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:Lun-class_ekranoplanclass ekranoplan|Lun-class ekranoplan, introduced in 1987]] - An ekranoplan is a ground effect vehicle, meaning it hovers above the water. The Lun is gigantic, about the size of the Spruce Goose, and had 6 missile launchers. It flew over the ocean very fast and below radar. Because of budget cuts and the collapse of the Soviet Union, they never went into wide use. The Soviet Union's Crowning Moment of Awesome.
 
The Soviet Union was really into military parades and flypasts- Moscow's airspace is barred from access totally except for them, frequently having nuclear-capable missiles going through Red Square on events like Victory Day (9 May - the end of the [[Great Patriotic War]] in Europe for Eastern Europe due to time zone differences). This tradition of parading hardware, which allowed Western analysts to look at new Soviet tech (although the Soviets didn't say what stuff was called), was discontinued in 1991, but resumed with [[Tricolours With Rusting Rockets|the Russian military]] in 2008.
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'''Communism's A Gas: Chemical and Biological Weapons'''
 
The Soviet Union had a considerable chemical weapons programme, including such lovely stuff as VX nerve agent, although little information was available during the [[Cold War]]. The U.S. and USSR signed an agreement in 1990 to dismantle the stockpiles, a process that is still ongoing. An incapacitating agent, possibly [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:KOLOKOL-1 |KOLOKOL-1]], would later be used by Russian forces during the 2002 Moscow theatre siege, to disastrous effect.
 
The Soviet Union also had a biological weaponry programme, including weaponised versions of smallpox and anthrax, conducted by Biopreparat, a "civilian" agency. There were at least two major accidental releases of these, most famously the 1979 Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Sverdlovsk_anthrax_leak:Sverdlovsk anthrax leak|anthrax leak]]. At least 105 died in that incident, with precise figures unknown as a large-scale cover-up was performed to hide poor Soviet health care and major violations of the Biological Weapons Convention.
 
Both of these programmes are popular sources of a [[Weapon of Mass Destruction]].
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'''Girls Just Wanna Shoot Fascists'''
 
The female Soviet officer is cited in [[The Baroness]] and we note also the example of Major Anya Amasova from ''[[The Spy Who Loved Me (Film)|The Spy Who Loved Me]]'', although she's actually a KGB agent (and a bad [[Fake Russian]], but let's not quibble here). When the chips were down and the Nazis were at the Gates, the women chipped in. Women flew combat and the only two female aces in the world were both Soviet (a fact noted by an American character in ''[[Red Storm Rising]]'', mentally complaining that she's merely doing ferrying duty while the men were fighting, who then proceeds to become number three). 89 of them became Heroes Of The Soviet Union.
 
[http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyudmila_Pavlichenko:Lyudmila Pavlichenko|Lyudmila Pavlichenko]] was a famous female sniper, who was eventually pulled from the front line when she became too well-known and used for propaganda purposes. She had more confirmed kills than the above-mentioned Zaytsev.
 
They also fought in the front line- a number being snipers- and performed other vital tasks.
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* Order of Lenin- given for exemplary service, it was automatically awarded to those made Heroes of the Soviet Union.
** Given to [[James Bond (Filmfilm)|James Bond]] in ''[[A View to A Kill (Film)|A View to Aa Kill]]'' for saving the American microchip industry (and by extension because of espionage, the Soviet one as well). It's inaccurately stated he's the first non-Soviet to get one.
* Order of Suvorov- again for exceptional duty. Named after famous general Alexander Suvorov, responsible for the phrase "Train hard, fight easy".
** When [[Alias (TV series)|Sydney Bristow]] pretends to be a Russian officer, she's got a chunk of her equipment disguised as this, plus some other medals.
* Order of the Red Banner- a military award that could be given to both individuals and formations. It was given to three of the Soviet naval fleets, which meant the Northern Fleet was known as the Red Banner Northern Fleet.
** Satirised in ''Animal Farm'', with the Order of the ''Green'' Banner.
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'''The Soviet Military in Fiction'''
 
During the [[Cold War]], [[Reds Withwith Rockets]] were easily usable bad guys (often [[Mooks]] - they're positively churned through in a battle in ''[[The Living Daylights (Film)|The Living Daylights]]'') for Western media, although a few good ones could turn up (in an episode of ''[[MacGyver]]'', a Soviet soldier who Mac earlier spared lets him and two others leave Afghanistan). There are probably tonnes of Soviet and Russian examples with them as heroes.
 
Spetsnaz units have become legendary in popular culture, acquiring a reputation for brutality and being quite a cut above your average military member.
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* Pyotr Grigorenko in his memoirs (''In the underground you can meet only rats'') described a fight in Hungary when ''one soldier'' (already a veteran of WWI and general's bodyguard chosen for experience, but still) made a difference because he refused to replace his rifle (''probably'' Mosin, ironsights only) with SMG - he thought [[More Dakka]] was a trademark of [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy]], and had a chance to demonstrate this. The soldier chose a good position and proceeded to serenely pick off targets ''without misses and scoring only non-lethal called shots'' at a distance over 200 m, which was far too much for others - and SMG-rattling foes couldn't do anything about it other than to back off and take cover.
 
One of the few Western examples of the Soviet military as good guys is ''[[Enemy Atat the Gates]]'', which is set during the [[Second World War]], when the USSR [http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/ww2/ww47prt.html were good guys], at least compared to [[Those Wacky Nazis]] so to speak.
 
During the [[Red October]] era they coexisted (and fought) with [[Useful Notes/Russians With Rifles|Russians With Rifles]]. They won: rocket beats rifle, doesn't it? With the collapse of the USSR we now have [[Tricolours With Rusting Rockets]].
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