Army General (Soviet rank)

This article is about the Soviet rank "Army general", equivalent to the Russian Federation's General army (Russia). For the equivalent OF9-rank in anglophone countries, see General.

Army general (Russian: генерал армии, romanized: general armii) was a rank of the Soviet Union which was first established in June 1940 as a high rank for Red Army generals, inferior only to the marshal of the Soviet Union. In the following 51 years the Soviet Union created 133 generals of the army, 32 of whom were later promoted to the rank of marshal of the Soviet Union. It is a direct counterpart of the Russian Federation's "Army general" rank.

Army general генерал армии general armii
Small marshal's star
Uniform shoulder strap (1974—1991)
Country	Soviet Union
Service branch	Army
Formation	June 1940
Abolished	December 1991
Next higher rank	Marshal of the Soviet Union
Next lower rank	Colonel general
Equivalent ranks	Marshal of the branch Chief marshal of the branch Admiral of the fleet

Promotion

The rank was usually given to senior officers of the Ministry of Defence and General Staff, and also to meritorious military district commanders. From the 1970s, it was also frequently given to the heads of the KGB and the Ministry of the Interior.

Soviet army generals include Ivan Chernyakhovsky (the youngest Soviet World War II front commander, killed in East Prussia), Aleksei Antonov (head of the General Staff in the closing stages of World War II, awarded the Order of Victory), Issa Pliyev (an Ossetian-born World War II commander who played a major role in the Cuban Missile Crisis) and Yuri Andropov (who held the rank as head of the KGB).

The Soviet rank of army general is equivalent to the UK and US ranks of general; Soviet and current Russian rank systems also have a marshal rank.

The corresponding naval rank is fleet admiral, which has been used in both the Soviet and Russian navies, although conferred much more rarely.

Army general was used for the infantry and marines, but in the air force, artillery, armoured troops, engineer troops and signal troops the ranks of marshal of the branch and chief marshal of the branch were used.

Versions of rank insignia

Звание	USSR Red Army				Soviet Army / Soviet Armed Forces
Gorget patch chevron shoulderboard
	Komandarm 1st rank (1935—1940)			gorget patch everyday uniform (1940—1943)	shoulderboard field uniform (1943—1955)	... dress (1943—1955)	... dress (1955—1974)	... dress (1974—1991)

See also

• Russian military ranks
• Fleet Admiral (Soviet rank)
• Army general (Russia)
• Ranks and insignia of the Soviet Armed Forces 1943–1955, and 1955–1991
• Ranks and insignia of the Russian Federation's armed forces 1994–2010

References