The Soviet Ground Forces, successor to the Red Army, the title changing in 1945, employed a wide range of different military formations.
Formations
Theatre of Military Operations (TV). Theatre of Military Operations (teatr voennykh deistvii, TVD): Strategic Directions were set up at the beginning and at the end of World War II. During the Second World War, six strategic direction headquarters existed as part of the Stavka: Main Command of Forces along the Western Direction (1941–42), replaced by Stavka representative role Main Command of Forces along the North Western Direction (1941), replaced by Stavka representative role. Commanded by Voroshilov. Chief command of the troops of the North Caucasus Direction (1941–42). Stavka ordered the creation of this command on 21 April 1942, and it included the Crimean Front; the Sevastopol' defensive area; the North Caucasus Military District; the Black Sea Fleet; the Azov Flotilla, two rifle divisions, two rifle brigades, and a cavalry corps of four cavalry divisions. Marshal Semyon Budyonny was appointed as the commander-in-chief. On 19 May 1942 the Stavka dissolved both the North Caucasus High Command and the Crimean Front, and a North Caucasus Front was formed in their place. Main Command of Forces along the South Western Direction (1941–42), replaced by Stavka representative role. Commanded by Semen Budenny. Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement (1942–45). A GKO order for the creation of the Central Headquarters [literally Staff] of the Partisan Movement (TsShPD) was issued on 30 May 1942. Hill identifies it as a Party rather than military organisation. Chief command of the Soviet troops in the Far East (1945) From 1979, new headquarters in the theatres of military operations were established: In their most modern form, High Commands for the TVDs were first reestablished in February 1979 for the Far East. Harrison wrote in the 2020s that the new command encompassed the Far East Military District and the Transbaikal Military District. An official military encyclopedia published after the Fall of the Soviet Union stated, said Harrison, that the Soviet Pacific Fleet, an air army, and an air defence corps were also operationally subordinated to the new formation; and that the high command "coordinated" with the armies of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Mongolia. The headquarters was set up at Ulan-Ude, near Lake Baikal. The RAND Corporation said in 1984 that the Soviet air and ground forces in Mongolia [subordinate to the Transbaikal Military District] and elements of the Mongolian Ground Forces and Mongolian Air Force were also at its disposal. In September 1984 three more High Commands were established: the Western (HQ Legnica, Military Unit Number 30172) and South-Western (HQ Kishinev), and Southern (HQ Baku). The experience of creating the main commands of the troops of directorates during the Great Patriotic War, when their improvised creation, as a rule, did not improve, and often worsened the leadership of the troops, was critically considered. The main task was to create a workable control system both in peacetime and in wartime. Despite the widespread reporting that the new High Commands would control both Soviet and allied forces, in a 1993 article Colonel General M.N. Tereschenko (:ru:Терещенко, Михаил Никитович), chief of staff and first deputy commander-in-chief of the Western High Command 1984–88, wrote that that the Western High Command was "only for Soviet forces." The new system was tested in the course of the Soyuz-83 operational-strategic exercises, when for the first time the headquarters of the main command in the Western theater of operations was expanded to its full staff. On 1 July 1991 the Western High Command moved to Smolensk. General of the Army Yury Maksimov (general) (:ru:Максимов, Юрий Павлович) was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Forces of the Southern High Command from September 1984 to July 1985. The Southern Direction's forces in total included the North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, and Turkestan MDs, five armies, five army corps (12th, 31st, 34th, 36th, and 42nd), the Caspian Flotilla, and the 12th and 19th Armies of the Soviet Air Defence Forces. Army General Mikhail Zaitsev was commander-in-chief of the Southern High Command from 1985–89, by which time he was thus supervising the Limited Contingent of Soviet Forces in Afghanistan (40th Army; air forces; forces of the Rear Services and special troops; and Border and KGB forces) as well. In 1986 the U.S. Department of Defense's Soviet Military Power identified ten continental and four oceanic TVDs, possibly better translated in modern terms as Theatres of Strategic Military Action.