part_of southern front 
An ___MASK20___ group is a ___MASK10___ organization consisting of several field armies , which is self - sufficient for indefinite periods . It is usually responsible for a particular geographic area . An ___MASK20___ group is the largest field organization handled by a single commander  usually a full general or field marshal  and it generally includes between 400 , 000 and 1 , 000 , 000 soldiers . The ___MASK10___ , also called the ___MASK34___ , are forces authorized to use deadly force , and weapons , to support the interests of the state and some or all of its citizens . The task of the ___MASK10___ is usually defined as defense of the state and its citizens , and the prosecution of war against another state . The ___MASK10___ may also have additional sanctioned and non - sanctioned functions within a ___MASK1___ , including , the promotion of a political agenda , protecting corporate economic interests , internal population control , construction , emergency services , social ceremonies , and guarding important areas . The ___MASK10___ can also function as a discrete subculture within a larger civil ___MASK1___ , through the development of separate infrastructures , which may include housing , schools , utilities , food production and banking . ___MASK10___ occupation is effective provisional control by a certain ruling power over a territory which is not under the formal sovereignty of that entity , without the volition of the actual sovereign . ___MASK10___ occupation is distinguished from annexation by its intended temporary nature ( i . e . no claim for permanent sovereignty ), by its ___MASK10___ nature , and by citizenship rights of the controlling power not being conferred upon the subjugated population . The ___MASK93___ is the name given to the main land - based branch of the Soviet ___MASK34___ between February 1946 and ___MASK64___ 1991 , when it was replaced with the ___MASK27___ Ground Forces , although it was not taken fully out of service until 25 ___MASK64___ 1993 . Until 25 February 1946 , it was known as the ___MASK91___ , established by decree on 15 ( 28 ) January 1918 " to protect the population , territorial integrity and civil liberties in the territory of the Soviet state ." It had 2 . 4 million men under its service during the Cold War . ___MASK38___ ( often abbreviated to WWII or WW2 ), also known as the Second World ___MASK61___ , was a global ___MASK61___ that lasted from 1939 to 1945 , although related conflicts began earlier . It involved the vast majority of the world ' s nations  including all of the great powers  eventually forming two opposing ___MASK10___ alliances : the Allies and the Axis . It was the most widespread ___MASK61___ in ___MASK30___ , and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries . In a state of " total ___MASK61___ ", the major participants threw their entire economic , industrial , and scientific capabilities behind the ___MASK61___ effort , erasing the distinction between civilian and ___MASK10___ resources . Marked by mass deaths of civilians , including the Holocaust ( in which approximately 11 million people were killed ) and the strategic bombing of industrial and population centres ( in which approximately one million were killed , and which included the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ), it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities . These made ___MASK38___ the deadliest conflict in human ___MASK30___ . The Workers ' and Peasants ' ___MASK91___ (: RKKA , frequently shortened in Russian to ; KA , in English : ___MASK91___ also in critical literature and folklore of that epoch - Red Horde , Army of Work ) was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , and after 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics . The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution ( Red October or Bolshevik Revolution ). The Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations ( especially the various groups collectively known as the White Army ) of their adversaries during the Russian Civil War . Beginning in February 1946 , the ___MASK91___ , along with the Soviet Navy , embodied the main component of the Soviet Armed Forces ; taking the official name of " Soviet Army ", until its dissolution in December 1991 . Romania is a ___MASK76___ located in Southeastern ___MASK95___ . It borders the Black ___MASK23___ , Bulgaria , Ukraine , Hungary , Serbia , and Moldova . It has an area of and a temperate - continental climate . With 19 . 94 million inhabitants , the country is the seventh - most - populous member state of the ___MASK18___ . The capital and largest city , Bucharest , with its 1 , 883 , 425 inhabitants is the sixth - largest city in the EU . The Ground Forces of the ___MASK27___ Federation are the land forces of the Armed Forces of the ___MASK27___ Federation , formed from parts of the collapsing Soviet Army in 1992 . The formation of these forces posed economic challenges after the dissolution of the Soviet Union , and required reforms to professionalize the force during the transition . Russia ( from the  Rus '), also officially known as the ___MASK27___ Federation , is a country in Eurasia . At , Russia is the largest country in the world by surface area , covering more than one - eighth of the Earth ' s inhabited land area , and the ninth most populous , with over 140 million people at the end of March 2016 . The European western part of the country is much more populated and urbanised than the eastern , about 77 % of the population live in ___MASK62___ . Russia ' s capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world , other major urban centers include Saint Petersburg , Novosibirsk , Yekaterinburg , Nizhny Novgorod and Samara . The ___MASK28___ , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( USSR " ) was a socialist ___MASK9___ in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991 . A union of multiple subnational republics , its ___MASK4___ and economy were highly centralized . The ___MASK28___ was a one - party federation , governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital . Bessarabia (; " Bessarabiya "; " Besarabiya ") is a historical region in Eastern ___MASK95___ , bounded by the Dniester ___MASK16___ on the east and the Prut ___MASK16___ on the west . Today Bessarabia is mostly occupied by modern - day Moldova , with the Ukrainian Budjak region covering the southern coastal region and part of the Ukrainian Chernivtsi Oblast covering a small area in the north . The ___MASK50___ was a state of political and military tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc ( the Soviet Union and its satellite states ) and powers in the Western Bloc ( the United States , its NATO allies and others ). Historians do not fully agree on the dates , but a common timeframe is the period ( the second half of the 20th century ) between 1947 , the year the Truman Doctrine ( a U . S . policy pledging to aid nations threatened by Soviet expansionism ) was announced , and 1991 , the year the Soviet Union collapsed . The Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina was the ___MASK10___ occupation of the formerly Romanian regions of Bessarabia , Northern Bukovina , and Hertza by the Soviet ___MASK91___ during June 28  July 4 , 1940 . These regions , with a total area of and a population of 3 , 776 , 309 inhabitants , were subsequently incorporated into the USSR . The Caucasus or Caucasia is a region at the border of ___MASK95___ and ___MASK99___ , situated between the Black and the Caspian seas . The Soviet ___MASK34___ , also called the ___MASK34___ of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and ___MASK34___ of the ___MASK28___ ( ___MASK27___ :       " Vooruzhonnyye Sily Soyuza Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik ",     ) refers to the armed forces of the ___MASK27___ SFSR ( 1917  1922 ), and ___MASK28___ ( 1922  1991 ) from their beginnings in the aftermath of the ___MASK27___ Civil War to its dissolution in December 1991 . The Southern Front was a Front -- a roughly ___MASK20___ group sized formation -- of the ___MASK93___ during the Second World War . The Southern Front directed ___MASK10___ operations during the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina in 1940 , and then was formed twice after the June 1941 German invasion , Operation Barbarossa . During the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina in 1940 , the Soviets deployed three armies ( 12th , 5th and 9th ) . Altogether the Soviet Southern Front opposing Bessarabia and Bukovina consisted of 32 ( or 31 ) rifle divisions , 2 ( or 3 ) motorised rifle divisions , 6 cavalry divisions , 11 tank brigades , 3 airborne brigades ( one in reserve ) , 14 corp ' s artillery regiments , 16 artillery regiments of the Main Reserve Command and 4 heavy artillery divisions . In numbers this would be around 460 , 000 men , ca . 12 , 000 guns and mortars , ca . 3 , 000 tanks and 2 , 160 aircraft . A code ___MASK25___ or cryptonym is a ___MASK49___ or ___MASK25___ used , sometimes clandestinely , to refer to another ___MASK25___ , ___MASK49___ , project or person . Names are often used for ___MASK10___ purposes , or in espionage . They may also be used in industrial counter - industrial espionage to protect secret projects and the like from business rivals , or to give names to projects whose marketing ___MASK25___ has not yet been determined . Another reason for the use of names and phrases in the ___MASK10___ is that they transmit with a lower level of cumulative errors over a walkie - talkie or radio link than actual names . Nazi Germany is the common ___MASK74___ name for the period in German ___MASK30___ from 1933 to 1945 , when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party ( NSDAP ). Under Hitler ' s rule , Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over nearly all aspects of life . The official name of the state was " Deutsches Reich " from 1933 to ___MASK92___ and " Großdeutsches Reich " (" Greater German Reich ") from ___MASK92___ to 1945 . The period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period ( abbreviated as " NS - Zeit "). The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945 , ending World War II in Europe . ___MASK24___ ( German : " Unternehmen Barbarossa ") was the code name for Nazi Germany ' s invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II , which was launched on Sunday 22 June 1941 . The operation was driven by an ideological desire to conquer the Western Soviet Union so that it could be repopulated by Germans , to use Slav labour for the war effort , to seize the oil resources in the Caucasus and to seize the grain supply in the Ukraine . Bukovina (" Bukovyna "; Hungarian : " Bukovina "; ___MASK52___ and Polish : " Bukowina "; see also other languages ) is a historical region in Central ___MASK95___ , divided between Romania and Ukraine , located on the northern slopes of the central Eastern Carpathians and the adjoining plains . Field marshal ( or field - marshal , abbreviated as FM ) is a very senior ___MASK10___ rank , ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks . Usually it is the highest rank in an army , and when it is , few ( if any ) persons are appointed to it . It is considered as a five - star rank ( OF - 10 ) in modern - ___MASK13___ ___MASK34___ in many countries . Ukraine ( tr . ) is a ___MASK76___ in Eastern ___MASK95___ , bordered by Russia to the east and northeast , Belarus to the northwest , Poland and Slovakia to the west , Hungary , Romania , and Moldova to the southwest , and the Black ___MASK23___ and ___MASK23___ of Azov to the south and southeast , respectively . Ukraine is currently in territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014 but which Ukraine and most of the international community recognise as Ukrainian . Including Crimea , Ukraine has an area of , making it the largest country entirely within ___MASK95___ and the 46th largest country in the world . It has a population of about 44 . 5 million , making it the 32nd most populous country in the world .