part_of 102nd infantry division 
The ___MASK87___ is the name given to the main land - based branch of the Soviet ___MASK91___ between February 1946 and ___MASK98___ 1991 , when it was replaced with the ___MASK85___ Ground Forces , although it was not taken fully out of service until 25 ___MASK98___ 1993 . Until 25 February 1946 , it was known as the Red Army , 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 . The ___MASK58___ ( lit . " defence force ") was the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1946 . It consisted of the " Heer " ( army ), the " Kriegsmarine " ( navy ) and the " Luftwaffe " ( air force ). The designation " ___MASK58___ " for Nazi Germany ' s military replaced the previously used term , " Reichswehr " ( 1919  35 ), and was the manifestation of Nazi Germany ' s efforts to rearm the nation to a greater extent than the Treaty of Versailles permitted . The Battle of Königsberg , also known as the Königsberg Offensive , was one of the last operations of the East Prussian Offensive during ___MASK14___ . In four days of violent urban ___MASK35___ , Soviet forces of the 1st Baltic Front and the 3rd Belorussian Front captured the city of Königsberg  now Kaliningrad , Russia . The siege started in late January 1945 when the Soviets initially surrounded the city . There was heavy fighting for the overland connection between Königsberg and the port of Pillau , but by March 1945 Königsberg was hundreds of kilometres behind the main front line . The battle finished when the German garrison surrendered to the Soviets on 9 April after a three - ___MASK90___ assault made their position untenable . The ___MASK7___ ( literally " ___MASK2___ Maritime Fleet of the USSR ") was the naval arm of the Soviet ___MASK91___ . Often referred to as the Red Fleet , the ___MASK7___ was a large part of the Soviet Union ' s strategic plan in the event of a conflict with the United States , the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO ), or another conflict related to the Warsaw Pact . The influence of the ___MASK7___ played a large role in the ___MASK95___ , as the majority of conflicts centered on naval forces . A great power is a ___MASK1___ that is recognized as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale . Great powers characteristically possess ___MASK2___ and economic strength , as well as diplomatic and soft power influence , which may cause middle or small powers to consider the great powers ' opinions before taking actions of their own . International relations theorists have posited that great power status can be characterized into power capabilities , spatial aspects , and status dimensions . Strategic bombing is a ___MASK2___ strategy used in a total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale or its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of ___MASK2___ operations , or both . It is a systematically organized and executed attack from the air which can utilize strategic bombers , long - or medium - range missiles , or nuclear - armed fighter - bomber aircraft to attack targets deemed vital to the enemy ' s war - making capability . A ___MASK2___ alliance is an international agreement concerning national security , when the contracting parties promise to support each other in case of a crisis that has not been identified in advance . ___MASK2___ alliances differ from coalitions , as coalitions are formed for a crisis that are already known . ___MASK61___ ( from the Greek ': " hólos ", " whole " and " kaustós ", " burnt "), also referred to as the Shoah "' ( ___MASK32___ : , " HaShoah ", " the catastrophe "), was a genocide in which Adolf Hitler ' s Nazi Germany and its collaborators killed about six million Jews . The victims included 1 . 5 million children and represented about two - thirds of the nine million Jews who had resided in ___MASK17___ . Some definitions of the Holocaust include the additional five million non - Jewish victims of Nazi mass murders , bringing the total to about 11 million . Killings took place throughout Nazi Germany , German - occupied territories , and territories held by allies of Nazi Germany . Hiroshima is perhaps best known as the first ___MASK66___ in ___MASK4___ to be targeted by a nuclear weapon when the ___MASK64___ Air Forces ( USAAF ) dropped an atomic bomb on the ___MASK66___ ( and later on Nagasaki ) at 8 : 15 a . m . on August 6 , 1945 , near the end of World War II . ___MASK14___ ( often abbreviated to WWII or WW2 ), also known as the Second World ___MASK83___ , was a global ___MASK83___ 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 ___MASK2___ alliances : the Allies and the Axis . It was the most widespread ___MASK83___ in ___MASK4___ , and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries . In a state of " total ___MASK83___ ", the major participants threw their entire economic , industrial , and scientific capabilities behind the ___MASK83___ effort , erasing the distinction between civilian and ___MASK2___ 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 ___MASK14___ the deadliest conflict in human ___MASK4___ . Moscow ( or ) is the capital and most populous ___MASK66___ of Russia , with 12 . 2 million residents within ___MASK15___ limits and ___MASK25___ . 8 million within the urban area . Moscow has the status of a ___MASK85___ federal ___MASK66___ . The 102nd Infantry Division was a ___MASK53___ formation during ___MASK14___ . It served on the ___MASK77___ , fighting in the Rzhev salient and the Battle of Kursk . It met its end during the latter stages of the Soviet Red Army ' s East Prussian Offensive in 1945 . The Workers ' and Peasants ' ___MASK51___ (: RKKA , frequently shortened in ___MASK85___ to ; KA , in English : ___MASK51___ also in critical literature and folklore of that epoch - Red Horde , Army of Work ) was the army and the air force of the ___MASK85___ 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 ___MASK85___ Civil War . Beginning in February 1946 , the ___MASK51___ , 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 . The Battle of Prokhorovka was fought on 12 ___MASK69___ ___MASK94___ near Prokhorovka , southeast of Kursk , in the Soviet Union , during the Second World War . Taking place on the Eastern Front , the fighting was part of the wider Battle of Kursk , and occurred when the 5th Guards Tank Army of the Soviet Red Army attacked the II SS - Panzer Corps of the German ___MASK58___ in one of the largest tank battles in military history . The Battle of Kursk was a Second World ___MASK83___ engagement between German and Soviet forces on the ___MASK77___ near Kursk ( south - west of Moscow ) in the Soviet Union during July and ___MASK56___ ___MASK94___ . The German offensive was code - named Operation Citadel and led to one of the largest armoured clashes in history , the Battle of Prokhorovka . The German offensive was countered by two Soviet counter - offensives , Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev and Operation Kutuzov . For the Germans , the battle was the final strategic offensive that they were able to launch on the ___MASK77___ . Their extensive loss of men and tanks ensured that the victorious Soviet Red Army enjoyed the strategic initiative for the remainder of the war . In ___MASK19___ and ___MASK2___ planning , a war effort refers to a coordinated mobilization of ___MASK37___ ' s resources  both industrial and human  towards the support of a ___MASK2___ force . Depending on the militarization of the culture , the relative size of the ___MASK91___ and the ___MASK37___ supporting them , the style of government , and the popular support for the ___MASK2___ objectives , such war effort can range from a small industry to complete command of ___MASK37___ . The ___MASK34___ Revolution , officially known in the Soviet ___MASK23___ as the Great ___MASK34___ Socialist Revolution , and commonly referred to as Red ___MASK34___ , the ___MASK34___ Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution , was a seizure of state power instrumental in the larger ___MASK85___ Revolution of 1917 . It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd on 25 ___MASK34___ ( 7 November , New Style ) 1917 . Total ___MASK83___ is ___MASK35___ that includes any and all civilian - associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate ___MASK2___ targets , mobilizes all of the resources of ___MASK37___ to fight the ___MASK83___ , and gives priority to ___MASK35___ over non - combatant needs . The American - English Dictionary defines total ___MASK83___ as " ___MASK83___ that is unrestricted in terms of the weapons used , the territory or combatants involved , or the objectives pursued , especially one in which the laws of ___MASK83___ are disregarded ." ___MASK85___ Soviet Federative Socialist Republic ( ___MASK85___ SFSR or RSFSR ; ), commonly known as , was a sovereign state in 1917  22 and 1991 - 93 , the largest , most populous , and most economically developed republic of the Soviet Union in 1922  91 and a sovereign part of the Soviet Union with its own legislation in 1990  91 . The Republic comprised sixteen autonomous republics , five autonomous oblasts , ten autonomous okrugs , six krais , and forty oblasts . Russians formed the largest ethnic group . The capital of the ___MASK85___ SFSR was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad , Novosibirsk , Yekaterinburg , Nizhny Novgorod and Samara . The Bolsheviks , originally also Bolshevists or Bolsheviki ( derived from  " bol ' shinstvo ", " majority ", literally meaning " one of the majority ") were a faction of the Marxist ___MASK85___ Social Democratic Labour Party ( RSDLP ) which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903 . The RSDLP was a revolutionary socialist political party formed in 1898 in Minsk ( Belarus ) to unite the various revolutionary organisations of the ___MASK85___ Empire into one party . Kursk is a ___MASK66___ and the administrative ___MASK41___ of Kursk Oblast , Russia , located at the confluence of the Kur , Tuskar , and Seym Rivers . The area around Kursk was the site of a turning point in the Soviet  German struggle during ___MASK14___ and the site of the largest tank battle in ___MASK4___ . Population : The ___MASK85___ Civil War was a multi - party war in the former ___MASK85___ Empire immediately after the ___MASK85___ Revolutions of 1917 , as many factions vied to determine Russia ' s political future . The two largest combatant groups were the Red Army , fighting for the Bolshevik form of socialism , and the loosely allied forces known as the White Army , which included diverse interests favoring monarchism , capitalism and alternative forms of socialism , each with democratic and antidemocratic variants . In addition , rival militant socialists and nonideological Green armies fought against both the Bolsheviks and the Whites . Eight foreign nations intervened against the Red Army , notably the Allied Forces and the pro - German armies . The Red Army defeated the White Armed Forces of South Russia in Ukraine and the army led by Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak in Siberia in 1919 . The remains of the White forces commanded by Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel were beaten in Crimea and evacuated in late 1920 . Lesser battles of the war continued on the periphery for two more years , and minor skirmishes with the remnants of the White forces in the Far East continued well into 1923 . Armed national resistance in Central ___MASK86___ was not completely crushed until 1934 . There were an estimated 7 , 000 , 000 - 12 , 000 , 000 casualties during the war , mostly civilians . The ___MASK85___ Civil War has been described by some as the greatest national catastrophe that Europe had yet seen . The ___MASK77___ of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers and co - belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union , Poland and other Allies , which encompassed Northern , Southern and Central and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945 . It has been known as the Great Patriotic War (" Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voyna ") in the former Soviet Union and in modern Russia , while in Germany it was called the ___MASK77___ , the Eastern Campaign (" der Ostfeldzug ") the ___MASK85___ Campaign (" der Rußlandfeldzug "), or the German - Soviet War by outside parties . The United States dropped nuclear weapons on the ___MASK28___ cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on ___MASK56___ 6 and 9 , 1945 , respectively , during the final ___MASK18___ of World War II . The United States had dropped the bombs with the consent of the United Kingdom as outlined in the Quebec Agreement . The two bombings , which killed at least 129 , 000 people , remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history . During ___MASK14___ , the American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki made Nagasaki the second and , to date , last ___MASK66___ in the world to experience a nuclear attack . The East Prussian Offensive was a strategic offensive by the ___MASK51___ against the German " ___MASK58___ " on the Eastern Front ( World War II ). It lasted from 13 January to 25 April 1945 , though some German units did not surrender until 9 May . The Battle of Königsberg was a major part of the offensive , which ended in victory for the ___MASK51___ . Operation Kutuzov was a major offensive launched by the ___MASK51___ on 12 July ___MASK94___ , in the Central ___MASK85___ Upland , against Army Group Center of the German " ___MASK58___ ". The operation was named after General Mikhail Kutuzov , the ___MASK85___ general credited with saving Russia from Napoleon during the French invasion of Russia in 1812 . Operation Kutuzov was one of two large - scale Soviet operations launched as counteroffensives against Operation Citadel . The Operation began on 12 July and ended on 18 August ___MASK94___ with the capture of Orel and collapse of the Orel bulge . The Soviet ___MASK91___ , also called the ___MASK91___ of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and ___MASK91___ of the ___MASK30___ ( ___MASK85___ :       " Vooruzhonnyye Sily Soyuza Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik ",     ) refers to the armed forces of the ___MASK85___ SFSR ( 1917  1922 ), and ___MASK30___ ( 1922  1991 ) from their beginnings in the aftermath of the ___MASK85___ Civil War to its dissolution in December 1991 .