Spetsnaz, are special forces in many post-Soviet states. Historically, this term referred to the Soviet Union's Spetsnaz GRU, special operations units of the GRU, the main military intelligence service. Today it refers to special forces branches and task forces subordinate to ministries including defence, internal affairs, or emergency situations in countries that have inherited their special purpose units from the now-defunct Soviet security agencies.
A long-range reconnaissance patrol, or LRRP, is a small, well-armed reconnaissance team that patrols deep in enemy-held territory.
The Invasion of the Kuril Islands was the World War II Soviet military operation to capture the Kuril Islands from Japan in 1945. The invasion, part of the Soviet–Japanese War, was decided on when plans to land on Hokkaido were abandoned. The successful military operations of the Red Army at Mutanchiang and during the invasion of South Sakhalin created the necessary prerequisites for invasion of the Kuril Islands.
The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian strategic offensive operation or simply the Manchurian operation, began on 9 August 1945 with the Soviet invasion of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. It was the largest campaign of the 1945 Soviet–Japanese War, which resumed hostilities between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Empire of Japan after almost six years of peace. Since 1983, the operation has sometimes been called Operation August Storm after U.S. Army historian David Glantz used this title for a paper on the subject.
The German Instrument of Surrender was a legal document effecting the unconditional surrender of the remaining German armed forces to the Allies, and ended World War II in Europe; the signing took place at 22:43 CET on 8 May 1945 and the surrender took effect at 23:01 CET on the same day.
The Prague offensive was the last major military operation of World War II in Europe. The offensive was fought on the Eastern Front from 6 May to 11 May 1945. Fought concurrently with the Prague uprising, the offensive significantly helped the liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1945. The offensive was one of the last engagements of World War II in Europe and continued after Nazi Germany's unconditional capitulation on 8/9 May.
The Evacuation of Manchukuo occurred during the Soviet Red Army's invasion of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo as part of the wider Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation of August 1945.
The Russian commando frogmen, informally called "commando frogmen" in civilian media, are a Russian Naval Spetsnaz unit under operational subordination to the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). It is the special forces unit of the Russian Naval Infantry and is composed of highly trained and elite marines within the Naval Infantry. By virtue of belonging to the Russian Naval Infantry, frogmen fall under the Coastal Troops of the Russian Navy service arm. The Russian Navy proper does not field any special forces or special operations units. Russian FSB special forces Alpha Group and Vympel also have frogman units in their respective naval components.
The Northern Front was a front of the Red Army during the Second World War.
The Vyborg–Petrozavodsk offensive or Karelian offensive was a strategic operation by the Soviet Leningrad and Karelian Fronts against Finland on the Karelian Isthmus and East Karelia fronts of the Continuation War, on the Eastern Front of World War II. The Soviet forces captured East Karelia and Vyborg/Viipuri. After that, however, the fighting reached a stalemate.
Pyotr Petrovich Vershigora or Petro Petrovych Vershyhora was one of the leaders of the Soviet partisan movement in Ukraine, Belarus and Poland and later a writer.
Cargo 200 is a 2007 Russian neo-noir thriller film directed by Aleksei Balabanov depicting the late Soviet society. The action is set during the culmination of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1984. The movie's title Cargo 200 refers to the zinc coffins in which dead Soviet soldiers were shipped home. The movie was said to be based on a true story. It received generally positive reviews from critics.
Ivan Sidorovich Lazarenko was a Red Army major general and a posthumous Hero of the Soviet Union.
During World War II, the Lapland War saw fighting between Finland and Nazi Germany – effectively from September to November 1944 – in Finland's northernmost region, Lapland. Though the Finns and the Germans had been fighting together against the Soviet Union since 1941 during the Continuation War (1941–1944), peace negotiations between the Finnish government and the Allies of World War II had been conducted intermittently during 1943–1944, but no agreement had been reached. The Moscow Armistice, signed on 19 September 1944, demanded that Finland break diplomatic ties with Germany and expel or disarm any German soldiers remaining in Finland.
The Battle of Tali–Ihantala was part of the Finnish-Soviet Continuation War (1941–1944), which occurred during World War II. The battle was fought between Finnish forces—using war materiel provided by Germany—and Soviet forces. To date, it is the largest battle in the history of the Nordic countries.
Viktor Nikolayevich Leonov was a Soviet Navy officer and twice Hero of the Soviet Union. Considered a legend in the Soviet era after the war, he frequently gave speeches to Communist organizations about the war, but he became obscure after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The White Guard is a Russian television series that based on Mikhail Bulgakov's novel, The White Guard.
Nina Timofeevna Gnilitskaya was a soldier and reconnaissance scout in the 465th Separate Motorized Rifle Reconnaissance Company of the 383rd Rifle Division in the 18th Army on the Southern Front during World War II. After fighting to death in a gunfight against German soldiers when they discovered her hiding place she became the only woman reconnaissance scout in the Red Army to be awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union after the Supreme Soviet posthumously awarded her the title on 31 March 1943.
The Seishin Operation, also called Chongjin Landing Operation, was an amphibious assault on northern Korea between 13–17 August 1945, carried out by the forces of the Soviet Northern Pacific Flotilla of the Pacific Fleet during the Soviet–Japanese War at the end of World War II.
Operation Cowboy was fought in the town of Hostau, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, on 28 April 1945, in the last days of fighting in the European theater of World War II. It is one of two known incidents during the war in which Americans and Germans of the Wehrmacht fought side by side against the Waffen-SS, the other being the Battle of Castle Itter.
