Talk:Russian Ground Forces

Whats the correct size of the army?

Just few days ago, I saw the strength as almost 400000 personnel, but now it has drastically decreased to 258000. Are the sources right? SReader21 (talk) 20:42, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

IISS is generally considered to be among the most reliable. The previous source may have been inflated. Garuda28 (talk) 01:44, 29 April 2021 (UTC)

Putin onwards

The section on 'reforms under Putin' needs to be re-written in the past tense as it currently treats 2007 as the present day. Firestar47 (talk) 15:14, 9 May 2021 (UTC)

All the former divisions are still being referred to as divisions having been turned into brigades years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Divisions_of_Russia

All such articles need to be updated and renamed. Russian military is no longer based on divisions and it didn't happen yesterday. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 5.173.116.215 (talk) 16:37, 16 July 2021 (UTC)

Well that is wrong, since at least 2014 some division are reactivated for example the 2nd Guards Motor Rifle Division, 19th Motor Rifle Division etc. In many articles about divisions you can see when and how are reactivated, as I said at least since 2014, so some were brigades indeed but just for one short period of time before reactivated or back to divison size/name. Nubia86 (talk) 22:42, 20 July 2021 (UTC)

Just checked several of these articles. The brigade names are practically never bolded out, and the lead summaries almost never mention them (and also they almost never even actually summarize the articles at all, for that matter). --5.173.57.214 (talk) 01:59, 26 July 2021 (UTC)

Russian Ground Force

Moved from my tp

The Russian Army reserve was 330,000 as of last year, and it said 670,000 for Active in the personnel section. And Russia spends 69-98 Billion on the military. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2603:7080:4E43:1B00:E5AD:75C9:8149:BC71 (talk) 18:06, 7 August 2021 (UTC)

Comments regarding article content belong on the article talk page. If you are going to add or change content, those changes must be supported by reliable sourcing. Along with the notices on your talk page, there are now also 'welcome' templates. I suggest you read through them, and the links they contain, there is a great deal of useful information there for new and/or inexperienced users. Lastly, please sign your comments. Thank you - wolf 18:18, 7 August 2021 (UTC)

Tensions? It’s a war.Stormj (talk) 21:36, 26 February 2022 (UTC)

Ethnic composition of the Russian army

This page does not inform aabout geographic/ethnic composition of the army. According to https://therussianreader.com/2022/05/23/buryats-russian-world/ Dagestan and Buryatia people are overrepresented. Xx236 (talk) 07:19, 10 June 2022 (UTC)

I think you should be able to edit the article Chidgk1 (talk) 17:32, 3 March 2023 (UTC)

Notes from Jane's Defence Weekly, December 2003

• Salaries were generally paid on time from 2001-2003, while contract soldiers' pay increased over 70% over that time.
• Many officer families lack adequate accommodation, while the positive effect of pay increases has been offset by the withdrawal of social benefits at the same time.
• From Fiscal Year 2002 all military personnel have to pay income tax.
• It was planned as of the time of writing (17 Dec 2003) that at least 50% of all servicemen and sergeants will be under contracts by 2007. (all p27)
• The MOD plans to transfer 147,000 personnel across the entire armed forces to contract service, for which Rb80 billion ($2.69 billion) would be required.
• Hoped that moving to contract armed forces would overcome conscription problems. 35% of armed forces' recruits discharged for health reasons annually; 1,800 conscripts "on the run" and "on the wanted list" according to the MOD.
• As of 2003 one-third of all armed forces' officers did not have apartments of their own.
• In 2002 29,000 flats were handed over to servicemen, leaving 160,000 servicemen's families on waiting lists with a similar number of ex-servicemen. Both figures across entire armed forces (all p25). Buckshot06 (talk) 21:44, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

Mark Hertling on Soviet-designed tanks

• @Buckshot06 You shouldn't just include the part of a quote you like/agree with, when quoting someone, quote them in full. See MOS:PMC. TylerBurden (talk) 11:43, 24 April 2023 (UTC)

If that is the rule, I will follow it. But do you understand the point? This is a US tank general with decades in the US Army, commenting on the way he sees Soviet tanks. They stem from a completely different design philosophy - especially, low height, to minimize sight by the enemy and thus risk. If you took a Russian general and showed him around a US tank, in contrast, they might well have said, there's all this wasted space, and (partially) because of that, the tank is too high, too easy to see - too vulnerable. The M1 Abrams has had its silhouette criticised for this precise reason. Buckshot06 (talk) 23:25, 24 April 2023 (UTC)

@Buckshot06 I can understand where you're coming from, but Wikipedia is just meant to reflect what reliable sources say, and quotes in particular need to be as accurate as possible. After all, the article isn't stating that the tank is objectively cramped, just including Hertling's thoughts on it. TylerBurden (talk) 14:13, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

March section in info box could do with reformatting

It is currently "Forward, infantry! Вперёд, пехота!" all on one line, since one is simply the translation of the other, at the very least it should be split across two.

Or instead have some note explaining that "Forward, infantry!" is the English translation. DoorOpensCloses (talk) 10:57, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 6 July 2024

Add the war in Kosovo and by extent the Incident at Pristina Airport to the list of Russian Ground Forces engagements. CrazyFruitBat911 (talk) 13:21, 6 July 2024 (UTC)

Great idea CrazyFruitBat911!! Should have thought of that myself!! Kosovo War. Incident at Pristina airport Buckshot06 (talk) 06:25, 8 July 2024 (UTC)

Thanks! CrazyFruitBat911 (talk) 17:11, 9 July 2024 (UTC)

I am aware of this and I will get to it; I just need to collect some referenced text to add into the article. Buckshot06 (talk) 02:31, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

great idea, thanks for helping bring the knowledge into the public eye! CrazyFruitBat911 (talk) 19:43, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

Dear CrazyFruitBat911, this was the 1st Separate Airborne Brigade (something that maybe I ought to have more clearly remembered). See the recent changes to Russian Airborne Forces. Buckshot06 (talk) 12:10, 14 July 2024 (UTC)

Ah, I didn't realise that. Thanks for the clarification and sorry for the confusion! CrazyFruitBat911 (talk) 17:42, 14 July 2024 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 8 August 2024

To fix a bare URL, please change

<ref>https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000017d-a0bd-dca7-a1fd-b1bd6cb10000 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211210003833/https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000017d-a0bd-dca7-a1fd-b1bd6cb10000 |date=10 December 2021 }} {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref>

to

<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000017d-a0bd-dca7-a1fd-b1bd6cb10000 |title=Russia builds up forces on Ukrainian border |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=9 December 2021 |website=Politico |publisher=Jane’s Group UK Limited |access-date=8 August 2024 |quote= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211210003833/https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000017d-a0bd-dca7-a1fd-b1bd6cb10000 |archive-date=10 December 2021}}</ref>

Beagall (talk) 23:40, 8 August 2024 (UTC)

 Done MadGuy7023 (talk) 07:20, 9 August 2024 (UTC)

Times story, 16-17 December 2022

Additional newspaper story on extent of corruption amongst the base maintenance organs of the Russian Ground Forces, here regarding the camp of the 4th Guards Tank Division " “Russia drew a lot of lessons from the Georgia war and started to rebuild their armed forces, but they built a new Potemkin village,” said Gintaras Bagdonas, the former head of Lithuania’s military intelligence. Much of the modernization drive was “just pokazukha,” he said, using a Russian term for window-dressing.

Contractors like Sergei Khrabrykh, a former Russian Army captain, were recruited into the stagecraft. He said he got a panicked call in 2016 from a deputy defense minister. A delegation of officials was scheduled to tour a training base of one of Russia’s premier tank units, the Kantemirovskaya Tank Division, whose history dates to the victories of World War II.

Billions of rubles had been allocated for the base, Mr. Khrabrykh said, but most of the money was gone and virtually none of the work had been done. He said the minister begged him to transform it into a modern-looking facility before the delegation arrived.

“They needed to be guided around the territory and shown that the Kantemirovskaya Division was the coolest,” Mr. Khrabrykh said. He was given about $1.2 million and a month to do the job.

As he toured the base, Mr. Khrabrykh was stunned by the dilapidation. The Ministry of Defense had hailed the tank division as a unit that would defend Moscow in case of a NATO invasion. But the barracks were unfinished, with debris strewn across the floors, large holes in the ceiling and half-built cinder-block walls, according to photos Mr. Khrabrykh and his colleagues took. A tangle of electrical wires hung from a skinny pole.

“Just about everything was destroyed,” he said. The interior of a tank base building. Sergei Khrabrykh The same base after work was done to cover up its state. Sergei Khrabrykh

Before the delegation arrived, Mr. Khrabrykh said, he quickly constructed cheap facades and hung banners, covered in pictures of tanks and boasting the army was “stronger and sturdier year by year,” to disguise the worst of the decay. On the tour, he said, the visitors were guided along a careful route through the best-looking part of the base — and kept away from the bathrooms, which had not been repaired.

After the invasion started, the Kantemirovskaya Division pressed into northeastern Ukraine, only to be ravaged by Ukrainian forces. Crews limped away with many of their tanks abandoned or destroyed.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Buckshot06 (talk • contribs) 19:57, 12 August 2024 (UTC)

@Buckshot06 This is the talk page, did you mean to add this text to the article? TylerBurden (talk) 20:51, 12 August 2024 (UTC)

No. I meant to make this additional resource available to those who wish to use it to expand the article. It cannot be added to the article en bloc because it would be too much of a quote from the NYT. You will note that on many other talkpages there are lots of resource texts that are in a halfway stage before being added in extract to the main article. Buckshot06 (talk) 21:02, 12 August 2024 (UTC)

Great emblem

@TylerBurden: All other types and branches of the Russian military (Air, Navy, Rocket, Airborne) have great emblems on their Wikipedia pages, and for some reason only the Ground Forces have a medium emblem. AlexTref871 (talk) 06:13, 12 August 2024 (UTC)

@AlexTref871 They don't all need to use the same type of emblem, from what I can see the medium emblem is more widely used for the Russian Ground Forces, thus it makes more sense to display it on top here. Do you have a source on that not being the case? TylerBurden (talk) 19:31, 12 August 2024 (UTC)

Slight grammatical error

In the "Personnel" section of the article, on the last line of the section, there is a line that says that "The Russian army is to replenished by 400,000 contract servicemen, starting 1 April 2023." This is clearly just a very little grammatical error but it needs to be corrected. CrazyFruitBat911 (talk) 20:23, 5 October 2024 (UTC)

CFB911 I have been aware of that phrasing for a long time. It points towards the tendency of military personnel planners to treat humans as interchangeable mechanical units, perhaps clearest in our military tradition in the U.S. infantry replacements of the Second World War. I will only change it now to something like "it was planned that the Ground Forces was to be replenished in numbers by a total of 400,000.." Buckshot06 (talk) 08:59, 6 October 2024 (UTC)

Thank you CrazyFruitBat911 (talk) 09:29, 6 October 2024 (UTC)