The General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation () is the military staff of the

Russian Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military of Russia. They are organized into three service branches—the Russian Ground Forces, Ground Forces, Russian Navy, Navy, and Russi ...

. It is the central organ of the military command of the Armed Forces Administration and oversees operational command of the armed forces under the Russian Ministry of Defence. As of 2012, the Chief of the General Staff is General of the Army

Valery Gerasimov Valery Vasilyevich Gerasimov (born 8 September 1955) is a Russian Army general (Russia), army general serving as the Chief of the General Staff (Russia), Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and First Deputy Ministry of Defen ...

and since 2014, the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff is

Colonel General Colonel general is a military rank used in some armies. It is particularly associated with Germany, where historically General officer#Old European system, general officer ranks were one grade lower than in the Commonwealth and the United States, ...

Nikolay Bogdanovsky. The General Staff Building is located in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

at Znamenka Street 19 in the Arbat District. Together with the Main Building of the Ministry of Defense and several Staff directorate office buildings nearby, it forms the so-called "Arbat military district" as it is often referred to among the military personnel to outline the highest supreme command of the Russian Armed Forces.

History

The General Staff's history dates back to its creation as early as 25 January 1763 during the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. The Day of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is celebrated annually on 25 January, even though the current Russian General Staff was established at a different date. The General Staff of Imperial Russia then became the in 1918 before being succeeded by the present Staff. In the

Soviet Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also known as the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, the Red Army (1918–1946) and the Soviet Army (1946–1991), were the armed forces of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republi ...

, the General Staff acted as the main commanding and supervising body of the military. A

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

Staff first formed in 1921 but, historian John Erickson says, until 1924 developed into an unwieldy grouping dealing with combat training, routine Red Army affairs, and defence policy, all without real definition. Erickson dates the development of the Staff as the Soviet "military brain" from Mikhail Frunze's appointment to the post of Chief of Staff by Order No.78 of 1 April 1924. 'From this date.. the history of the Soviet General Staff – as it was to become – begins'. On 22 September 1935, the authorities renamed the RKKA Staff as the General Staff, which essentially reincarnated the General Staff of the

. Many of the former RKKA Staff officers had served as General Staff officers in the Russian Empire and became General Staff officers in the USSR. General Staff officers typically had extensive combat experience and solid academic training. William Odom wrote: During the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

, the Soviet General Staff maintained Soviet plans for the invasion of Western Europe, whose massive scale was made known secretly to the West by spies such as Ryszard Kukliński and later published by German researchers working with the

National People's Army The National People's Army (, ; NVA ) were the armed forces of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (DDR) from 1956 until 1990. The NVA was organized into four branches: the (Ground Forces), the (Navy), the (Air Force) and the (Bord ...

files, and the ''Parallel History Project'' and the associated Polish exercise documents, '' Seven Days to the River Rhine'' (1979). The Main Military Scientific Directorate of the General Staff was formed in accordance with an order of the Minister of the Armed Forces of March 22, 1949 (since 1953 - the Military Scientific Directorate of the General Staff).

In 1978, the Military Scientific Directorate was disbanded, and the management of scientific work in the Armed Forces was carried out by the Directorate of Operational Training and Military Scientific Work of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff. In 1985, the Military Scientific Directorate was re-established.

Since the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

and especially since 2004 the General Staff and the Russian Ministry of Defence have attempted to divide direction of the armed forces between them, often in intense bouts of bureaucratic disagreement. It has been reported that the General Staff's main role now is that of the Russian Ministry of Defence's department of strategic planning, and the Minister of Defence himself is now gaining executive authority over the troops. This is, however, contradicted by some Russian commentators and defence analysts. Pavel Felgenhauer
"Russia's Imperial General Staff"
''Perspective'', Volume XVI Number 1 (October–November 2005) Defence Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov who initiated the 2008 military reform, in order for separation of operational and administrative functions, the Ministry of Defense formed two functional lines of responsibility: the first was planning the use and construction of the Armed Forces, the second was planning the comprehensive support of troops (forces). The transition to a three-tier principle of responsibility was conducted: the main commands of the branches and formations were responsible for combat training, and the General Staff, joint strategic commands and formations were responsible for operational training. As a result of the transformations carried out, the General Staff was freed from duplicate functions and became a full-fledged strategic planning body that organizes and exercises control of the Armed Forces in fulfilling the assigned tasks.

General Staff organization

Valery Gerasimov official photo version 2022-10-03

Commemorative Decoration 250 Years of the General Staff

''As of September 2015:'' * Main Directorate of CommunicationsRF MOD website www.mil.ru * Main Operational Directorate * Main Intelligence Directorate - ''GRU (G.U.)'' * Main Organizational and Mobilization Directorate * Main Command – Ground Forces * Main Command –

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

* Main Command – Air Forces * Aerospace Defense Command – Space Forces and Air and Missile Defense Forces * Strategic Rocket Forces Command * Directorate of the Chief of Electronic Warfare Troops * Main Missile and Artillery Directorate - ''GRAU'' * Military Topographical Directorate * Main Computation Centre of the General Staff *

Airborne Forces Airborne forces are ground combat units carried by aircraft and airdropped into battle zones, typically by parachute drop. Parachute-qualified infantry and support personnel serving in airborne units are also known as paratroopers. The main ...

Command *

Special Operations Forces Special forces or special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

Command () - ''KSSO'' (2012 – present) * National Defense Management Center * Operational Training Directorate * 8th Directorate * Troop service and safety of military service Directorate * Directorate of the Chief of the Construction and Development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle systems * Directorate of the Chief of the Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Defense Troops * Directorate of the Chief of Engineering Troops * Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research * Central Command Post * Hydrometeorological Service

References

*

Improved version of 2004 work with many inaccuracies corrected. *

External links

* Dr. S. J. Main
The "Brain" of the Russian Army: The Centre for Military-Strategic Research, General Staff, 1985–2000
Conflict Studies Research Centre, UK MOD. {{coord, 55, 45, 02, N, 37, 36, 10, E, region:RU_type:landmark_source:kolossus-ruwiki, display=title Staff (military) Military of the Soviet Union Military installations in Moscow Military headquarters in Russia Buildings and structures in Moscow Government buildings completed in 1985 Joint military headquarters Arbat District

History

General Staff organization

References

Further reading

External links