The Special Far Eastern Army, later the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army () was a

military formation Military organization ( AE) or military organisation ( BE) is the structuring of the armed forces of a state so as to offer such military capability as a national defense policy may require. Formal military organization tends to use hierarc ...

of the Red Army, active from 1929 to 1938 and under command of

Vasily Blyukher Vasily Konstantinovich Blyukher (; 1 December 1889 – 9 November 1938) was a Soviet military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union. In 1938, Blyukher was arrested during the period of military purges under Joseph Stalin. He was tortured an ...

. It was activated on 6 August 1929, originally with the 18th and

19th Rifle Corps The 19th Rifle Corps was a corps of the Soviet Red Army. The 1st Pacific Rifle Division was shifted into the 19th Rifle Corps of the Siberian Military District in June 1929 after the 5th Army (RSFSR), 5th Red Banner Army of the RSFSR was disband ...

assigned, in response to the

Sino-Soviet border conflict The Sino-Soviet border conflict, also known as the Sino-Soviet crisis, was a seven-month undeclared military conflict between the Soviet Union and China in 1969, following the Sino-Soviet split. The most serious border clash, which brought th ...

regarding the ownership of the

Chinese Eastern Railway The Chinese Eastern Railway or CER (, , or , ''Kitaysko-Vostochnaya Zheleznaya Doroga'' or ''KVZhD''), is the historical name for a railway system in Northeast China (also known as Manchuria). The Russian Empire constructed the line from 1897 ...

. Following the Soviet victory in the Civil War the Soviet forces in the Far East became the Special Far Eastern Army of the

Far Eastern Republic The Far Eastern Republic ( rus, Дальневосточная Республика, Dal'nevostochnaya Respublika, p=dəlʲnʲɪvɐˈstotɕnəjə rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə, links=yes; ), sometimes called the Chita Republic (, ), was a nominally indep ...

. Circa 1932 the 3rd Kholkoz Rifle Division OKDVA was established, and the 57th Rifle Division joined the army. The District was first briefly formed in 1935 from those forces, but then reverted to the title Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army (OKDVA), under

Marshal of the Soviet Union Marshal of the Soviet Union (, ) was the second-highest military rank of the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin wore the uniform and insignia of Marshal after World War II. The rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was created in 1935 and abolished in ...

, while still functioning as a military district. The Army became the

Soviet Far East Front The Far Eastern Front ( Russian: Дальневосточный фронт) was a front — a level of military formation that is equivalent to army group — of the Red Army during the Second World War. Early war service Тhe Far Eastern Front w ...

in June 1938, after Blyukher's torture and death at the hands of the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

during the

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

. It was reportedly disestablished on 30 June 1938.

References

{{Armies of the Soviet Army Field armies of the Soviet Union Military units and formations established in 1929 Military units and formations disestablished in 1938 Military units and formations awarded the Order of the Red Banner Sino-Soviet conflict (1929)