The Workers´ and Peasants´ Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная а́рмия, Rabóče-krestʹjánskaja Krásnaja ármija),[a] often shortened to the Red Army,[b] was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established in January 1918. 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 Russian Civil War. Starting in February 1946, the Red Army, 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 1991.
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