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| Army general генерал армии general armii | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Uniform shoulder strap (1974—1991) | |
| Country |  Soviet Union |
| Service branch | Army |
| Formation | June 1940 |
| Abolished | December 1991 |
| Next higher rank | Marshal of the Soviet Union |
| Next lower rank | Colonel general |
| Equivalent ranks | Marshal of the branch Admiral of the fleet |
Army general (Russian:генерал армии,romanized: general armii) was a rank of theSoviet Union which was first established in June 1940 as a high rank forRed Army generals, inferior only to themarshal of the Soviet Union. In the following 51 years theSoviet Union created 133 generals of the army, 32 of whom were later promoted to the rank ofmarshal of the Soviet Union. It is a direct counterpart of the Russian Federation's "Army general" rank.[citation needed]
The rank was usually given to senior officers of the Ministry of Defence and General Staff, and also to meritorious military district commanders. From the 1970s, it was also frequently given to the heads of theKGB and the Ministry of the Interior.
Sovietarmy generals includeIvan Chernyakhovsky (the youngest SovietWorld War II front commander, killed inEast Prussia),Aleksei Antonov (head of the General Staff in the closing stages of World War II, awarded theOrder of Victory),Issa Pliyev (anOssetian-born World War II commander who played a major role in theCuban Missile Crisis) andYuri Andropov (who held the rank as head of the KGB).
The Soviet rank ofarmy general is equivalent to the UK and US ranks ofgeneral; Soviet and current Russian rank systems also have a marshal rank.
The corresponding naval rank isfleet admiral, which has been used in both theSoviet andRussian navies, although conferred much more rarely.
Army general was used for the infantry and marines, but in the air force, artillery, armoured troops, engineer troops and signal troops the ranks ofmarshal of the branch andchief marshal of the branch were used.
| Звание | .svg) USSR Red Army |  Soviet Army /Soviet Armed Forces | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gorget patch chevron shoulderboard |  |  |  |  | -Field.svg) | .svg) |  | |
| Komandarm 1st rank (1935—1940) | gorget patch everyday uniform (1940—1943) | shoulderboard field uniform (1943—1955) | ... dress (1943—1955) | ... dress (1955—1974) | ... dress (1974—1991) | |||
