The United Armed Forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States (russian: Объединённые Вооружённые силы Содружества Независимых Государств) was a short-lived military entity associated with the
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of and has an estimated population of 239,796,010. ...
. It was created in 1992 after the demise of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, and was intended to be the continuation of the
Armed Forces of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Armed Forces, the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union and as the Red Army (, Вооружённые Силы Советского Союза), were the armed forces of the Russian SFSR (1917–1922), the Soviet Union (1922–1991), and th ...
and to hold control over the
Soviet Union's nuclear weapons.
It was rapidly superseded by the ''de facto'' Russian control of those nuclear weapons, and the formation of separate national armies for each of the former Soviet states, and had effectively ceased to exist by the end of 1993.
Formation
The
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
officially dissolved on 25 December 1991. After signing the
Belavezha Accords
The Belovezh Accords ( be, Белавежскае пагадненне, link=no, russian: Беловежские соглашения, link=no, uk, Біловезькі угоди, link=no) are accords forming the agreement declaring that the ...
on 21 December 1991, the countries of the newly formed CIS signed a protocol on the temporary appointment of
Marshal of Aviation
Marshal of the branch (or "marshal of the branch of service"; russian: Ма́ршал ро́да во́йск, Marshal roda voysk) was from 1943 to 1974 the designation to a separate rank class in the general officer's rank group of the form ...
Yevgeny Shaposhnikov
Yevgeny Ivanovich Shaposhnikov (russian: Евгений Иванович Шапошников; 3 February 1942 – 8 December 2020) was a Soviet and Russian military leader and business figure. He was awarded the rank of Marshal of Aviation in ...
as
Minister of Defence
A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...
and commander of the armed forces in their territory, including strategic nuclear forces. On 14 February 1992 Shaposhnikov formally became Supreme Commander of the CIS Armed Forces.
Disintegration
On 16 March 1992 a decree by Boris Yeltsin created the
Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (, ), commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military forces of Russia. In terms of active-duty personnel, they are the world's fifth-largest military force, with at least two m ...
under the operational control of Allied High Command and the Ministry of Defence, which was headed by the President. Finally, on 7 May 1992, Yeltsin signed a decree establishing the Russian armed forces and Yeltsin assumed the duties of the Supreme Commander. In May 1992, General Colonel
Pavel Grachev
Pavel Sergeyevich Grachev (russian: Па́вел Серге́евич Грачё́в; 1 January 1948 – 23 September 2012), sometimes transliterated as Grachov or Grachyov, was a Russian Army General and the Defence Minister of the Russian Fed ...
became the Russian Minister of Defence, and was made Russia's first
Army General
Army general is the highest ranked general officer in many countries that use the French Revolutionary System.
In countries that adopt the general officer four rank system, it is rank of general commanding an army in the field, but in coun ...
on assuming the post.
After this announcement,
Marshal of Aviation
Marshal of the branch (or "marshal of the branch of service"; russian: Ма́ршал ро́да во́йск, Marshal roda voysk) was from 1943 to 1974 the designation to a separate rank class in the general officer's rank group of the form ...
Yevgeny Shaposhnikov
Yevgeny Ivanovich Shaposhnikov (russian: Евгений Иванович Шапошников; 3 February 1942 – 8 December 2020) was a Soviet and Russian military leader and business figure. He was awarded the rank of Marshal of Aviation in ...
, Commander-in-Chief of CIS Armed Forces, Head of the Main Command (Glavkomat) "and a skeletal staff to support his role as commander of the CIS Armed Forces were evicted from the MoD and General Staff buildings and given offices in the former.. Warsaw Pact headquarters on the northern outskirts of Moscow" (on Prospekt Mira). Shaposhnikov's staff quickly became a very weak body as the new states' authorities asserted their control over their own armed forces. On 15 June 1993 Shaposhnikov's staff was abolished, and Shaposhnikov resigned. By the end of 1993 the abolition of the Joint Military Command (Glavkomat) had become effective.
The CIS Joint Military Command was replaced with a scaled down Joint Staff for Coordinating Military Cooperation. An agreement was formally signed at
Ashgabat
Ashgabat or Asgabat ( tk, Aşgabat, ; fa, عشقآباد, translit='Ešqābād, formerly named Poltoratsk ( rus, Полтора́цк, p=pəltɐˈratsk) between 1919 and 1927), is the capital and the largest city of Turkmenistan. It lies ...
on 24 December 1993 to establish the Staff for the Coordination of Military Cooperation Member States of the Commomwealth of Independent States (Russian: Штабе по координации военного сотрудничества
государств – участников Содружества Независимых Государств).
Colonel General
Viktor Samsonov took up the role until October 1996.
Army General
Army general is the highest ranked general officer in many countries that use the French Revolutionary System.
In countries that adopt the general officer four rank system, it is rank of general commanding an army in the field, but in coun ...
Vladimir Yakovlev (general)
Vladimir Nikolavevich Yakovlev ( Russian: Влади́мир Никола́евич Я́ковлев; born August 17, 1954, Kalinin) is a former Russian military commander who was the commander of the RVSN from 1997 to 2001.
Early life
He was ...
appears to have become Chief of the Staff in June 2001.
[DS2002-0819). See also :ru:Объединённые Вооружённые силы Содружества Независимых Государств.]
See also
*
Collective Security Treaty Organization
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is an intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia consisting of six post-Soviet states
The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics ...
*
Joint CIS Air Defense System Joint CIS Air Defense System (russian: Объединённая система ПВО СНГ) is a unified system that comprises air defense units and elements of the former Soviet republics under control of the Coordination Committee on Air Defens ...
References
*
*
* {{cite book , last=Odom , first=William E. , url=https://archive.org/details/collapseofsoviet00odom , title=The Collapse of the Soviet Military , publisher=Yale University Press , year=1998 , isbn=0-300-07469-7 , author-link=William Eldridge Odom
External links
Commonwealth Defense Arrangements and International Security Center for Naval Analyses, June 1992
* CSTO
History of Organizational Development and development of the Joint Staff of the Collective Security Treaty Organization
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
Military of the Commonwealth of Independent States
1992 establishments
1993 disestablishments