Soviet Forces

"We are the Red Cavalry !"

Unknown author/?Government of the Russian Federation

Soviet cavalry (38th Cavalry Division) on winter exercise, probably winter, 1938/'39. A disproportionately high number of senior Soviet commanders of WW2 were "graduates" of the Russian Civil War Soviet cavalry, even of the Tsarist cavalry before that (instance, Zhukov). Why a past of donkey-walloping was such good preparation for command of Soviet armies is anybody's guess. The old Tsarist army was to the fore in recognizing that the age of true cavalry warfare was, if not at an end, at least entering a less important phase of its history, in the mid-19th century. However, Russian horsed cavalry persisted, and still had its uses even in WW2, where winter conditions in Russia often made it close to impossible to move relatively quickly except on the back of a horse. Most of the cavalry's actual fighting by this time would have been done dismounted - as indeed was the case for the Federal cavalry towards the end of the American Civil War. By the way - the song of the 1st Cavalry Army of the revolutionary period, "We are the Red Cavalry", is a stirring piece, available in recordings by the Red Army Choir and present on the Internet. Best regards, JR.