Soviet Air Forces
aerial warfare branch of the Soviet Union's armed forces
The Soviet Air Forces (Russian: Военно-Воздушные Силы Союза Советских Социалистических Республик, romanized: Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily Soyuza Sovetskih Sotsialisticheskih Respublik, lit. 'Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics'; abbr. VVS SSSR; sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force") was one of two air forces belonging to the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces were formed from components of the Imperial Russian Air Service in 1917, and faced their greatest test during World War II. The groups were also involved in the Korean War, and dissolved along with the Soviet Union itself in 1991–92. Former Soviet Air Forces' assets were subsequently divided into several air forces of former Soviet republics, including the new Russian Air Force. The "March of the Pilots" was its marching song.
Origins
The first military aviation branch of Russia, or any of the Soviet Union's constituent states was the short-lived Imperial Russian Air Service, founded in 1912 and disbanded in 1917 with the onset of the Bolshevik Revolution and the Russian Civil War. Some former IRAS personnel joined the White Russian side, but unlike the Reds, the Whites never created an official air force.
The first Red move toward creating a military aviation branch was the All-Russia Collegium for the Direction of the Air Forces of the Old Army (translation is uncertain), formed on 20 December 1917. This was a Bolshevik aerial headquarters initially led by Konstantin Akashev.
“Soviet Air Forces” enters the record as aerial warfare branch of the Soviet Union's armed forces. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Soviet, Forces and aerial can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Soviet Air Forces” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Soviet, Forces and aerial provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q921432. VIAF identifies the subject as 159384137. The Library of Congress control number is n81063013. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1917, 1991 and 1912.
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This entry incorporates text from “Soviet Air Forces” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.