Welcome to Cold War Gamer, a blog I am using to record my Cold War wargaming projects. These range from fictitious Cold War hot projects to historical conflicts that took place around the globe throughout the Cold War era, all modelled and gamed in 20mm. The blog includes links to various resources useful to the Cold War Gamer.

My current projects include: Central Front; British & Soviet. South African Border War; Angolans and South Africans. Soviet Afghan War; Soviets and Afghans

Sunday 16 December 2012

ORBAT - Soviet Unit Titles and Abbreviations



I got interested in Soviet Military Unit titles and abbreviations when reading the 16 Air Army Web site and whilst extending my research into the evolution of the organisation and structure of Soviet helicopter units.  There are a couple of good aviation sites which have taken Soviet Unit Titles and provided a mapping between the Cyrillic Title & abbreviation to its transliterated latin equivalents and  the translation of the title.  The Dutch Aviation Societies Scramble web site has a particularly useful table which does this for aviation units of all Soviet armed forces.

Whilst there are Sites for Soviet Army unit titles and abbreviations in Russian I have yet to find anything as useful as Scramble the one I have found has a number of problems:


  • The focus is WW2 units and terms 
  • The titles and abbreviations are only in Russian and the translation engines gives some interesting outputs.

The table below is my starter for 10 which I am pretty sure is neither comprehensive or absolutely correct, but its a reasonable start. It covers Tank, Motor Rifle, Engineer, Artillery, Reconnaissance, Anti Aircraft and Anti Tank Units. I'll probably add aviation when I have managed to work out what's relevant.









Abbr
Abbr
Cyrilic
Transliteration
Translation


Tank Units





?
?
танковая
tankovaya
Tank


ta
ТА
танковая армия
tankovaja armija
Tank Army


td
тд
танковая дивизия
tankovaja divizija
Tank Division


tp
тп 
танковый полк
tankovyj polk
Tank Regiment


tb
тб
танковый батальон
tankovyj batal'on
Tank Battalion


tr
тр
танковая рота
tankovaja rota
Tank Company


tk
тк
танковый корпус
tankovyj korpus
Tank Corps


tbr
тбр
танковая бригада
tankovaja brigada
Tank Brigade


Motor Rifle Units





?
?
мотострелковая
motostrelkovaja
Motor Rifle


?
?
?
Obchevoyskovaya Armiya
Combined Arms Army


msd
мсд 
мотострелковая дивизия
motostrelkovaja divizija
Motor Rifle Division


msp
мсп
мотострелковый полк
motostrelkovyj polk
Motor Rifle Regiment


msb
мсб
мотострелковый батальон
motostrelkovyj batal'on
Motor Rifle Battalion


msr
мср
мотострелковая рота
motostrelkovaja rota
Motor Rifle Company


msk
мск
мотострелковый корпус
motostrelkovyj korpus
Motor Rifle Corps


msbr
мсбр
мотострелковая бригада
motostrelkovaja brigada
Motor Rifle Brigade


Air Assault Units





DShV
дшв
десантно-штурмовые войска
desantno-shturmovye vojska
Air Assault Troops


odshbr
одшбр
отдельную десантно-штурмовые бригада
otdel'nuju desantno-shturmovye brigada
Independent Air Assault Brigade


odshp
одшп
отдельную десантно-штурмовые полк
otdel'nuju desantno-shturmovye polk
Independent Air Assault Regiment


odshb
одшб
отдельную десантно-штурмовые батальон
otdel'nuju desantno-shturmovye batal'on
Independent Air Assault Battalion


Other Units





rb
рб
разведывательный батальон
razvedyvatel'nyj batal'on
reconnaissance battalion


rr
рр
разведывательная рота
razvedyvatel'naja rota
reconnaissance company


ptb
птб
противотанковая батальон
protivotankovaja batal'on
anti tank battalion


ptba
птба́
противотанковая батареи
protivotankovaja batarei
anti tank battery


zrb
зрб
зенитный ра́кетный полк
zenitnyj raketnyj polk
anti aircraft missile regiment


zrba
зрба́
зенитный ра́кетный батареи
zenitnyj raketnyj batarei
anti aircraft missile battery


ar
а́п
а́ртиллерия полк
artillerija polk
Artilery Regiment


ab
а́б
артилерийский батальон
artilerijskij batal'on
Artilery Battalion


aba
а́ба́
артилерийски батареи
artilerijski batarei
Artilery Battery


sapp
сапп
саперный полк
sapernyj polk
Engineer Regiment


sapb
сапб 
саперный батальон
sapernyj batal'on
Engineer Battalion


sapr
сапр
саперная рота
sapernaja rota
Engineer Company


Unit Titles





gv
гв.
гвардейский
gvardejskij
guards


o
о
Отдельна́я
Otdel'naja
Independent









Whilst I have included the battery concept within artillery I have yet to find strong evidence that this is not just a western construct, the other component I am not clear on is the appropriate ending of the Arm of Service title that should precede the different unit size types, I have followed the patterns found on the WW2 listings.

Other than including Soviet style names and abbreviations in your blog and scenarios  you can also use the Cyrilic words in search terms, this provides access to Russian published sources and theres a lot of good information about the cold war and a lot of images of Soviet equipment that can be accessed in this way.

Updates
  • 18/12/12 to include DShV, Air Assault Units, these titles were assembled to equate to the abbreviations, the word endings of the arm of service title may be incorrect for the unit type .

References:

rkka, Russian World War 2 Military Abbreviations, and documents
Transliteration Tool - great for working out the abbreviations
Scramble Dutch Aviation Society Russian Aviation Abreviations, Cold War and Current

2 comments:

  1. Great site Andy. Over half way through my Cold War novel. Always refer to your site for background information. Find it really useful. HB

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cheers always great to know ones obsession is of use, good luck with the book

    ReplyDelete