Soviet equivalent of the SS?

Did the Soviet/Russian army have an equivalent of the Waffen SS during WW2?

Did they ever have an elite/professional army or just peasants with guns?

this is probably a question better asked on still intriguing tho

Gestapo

Nevermind, I read the question wrong..

Why you ask?

They had shock troops, which I guess would be the equivalent.

They had Red Guards I think. The NKVD might also fit the profile

that's more like the gestapo

I want to know If The soviets ever had a professional army during WW2

NKVD

It depends on which aspect of the SS are you looking at. They didn't receive significantly better training or equipment than the Wehrmacht, the main differences laid elsewhere.

The SS, or at least before the late war conscription began, consisted of volunteers instead of conscripts. The already patriotic volunteers were then subjected to indoctrination, which turned them into japanese-tier fanatics.

To my knowlege, none of the allies had a similar unit, although the Red Army as a whole was subjected to communist brainwashing, and had a whole bunch of commissars (political officers) to conduct it.

NKVD

Red guard squads. Those were the most ideologically driven.

NKVD - Gestapo

Russian equivalent to Waffen SS was Shtrafbats (penal battalions).
Russans were/are different kind of military might.

>fanatics
implying thats a bad thing

NKVD is military counterintelligence.

The Red army had guard divisions, brigades etcetera: prioritized forces with best experience and equipment.

>Waffen SS
>elite/professional army
This is a meme that needs to die.
Allgemeine SS were the "elite" as they were the Nazi party members bodyguards and overwatched the concentration camps.
The waffen SS was just the military wing, it had both good and lousy members in it.

They did, but it was severely gimped by a lot of factors.

They had a duel command system, which severely hindered spontaneous decisions from commanders on the ground, the officers purge of course, retarded decisions from above, etc.

Nothing exactly similar.
They had NKVD which was the secret police and executioners for the state. Commissars for communist ideology promotion and control over the military. Red Guards, shock troops within the military...

*Russian -> Soviet

You think they were that organized? Most of the Soviets didn't have guns. They were expected to find their own and were boiling shoe polish then drinking it to prevent alcohol withdrawal.

F

NKVD.

The commissars were the ones manning the machine guns behind the peasants with guns, who shot any soldier who tried to retreat.

I guess that counts.

Well they hade storm troops

Towards the end of the war they would be equipped with shitty body armour and some more specialized equipment

That was the secret police, Gestapo basically.

Atleast somebody knows History around here

Guards units and assault engineers for urban warfare.

NKVD troops were just border guards. Our border guards are still a part of FSB which creates misundertsanding sometimes when people think that a guy who was conscripted for 2 years as a border guard is a fromer KGB.

They weren't. Guards status was awarded for accomplishments. Units with guards status received better equipment and recruits. That's about it. Guards status wasn't awarded to squads, it was either a guards division/corps or guards army.
Also they weren't called Red Guards. That's some Civil War or chink shit.

Only a few SS divisions were "elite" divisions. The most tactical proficient german division in the war was the Grossdeutschland and it was part of the regular army.

The "Guard" designation for soviet divisions were usually awarded after satisfatory performance in battle, so they weren't created as "elite" divisions and, as with the german army the quality of 'guards' division also varied.

People oft forget the SS was actually a branch of the party - not the military. In that manner, many units in Russia were similar to the SS.

They had Guards units but nothing approaching what the Waffen SS was intended to be(Wartime demands for recruits forced them do downgrade their standards). The thing is that the Soviets tried to completely collectivize the army early in the revolution and apply their usual idiotic notions to the military. Needless to say it failed horribly and they reversed course but only reluctantly re-embraced the idea of elite units.

>Human waves/hordes>>>>>Professional army

Prove me wrong
You fucking can't

Probably the closest would be the Russian Commissars who followed Stalin's teachings to the letter and would be the ones shooting retreating soldiers and what not. As for military ability you had a few soviet units who where more battle hardened then the others and where issued special equipment. Late in the war the Soviet army was very modernized and had a proper command structure in place. Early on it was a shitshow because Stalin had purged most of the competent officers so they where caught with their pants down when the Germans came knocking,

Sparta v. Persia
Alexander v. Persia: Phalanx Boogaloo
Boxer Rebellion
1st Sino-Japanese War
Japanese Invasion of Manchuria

Just what I can think of off the top of my head.

WWI?