The Red Workers' and Peasants' Army (Russian: Рабоче-крестьянская Красная армия; РККА, or Raboche-krest'yanskaya Krasnaya armiya: RKKA), often shortened to Red Army (Russian: Красная aрмия; KA), was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1918 to 1922 and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from 1922 to 1950. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution (Red October or Bolshevik Revolution), in which the Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations (especially the combined groups summarized under the preamble White Army) of their adversaries during the Russian Civil War.
In 1950, the Red Army took on the name "Soviet Army," which it has kept to the current day.