Soviet military acronyms

When reading some articles, books and posts about the Soviet Army these are usually packed with acronyms which are not that easy to understand. And there is nothing to be ashamed about - these are acronyms from a different language and they are quite counterintuitive from time to time.

To simplify this list it will be split in four parts - military units, vehicles, weapons and equipment. If you feel that something is missing from the list, do not hesitate to leave a comment and we will add it.

Military units acronyms

These come in all shapes and colors and unlike vehicles and weapons, which can be easily googled, these are a bit more tricky. Let's start with the most common type of units in the Soviet Army - infantry.

English designation	Russian designation	Russian meaning	Translated
MSD	МСД	MotoStrelkovaya Diviziya	Motorized Rifle Division
MSP	МСП	MotoStrelkoviy Polk	Motorized Rifle Regiment
MSB	МСБ	MotoStrelkoviy Batallion	Motorized Rifle Battalion
MSBr	МСБр	MotoStrelkovaya Brigada	Motorised Rifle Brigade

Usually, when you see brigade mentioned, it is stated as oMSBr (оМСБр). Letter "o" in this case stands for "otdelniy" - "separate", meaning that the brigade is not part of any division and is under the direct command of the Army. Similar logic goes for other types of units, but when we are talking about smaller units, like separate company or a battalion, they would usually be under the direct command of the Division, meaning that they are not a part of any regiment.

Same logic goes for the majority of the other branches of service.

PDP	ПДП	Parashutno-Desantniy Polk	Airborne regiment
DShBr	ДШБр	Desantno Shturmovaya Brigada	Air Assault Brigade
TB	ТБ	Tankoviy Batallion	Tank Batallion
ISP	ИСП	Inzhenerno Saperniy Polk	Sapper Engineer Regiment

However, there are quite a few exceptions. I do not want to go too deep into some micro sub units, like Separate Anti-Plague Unit or Bread Baking Factory (yes, that was a military unit as well). Let's go over some more common ones:

ooSpN	ооСпН	Otdelniy Otryad SpetsNaznacheniya	Separate Unit of Special Forces
ADN	АДН	Artileriyskiy DivizioN	Artillery Squadron
PMP	ПМП	Polkovoy MedPunkt	Regimental Medical Point
RR	РР	Razved Rota	Recce Company

If there are some other unit acronyms which you believe should be added here - do not hesitate to comment.

Soviet Military Vehicles acronyms

Luckily, there are not that many common vehicles. Again, we are not going to list some very specific recon/radio/engineer machines here. Or we will, if there will be a request.

Now, you can probably guess that letter T in any of the tank's designation (T-55/T-72 etc) stands for Tank. But other vehicles are not all that simple. The general rule of thumb - armored vehicles acronyms are descriptive, while trucks represent the name of the factory where they were produced.

BTR	БТР	BroneTransPorter	Armored Personnel Carrier
BMP	БМП	Boevaya Mashina Pehoty	Infantry Fighting Vehicle
BMD	БМД	Boevaya Mashina Desanta	Airborne Fighting Vehicle
BTR-D	БТР-Д	BroneTransPorter Desantniy	Airborne Armored Personnel Carrier

BRDM	БРДМ	Bronirovanaya Rozvedivatelno Dozornaya Mashina	Armored Recon-Patrol Vehicle
MTLB	МТЛБ	Mnogocelevoy Tyagach Legkiy Bronirovaniy	Multipurpose Light Armored Towing vehicle

UAZ	УАЗ	Ulyanovsky Avtomobilny Zavod	Ulyanovsk Automobile Factory
GAZ	ГАЗ	Gorkovskiy Avtomobilny Zavod	Gorky Automobile Plant
KamAZ	КамАЗ	Kamskiy Avtomobilnyy Zavod	Kama Automobile Plant
ZIL	ЗИЛ	Zavod Imeni Likhachyova	Likhachev Automobile Plant

Some Soviet Weapons acronyms

The acronyms for small arms and other infantry weapons broadly fall into two categories. They are either descriptive or named after their inventors. Or both.

​AK	АК	Avtomat Kalashnikova	Kalashnikov's assault rifle
AKMS	АКМС	Avtomat Kalashnikova Modernezirovaniy Skladnoy	Kalashnikov's assault rifle, modernized, with folding stock
AKSU	АКСУ	Avtomat Kalashnikova Skladnoy Ukorocheniy	Kalashnikov's assault rifle, shortened, with folding stock
RPK	РПК	Ruchnoy Pulemet Kalashnikova	Kalashnikov's handheld machine gun
RPG	РПГ	Ruchnoy Protivotankoviy Granatomet	Handheld anti-tank grenade (launcher)
PKM	ПКМ	Pulemet Kalashnikova Modernizirovaniy	Kalashnikov's machine gun, modernized
DShK	ДШК	Dyagterev, Shpagin, Krupnokaliberniy	Dyagterev-Shpagin, high caliber
NSV "Utes"	НСВ "Утес"	Nikitin, Sokolov, Volkov	Nikitin-Sokolov- Volkov
AGS	АГС	Avtomaticheskiy Granatomet Stankoviy	Grenade machine gun, on a tripod
PTRK	ПТРК	ProtivoTankoviy Raketniy Kompleks	Anti-tank rocket launcher