The Communication Troops of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union were generalized names for special forces intended for the deployment and operation of communication systems in order to provide command and control of troops and forces subordinate to the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union in all types of their activities.

After the October Revolution, in the context of the outbreak of civil war and military intervention, in order to protect the Soviet Republic, the creation of the first units of the Red Army began.

The activities of the communication troops during the Civil War were highly appreciated in a special order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic of February 17, 1921, which noted: "The heroic Red Army, which covered itself with unfading glory, owes much to the communication troops, who performed during the long struggle against enemies and had big and responsible tasks".

On the basis of research by the institute and the country's communications industry (including its own personnel) in the pre–war period, the first generation of military field radio stations, telephone and telegraph devices, switching devices, communication cables, ground electronic reconnaissance equipment with which the Red Army entered into the Great Patriotic War.

The problem of providing troops with communications equipment became especially acute with the beginning of the massive deployment of the army and navy in the fall of 1939.

The subsequent industrialization of the country led to organizational and staff changes and an overall increase in the size of the Red Army, which was reflected in changes in the communication troops.

The communication troops from April 1924 to June 1941 were consistently led by Nikolai Sinyavsky, Roman Longva, Alexey Aksyonov, Ivan Naydenov, Nikolay Gapich.

In 1941, during the Great Patriotic War, by order of the People's Commissariat of Defense, the post of chief of the communications troops of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was created.

[3] The basing of wire communications on the network of state permanent air lines allowed aviation and enemy saboteurs to disable it.

At the same time, the scale of the unfolding battles from the very beginning demanded the use of all the country's capabilities in the interests of ensuring communication with the troops.

[3] In November 1942, special radio divisions, engaged in electronic reconnaissance, were allocated from the Communication Troops of the Red Army, which were transferred to the subordination of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union.

During the first year of the war, under the energetic leadership of Ivan Peresypkin, over 1,000 new communications units were formed, schools and courses were created for the accelerated training of various specialists to meet the needs of the front in them.

Ivan Peresypkin managed to use all the resources and opportunities available in the country to establish mass production of communications equipment and supply them to the troops.

In 1942, the first portable domestic ultrashort–wave radio station A–7 with frequency modulation for rifle and artillery regiments was developed, which received very high praise in the troops.

The experience of military operations has convincingly shown that radio, especially in an offensive, is becoming the main, and often the only, means of communication providing command and control of troops.

Marshal Ivan Peresypkin at the end of 1944 set the task of starting work on the preparation of the first post–war weapons system for military communications.

Increased requirements for communication systems and channels began to appear in terms of their stability, noise immunity, secrecy and timeliness in the transmission of information.

Appropriate clarifications were also made to the organizational structure of the communication troops and to the system of training highly qualified command and engineering personnel.

At the beginning of the 70s, on his initiative, a system of routine maintenance and controlled operation of communications equipment was developed and introduced into the troops.

In this regard, the 16th Central Scientific Research Testing Institute of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union was instructed to promptly develop and manufacture atypical complex equipment for communications control posts.

In this regard, and also taking into account the increasing role of communication systems and complexes in the management of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, on May 26, 1977, a directive of the General Staff No.

[3] At the end of the 1970s, measures were taken to develop comprehensive research in scientific organizations of the Ministry of Defense and Industry to substantiate conceptual issues of the creation and operation of a promising automated communication system of the Armed Forces.

[2][4] Measures were taken to develop comprehensive research in scientific organizations of the Ministry of Defense and Industry to substantiate conceptual issues of creating and operating a promising automated communication system of the Armed Forces.

Based on the results of these studies, by a special resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union in 1980, a large cooperation of industrial organizations and research organizations of the Ministry of Defense was created, work was launched on the development of a Joint Automated Communication System of the Armed Forces and the creation of complexes of technical means for it.

Improved samples of telephone and telegraph equipment, switching devices, several types of field communication cables were delivered.

For the tactical level of control, portable and transportable broadband ultra–shortwave radio stations R–107 and R–111 with automatic tuning to previously prepared frequencies were developed.

New types of radio stations such as R–121, R–122, R–408 made it possible to provide high–quality multi–channel communication directly between control points at a distance of up to 150–250 kilometers from each other (without retransmission), including through hard–to–reach terrain.

Since the beginning of the 1970s, the signal forces began a radical modernization and rearmament to more advanced models, which is associated with the assumption of the post of chief of the Communication Troops of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union, Colonel–General Andrei Belov.

In 1972, atypical communication equipment was developed and manufactured for the first samples of air command posts of division, army, front, which made it possible to control troops from board aircraft and helicopters.

In order to unify, part of the communications equipment was installed on the basis of armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles.