In most western nations, the color blue is oftentimes used as the friendly or allied portion of war planning and military operations, while red is used as the enemy or opposing force.
I’m wondering if it’s the same case in nations like Soviet Russia, where red is such a predominant color used in all forms of their media and character, going so far as to make red the main color of themselves on maps, their media characters, and almost all facets of life. Does this mean that Russia used red for “friendly forces” and blue for enemies in military strategy? Or is it the same as it was here?
According to the old Technical Manual 30-430, “Soviet usage is not always consistent, even in official manuals. Different arms and services fre- quently use signs which vary from those used by other arms and services. This is particularly appli- cable to the signs for fortifications used by the engineers and by the infantry.
Tactical symbols representing friendly troops are red. Those for enemy troops are blue, the converse of United States usage. On black and white maps or charts, friendly troops are represented by solid heavy lines and enemy troops are indicated by lighter, double lines.”
Now this was published back in 1946 so it is possible that their symbology changed, but I don’t believe so. I found a website in Cyrillic that states the following about the graphic colors on maps.
”The use of other colors, as well as shades of primary or auxiliary colors, is not allowed. RED is used to indicate the position, tasks, actions, weapons and equipment of motorized rifle, airborne, tank, aviation and naval units for our troops. The same color indicates fire zones, regardless of who created these zones. BLUE is used to indicate the position, tasks, actions, weapons and equipment of all branches of the army for enemy troops. All inscriptions related to the enemy are also applied with this color. The same color indicates flood zones, regardless of who created these zones. BLACK is used to indicate the situation, tasks, actions, weapons and equipment of missile troops, artillery, anti-aircraft troops, engineering troops, chemical troops, radio engineering troops, communications troops, railway and other special forces for our troops. All inscriptions related to all branches of our troops are also made with this color. BROWN is used to draw roads, routes, column tracks of our troops, fill in the zones of use of bacteriological (biological) weapons, designate the outer boundary of the radioactive contamination zone B. GREEN is used to indicate the outer boundary of the radioactive contamination zone B. YELLOW is used to fill the chemical contamination zone.”
Hopefully this answers your question.