The Reserve Front was a Front

Front (Soviet Army)

A front was a major military organization in the Soviet Army during many wars. It was roughly equivalent to an army group in the militaries of most other countries except Germany...

, or roughly Army group

Army group

An army group is a military organization consisting of several field armies, which is self-sufficient for indefinite periods. It is usually responsible for a particular geographic area...

-sized military formation, of the Soviet Army

Soviet Army

The Soviet Army is the name given to the main part of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1992. Previously, it had been known as the Red Army. Informally, Армия referred to all the MOD armed forces, except, in some cases, the Soviet Navy.This article covers the Soviet Ground...

 during the Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

First Formation

The Reserve Front describes either of two distinct organizations during the war. The first version was created on July 30, 1941 in a reorganization of the earlier Front of Reserve Armies. STAVKA Order No.003334, of 14 July, directed that the Front of Reserve Armies include:

• 24th Army, with ten divisions, three gun, one howitzer, and three corps artillery regiments, and four anti-tank artillery regiments;
• 28th Army
  28th Army (Soviet Union)
  The 28th Army was a field army of the Red Army and the Soviet Ground Forces, formed three times in 1941-42 and postwar active for many years in the Belorussian Military District.- First Formation :...
  
  , with nine divisions, one gun, one howitzer, and four corps artillery regiments, and four anti-tank artillery regiments;
• 29th Army
  29th Army (Soviet Union)
  The Soviet Red Army's 29th Army was a field army of the Red Army and later the Russian Ground Forces.- History :It was first formed in July 1941 in the Moscow Military District on the basis of 30th Rifle Corps. The 245th, 252nd, 254th and 256th Rifle Divisions, and a number of smaller units made up...
  
  , with five divisions, five regiments of artillery, and two regiments and one squadron of aviation;
• 30th Army
  30th Army (Soviet Union)
  -History:It was formed on 13 July 1941 based on 52nd Rifle Corps as a Stavka Reserve. In the beginning army included 119th Rifle Division, 242nd Rifle Division, 243rd NKVD Rifle Division, 251st NKVD Rifle Division, 51st Tank Division, artillery and other units...
  
  , with five divisions, one corps artillery regiment, and two AA artillery regiments;
• 31st Army, with six divisions, one corps artillery regiment, and two anti-tank artillery regiments; and
• 32nd Army, with seven divisions (apparently including the 8th Rifle Division
  8th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)
  The 8th Rifle Division was a military formation of the Soviet Union's Red Army in the Winter War, the Soviet invasion of Poland, and World War II...
  
  ), and one anti-tank artillery regiment.

This Front was encircled and destroyed at Vyazma

Vyazma

Vyazma is a town and the administrative center of Vyazemsky District of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Vyazma River, about halfway between Smolensk and Mozhaysk. Throughout its turbulent history, the city defended western approaches to the city of Moscow...

. The surviving forces transferred to the Western Front

Soviet Western Front

The Western Front was a Front of the Red Army, one of the Red Army Fronts during the Second World War. This sense of the term is different from the more general usage of military front which indicates a geographic area in wartime, although a Soviet Front usually operates within designated...

 on October 10, 1941.

2nd Formation

The second version of this Front was created on April 6, 1943. It incorporated the 2nd Reserve, 24th, 53rd, 66th, 47th, 46th, and 5th Guards Tank Armies, and eight mobile corps. It was reorganized as the Steppe Military District on April 15, 1943 and eventually designated the Steppe Front

Steppe Front

The Steppe Front and later the 2nd Ukrainian Front was a Front , effectively an Army group sized formation, of the Soviet Army during the Second World War...

.

Commanders

• Lieutenant General of NKVD I.A. Bogdanov [Front of Reserve Armies] (14 July 1941 - 30 July 1941)
• General Georgy K. Zhukov
  Georgy Zhukov
  Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov , was a Russian career officer in the Red Army who, in the course of World War II, played a pivotal role in leading the Red Army through much of Eastern Europe to liberate the Soviet Union and other nations from the Axis Powers' occupation...
  
   (August 1941 - September 1941)
• Marshal Semyon M. Budenny
  Semyon Budyonny
  Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny , sometimes transliterated as Budennyj, Budyonnyy, Budennii, Budenny, Budyoni, Budyenny, or Budenny, was a Soviet cavalryman, military commander, politician and a close ally of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.-Early life:...
  
   (September 1941 - 10 October 1941)
• Lieutenant General Markian M. Popov
  Markian Popov
  Markian Mikhaylovich Popov was a Soviet military commander, Army General , and Hero of the Soviet Union .- Life :During the German-Soviet War at various times he commanded a number of Armies and a number of Fronts. His career was uneven....
  
  (6–15 April 1943)