The Red Army forces assembled to defend Moscow consisted of three Fronts defending a front 800km (480 miles) in length. In the north, the Western Front consisted of the 22nd, 29th, 30th, 19th, 16th and 20th Armies and occupied the area from Lake Seliger to Iartsevo. In the centre, the Reserve Front was deployed between Yelnya and Roslavl and consisted of the 24th, 43rd, 31st, 49th, 32nd and 33rd Armies. Finally, in the south, the Bryansk Front was deployed between Roslavl and the Seim River and consisted of the 50th, 3rd and 13th Armies and Operational Group Ermakov. The Russians had prepared several defensive works on the approaches to Moscow, the first was established along the Desna and Sudost Rivers to the west of Vyazma. Further east, the Rzhev-Vyazma defence line consisted of two separate belts of fortificatios. The first, ran from Lake Seligar, through Selizharov and Olenino to Dorogobuzh, while a second ran almost paralel some 45km to the east. The largest defence system was the Mozhaisk defence line, which was anchored on four fortified regions at Volokolamsk, Mozhaisk, Maloaroslavets and Kaluga.
The Red Army forces were a mixture of veteran units, depleted by heavy fighting, and newly formed, poorly trained and equipped Peoples Volunteer formations. Most of the armored vehicles assembled were of older types and artillery units were severely under equipped. The complex command structure and constant reshuffling of commanders lead to uncertainty and confusion. The Headquarters were short of experienced officers and sufficient radio equipment. The widespread fear of German signals intercept operations lead to many commands communicating only via runners. All these factors lead to communications rapidly breaking down once the battle began.
German forces assembled for the operation, were, from north to south, the 9th Army which, in conjunction with the 3rd Panzer Group, would attempt to break through Red Army positions in the Beloi area and advance to the Vyasma-Rshev road.
The 3rd and 4th Panzer Groups were to be reinforced and resupplied in preparation for an attack against Red Army forces in the Vyazma area, in an attempt to breach the Western Front and advance directly towards Moscow.
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