Soviet Power : The Continuing Challenge

AFV c3 cc CGF CGS CMEA Cominform Comintern CPSU DOSAAF ERW FROG FRG GDR GK GKO The Institute which launched this study is committed to two propositions: that military power exerts a profound influence on the course and pattern of world politics; and that, to be properly understoodor effectively employed -military power cannot be divorced from the social and political context in which it operates. Unexceptional as these propositions might appear, they are under challenge from many quarters: from those who are more impressed with the limits of military power than with its utility; from those who believe that one can find security, or even salvation without it; but equally so, from those who would reduce security policy to military policy; and from those who believe it possible to understand war without understanding politics. The USSR's founders and its present custodians would find these views alien and not only misconceived. The subject of this study is the way the military instrument combines with others to advance the purposes of the Soviet state and its Communist Party; it is also about the philosophy which shapes those purposes and the striking continuity manifested over the years in the Soviet way of war and politics. 'The continuing challenge' is a very great power which owes her achievements not to accidents of history, but to her own dogged persistence. Deficient as she is by some measures, the USSR is rich in human as well as in material resources, and she has many cards to play. The USSR is a Superpower for all her faults, not half a Superpower as it is sometimes alleged. This volume represents the culmination of an RUSI Main Theme study, 'Soviet Power and Prospects'. Out of a very full and rich assortment of lectures that structured the Institute's work, the small number presented in Part II have been chosen with an eye to gaps in my presentation, to approaches which contrast with my own, and to their obvious quality. Constraints of space have prevented inclusion of other contributions equal in quality, but we take comfort in the fact that many have now been published in the RUSI Journal, and we hope we will be forgiven by the authors concerned. Scholars very properly set store by scrupulousness and care in research, documentation and expression. Scholarship, however, can also refine first order questions out of existence. I would not duck the charge that my effort in large measure has been one of interpretation, and I have not shied away from original, and occasionally Xl xii Acknowledgements controversial, points. But original thought is not autonomous. It must be stimulated, informed and disciplined. Thankfully, I have benefited from gifted and learned patrons, and the thoughts expressed here owe much to the inspiration of others. No informed reader will fail to note my intellectual debt to Malcolm Mackintosh, Peter Vigor and Christopher Donnelly. I gratefully acknowledge their assistance as well as their influence, particularly in the case of Malcolm Mackintosh, who commented upon this manuscript with care and insight. I have also benefited, as anyone properly should, from the writings of John Erickson and the work of Harriet and William Scott. Michael Howard, who in all his pursuits combines the historian's sympathetic imagination with a capacity for trenchant judgement, remains a model and not just an influence. Influence, however, is an intensely personal matter, and it occasionally takes a form that surprises the patron. The usual disclaimer in publications about guilt by association must certainly apply here: the judgements expressed in this volume are my own, and I accept full responsibility for them. In more practical and equally personal ways, this study bears the mark of a thriving and closely-knit institution. Were it not for the perseverance and resilience of the staff of the RUSI, the author's temperament might have got the better of his purpose. Gratitude and no small measure of admiration are due to David Bolton and Brian Holden Reid for weathering and largely taming the idiosyncrasies of a headstrong, if diffident, performer. I should also like to single out Farooq Hussain, and Jennifer Shaw (now with Brassey's), for the warmth and firmness of their supportand Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Pope for many fruitful discussions over just as many liquid lunches. Finally, for 'well known reasons' (as Pravda might say), I salute Front Matter....Pages i-xvii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 First Principles....Pages 3-21 Foundations of Power: Resources....Pages 22-52 Foundations of Power: Empire....Pages 53-82 Army and Party, War and Politics....Pages 83-107 The Changing Scope of Military Strategy....Pages 108-143 The Invisibles of Power....Pages 146-167 Conclusion....Pages 168-177 Front Matter....Pages 179-179 Perceptions of Soviet Power and Influence....Pages 181-189 Europe and the Security of Russia....Pages 190-197 The Middle East, Afghanistan and the Gulf in the Soviet Perception....Pages 198-210 Power in the Kremlin: Politics and the Military....Pages 211-220 Soviet Maritime Power....Pages 221-226 Morale, Motivation and Leadership in the Soviet Armed Forces....Pages 227-236 The Soviet Navy in Transition....Pages 237-248 Back Matter....Pages 249-280 The existence of the Soviet union as one of the Great Powers of the world since the end of the Second World War has been a central element of world affairs, of international relations and of the search for an acceptable balance in global power, not only for the West and the Communist countries, but also in the Third World.