USSR: A Military Society Part I - Military Science

“A specter is haunting Europe—the specter of Communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this specter; Pope and Czar, Metternich and Guizot, French radicals and German police spies." - Karl Marx, the Communist Manifesto. 

Part I: Military Science

"Marxist-Leninist theory of war and the Army ... serves as the ideological, theoretical, and methodological foundation of Soviet military science and doctrine, and all our military development." - The Soviet Officer's Handbook

You can read part II here.

Introduction
Soviet military science aims to bridge the gap between paper expectations and the reality of the battlefield.

Karl Marx

Marx posed the perception that historical processes are governed by laws similar to the laws that govern nature. In this view, laws are defined as "the essential, stable, or repetitious interrelationships according to which the seeming chaos of observable historical phenomena or facts interact"[1] In the Soviet mind, laws are used to draw order, structure and relationship between events and phenomena. Soviet philosophy views war as just another social phenomenon, and is therefore governed and understood by laws. The Soviets see war with three key parameters, namely: technology, history, and ideology. All these ideas are very different from each other, and each is treated as a military science in its own right. Technology  is a physical parameter, ideology a moral one, and history justifies the Soviet laws to social nature. The investigation of these military sciences is studied at the institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. This is interesting, as it makes it a civil study, as the laws of war are not studied at the Academy of the General Staff. [2] 

General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev

Military science does not investigate the laws of war in general, but strictly the laws of armed conflict guided by Marxist-Leninist theory.[1] The laws of war were debated throughout the sixties and seventies until 1977, when the debate had ended. Much of the debate was over the role of politics in Soviet Military Leadership. This political aspect to war was eventually decided upon, as the moral of the civilian population was deemed almost as crucial as the moral of the armies fighting the war. The six laws of war, as listed in Sovetskaia Voennaia Entsiklopediia (the Soviet Military Encyclopedia), are:

1. The dependence of war on political goals. 
2. The dependence of the course and outcome of war on the correlation of economic strengths of the warring states (coalitions). 
3. The dependence of the course and outcome of war on the correlation of the scientific potentials of the warring sides.
4. The dependence of the course and outcome of war on the correlation of moral-political strengths and capabilities of the warring states (coalitions)
5. The dependence of the course and outcome of war on the correlation of military forces (potentials) of the warring sides.
6. Historically, the side wins that offers and uses the resulting capabilities of a new and more progressive social and economic order.

Soviets see these laws of war as factors which they believe will determine the course (and outcome) of future wars; this is clearly emphasised by the fact four of the six laws begin with 'dependence of the course and outcome of war'. General of the Army I. E. Shavrov stated, "the impact of the laws of war is concentrated upon Soviet military doctrine which guides the development of strategy, operational art, and tactics." [3]

Doctrine

Soviet military doctrine is the political policy of the party and the government in the military field. Its directives have legal force; they govern all the actions of the military and unify the views of military personnel in the solution of present day military tasks. [4]

Soviet military doctrine aims to answer five essential questions of warfare. 

• What kind of enemy will the USSR have to deal with in a probable war?
• What is the character of the war in which the USSR will take part, and what will its aims and tasks be?
• What forces will be necessary to fulfill the tasks, and what direction will military development follow?
• How should preparation for war be carried out?
• What will the means of warfare be?

Soviet troops training

The answers to these questions will vary depending on different situations and scenarios, and doctrine is built upon that. For this reason, Soviet military doctrine in the political, ideological case is difficult to analyse. These questions are not necessarily unique or special to Soviet thinking; these questions should be asked by any sensible military theorist or politician in regards to war. What separates Soviet doctrine from any western doctrine is that the answers to these questions are purely a party matter, and are therefore ideological and justified in nature, and the actions which come from the answers cannot be debated or questioned. 

These questions can attempt be answered in an example of a full scale world war with NATO.

• What kind of enemy will the USSR have to deal with in a probable war?

The Soviets view a war with the west as one of ideology and class struggle, and one against capitalism and imperialism. They therefore see the likely sides as being the United States and NATO, versus the USSR and the Warsaw Pact, or a war of class struggle and uprising escalating beyond a proxy war into a full blown conflict. 

• What is the character of the war in which the USSR will take part, and what will its aims and tasks be?

In such an event - a world war against class struggle and capitalism - the character will be one which carries resolute political and military objectives. That is to say that the war will be a decisive one, either ending in a complete victory for Socialism, or Capitalism. A war with the west will not be one of defence and survival, but one in which there must be complete victory. This ethos is part of the reason for the Soviet's desire to fight on enemy territory, but this will be covered in another article. 

• What forces will be necessary to fulfill the tasks, and what direction will military development follow?

The resolute nature of such a war justifies the use of nuclear weapons. This therefore sets a precedent for large  scale usage and development of nuclear weapons programs, and its usage of the strategic rocket forces (SRF). The SRF must be capable of surviving the first round of enemy attack and of delivering a decisive blow to the enemy. Nuclear weaponry is not enough however, and conventional forces are still critical. A balance of nuclear and conventional forces must be established. Technological progress is a key task that must be fulfilled, and is a top priority in Soviet economic planning.

Missile Silo

• How should preparation for war be carried out?

While most of the answer to this question is already answered in the previous three, some aspects have yet to be covered. Such examples are positive diplomacy with allies within the Warsaw Pact, and armed forces preparedness in terms of training and equipment, and the readiness to strike from the offset. 

• What will the means of warfare be?

Office is the decisive means of military activity. This is necessary to achieve the absolute victory required by the evaluation of question two. An offensive strategy justifies the development of large scale nuclear and mechanized forces, with high maneuverability. The Soviets believe that the war will not be fought as a series of defined battles and attrition, but instead from a series of conflicts fought on battlefields are great size with undefined front lines. With this in mind, the need for a very large, first-strike ready combat force becomes clear, as the first 'battles' will likely define the victor. 

Military Science

In Soviet theory, military science is a combination of six areas of study: technology, history, organisation, training, art, and geography.

Military Technology

This study covers the investigation of the application of technologies and physical studies in a military context, including development, design, and production. 

Military History

As stated earlier in this article, military history is the study of the understanding of the ideological laws of warfare. Peacetime exercises can give a limited view and test of these laws, and it is therefore up to Soviet military historians to help fully understand the laws for the USSR. The study can help apply conditions of actual combat into evaluation of peacetime exercises. "In studying the objective laws that govern war, Soviet military science uses the basic tenets of Marxist-Leninist philosophy. The main scientific disciplines of military history include the history of wars, history of military art, and the history of the services." 

Military Organisation

The study which proposes the best methods for organising the military structure on all levels, as well as the administration of the armed forces as a whole. It also includes the subjects of (de-)mobilisation, and the governing of occupied territories. 

Military Training

The study concerned with developing the methodology and format for the training of soldiers, officers, military units, senior officers and staff.  The difference between Soviet and western military training is the additional subject of general education and political indoctrination into the armed forces. 

Military Geography

Military geography is the study of area and theatres of war, including features of natural description as well as that of political, economic, and military concern. 

[6]

Military Art 

Military art is by far the most important field of military science, and covers a wide range of things. For this reason, it will be left for a later article to allow for a more in-depth look. 

To summarise...
When viewed as a whole, Soviet military science is a rigid machine, an organized system which has to be followed along proper procedures of evaluation and scrutiny. This machine allows for careful assessment of actions, problems, and discussion. The key characteristics of Soviet military science can be said to be authority, conservatism, purposeful and precise planning, and a tenacious drive of objectives and goals. Progress and change, while desired and eventual, is slow, incremental, and deliberate.

This slowly churning machine of debate puts theories and proposals through rigorous theoretical testing, and those which take too long to be accepted are deemed to have failed the examination. However, those ideas which are adopted stand on surer grounds and have less room for failure.

Marxist teachings state that war is governed by necessity. This law of war defines the socioeconomic and political factors that govern the course and outcome of war. These Marxist teachings form a general philosophy of the Soviet military leadership.

The rigid Soviet military science machine, powered by Marxist-Leninist idealism, governs the laws which dictate how the Soviet military proceeds in all things. This theory is put into practice by military doctrine, which can be seen as the practical application of the laws of war on then-current affairs.

You can read part II here.

References

[1] V. Ye Savkin, The Basic Principles of Operational Art and Tactics, 1972
[2] General of the Army V. G. Kulikov, Akademiia General'nogo Shtaba, 1976
[3] General of the Army, Shavrov and Colonel Galkin, Metodologiia Voenno-Nauchongo Poznaiia, 1977
[4] Officers Handbook
[5] Sovetskaia Voennaia Entsiklopediia, Soviet Military Encyclopedia vol 4, 1997
[6] Dictionary of Basic Military Terms

Acknowledgements and further reading
Lt Col William Baxter, Soviet Airland Battle Tactics, 1986