Abstract
It is a commonplace to say that Soviet servicemen are politically indoctrinated. Although an impressive number of authors have written at varying length on the subject there is still no widespread understanding in the Western world of the scope, extent and content of the indoctrination programme. Seven years of working in the Soviet Union, first as an Assistant Air Attaché in the 1960s and later from 1978–81 as Defence Attaché, has convinced this author that the education of Soviet soldiers has a far greater significance for future international relations than is generally realised.
People are not born soldiers. They become soldiers. Both in wartime and peacetime military tasks require a great expenditure of effort from a man. And this is why the education of the soldier is no easy matter. The process should not begin at that moment when the new recruit joins the ranks, but much earlier, at the time of the first signs of maturity, during the time of adolescent dreams.
Red Star, 22 March 1973
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Notes
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© 1986 Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies
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Williams, E.S. (1986). Political Education and Training. In: The Soviet Military. RUSI Defence Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07754-0_1
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