The Impact of the Military on Soviet Society

Abstract

‘The Army is a part of Soviet society and is nurtured by it not only materially but spiritually. In the Army are reflected all those socioeconomic and ideological-political processes taking place in society’ (Sheliag, et al., 1972, p. 3). In these words a major Soviet text clearly states the first lesson a Western observer grasps about the military — that it must be understood as a part of the whole Soviet social and political system. While it has many of the universal characteristics of military organizations (and of all bureaucracies), its molding by unique and often paradoxical circumstances must never be forgotten. It is the largest peacetime army in history yet the leader who presided over its founding had opposed standing military forces until weeks before coming to power, and six decades later his writings are cited to support indefinite accumulation of military ‘might’. The army is subject to strict civilian control (as official pronouncements never tire in declaring) yet the country’s foremost civilian recently arranged to acquire, in his seventieth year, the military rank of marshal. The army uses the latest in nuclear and electronic technology yet the press routinely describes shortages of fresh fruit, footwear, and shower facilities in military garrisons.