Evolution Of Soviet Operational Art 1927-1991, The Vol 1.

Description: The Soviet military concept of operational art and the associated theories such as 'war of annihilation', 'deep battle' deep operations', have fascinated Western observers for more than four decades. However, more often than not the Soviet government has frustrated Western onlookers by hiding their military-theoretical work behind a veil of secrecy. Here that veil is torn away to reveal these imaginative Soviet military theories in the words of those who created them in peacetime and applied them in war. This collection of texts has been taken from formerly classified material in the official Red Army General Staff journal 'Military Thought'. The results are two volumes of great scope based on archival evidence. They stand as a compulsory reference point for anyone with an interest in the operational endeavours of the Soviet Army from the 1920's onward.

Contents: The formative years, 1927-40: strategy and operational art, A.A. Svechin (1927); strategy in an academic formuation, N. Varfolomeyev 91928); the evolution of operational art, G. Isserson (1932); operational prospects for the future, G. Isserson (1938). The test of war, 1941-45: closing speech at a military conference, S.K. Timoshenko (1940); the nature of modern battles, P.D. Korkodinov (1941); the development of operational art according to the experience of recent warfare, N. Talenskiy (1945). The Stalinist postwar years, 1946-53: concerning Soviet Army operational art, V. Zlobin and A. Vetoshnikov (1947); operational art and its place in Soviet military art, A. Vetoshnikov (1949); the triumph of Soviet operational art in the Great Patriotic War, V. Zlobin (1950). On the eve of revolution in military affairs, 1954-59: the operation, its essence and its significance in modern armed struggle, A. Tsvetkov (1955); operational art as an integral part of Soviet military art, V. Vasil'yev (1956); on modern Soviet military art and its characteristic features, P. Rotmistrov (1958). The revolution in military affairs, 1960-64: some questions of modern operational art, B. Golovchiner (1961); formation and develoment of the theory of operational art (1918-38), I. Mariyevsky (1962); tactics and operational art of the workers' and peasants' Red Army at a new stage, A.I. Yevgorov (1963).