Survey of Self-Criticism in Selected Soviet Military Journals.

摘要

This paper examines Soviet press treatment of current shortcomings and problem areas in nontechnical fields of the Soviet Armed Forces. It is based on a thorough review of three key Soviet military publications listed and described below. These journals were selected as the most important and the most representative of current Soviet military writings. An essential premise of this research is the belief that meaningful research can be accomplished using widely published Soviet military writings. While it is recognized that the Soviet press contains much propaganda, it must still serve as an important method of communications for a vast armed forces complex. The myriad of problems facing the Soviet military, as any other military force, cannot be dealt with exclusively through communications with limited readership. It is the position of the authors that the Soviets do address real and important problems openly in a number of cases and that a reading and comprehension of these problems is important to a broad understanding of the Soviet military.