Research for Soviet

This reader supplements other CNA papers about the future directions in the Western Alliance, by presenting the Soviet perspective on developments in Britain. Particular attention is given to recent Soviet writings on the United Kingdom, especially: its security aspirations, policies and debates, its roles in international affairs and arms control; its military forces; and its domestic politics.

In January 1977, General Secretary L.I. Brezhnev delivered an address in the city of Tula whose impact on Soviet doctrine and capabilities continues to this day. By rejecting the possibility of a means of defense against nuclear weapons, or a damage-limiting capacity in nuclear war, Brezhnev closed the door on a debate that had lasted over a decade in Soviet military thought. Since Tula, the Soviet politico-military leadership has presented a consensus on the reality of 'Mutual Assured Destruction' in present-day conditions. The Soviet debate on the viability of nuclear war as an instrument of policy was likewise resolved by a consensus: nuclear war is so unpromising and dangerous that it remains an instrument of policy only in theory, an instrument of policy that cannot be used. While the Soviet consensus on the diminishing military utility of nuclear weapons represents a ground-breaking shift in doctrine since the heyday of Marshal Solokovskiy, there is scant evidence of any dispute on the new correlation of war and policy in a nuclear age. Marshal N.V. Ogarkov and other hard-minded military figures have themselves emerged as the architects of the Soviet shift away from a nuclear war-fighting and war-winning strategy, while General Secretary Gorbachev has fashioned a corresponding arms control agenda.

While much attention is paid in the United States to Soviet perspectives on U.S. security policy, less is known about contemporary Soviet thinking about European security issues. This memorandum is a collection of original translations of the more authoritative Soviet journals, newspapers and monographs. The selections provide an overview of how the Soviets have analyzed European security issues, with special emphasis on the French role in European security.

The evolution of the mission and capabilities of Soviet aviation assigned to maritime roles from the days of the Tsarist Navy to the present is reviewed. The author addresses the mission priorities revealed in the Soviet literature, the hardward developed in response to those priorities, and the trends that can be identified from the literature and these developments.