Forging Stalin's Army

by Stoecker, Sally W.

• ISBN13: 9780813334103
• ISBN10: 0813334101
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-02-01
• Publisher: Westview Pr

Summary

This innovative study examines the early years of the Red Army as it developed from a revolutionary partisan force into a modern, professional institution under the leadership of Mikhail Tukhachevsky, an important and controversial figure in the politics of the Stalin period. Sally Stoecker combines her institutional analysis of the formative period of the Soviet military with an astute look at the person and political maneuvers of Marshal Tukhachevsky and his complex relationship with Stalin, which eventually led to his spectacular downfall and execution in the Great Terror of the late 1930s.Based on newly available archival materials, the book will be welcomed not only by military historians but also by Russian historians for the light it sheds on a vital area of Soviet political history.

Table of Contents

Tables and Figures	x
Foreword	xi
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction: The Context for Innovation in Stalin's Army	1	(30)
Totalitarianism and the Red Army	2	(6)
Innovation in the Interwar Years	8	(3)
Was the Red Army a Traditional bureaucracy?	11	(1)
The Lessons of the Great War	12	(2)
Civilian Participation or Intervention?	14	(3)
Motives and Opportunities for Innovation During the First Five Year Plan	17	(5)
Notes	22	(9)
Politcs and Military Priorities: Building a Case for More Resources	31	(28)
Security and the Goals of the First Five Year Plan	33	(3)
Voroshilov: Criticism of the Party	36	(4)
Marshal Tukhachevsky: Optimism for Industrialization	40	(1)
A Controversial Rearmament Proposal	41	(4)
The Red Army's Manipulation of the ``War Scare''	45	(3)
Conclusions	48	(3)
Notes	51	(8)
The Impact of the Far East Threats and Encounters on Innovation	59	(18)
The Chinese Eastern Railway Conflict as Propaganda Tool	60	(4)
Party Documents Reflect New Concerns for Far East	64	(1)
Military Encounters in the Far East	65	(6)
Notes	71	(6)
The Clandestine Collaboration Between the Reichswehr and the Red Army	77	(38)
The Background and Context of the Secret Collaboration	78	(6)
Air Force Doctrine and Theory	84	(4)
Tank Doctrine and Theory	88	(3)
Chemical Doctrine and Theory	91	(3)
Lipetsk, Tomka, and Kama: Weapons Development, Testing, and Tactical Training	94	(7)
Impedments to Interpreting Influence: A Closer Look	101	(4)
Notes	105	(10)
The Acquisition and Adaptation of Foreign Models The Case of Tank Development	115	(20)
The Birth of Research and Development Bureaus	118	(1)
Ostekhbiuro: Where Civil and Military Goals Overlapped	119	(1)
The Acquisition and Alteration of British and American Tanks	120	(3)
Excursus: Soviet Design Analyses of German Tank Models	123	(1)
Indigenous Tank Programs and Prototypes: Dyrenkov and Grotto	124	(3)
Conclusions	127	(1)
Notes	128	(7)
Marshal Tukhachevsky: Enigmatic Military Entrepreneur	135	(46)
Tukhachevsky as Public Entrepreneur	136	(5)
Skillfully Exploiting Contradictions	141	(2)
Stalinist Ideology and the RKKA	143	(5)
Formulating a Vision of Future War	148	(1)
The Nature of a Coalition War	149	(1)
Imperialist Intentions and Variants of Future War	150	(3)
Leningrad as Laboratory: The ``Deep Battle'' Emerges	153	(4)
The Entrepreneur Ascendant: Tukhachevsky as Chief of Armaments	157	(2)
An Entrepreneurial Excursus: Tukhachevsky Gives Substance to Stalin's Vision of Civil Aviation, or ``15,000 Tons by 1932?''	159	(3)
Personalities, Politics, and the Public Entrepreneur	162	(6)
Conclusions	168	(2)
Notes	170	(11)
Postscript: Yezhovshchina and the End of Innovation	181	(8)
Tukhachevsky's Demise	182	(1)
Who Framed Marshal Tukhachevsky?	183	(3)
Notes	186	(3)
Concluding Remarks	189	(6)
Acronyms	195	(2)
Selected Bibliography	197	(8)
Index	205