Ministry of Defense (Soviet Union)

The Ministry of Defense (Minoboron; Russian: Министерство обороны СССР) was a government ministry in the Soviet Union, which supervised the Soviet Armed Forces. The first Minister of Defense was Nikolai Bulganin, starting 1953. Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) was the "central organ" – official newspaper of the Ministry.^[1]

The Ministry of Defense was disbanded on 16 March 1992.^[2] An agreement to set up a joint Commonwealth of Independent States military command was signed on 20 March 1992, but the idea was discarded as Russia created its own defence ministry and the other former Soviet republics decided to establish up separate national armed forces.^[3]

The Ministry of Defence was renamed a number of times. From 1917 to 1934 it was the People's Commissariat for War and Naval Affairs, from 1934 to 1946 it was the People's Commissariat for Defence, and in 1946 the People's Commissariat for the Armed Forces. By February 1946 the army and Navy Ministries (ru:Народный комиссариат Военно-морского флота СССР) were amalgamated into a Ministry of the Armed Forces (Tsouras 1994, 38). In 1950 the separate War and Navy Ministries were recreated, responsible to the Council of Ministers, "which had the Supreme Military Soviet as its highest organ," responsible for directing the Armed Forces.^[4] In 1953 the two were unified again as the Ministry of Defence.

Organization

The Ministry of Defence, an all-union ministry, was technically subordinate to the Council of Ministers, as well as to the Supreme Soviet and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1989 it was, however, larger than most other ministries and had special arrangements for party supervision of, and state participation in, its activities. The Ministry of Defence was made up of the General Staff, the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Soviet Navy, the Warsaw Pact, the five armed services, and the main and central directorates.^[5] The General Staff was created by Stalin in 1935, as the development of more complex military forces required leaders with greater training and specialization.^[6] It acted as the main organ of control for all Soviet military forces during World War II.^[7] The five armed services were the navy, the ground forces, the military air forces, the air defense forces and the rocket forces.^[8] Higher level subunits in the Ministry would have an associated military collegium, essentially a council responsible for dealing with various issues, all under the ultimate command of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.^[6] Both the Ministry of Defence and the General Staff were predominantly led by the Ground Forces.^[6]

The minister of defence was always either a leading Communist Party civilian official or a Ground Forces general; the position was presumably filled on the recommendation of the Defence Council with the approval of the Politburo, although the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet made the formal announcement. After Minister of Defence General Georgy Zhukov was removed from his position in the Politburo in 1957, the Minister of Defense would not be made a part of Politburo again until 1973.^[9] In the 1980s, the Minister of Defense would only maintain alternate membership in the Politburo.^[9] The three first deputy ministers of defense were the chief of the General Staff, the commander in chief of the Warsaw Pact, and another senior officer with unspecified duties. First deputy ministers of defense have also been selected from the Ground Forces. In 1989 the eleven deputy ministers of defense included the commanders in chief of the five armed services as well as the chiefs of Civil Defense, Rear Services, Construction and Troop Billeting, Armaments, the Main Personnel Directorate, and the Main Inspectorate.^[10]

Responsibilities

 

Organisation of the Ministry of Defence of the Soviet Union, 1988^[5]

The Ministry of Defence directed the five armed services and all military activities on a daily basis. It was responsible for fielding, arming, and supplying the armed services, and in peacetime all territorial commands of the armed forces reported to it. The design, equipment and staffing of the military services, as well as the development of their individual doctrines was the responsibility of various deputies ministers, overseen by the General Staff.^[11] The Ministry of Defense has been staffed almost entirely by professional military personnel, and it has had a monopoly on military information because the Soviet Union has lacked independent defense research organizations frequently found in other countries. This monopoly has given high-ranking Soviet officers undisputed influence with party and government leaders on issues, ranging from arms control to weapons development to arms sales abroad, that affect the position and prestige of the armed forces.^[5] The Ministry of Defense was capable of calling on various Soviet academies and institutes for analysis and studies on military matters, as well as the each service's own academies capable of running field tests.^[6] Virtually all of this analysis, studies, and testing was classified secret, and non-military actors had no access to it.^[12]

The General Staff was responsible for overseeing war plans, training, mobilization and combat readiness of forces.^[6] During times of war, the General Staff would act as the executive arm of the Supreme High Command, exercising direct control over the five military forces.^[5] The top leadership of the Ministry of Defense (the Minister of Defence, the three first deputy ministers of defense, the eleven ministers of defence and the chief of the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy) formed the Main Military Council.^[5] At this time, the Main Military Council would become the headquarters of the Supreme High Command.^[5] The Main Military Council would also resolve conflicts between the five services and present the Defense Council with the budgetary requirements of the military determined by the General Staff.^[5]

See also

• Minister of Defence (Soviet Union)
• Ministry of Defense Industry (Soviet Union)
• List of heads of the military of post-imperial Russia

References

1. Geoffrey Jukes, "The Soviet Armed Forces and the Afghan War," in Saikal and Maley, "The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan," 1989, 86.
2. "Министерство Обороны СССР" (in Russian). Энциклопедия Всемирная история. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
3. Odom 1998, pp. 375–387.
4. Glantz 2010.
5. Zickel & Keefe 1991.
6. Odom 1998.
7. Odom 1998, p. 27.
8. Odom 1998, pp. 27–28.
9. Garthoff 2019.
10. Zickel & Keefe 1991, pp. 700–702.
11. Odom 1998, pp. 23, 25.
12. Odom 1998, pp. 25, 26.

• Garthoff, Raymond L. (2019) [1954]. Soviet Military Doctrine. Muriwai Books. ISBN 978-1-78912-347-0. OCLC 1089515705. Republished version of 1954 RAND study.
• Glantz (2010). "The Development of the Soviet and Russian Armies in Context, 1946–2008: A Chronological and Topical Outline". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Odom, William E. (1998). The Collapse of the Soviet Military. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-585-36678-0. OCLC 47009307.
• Tsouras, Peter G. (1994). Changing Orders: The Evolution of the World's Armies, 1945 to the Present. New York: Facts on File.
• Zickel, Raymond E.; Keefe, Eugene K. (1991). Soviet Union : a country study (2nd ed.). Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. ISBN 0-16-036380-2. OCLC 22911443.