Undermining combat readiness in the Russian military, 1992-2005

Armed Forces and Society

Volumn 32, Issue 4, 2006, Pages 513-531

  Herspring, Dale R ^a,b  

^a KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b and Development   (United States)

Author keywords

Combat cohesion; Combat readiness; Russian military

Indexed keywords

EID: 33745027904     PISSN: 0095327X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0095327X06288030     Document Type: Article

References (106)

1. In accordance with standard Russian usage, the Army refers to all of services: the Navy, Air Force, Strategic Rocket Forces, Space Forces, and Air Defense Forces. The methodological approach taken in this article owes much to Robert K. Yin, Case Study Research: Design and Methods, 3rd ed. (London: Sage, 2003), chap. 2.
2. These factors encompass both social and task cohesion as defined in Robert J. MacCoun, Elizabeth Kier, and Aaron Belkin, "Does Social Cohesion Determine Motivation in Combat: An Old Question with an Old Answer," Armed Forces & Society 32, no. 1 (2005): 1.
3. As they put it, "social cohesion, in other words, refers to whether group members like each other, while task cohesion refers to whether they share the same goals." In discussing such concepts, Russian military writers do not make a distinction between the two. In fact, the Russian military has faced serious problems in both areas.
4. The following are drawn from this writer's own thirty-two-year experience with the U.S. Navy as well as from E. A. Shils and M. Janowitz, "Cohesion and Disintegration in the Wehrmacht in World War II," Public Opinion Quarterly 12 (1948): 280-315;
5. David Skaggs, "Creating Small Unit Cohesion: Oliver Hazard Petty at the Battle of Lake Erie," Armed Forces & Society 23, no. 4 (Summer 1997): 634-68;
6. Peter C. Boer, "Small Unit Cohesion: The Case of Fighter Squadron 3-VI.G.IV," Armed Forces & Society 28, no. 1 (Fall 2001): 33-54;
7. Paul L. Savage and Richard A. Gabriel, "Cohesion and Disintegration in the American Army; An Alternate Perspective," Armed Forces & Society 2 (May 1976): 340-76;
8. Sam Sarkesian, ed., Combat Effectiveness: Cohesion, Stress and the Volunteer Army (London: Sage, 1980);
9. Morris Janowitz, "Military Organization," in Handbook of Military Institutions, ed. Roger W. Little (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1971), 13-52;
10. Darryl Henderson, Cohesion: The Human Element in Combat (Washington, DC: National Defense University, 1985);
11. Charles D. Marashian, A Study of Human Factors that Affect Combat Effectiveness on the Battlefield (Monterey, CA: Naval Post Graduate School, 1982);
12. and Jeremy J. J. Phipps, "Unit Cohesion: A Prerequisite for Combat Effectiveness" (Issue Paper 82-3, National Defense University, Washington, DC, 1982).
13. In discussing the Russian and Soviet armies, the pronoun he will be used because the Russian Army has yet to integrate women in a meaningful way into its ranks. They remained restricted to administrative, medical, and other noncombatant positions. The vast majority are the wives or daughters of officers serving as warrant officers struggling to make enough money to keep the family going.
14. Thomas E. Ricks, Making the Corps (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998).
15. Leonard Wong, Thomas A. Kolditz, Raymond A. Millen, and Terrence M. Potter, Why They Fight: Combat Motivation in the Iraq War (Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, 2003).
16. At various points in time, this writer has discussed the problem with senior Russian officers (as a member of a delegation led by Admiral Dennis Blair, who was Commander in Chief of U.S. Forces, Pacific, to Russia in 2000), as well as with a wide variety of former Soviet and Russian officers and soldiers in other forums.
17. Michael Wniarski, "Russian Army Close to Chaos," September 12, 1992, Dagens Nyheter, in Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), Soviet Union, September 16, 1992, p. 27;
18. and "Reformirovanye armii trebuet vzveshnnogo I produmannogo podkhoda," Krasnaya zvezda, November 23, 1992.
19. See chapter 6, "Political Officers in the Soviet Military," in Dale R. Herspring, Soldiers, Commissars, and Chaplains; Civil-Military Relations Since Cromwell (Boulder, CO: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003), 161-86.
20. "Vooruzhennye Sily Rossii - na strona Zakona I Konstitutsii," Krasnaya zvezda, December 18, 1992.
21. "Uchebny god zavershen, problemy ostayutsya," Krasnaya zvezda, December 12, 1992.
22. "Dedovshchina: Caste Tyranny in the Soviet Armed Forces," The Journal of Soviet Military Studies 5, no. 1 (March 1992): 65.
23. Robert V. Barylski, The Soldier in Russian Politics (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1998), 284.
24. C. J. Dick, "The Crisis in the Soviet Military," Jane's Intelligence Review, February 1992, 403;
25. and Mark Rhodes, "Public Attitudes in Russia," RFE/RL Research Reports 2, no. 3 (January 1993): 42.
26. '"Ludi v pogonakh' kogda Vorruzhennye Sily RF sokrashchaysitya shislennost silovykh Struktur rastet," Krasnaya zvezda, August 2, 1994.
27. "Officers! Russian Federation of Ministry of Defense Information Publishes Data on Armed Forces' Officer Corps," Rossiyskaya gaeta, August 26, 1996, in FBIS, Central Europe, August 21, 1995, p. 1.
28. Lilia Shevtsova, "Russia's Fragmented Armed Forces," in Civil-Military Relations and Democracy, ed. Larry Diamond and Marc F. Plattner (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1996), 113.
29. Dick, "Crisis in the Soviet Military" (February 1992), 72.
30. "Radio Rossii Interviews Grachev on Military Issues," Moscow Radio Rossii, February 1993, in FBIS, Central Europe, February 24, 1993, p. 26.
31. William E. Odom, The Collapse of the Soviet Military (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998), 302.
32. C. J. Dick, "The Crisis in the Former Soviet Military," Jane's Intelligence Review, September 1992, 72.
33. "Predeszodovskie kholpoty vlasty," Nezzavisimay gazeta, November 25, 1992, in FBIS, November 25, 1992.
34. C. W. Blandy, "Chechnya: Two Federal Interventions. An Interim Comparison and Assessment" (Document no. P29, Conflict Studies Research Centre, January 2000), 13.
35. Barylski, Soldier in Russian Politics, 300, 311; and
36. Roy Allison, "Russia, Regional Conflict, and the Use of Military Power," in The Russian Military: Power and Policy, ed. Steven E. Miller and Dmitri Trenin (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004), 130.
37. Tim Thomas, "Soldiers Sent to Battle After 8 Days Training," Moscow News, April 17-23, 1997;
38. and "Armiya budet takoy, kakim budet ee ofitserskiy korpus," Krasnaya zvezda, May 17, 1994.
39. Aleksandr Gol'ts, Armiya Rossii: 11 Poteryannikh let (Moscow: Zakharov, 2004), 166.
40. Olga Oliker, Russia's Chechen War 1994-2000: Lessons from Urban Combat (Santa Monica, CA: Rand, 2001), 14.
41. Blandy, Chechnya: Two Federal Interventions, 15.
42. Anatol Lieven, Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998), 47.
43. Anatol Lieven, Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power, Ibid., (1998) 106.
44. Barylski, Soldier in Russian Politics, 102;
45. and Blandy, Chechnya: Two Federal Interventions, 15.
46. Lieven, Chechnya, 102-3.
47. Benjamin S. Lambeth, "Russia's Wounded Military," Foreign Affairs 74, no. 2 (March/April 1995): 81;
48. and Pavel Felgenhauer, "The Chechen Campaign" (Paper for the Third Annual Conference on Russian Decision Making, November 7-8, 1995), 11. This article was prepared for a conference at the Naval Post Graduate School. I am indebted to Professor Mikhail Tyspkin for providing me with this article.
49. Oliker, Russia's Chechen War, 5 9.
50. Robert W. Duggleby, "The Disintegration of the Russian Armed Forces," The Journal of Slavic Military Studies 11, no. 2 (June 1998): 11;
51. and Felgenhauer, "Chechen Campaign," 12.
52. Lieven, Chechnya, 291.
53. Lieven, Chechnya, Ibid., 110.
54. Felgenhauer, "Chechen Campaign," 15, note 11.
55. Viktor Yershov, "The Defense Minister Has It in for Everyone," Novaya Yezhednevaya gazeta, December 9, 1994, in FBIS, Central Europe, December 12, 1994, p. 33. A number of senior Russian military officers, with whom this author spoke, at the time considered this statement to be far "too optimistic" (slishkom optimistichnyi).
56. Yevgeniy Podkoslzin, "I Am Proud of the Airborne Troops," Zavtra, December 1995, Joint Publication Research Service-Russia, February 7, 1996, p. 19.
57. Lieven, Chechnya, 284.
58. "Russia Continues to Lose Officers," The Monitor, October 13, 1999.
59. U.S. Department of State Country Guide, "Military Schools," Exploitz.com, July 1996.
60. Reuters, "Russia's Armed Forces in Critical Shape," April 20, 1998;
61. "A Lack of Funds Impedes Combat Training Plan," Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozrienye, June 4, 1999, in World News Connection (WNC), Military Affairs, July 1, 1999;
62. and "Russia Needs More Soldiers to Balance NATO; Commander," ITAR-TASS, March 12, 1999.
63. Lester W. Grau and Timothy L. Thomas, "A Russian View of Future War: Theory and Direction," The Journal of Slavic Military Studies 9, no. 3 (September 1996): 514.
64. "Armed Forces Crime Figures for 1998 Announced," Interfax, December 1, 1999.
65. Walter Parchomenko, "The State of Russia's Armed Forces and Military Reform," Parameters, Winter 1999-2000, 100.
66. "A Wave of Violent Incidents Is Sweeping the Armed Forces," Nezavisimaya gazeta, June 11, 1997, in FBIS, June 13, 1997.
67. "Boys Beaten Up by Seniors and Fathers Too. By Their Commanders," Komsomolskaya Pravda, March 5, 1998, in FBIS, March 6, 1998.
68. "Russia's Army Faces Battle within Its Ranks," Christian Science Monitor, February 1, 1999
69. ; and "Crime Increases in Russia's Armed Forces," The Russia Journal, March 15, 1999.
70. "The Army Is Shooting Its Own Men," Izvestiya, June 6, 1997.
71. "The Russian Army, Reeling from the War in Chechnya and Facing Brutality within Its Ranks, Has Found a New Enemy - Itself," Transactions, November 1998.
72. M. J. Orr, "Manpower Problems of the Russian Armed Forces" (Document no. D62, Conflict Studies Research Centre, February 2002), 4.
73. '"Defense Ministry to Submit Program on Contract Service by Autumn," Novosti, July 15, 1997. Around 100,000 were the wives of officers serving primarily in communications, administrative, and medical positions to supplement their husbands' incomes.
74. "Army Struggles with Contract Military Service," The Monitor, October 15, 1997.
75. "Russian Army to Place More Emphasis on Volunteers," ITAR-TASS, December 25, 2002, in WNC, December 26, 2002.
76. Victor Baranets, "What Kind of Military is Putin Creating," Komsomolskaya pravda, March 10, 2004, in Johnson's List, March 11, 2004.
77. The Monitor, September 5, 2001.
78. "Russian Army Suffers from Mass Exodus of Officers," RFE/RL Daily Report, February 14, 2002;
79. and Gol'ts, Armiya Rossii, 11.
80. Aleksandr Gol'ts, "The Social and Political Condition of the Russian Military," in The Russian Military: Power and Policy, ed. Steven E. Miller and Dmitri Trenin (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004), 78.
81. "Hazing, Suicide, and Poverty Await Moscow and St. Petersburg Personnel in the Armed Forces," Nezavisimaya gazeta, March 10, 2005, in WNC, March 11, 2005.
82. "Russian Air Force Command Worried by Aging of Aircraft," ITAR-TASS, March 26, 2003, in WNC, March 29, 2003.
83. "Defense Official Says Increased Training Budget Will Benefit Armed Forces," ITAR-TASS, January 30, 2005, in WNC, January 31, 2005.
84. "Sergey Ivanov Tests His Doctrine - Armed Forces Train to Conduct One Major War and Two Local Wars Simultaneously," Nezavisimaya gazeta, August 21, 2005, in WNC, August 22, 2005.
85. "Russian Defense Ministry Drafts New Combat Training Concept," Agentstvo Voyennykh Novostey, November 7, 2005, in WNC, November 8, 2005.
86. Andrew Meier, Chechnya: To the Heart of a Conflict (New York: Norton, 2005). The Chechens were just as brutal in fighting the Russians.
87. See Paul Murphy, The Wolves of Islam (Washington, DC: Brassey's, 2004).
88. See also Oliker, Russia's Chechen War, 42.
89. Meier, Chechnya, 81;
90. and "Soldiers Vigilantly Extort Chechen Drivers," Chechnya Weekly, June 30, 2004.
91. "Russian Troops in Chechnya Revolt," ITAR-TASS, March 27, 2002, in Johnson's List, March 27, 2002.
92. Meier, Chechnya, 107.
93. Russia Project, "What's Next for the Russian Military," Radio Series, http://www.russiaproject.org.
94. Vladimir Putin, "Stenograficheskiy ochet o sovershchanii rukovodyashchego sostave Vooruzhennykh," November 9, 2005, http://president.kremlin.ru.
95. "Establishment of House Mortgage System in Russian Armed Forces Enters Final Stage," Agentstvo voyennykh novostey. April 21, 2005, in WNC, April 22, 2005.
96. Paul Jenkins, "Red Army Blues," The World Today, September 2, 2001.
97. Associated Press, "As Desertions Continue, Russia's Military Drafts Men with Mental Illnesses and Criminal Records," October 6, 2002.
98. Human Rights Watch 15, no. 9 (2002): 23-24.
99. "Russia Chief Army Prosecutor on Bullying, Draft Problems, Bribes, Specific Cases," Rossiyskaya gazeta, June 10, 2003, in WNC, June 13, 2003.
100. "Russian Defense Minister to Cover Cost of Bullying Victim's Treatment," ITAR-TASS, January 27, 2006, in WNC, January 28, 2006.
101. Gol'ts, Armiya Rossii, 169;
102. and "Draft 2006 Budget Shows Increased Spending on Defense," Interfax, August 17, 2005, in WNC, August 19, 200 5.
103. "Defense Official Says Increased Training Budget Will Benefit Armed Forces," ITAR-TASS, January 30, 2005, in WNC, January 31, 2005.
104. Barylski, Soldier in Russian Politics, 276.
105. "The Sword of Crisis over the Military Budget," Oriyentur, February 2, 1999, in WNC, February 1, 1999.
106. Zoltan Barany, "Politics and the Russian Armed Forces," in Russian Politics: Challenges of Democratisation, ed. Zoltan Barany and Robert G. Moser (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 182.