APPROVED FORIA HISTORICAL REVIEW PROGRAM
TITLE: Open Sources On Soviet Military Affairs
AUTHOR: Davis W. Moore,*"
VOLUME: 7
., ,
STUDIES IN
INTELLIGENCE
A collection ol articles on the historical, operational, doctrinal, and theoretical aspects ol intelligence.
All statements of fact, op.nion or analysis expressed in Studies in Intelligence are those of
the authors They do not necessarily reflect official positions or views of the Central Intelligence Agency or any other US Government entity, past or present. Nothing in the contenis should be construed as asserting or implying US Government endorsement of an article's factual statements and interpretations.
A survey of periodical* and other public sources of militaryon the Soviet Union.
OPEN SOURCES ON SOVIET MILITARY AFFAIRS
Open sources useful in the production of militaryon the Soviet Union are many and varied. They are available in great quantity within the Intelligence community andmaller extent In the academic world. The Library of Congress, the Army Library, and the Navy Department all have good collections of Soviet publications on military affairs. In the academic world there are someesearchhaving more than ten thousand and anotherr more having between one and ten thousand Russian titles each. More than SS non-government libraries regularly receive over one hundred Russian periodicals each, andubscribe to ten or more Russianf no more than one-tenth of these publications contain information on military affairs they constitute an abundant resource. An exceptionally goodof Soviet military publications Is in the Hooverat Stanford University.
The value of such material Is less easy to establish thanbundance. For current intelligence, open sources are used only rarely, one reason for this being that there is somehe receipt of Soviet publications here. They can,be quite useful in supplying information on militaryorder of battle, and specific weapons. They can be and are used in the production of basic and estimativeintelligence, and they contribute data on theof weapons systems. In aggregate, open sourcesfurnish the greater part of all Information used in the production of military intelligence on the Soviet Union,the figure would not be so high as ninety per cent.
1 WcMIIc J. Ruggles and Vaclav Moslecxj. Russian ana East European Publication! in the Libraries ol the United States,,.
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Military
The principal types ol open sources dealing at least In part with Soviet military aflairs are discussed below with respect to their availability in the United States and their valueto one another.
Soviet Military Regulations and Manuals
These are concerned for the most part withjrtanda: ods of military operation common1hey do occasionally furnish insight Into Soviet doctrinaland administrative procedures that differ from those of the West. Their chief value lies in the fact that the issuanceew regulation or manual usuallyhange In military thinking. They are also useful lexicographically, to establish precise meanings and connotations in Sovietterminology.
Although the circulation of official military regulations and manuals in the Soviet Union is generally not restricted, they require special effort to procure because they are issued In very limited quantities. There are therefore likely to beew copies of any particular regulation available in thecommunity and probably none at all inrepositories.egulation Is in especial demand it Isby the'Department of theand reproduced for distribution to all Intelligence agencies.
Soviet Books and Pamphlets
These Include anythingpecialized pamphlet on street fightingolumn doctrinal treatise on "war" In the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. The Soviets are prolificof publications onratherand there are many Russian works on allof subjects from national strategy and objectives tobudgetary problems and night combat. Raymond L. GarthofTs Soviet Military Doctrineibliography off the most valuable titles up1 and9 The Department of the ArmyibliographySoviet Military Powerelected(to periodicals as well ast least one-third of them in Russian.1
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It should not be assumed that the value of these publica-Uons is commensurate with their quantity. In the first place, many are merely translations of Western military works, and while these may be of passing Interest In showing the pains the Soviets take to Interpret Western concepts in Marxist terms, they throw little fight on proper Soviet concepts. In ihe second place. Soviet military works are filled with political propaganda; by farthe greater,,partypical Soviet mtU-tary publication la concerned with the application oftenets to military concepts. It has been estimated that only about ten per cent of the Soviet military literature Is devoted to purely military matters.
An exception which has created somethingtir in the intelligence community Is the recently published Voennaya Strategiya (Militaryollection of essays edited by the former First Deputy Minister of Defense,okolovskiy. This is apparently the closest the Soviets have come toomplete and up-to-date analysis ofand tactical concepts applied In the practices of their own and. armed forces. The Air Force was the first to translate the book Into English, but the demand for copies scon exceeded the supply, and last spring three editions were published commercially.
Soviet Periodicals
Soviet newspapers and magazines, whether aimed primarilyilitaryivilian audience, probably yield moreinformation per unit of time spent on them than any otter open sources. The two main non-military sources are the central party and government organs Pravda and Izve-tiya. Although they carry relatively Utile purely military material, they are valuable for two kinds of information. The nrst Is official party and government pronouncements onmatters, which, if they are of major import, appear first to the central press. The second is the reported order ofof individuals at official functions, which provides anof the current status of different leaders, countries and policies in Kremlin councils.
Another non-military daily which Isoodilitary information Is Komsomolskaya Pravda, theof the Young Communist League. It often carries fea-
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turn not found In either Pravda or Izvestiya such astrips through Soviet military Installations oron newly
Although often not regularly available, the Soviet provta-clai press occasionally contributes some choice bit of tafor-mation. Sometimes Items censored out ofthe centralill through buresucraticme of the
P*ccurred but fall while the central press published only unidcntlnablvs-deon pictures of the dignitaries attending thenniversary parade, the Byelorussian paper carried a
*e reviewing standi revealed the whole order of protocol.
nj)nilltary publicaUon regularly available in the United States is Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) fcsued daily by the Chief Political AdmlnistraUon of thetry oft Is received here by air the day after pub-ucatlon and examined promptly. It contains all types of in-teihgence information, from low-level order of battle up to polittco-miUtary matters of the greatest significance. LiXe all Soviet newspapers. It Ls quite small by American standards, often not more than four pages, and its content is considered the more important for this tight selection. Even itscommentaries are carefully analyred to determine In what directions the Soviet authorities are trying to shape the thoughts of their military personnel
A-rosnopo Zvezda was formerly the organ of the Soviet Army, while the Chief Political Administration of the Soviet Navyimilar daily entitled SoveUkiy Plot (Sovietas in abouthat the naval paper was discontinued and Krornapa Zvezda. transferred to theof Defense, became the dally newspaper for all thearmed forces. It still devotes more attention to the ground forces than to other branches.
Voennaya MysV (Militaryonthly Journal put out by the Historical Division ol the Oeneral Staff of the
iscussionoviet military periodicals seetp. SOB-SOB. and the same author's Soviet" Nuclear Age. pp.SJ.
'open MHaeyITUU
Soviet Army, is the USSR's most Important militaryIt contains articles written by high-ranking officersof the greatest doctrinal and strategiclassification comparable to our Official UseGenerals. Admirals, and Officers of the Soviet Armyusually circulates no lower than theofficer level. Copies therefore have to be procuredand It can not be regarded as an
neks In Voennaya MysV accepted as doctrine by policy makers, however, usually appear eventually In other military pub lies tiona.
Tbe Soviet Navy has its own theoretical monthlykm, Morskoy Sbornik (Navalhich Is alsoand equally difficult to acquire.
Until recently each service branch, or its chiefton,onthly journal devoted mainly to tactical matters of Interest to personnel of the branch. These were received in the United States more or less regularly. Now some of these journals have been discontinued and replaced by the publication Voenniy Vesfnik (Military Herald),the journal of the ground forces. Although this now serves the armored, artillery, and ordnance branches as well. Its chiefhence Its main interest to militaryto be on subjects of tactical relevance to the ground forces. Other branches itlll publish their own monthly journals, and these, when available, continue to be excellent sources of Information on tactical doctrine and order of battle.
Recently two new monthly military publications haveone named Starshtna-Serihant (Warrant Officer and Sergeant) after Its intended NCO audience and the otherSovetskiy Voin (Sovietimed at enlisted men In general. These mass-audience magazines contain noinformation of any kind, but they occasionally furnish some useful ordcr-of-battle informationhotograph of aome new piece of equipment
In the field of paramilitary publications, the SovietSociety for Aid to the Army, Aviation and the Fleet (DOSAAF) publishes the semi-weekly paper Sovetskiy Patriot. This has recently become an extremely valuable source on the civil defense and paramilitary Instruction given to boys and
girls In the USSR. Since many retired military personnel participate In these training activities, it also cervesource of OB InformaUon. DOSAAF publishes in addition ser-erml mUltary journals, the most valuable of which,ontains articles written by Soviet military leaders, is VoennlyeZnaniya (Military Knowledge)
These publications are of course more valuable to an analyst whoeading knowledge of Russian than to one who dees not. Selections, from them, however, are made available in translation by CIA's Foreign Documents Division, and further translations can be obtained on request. Another useful source Is The Current Digest of the Soviet Press, edited by Leo Orullow under the direction of the Joint Committee on Slavic Studies of Columbia University. This offersranslation of important current articles, and althoughmostly toward political developments, It does contain occasional Items of military import. It should be used to supplement the FDD pubucaUons. which do notuleItems that have already appeared in the Current Digest.
Less Information on Soviet military matters comes from the Satellite press, naturally, than from the Soviet The Soviet forces in tbe Satellites are less active pubUcly and morefrom the populace than they are at home, and thepress is in any case reluctant to publish Informationilitary nature until it has appearedovietIf an analyst regularly follows the pressatellite country, however, he will occasionally find an Item of OBor an "exclusive" report dealing with some activity of the Soviet military there.
Soviet Broadcasts and Press Transmissions
Although radio broadcasts cannot be regarded as one of the major open sources of military InformaUon on the Soviet Union, they can nevertheless be useful from time to Ume Thcir great advantage is In being made available to Western analysts much more quickly than newspaper or journalIn matters of urgency the translated text of aSoviet statement can be in an analyst's hands within an hour of broadcast time, whereas he will notublished article until at least twenty-four hours after publication, and should heranslation of It he will have to wait even
longer. In routine matters the difference Is thatay or two and several weeks.
Texts of Soviet broadcasts published daily by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service are widely distributedthe intelligence community and to some publicbut they are of limited use in the production of military Intelligence because tlie Soviets broadcast far less military information than they print. Moreover, thenalytic work Is therefore Oriented chiefly to political rather thansubjects. On the other hand, much of this political broadcasting can have military significance, and it isin FBIS inay as to be of great use to theanalyst, with separate files, for example, of Soviet leaders' pronouncements on strategy, capabilities, and war themes and Soviet threats of counteraction.
Western Sources
Into this category fall such diverse Informants as SovietRussian exile groups active in the West, formermilitary personnel who have had contact with the Red Army, and Western experts on military affairs. Some ofan be regarded as primary sources of Information andnly as useful to help interpret data from primary sources. Soviet defectors canopious source of information:
I
most of them have had at least some experiences with the Soviet military and are eager to tell what they know. Thelr statements and writings, while they may be sensation-I, affected by whatever bias led to the defection, and Ited by the particular situations the authors had experi-lced. can be valuable confirmatory sources and may contain lew information for which confirmation can be sought
The publications of Russian exile groups can often provide ice to tbe Soviet military affairs analyst, not soource of raw Information butelp in interpreting data available to exiles and analysts alike. One group, the Institute for the Study of the USSR, head-lartered in Munich and headed by Nikolay Oalay, puts out monthly Bulletin which often contains excellent articles on 'let military affairs. This and other exile publications, such the New York newspaper Novoe Russkoe Slovo (New Russian
Military S
re generally available throughout the intelljpenci. and academic communities.
There are numerous German open sources ol militaryon the Soviet Union Some are accounts byprisoners of war returned from Imprisonment In the USSR. Useful InformaUon can be derived from these if they are treated with the same caution as refugee and defectorOthers are formal, rigorous German analyses ofilitary doctrine, and capabilities by wartime generalsrdnastern front or in the general staff. These tend toational bias and doctrinaire approach similar to that in the corresponding products of Soviet generals, but the analyst, by making allowance for this, can derive some valuablematerial from them.
The last group of sources in this category consists of West-em authorities on Soviet military affairs. Prominent within this group areormer researcher for the Rand Corporation who has produced three excellent books on Soviet military theory and operaUng techniques. Herbert S. Dinersteln. the author of War and the Soviet Union, B. H. Liddetl Hart, the noted British military authority, andW. Baldwin, the New York Times military specialistthese men rarely have access to any InformaUon not available to the Intelligence analyst, they use many of tbe same sources he does and consequently can maketo the analyst's Interpretation of the raw information.
Original document.
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