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Odom, William E. The Collapse of the Soviet Military. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1998. 523pp. $35
This book should be one of two books on the reading list of those who wish to understand the current crisis of the Russian military. William Odom, a retired U.S. Army general and Soviet specialist, brings excellent credentials to this study. His research is extensive. His approach to the collapse of the Soviet military is deeply rooted in the history of the Soviet state and its military system.
Odom argues that the military collapse of the Soviet Union was at the very heart of the disintegration of the Soviet system. His book is broken down into two unequal parts. The first provides an indepth, historical perspective on the origins, development, and crisis of the Soviet military and its commanding place in the Soviet system. In the second part, Odom examines the efforts under Gorbachev to reform the system, efforts that led to a deepening crisis, internal conflict, and collapse. The author emphasizes the role of MarxismLeninism in providing an ideological framework for defining threats to the Soviet state and in rationalizing the militarization of state and society.
The first five chapters cover the Soviet military from its birth, during the period of revolution and civil war; examine the role of the military in the mature party-state system that emerged under Stalin; discuss the model of preparation for mass, industrial war, which...