Commissars, Commanders, and Civilian Authority: The Structure of Soviet Military Politics

Timothy J. Colton

Published by Harvard University Press 1979

Commissars, Commanders, and Civilian Authority

The Structure of Soviet Military Politics

Timothy J. Colton

Volume 79 in the series Russian Research Center Studies

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674497443

Overview
Contents

About this book

For six decade the Soviet system has been immune to military rebellion and takeover, which often characterizes modernizing countries. How can we explain the stability of Soviet military politics, asks Timothy Colton in his compelling interpretation of civil-military relations in the Soviet Union.

Hitherto most western scholars have posited a basic dichotomy of interests between the Soviet army and the Communist party. They view the two institutions as conflictprone, with civilian supremacy depending primarily upon the party's control of officers through its organs within the military establishment. Colton challenges this thesis and argues that the military party organs have come to possess few of the attributes of an effective controlling device, and that the commissars and their heirs have operated as allies rather than adversaries of the military commanders. In explaining the extraordinary stability in army-party relations in terms of overlapping interests rather than controlling mechanisms, Colton offers a major case study and a new model to students of comparative military politics.

Author / Editor information

Colton Timothy J. :

Timothy J. Colton is the Morris and Anna Feldberg Professor of Government and Russian Studies, and the Director of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, at Harvard University.

Reviews

A fine, scholarly book that will no doubt quickly establish itself as the standard work on the role of the Soviet military as a political actor and as an institution. It is a basic study and a clear historical review, and at the same time it presents an advanced and sophisticated analytical approach to Soviet military politics...The result is a detailed study of the Soviet military that has high comparative value for the examination of military political conduct in general. This is an advanced work.

Colton's study is excellent in terms of both content and methodology.

It has been generally assumed by Western observers that there is and has been tension in the military between the party's political officers and the military commanders... [Colton] argues the contrary thesis that the Military Party Organs for the most part are not in conflict with the regular military staff and command... Professor Colton is able to support his theses with an abundance of evidence...He not only has surveyed all the available military press and some of the party and government press but has made extensive use of the published memoirs by military commanders in World War II... This volume is well worth reading and makes an important contribution in refuting the views of many Western observers on Soviet civil-military relations.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part One. The Military Party Organs
1 The Structure of the Military Party Organs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
2 The Roles of the Military Party Organs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
3 The Military Party Organs in Military Administration Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	58
4 The Monitoring Capability of the Military Party Organs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
Part Two. The Military Party Organs and Military Politics
5 Routine Administrative Politics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
6 The Great Purge Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	136
7 World War II Decision Making Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	152
8 The Zhukov Affair Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
9 Public Demand Articulations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	196
Part Three. Army-Party Relations Reassessed
10 The Army in Soviet Politics: Capabilities and Participation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
11 Explaining the Army's Political Quiescence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	250
12 Civil-Military Relations and Soviet Development Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
Appendixes, Notes, Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	291
Appendix A Biographical Data on Soviet Military Officers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	293
Appendix Β A Note on Primary Sources Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	297
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	300
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	355
Russian Research Center Studies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	366

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Copyright year: 1979
Edition: Reprint 2014
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Front matter: 8
- Main content: 365
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 2
- Tables: 14
- Other: illustrated
Keywords: POLITICAL SCIENCE / General; HISTORY / General; Civil supremacy over the military -- Soviet Union.; Soviet Union -- Armed Forces -- Political activity.

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674497443

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 1979
ISBN: 9780674497429