Any lessons from current Ukraine invasion mean anything to a 1982 Warsaw Pact attack?

[Pelican Pal]

So like ignoring the discussion of whether political commissars are good/bad for a unit. Political commissars are enforcing some sort of ideological line and I have to ask... what line are they enforcing in modern Russia? What is the ideology of Putin's Russia other than enriching yourself at the cost of those below you? For whatever issues the USSR had they at least had a nominal ideological commitment to something other than barefaced self enrichment.
 

[MG TOW]

In the game context I was also thinking in terms of motivation and leadership. Both soft factors for units. In keeping with the OP, would these be higher during cold war era because of political officers? I guess I got onto this kick after watching Hunt for Red October (also read it way back) and the problem Captain 2R Ivan Putin presented to Ramius because he was always looking for subversive behavior.

[Codreanu]

Political officers seem like more an act of desperation or necessity than a "bonus" so to speak. Nazi Germany didn't feel the need to start creating NSFOs until the war turned against them and they need to create more indoctrinated, politically reliable soldiers.

[DesertFox]

Wrong thread. NVM

Edited March 27, 2022 by DesertFox

[BeondTheGrave]

6 hours ago, Hacketäuer said:

If anything I would expect only negative effects on military aspects from direct political influence. I am not an expert on that, but from what I have read the classical political commissars were an early WW2-thing only.

The classic Commissar was first created during the Revolution. At that time, the Red Army had to pivot from urban militias to a true field force. As a result they needed to rely on a number of 'Spets' or specialists who were largely, though not entirely, members of the old Imperial army. The Bolsheviks being who they were had a hard time trusting the 'Spets' with military forces, so Trotsky introduced the Commissars as a emergency backstop against disloyalty or anti-Marxist behavior. After that the two other main periods of commissar activity were doing the two major crises of the Red Army: the purges and the early stages of WWII. In both cases the political arm (Stalin) distrusted the military and wanted a control to ensure compliance with orders and as a guard against disloyalty. One of the big changes of the mid-war was that the Commissars retreated from having an active and equal role in command towards more traditional political officers. 

AFAIK by the 1980s the Commissars/Political officers took on more of the role of chaplains in the western armies. They worked to maintain consciousness, ideological purity, and sustain positive morale. As a chaplain might sustain you through combat spiritually, the politkom sustains the Soviet soldier politically. At least this is how the FM 100-2 series portrays them.