Commissar Posted June 7, 2002 Share Posted June 7, 2002 Anyone here have these books? What did you think of them? Are they worth the price? I remember seeing volume one in my university library but saw these books were being sold by a government publisher. I've always been interested in Soviet strategy and tactics so I was wondering what others thought of this series. Thanks for any input 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Sterrett Posted June 8, 2002 Share Posted June 8, 2002 I have one of them. They are interesting, but the provenance is somewhat questionable (done up from the notes of an Afghan Army officer defector, supposedly) and I'd say you'd be better off reading Glantz, Simpkin, Naveh, et al, unless you're doing fairly indepth research. A more useful selection of material "from the horse's mouth" is the two-volume set, "The Evolution of Soviet Opertional Art". It's got a selection of book excerpts and articles from 1917 - 1991 that range from good to great, and Orenstein is a careful translator. For key late-1920s works on operational art and strategy, Triandafillov's "The Nature of the Operations of Modern Armies" is also out in a solid translation, and Svechin's "Strategy" is out as well; I think both are still in print. I'm not thrilled by some parts of the translation in "Strategy" - it's careful but fails to capture the power of Svechin's prose in Russian. Svechin coined the term "operational art" ("operativnoe iskusstvo")and Triandafillov was Tukhachevskii's right-hand theorist, concretizing a lot of Tukhy's dreaming until he died in an air crash (in 1933 IIRC.) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar Posted June 8, 2002 Author Share Posted June 8, 2002 Thanks. Didn't even know these two books existed. I'll be getting them soon. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minmax Posted June 12, 2002 Share Posted June 12, 2002 Just thought you might be interested in the Red Star the gazette of Soviet Officers. The GPO (Government Printing Office) will send you copies for just a hair over shipping. It is amazing reading b/c it is not drenched in zampolit rhetoric and it give real insight into the minds of the Soviet Army. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Sterrett Posted June 12, 2002 Share Posted June 12, 2002 Are you talking about "Red Thrust Star", the US Opfor publication (which I understood had been forced to shut down 8( ), or "Krasnaia Zvezda", the Soviet (now Russian) Army publication? If the latter, do they provide it in Russian as well as in translation? Cheap access to Soviet/Russian publication is pretty rare, so if it's the latter, I'm *very* interested! 8) (Red Thrust Star had some pretty good material too. A couple of its issues used to be available online, but I've mislaid the link.) "Krasnaia Zvezda" used to be aimed at a soldier-level audience and did contain a fair amount of rah-rah (zampolit speak being merely one manifestation of that horrid disease...) The officer's publication was/is "Voennaia Misl'" (Military Thought). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minmax Posted June 13, 2002 Share Posted June 13, 2002 Red Star was the original pub and on the left page was the english and the right page was the russian. Very good stuff we learned a lot about them from it. Matter of fact I liberated one from the tent of some east german advisors back in 1988. A real feather in my cap when I was working in Central America. The Opfor mag was also pretty good. Contact GPO or Dept. of the Army and they should hook you up I believe the fees are fairly reasonable. I have some friends in low places that may be able to scrounge up a line on some if the former groups cant help you. My impression were that the Soviet officer corps had its business together b/c of their system of conscription and the shake and bake NCOs. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Sterrett Posted June 13, 2002 Share Posted June 13, 2002 Thanks! I'll get in touch with the GPO. 8) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreas Posted June 13, 2002 Share Posted June 13, 2002 Originally posted by James Sterrett: (Red Thrust Star had some pretty good material too. A couple of its issues used to be available online, but I've mislaid the link.)Could it be here? Tut tut, member number 244, and does not know how to use Google 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Sterrett Posted June 13, 2002 Share Posted June 13, 2002 That's it. Serves me right for forgetting Google, while leaving my head mired in my own (then-inaccessible) bookamrks file. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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