Ministry of Defense (Soviet Union)
Министерство обороны СССР | |
RSFSR | |
Minister responsible |
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Parent department | Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union |
Website | eng |
The Ministry of Defense (Minoboron; Russian: Министерство обороны СССР) was a government ministry in the Soviet Union, which supervised the Soviet Armed Forces. The first Minister of Defense was Nikolai Bulganin, starting 1953.
History
The Ministry of Defence was renamed a number of times. From 1917 to 1934 it was the People's Commissariat for War and Naval Affairs, from 1934 to 1946 it was the People's Commissariat for Defence, and in 1946 the People's Commissariat for the Armed Forces. On or about March 22, 1946 the army and Navy Ministries (ru:Народный комиссариат Военно-морского флота СССР) were amalgamated into a Ministry of the Armed Forces.[1] The ministry became responsible for:[2]
"developing long-term plans for the development of the army and navy and improving organization and logistics [of] all types and branches of troops of the Armed Forces, which were controlled through the corresponding main commands in accordance with the specific responsibilities assigned to them." [..According to the “Regulations on the Ministry of the Armed Forces of the USSR”, approved by the Council of Ministers of the USSR on June 3, 1946.]
In 1950 the separate War and Navy Ministries were recreated, responsible to the Council of Ministers, "which had the Supreme Military Soviet as its highest organ," responsible for directing the Armed Forces.[3] In 1953 the two were unified again as the Ministry of Defence.
Disbandment
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation was established on 16 March 1992.[4] An agreement to set up a joint Commonwealth of Independent States military command was signed on 20 March 1992, but the idea was discarded as Russia created its own defence ministry and the other former Soviet republics decided to establish up separate national armed forces.[5]
Organization
The Ministry of Defence, an
Ministry structure
Leadership
Minister of Defence
The
Deputy ministers
The three first deputy ministers of defense were the chief of the General Staff, the commander in chief of the Warsaw Pact, and another senior officer with unspecified duties. First deputy ministers of defense have also been selected from the Ground Forces. In 1989 the eleven deputy ministers of defense included the commanders in chief of the five armed services as well as the chiefs of Civil Defense,
Institutions
Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) was the "central organ" – official newspaper of the Ministry.[12]
Responsibilities
The Ministry of Defence directed the five armed services and all military activities on a daily basis. It was responsible for fielding, arming, and supplying the armed services, and in peacetime all territorial commands of the armed forces reported to it. The design, equipment and staffing of the military services, as well as the development of their individual doctrines was the responsibility of various deputies ministers, overseen by the General Staff.[13] The Ministry of Defense has been staffed almost entirely by professional military personnel, and it has had a monopoly on military information because the Soviet Union has lacked independent defense research organizations frequently found in other countries. This monopoly has given high-ranking Soviet officers undisputed influence with party and government leaders on issues, ranging from arms control to weapons development to arms sales abroad, that affect the position and prestige of the armed forces.[6] The Ministry of Defense was capable of calling on various Soviet academies and institutes for analysis and studies on military matters, as well as the each service's own academies capable of running field tests.[7] Virtually all of this analysis, studies, and testing was classified secret, and non-military actors had no access to it.[14]
The General Staff was responsible for overseeing war plans, training, mobilization and combat readiness of forces.[7] During times of war, the General Staff would act as the executive arm of the Supreme High Command, exercising direct control over the five military forces.[6] The top leadership of the Ministry of Defense (the Minister of Defence, the three first deputy ministers of defense, the eleven ministers of defence and the chief of the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy) formed the Main Military Council.[6] At this time, the Main Military Council would become the headquarters of the Supreme High Command.[6] The Main Military Council would also resolve conflicts between the five services and present the Defense Council with the budgetary requirements of the military determined by the General Staff.[6]
See also
- Minister of Defence (Soviet Union)
- Ministry of Defense Industry (Soviet Union)
- List of heads of the military of post-imperial Russia
References
- ^ V.I. Feskov et al 2013, 16 ;Tsouras 1994, 38 says February.
- ^ V.I. Feskov et al 2013, 16.
- ^ Glantz 2010.
- ^ V.I. Feskov et al 2013, 16.
- ^ Odom 1998, pp. 375–387.
- ^ a b c d e f g Zickel & Keefe 1991.
- ^ a b c d e Odom 1998.
- ^ Odom 1998, p. 27.
- ^ Odom 1998, pp. 27–28.
- ^ a b Garthoff 2019.
- ^ Zickel & Keefe 1991, pp. 700–702.
- ^ Geoffrey Jukes, "The Soviet Armed Forces and the Afghan War," in Saikal and Maley, "The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan," 1989, 86.
- ^ Odom 1998, pp. 23, 25.
- ^ Odom 1998, pp. 25, 26.
- Garthoff, Raymond L. (2019) [1954]. Soviet Military Doctrine. Muriwai Books. RANDstudy.
- Glantz (2010). "The Development of the Soviet and Russian Armies in Context, 1946–2008: A Chronological and Topical Outline". Journal of Slavic Military Studies.
- "Министерство Обороны СССР" (in Russian). Энциклопедия Всемирная история. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
- Odom, William E. (1998). The Collapse of the Soviet Military. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. OCLC 47009307.
- Tsouras, Peter G. (1994). Changing Orders: The Evolution of the World's Armies, 1945 to the Present. New York: Facts on File.
- Zickel, Raymond E.; Keefe, Eugene K. (1991). Soviet Union : a country study (2nd ed.). Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. OCLC 22911443.