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The Military Factor in East German Soviet Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Dale R. Herspring
Dale R. Herspring*
Affiliation:
Georgetown University and works at the United States Department of State
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Extract

The Soviet military appears to be losing its privileged position within the Soviet national security apparatus. As long as Gorbachev continues to have the upper hand in Moscow, the Kremlin's generals will be in for hard times. Assuming this trend continues, it could have the unexpected effect of enhancing the role of the German Democratic Republic's military contribution to the Warsaw Pact. In turn the East German political leadership's long-term goal of using the military factor to influence Soviet behavior has advanced. The more reliable and more modern its armed forces, the greater the likelihood the East Germans will be able to translate this advantage into leverage—even if it is very limited—in dealing with the Soviets in other areas.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , Spring 1988 , pp. 89 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1988

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References

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent official United States government policy.

1. Angela Stent, “Soviet Policy Toward the German Democratic Republic,” in Meikle, Sarah Terry, John, Soviet Policy in Eastern Europe (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1984), p. 41 Google Scholar. See also, Krisch, Henry, The German Democratic Republic: The Search for Identity (Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1986), pp. 60–61 Google Scholar; Krisch, Henry, “The German Democratic Republic, ” in Soviet Allies, TheWarsaw Pact and the Issue of Reliability, ed. Nelson, Daniel (Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1984), p. 173 Google Scholar.

2. See, for example, the articles by Roman Kolkowicz, William Odom and Timothy Colton inCivil-Military Relations in Communist Systems, ed., Dale R. Herspring and Ivan Volgyes (Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1978).

3. Anyone who has worked in a governmental bureaucracy knows how influential “expert advice “is in framing issues for decision.

4. The following is based on numerous conversations with a wide variety of East European security specialists. See also Michal Sadykiewicz's forthcoming, “Organizing for Coalition Warfare: The Role of Non-Soviet Warsaw Pact Forces in Soviet Military Planning,” Rand Report.

5. See Dale R. Herspring, “On Perestroiyka: Gorbachev, Yazov, and the Military,” Problems of Communism, July-August 1987, pp. 99–107.

6. Based on conversations with a number of individuals who have met with him. While conversationswith Soviet and East European specialists must remain somewhat suspect given their potentiallyself-serving nature, material of this type was included in this article only when such commentswere made by a number of sources at different times and places.

7. See Dale Herspring, “Marshal Akhromeyev and the Future of the Soviet Armed Forces, “Survival (November-December 1986): 524–535.

8. Based on Dale Herspring, “The Soviet General Staff and Politics, 1967–1987” (forthcoming).

9. William F. Scott, “The Soviets and Strategic Defense,” Air Force (March 1986): 41.

10. S. Akhromeev, Abbreviated version of a speech delivered at the 27 November joint sessionof the USSR Supreme Soviet of the Union and Soviet of Nationalities, Izvestia in FBIS, SovietUnion, 2 December 1985 (emphasis added).

11. S . Akhromeev, “Na strazhe mira i sotsializma, “Krasnaia zvezda (23 February 1986).

12. “Utverzhdeniia Vashingtona i deistvitel'nye fakty,” Pravda, 19 October 1985.

13. S. Sokolov, “To preserve what has been achieved in the sphere of strategic arms limitation, “Pravda in FBIS, Soviet Union, 6 November 1985.

14. Ibid.

15. V. Chernavin, “Voenno-morskoi flot — XXVII s “ezdu KPSS,” Morskoi sbomik, 1 November1986, pp. 3–4.

16. “Delo vsekh i kazhdogo,” Krasnaia zvezda, 25 January 1986.

17. “Byt’ bditel'nym,” Krasnaia zvezda, 15 February 1986.

18. “Leninskim kursom,” Krasnaia zvezda, 25 February 1986

19. N. V. Ogarkov, Istoriia uchit bditel'nosti (Moscow, Voennoe izdatel'stvo, 1985), p. 80 (emphasis added).

20. Account of a speech by Sergei Sokolov, marshal of the Soviet Union, Pravda, 8 November, 1985, in FBIS, 8 November 1985.

21. Abbreviated version of a speech by Akhromeev to the Twenty-seventh Joint Session of the USSR Supreme Soviet of the Union and Soviet of Nationalities.

22. Akhromeev, “Na strazhe mira i sotsializma. “

23. “Novatorstvo i realizm,” Krasnaia zvezda, 30 November 1985.

24. “Strazh otechestva,” Krasnaia zvezda, 16 February 1986

25. Based on a number of conversations with recent visitors to the Soviet Union.

26. “CPSU Program New Edition Adopted by the 27th CPSU Congress,” Pravda, 7 March 1986, in FBIS, 10 March 1986.

27. A. Lizichev, “Na perelomnom etape istorii,” Krasnaia zvezda, 19 March 1986.

28. Akhromeev, “Na strazhe mira i sotsializma. “

29. “Nagrada Rodiny—stimul dlia novykh svershenii,” Pravda, 29 June 1986.

30. See Dale Herspring, “On Perestroiyka. “

31. “The German Democratic Republic” in Nelson, Daniel N., ed., Soviet Allies: The Warsaw Pact and the Issue of Reliability, (Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1984), p. 151.Google Scholar

32. Ibid, p. 152.

33. While formally established in 1955, the NVA did not begin to field an army until 1956.

34. Unless otherwise noted, educational statistics are taken from Dale R. Herspring, “Technology and the Political Officer in the Polish and East German Armed Forces,” Studies in Comparative Communism 10 (Winter 1977): 393.

35. Unless otherwise noted, material on East German weapons systems is taken either from the appropriate issue of the Military Balance or from the official GDR history of the NVA, Autorenkollektiv, Armee für Frieden und Sozialismus (Berlin: Militärverlag der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, 1985).

36. For a discussion of the development and role of the East German navy see Dale R. Herspring, “GDR Naval Buildup,” Problems of Communism 33 (January-February 1984): 54–62.

37. Col. Richard C. Martin, “Disparities in Modernization Between Warsaw Pact Armies OppositeNATO's Central Region,” paper delivered at the Conference on Security Implications ofNationalism in Eastern Europe, U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, 23–24October 1984.

38. Heinz Kessler, “Wir tun alles, damit der Frieden erhalten bleibt,” Volksarmee, no. 17, 1986.

39. Bericht des Zentralkomitees auf dem VIII. Parteitag der Sozialistischen Einheitspartei Deutschlands.Berichterstatter: Genosse Erich Honecker, in Protokoll des VIII. Parteitages der SED, Bd. 1, Berlin, 1971, p. 88. Much of the following discussion is taken from Herspring, Dale R., East GermanCivil-Military Relations: The Impact of Technology, 1949–1972 (New York: Praeger, 1972).Google Scholar

40. Armee für Frieden und Sozialismus, p. 698. See also E. Freymuth, “Zum Beginn der Vierjahrausbildung von Offizieren mit Diplomabschluss,” Militarwesen, no. 8, 1983, pp. 23–27.

41. Ross Johnson, A., Dean, Robert W., and Aleziev, Alexander, East European Military Establishments: The Warsaw Pact Northern Tier, (New York: Crane Russak, 1982), p. 100 Google Scholar. The individuals concerned were questioned concerning the degree to which they identified with the GDR before their decision to defect. Conversation between the author and A. Ross Johnson.

42. Martin, “Disparities in Modernization Between the Warsaw Pact Armies. “

43. Condoleezza Rice, “Warsaw Pact Reliability: The Czechoslovak People's Army (CLA), inNelson, ed., Soviet Allies, p. 137.

44. Martin, “Disparities in Moder-rufijWrBJiij Warsaw Pact Armies. “

45. Daniel Nelson, “The Measurjmynt of EaSlEuropean TWO ‘Reliability',” in Nelson, ed., Soviet Allies, p. 32.

46. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, World Military Expenditures and Transfers, 1985 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, 1985), pp. 52–88.Google Scholar

47. Krisch, German Democratic Republic, p. 164.

48. Armee für Frieden und Sozialismus, p. 698.

49. See Krisch's discussion of the trade relationship in his article in Nelson, ed., Soviet Allies, pp. 154–163.