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Soviet Union [USSR] NATIONAL SECURITY
Defense Establishment: Based on Marxist-Leninist theory
of war, CPSU determined missions and directed management of world's
largest military organization. Defense Council provided strategic
leadership. Five armed services, numbering about 3,750,000 out of
a total of nearly 6 million troops in uniform in 1989, and numerous
logistical and support services. Of the 6 million, 75 percent
conscripts, 5 percent career enlisted, and 20 percent officers.
Compulsory premilitary training; military conscription of males at
age eighteen, with few exceptions.
Strategic Rocket Forces: Primary strategic offensive
forces, numbering about 300,000 in 1989. Controlled all groundbased nuclear missiles and operations in space.
Ground Forces: Largest of services, with a force of about
2 million troops in 1989 and comprising 150 motorized rifle and 52
tank divisions, in three states of readiness, as well as rocket and
artillery troops, air defense troops, and other combat and support
troops.
Air Forces: In 1989 numbered about 450,000. Consisted of
Strategic Air Armies, for long-range bombing; Frontal Aviation, for
support of Ground Forces; and Military Transport Aviation, for
strategic mobility of armed services.
Air Defense Forces: Numbered about 500,000 in 1989.
Operated extensive air defense forces, controlling surface-to-air
missile launchers, air defense aircraft and missiles, and space
defenses.
Naval Forces: In 1989 numbered about 500,000. Consisted
of substantial numbers of surface combatants and support ships,
missile and attack submarines, and naval aircraft. Organized into
four fleets and several flotillas with shore-based support
facilities in strategic locations.
Paramilitary Forces: Seven airborne divisions subordinate
to Supreme High Command. Elite Special-Purpose Forces subordinate
to General Staff. Internal Troops and Border Troops organized,
equipped, and trained as military forces but assigned to Ministry
of Internal Affairs (Ministerstvo vnutrennykh del--MVD) and to
Committee for State Security (Komitet gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti-
-KGB), respectively.
Defense Spending: Estimated between 15 and 17 percent of
gross national product (GNP) in 1989. Military matériel production,
supervised by military, received best available managers, workers,
technology, and materials.
Military Presence Overseas: Naval combatants in
Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean with limited presence, mainly
submarines, elsewhere. Ground Forces in Afghanistan numbered
115,000 until withdrawal in 1989; withdrawals announced in German
Democratic Republic (East Germany) and elsewhere but, as of 1989,
substantial forces remained in East Germany, and some forces
remained in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Mongolia, and Cuba.
Military advisers in several Third World nations.
Security Police: Substantial political and regular police
protected authoritarian CPSU from perceived internal and external
threats and combated ordinary crimes. KGB maintained internal and
external espionage and counterintelligence networks and controlled
Border Troops and other specialized security troops. MVD
investigated nonpolitical crime, operated labor camps for
prisoners, and controlled militarized Internal Troops.
Data as of May 1989
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