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Soviet Union [USSR] Laws of Armed Conflict
Soviet military scientists studied and defined objective laws
of armed conflict that focused on the military struggle. These laws
represented the professional military consensus on the best methods
of waging combat in order to achieve victory on the battlefield.
Although Soviet military theorists maintained that the laws of
armed conflict "express the internal, essential, necessary, stable
relationships between the phenomena manifested in the course of an
armed conflict," the laws were far from immutable. They retained
their validity until Soviet military thinkers discovered other laws
that provided better solutions to the same problems. Thus the laws
of armed conflict defined in the l970s that relied on massive
strikes with nuclear weapons for the solution of most military
tasks appeared outdated in the l980s, when the Soviet military was
emphasizing conventional options.
Two laws of armed conflict, however, purportedly remained
unaffected by technological change. They were the law of dependence
of the forms of armed combat on the material basis of the battle
and operation, i.e., on people and equipment, and the law stating
that the side with the greater combat power will always be favored
in any battle or operation.
Data as of May 1989
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