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Soviet Union [USSR] STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP OF THE ARMED FORCES
Four main organizations controlled the Soviet armed forces. The
Defense Council, which included the highest party and military
officials in the Soviet Union, was the supreme decision-making body
on national security issues. The Main Military Council, the
Ministry of Defense, and the General Staff were strictly military
organizations.
Defense Council
The Soviet Constitution states that the Presidium of the
Supreme Soviet forms the Defense Council. First mentioned by the
Soviet press in 1976, the Defense Council has been the organ
through which the CPSU Central Committee, the Supreme Soviet, and
the Council of Ministers supposedly exercised supreme leadership of
the armed forces and national defense. In reality, these bodies
carried out the Defense Council's decisions on issues concerning
the armed forces and national defense.
The general secretary of the CPSU has normally been the
chairman of the Defense Council and the only member of the Defense
Council identified in the Soviet media. As chairman of the Defense
Council, the general secretary has also been the supreme commander
in chief of the Soviet armed forces. The chairman of the Council of
Ministers, the chairman of the Committee for State Security
(Komitet gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti--KGB), the minister of
internal affairs, the minister of foreign affairs, and the minister
of defense have also probably served as members of the Defense
Council. Their official duties have enabled them to implement
decisions reached in the Defense Council. The Defense Council has
been described as a working group of the Politburo, and its
decisions have probably been subject to ratification by a vote in
a full meeting of the Politburo.
The Defense Council has made decisions on political-military
and military-economic issues, using analyses and recommendations it
receives from the Main Military Council, the Ministry of Defense,
and the General Staff. The Defense Council, according to some
Western authorities, would approve changes in military doctrine and
strategy, large operations, the commitment of troops abroad, and
the use of nuclear weapons. It has decided on major changes in the
organizational structure of the armed services and the appointment
or dismissal of high-ranking officers. In addition, the Defense
Council has been the highest link between the economy and the
military, which were also intertwined at lower levels. The Defense
Council has determined the size of the military budget. It has
approved new weapons systems and coordinated the activities of the
Ministry of Defense with those of ministries and state committees
engaged in military research, development, and production.
Data as of May 1989
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