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Soviet Union [USSR] Civil Defense
Civil defense was another part of Soviet strategic defense. It
originated with the large-scale relocation of defense industries
from the western Soviet Union to east of the Ural Mountains in
1941. Civil defense reappeared in the late 1940s as antiaircraft
units were attached to Soviet factories to defend them against
strategic bombing. By the early 1970s, the emphasis on civil
defense increased, and the chief of Civil Defense became a deputy
minister of defense. Each union republic had a general officer as
the chief of civil defense in the republic.
In 1989 the purpose of civil defense was to provide protection
for leadership and population in wartime and to ensure the Soviet
Union's ability to continue production of military matériel during
a nuclear or a protracted conventional war. Officers from Civil
Defense were attached to union republic,
oblast (see Glossary),
raion (see Glossary), and municipal governments, as well as
to large industrial and agricultural
enterprises (see Glossary),
and assigned to supervise civil defense work, organization, and
training. These staff officers developed and implemented detailed
plans for the wartime relocation of important defense industrial
facilities and the evacuation of labor forces to alternative sites.
They supervised the construction of blast shelters and other
installations to ensure that these structures could withstand
nuclear strikes. Civil Defense operated a network of 1,500
underground shelters that could protect 175,000 top party and
government officials. In 1989 Civil Defense had 150,000 personnel.
After a nuclear exchange, the civil defense effort would be
directed at reestablishing essential military production through
decontamination, first aid, and civil engineering work to clear
collapsed structures and to restore power supplies, transportation,
and communications. Civil Defense trained in peacetime by
conducting simulations of the aftermath of a nuclear attack and
small-scale evacuation exercises. It was also called on to fight
fires, conduct rescue operations, decontaminate areas affected by
nuclear and chemical accidents, and provide natural disaster
relief.
Data as of May 1989
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