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Soviet Union [USSR] Reserves and Wartime Mobilization
The Soviet Union had the world's most elaborate system of
wartime mobilization, although it was not certain that the system
would be as impressive in action as it was on paper. Soldiers
retained a reserve obligation until age fifty. For officers, the
reserve obligation extended to sixty-five. Thus, Western
specialists estimated that over 50 million males were reservists.
Local voenkomaty maintained records of residences and other
data that would be important in mobilizing the reserves.
Reserves were divided into two categories of three classes
based on age and the amount of refresher training they were
supposed to receive after mobilization. Reserves were subject to
periodic call-ups for active duty or training in the local
garrison. The amount of reserve training actually conducted varied
greatly.
In 1989 the Soviet Union had about 9 million servicemen who had
been discharged from active duty in the preceding five years. Only
3 million of them would be needed to bring all active Ground Forces
divisions to full strength in less than three days. Western
analysts speculated that large numbers of additional divisions
could be created within two to three months using civilian trucks
and large stockpiles of older weapons and equipment. Such forces
could be employed effectively against NATO's second echelons, as
well as against less formidable opponents.
Reserves, together with additional manpower and equipment
mobilized in wartime, would substantially augment the considerable
strength of the peacetime Soviet military. Long favored by the
political leadership, the military has received a large proportion
of the human and material resources of the Soviet Union. Guided and
controlled by the CPSU, the military's strategic leaders have
organized, trained, and equipped the Soviet armed forces to capably
fulfill their assigned missions.
* * *
The single most complete work on the Soviet Armed Forces is
Harriet and William Scott's The Armed Forces of the USSR.
The Department of Defense's Soviet Military Power, the
eighth edition of which was published in 1989, contains information
about Soviet forces that is not available to the public elsewhere.
The Military Balance, issued annually by the International
Institute for Strategic Studies, is a consistently accurate and
independent source of information on the size of the Soviet defense
effort. Coverage of current developments in Soviet weapons,
tactics, strategy, and military leadership can be found in the
regular columns and feature articles of many defense-oriented
journals. The Air University Library Index to Military
Periodicals, edited by Emily Adams, is an excellent resource
for locating these articles. The Soviet Armed Forces Review
Annual, edited by David Jones, provides coverage of changes in
the Soviet military from year to year. Richard Gabriel and Ellen
Jones have written extensively on the troops behind Soviet weapons
and equipment. Inside the Soviet Army, by a Soviet officer
who defected to the West and writes under the pseudonym Viktor
Suvorov, also contains revealing insights into the operation of and
life in the armed forces. (For further information and complete
citations,
see Soviet Union USSR -
Bibliography.)
Data as of May 1989
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