The Indestructible and Legendary Army at the End of the Soviet Era

Occupation: Prof., the Department of Sociology, Head of Sociological Laboratory
Affiliation: Moscow State Linguistic University
Address: Moscow, Russia

Journal name

Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya

Edition

Issue 11

Pages

123-134

Abstract

The Armed Forces were a pillar of the USSR political regime and the military security. By the end of its existence, they experienced all the consequences of the soviet socio-political system deformation and needed to the reformed. The key issues in discussions about military reform where the optimization of the armed forces size to the limits of “reasonable sufficiency”, their professionalization and elimination of political control by the ruling party. And if the reduction in Army and Navy Forces weakened the economic burden, and the recruitment of military formations on the principles of volunteerism eliminated the problem of “dedovshcina” (“hazing”), then the departisation and depoliticitzation of power structures broke the soviet basic ideologies. Based on the analysis of relatively unknown results of sociological studies, the author aims at finding why the attempts to make the armed forces “the last stronghold of Soviet statehood” failed.

Keywords

the collapse of the Soviet Union, armed forces, army, military reform, military sociology, social problems

Received

19.12.2022

Publication date

20.12.2022

Number of characters

35495

Cite

GOST	Obraztsov I. The ”Indestructible and Legendary“ Army at the End of the Soviet Era // Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya – 2022. – Issue 11 C. 123-134 [Electronic resource]. URL: http://ras.jes.su/socis/s013216250021401-4-1-en (circulation date: 28.04.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S013216250021401-4
MLA	Obraztsov, Igor V "The ”Indestructible and Legendary“ Army at the End of the Soviet Era." Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya 11 (2022):123-134. DOI: 10.31857/S013216250021401-4
APA	Obraztsov I. (2022). The ”Indestructible and Legendary“ Army at the End of the Soviet Era. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya (11), pp.123-134 DOI: 10.31857/S013216250021401-4

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