Military Review English Edition May-June 2016 | Page 14

Figure 1. Countries with Ties to Russia
Operational Consistencies
Russia’s military operational ways of achieving its
strategic ends incorporate classic deep operations.
Soviet intellectuals invented deep operations theory as a
reaction to the battlefield dynamics of the early twentieth
century. Soviet deep operations theorists like Svechin,
Triandafillov, and Isserson found the answer to the problem of layered defenses used during the First World War
with an offensive that defeats the enemy throughout its
entire depth: the deep operation.20
Deep operations expanded from a material focus to
targeting the morale of the opposing force. In his 1927
book Strategy, deep operations theorist Aleksandr Svechin
wrote, “War is waged not only on an armed front; it is also
12

waged on the class and economic fronts.” He goes on to say
that the use of political agitators and propaganda within
the opposition’s country are crucial efforts to a military
operation and must be coordinated.21 Morale is a crucial
factor for any combat force. Clausewitz recognized the
importance of morale in the phenomenon of war, making it one of the sides of the paradoxical trinity (reason,
passion, and chance).22
The adversary’s morale became the decisive target
for successful Soviet military operations. The Soviet
Union was legendary for attacking the moral cohesion
of its enemies, sowing division and doubt within its
adversaries in hopes of sapping fighting spirit. B.H.
Liddell Hart observed this in Strategy when discussing
May-June 2016  MILITARY REVIEW