Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #752695 in Books
• Published on: 1988-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback

Customer Reviews

Military manual for a force gone by
It's inviting to ponder "Inside the Soviet Army" today as an artifact of neo-conservative conspiracy: breathlessly invoking the symmetrical waves of motor-rifle divisions and tank armies that would descend upon the West, Suvorov only occasionally halted himself long enough to admit that many of these innumerable divisions were woefully underequipped, and with a perhaps unrecognized pride he terribly miscalculated the fieldworthiness of even the best pieces of Soviet equipment. Perhaps this is understandable, considering how the scrappy weapons of World War II vanquished the Nazis' technologically advanced but underproduced Tigers and Panthers. Still, in hindsight we can see that the Soviet juggernaut was a floundering, rusting mess, technologically disadvantaged not only in regards to ballistic missiles (one issue on which he debunks the myth of Soviet prowess) but more damningly in regards to armour, helicopters, and the infrastructure of modern high-tech warfare.
But Suvorov is indeed a provocative, and occasionally heartbreaking, analyst of the treacherous political ladder of the Soviet military, its revolting barracks life (more corrupt and sadistic than the worst excesses of late Austro-Hungarian decadence) and its lack of faith in its own mission. He admits his pride in his nation's weapons (tellingly though, he says he only wants to collect those which have fallen into the use of Americans and freedom-fighters, as with AK-47s favored by the Marines in Vietnam for their simplicity and reliability) but his is one of the great voices of testimony against the Soviet system. It is the voice of a gruff man, whose feelings have long held the habit of concealment, writing with simple prophetic urgency against the great danger he perceives to his hosts in the West and their treasured way of life. While his summaries of Napoleonic or WWII history sometimes raise a skeptical eyebrow, the broad outlines at least of his portrait of cynicism, violence, and conspiracy inside the USSR are clear and true. Also, he urges points of military doctrine that remain valid and necessary. Finally, one cannot deny the guilty-pleasure aspect of this book for Risk amateurs and military gameplayers: his tables of military organization, and those vast numbers of motorized battalions, have an uncanny fascination that must appeal to every world-conqueror fantasist. Use in moderation.