The Value of Human Life in Soviet Warfare

1. Auflage 1992
ISBN: 978-0-415-02467-9
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 252 Seiten, Format (B × H): 145 mm x 222 mm, Gewicht: 491 g

This is a key question for all Western military strategists. If the Soviets are indeed willing to tolerate high human sacrifice in warfare this obviously puts them at a military advantage. The perceived wisdom, hitherto, is that the Soviets are indeed willing to tolerate high casualties in battle - this, initial, view is reinforced by myths about Stalin clearing minefields by marching penal battalions across them.

Professor Sella, however, comes to a different conclusion. He surveys Soviet attitudes to the military-medical service; to its own prisoners of war; and to the ethos of fighting to the death, considering how attitudes have changed from Czarist times to the present. He concludes that the Soviets are less ready to tolerate massive sacrifices than has been supposed; but that this position stems as much from utilitarian-military logic as from compassion.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Sella, Amnon

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Militärwesen Nationale und Internationale Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Militärwesen Verwaltung, Streitkräfte (Militärwesen)

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1 The Soviet Military Medical Service; Chapter 2 The performance of the Service during the Great Patriotic War; Chapter 3 The Soviet attitude to POWs; Chapter 4 Fighting at all costs; Chapter 5 Conclusion: the value of human life in Soviet warfare;

Über Autor(innen)

Amnon Sella is Head of the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations and Associate Professor of International Relations and Russian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has published three books and over twenty papers on Soviet military and strategic questions.