NOTE ON THE NAMING OF A SUCCESSOR TO MARSHAL BIRIUZOV,
Abstract
The successor to Marshal Sergei S. Biriuzov, the Chief of the Soviet General Staff who was killed in an airplane crash in mid-October 1964, was announced 6 weeks later as Marshal Matvei V. Zakharov, the predecessor to Biriuzov. The Chief of the General Staff is called the second or third most important military office in the USSR. Zakharov's reappointment is said to have implications for at least 3 questions: (1) intramilitary debate over doctrine, strategy, and force structure, sometimes described as a contest between the modernist and traditionalist schools of thought within the Soviet military; (2) the state of political-military relations following Khrushchev's overthrow; and (3) the extent to which military influence upon the decisions of the new political leadership may affect basic Soviet military posture and policy.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1964
- Accession Number
- AD0610577
Entities
People
- Thomas W. Wolfe
Organizations
- RAND Corporation