The Ethnic Factor in the Soviet Armed Forces: Preliminary Findings,
Abstract
Regional differentials in the size of increments to the Soviet draft-eligible military manpower pool in the 1980s will cause ethnic factors to assume a new importance in the scheme of overall military manpower practices and policies. The basic demographic trends indicate a continuing decrease in the size of the draft-eligible cohort in the European regions of the USSR (RSFSR), the Ukraine, Belorussia, the Baltic States, and, to a lesser degree, Moldavia) and a rapidly growing cohort among the Asian peoples (Kazakhstan, the four Central Asian republics of Uzbekistan, Kirghizia, Tadshikistan, and Turkmenistan, Azerbaidzhan, many smaller North Caucasian peoples, Tatars, and Bashkirs), who are predominantly from Turkic or Iranian-Muslim backgrounds. According to Dr. Murray Feshbach of the Foreign Demographic Analysis Division of the U.S. Department of commerce, in 1975 22.9 percent of the draft-eligible cohort came from Kazkhstan, Central Asia, and the Transcaucasus; by the end of the century, this proportion will rise to approximately 35 percent. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1980
- Accession Number
- ADA118421
Entities
People
- Alex Alexiev
- S. Enders Wimbush
Organizations
- RAND Corporation