The political officer in the Soviet military: The role of the main political administration in party-military relations in the Soviet Union during the perestroika years, 1985-1991

This study is an attempt to study the role of the Soviet military in the process of the Soviet Union's disintegration. The Soviet Union's exit from history is unique: It was a disintegration of a state without either major domestic upheavals or foreign threats. Therefore a study of the disintegration of the central state apparatus is more important theoretically than, for example, a study of mass movement.;One prominent question emerges concerning the Soviet armed forces: Why were they ultimately unable to intervene in this process? The military is a symbol of the state's integrity and the last bulwark against its disintegration. The Soviet military, however, was altogether powerless during the disintegration process. It was quickly penetrated by waves of systemic crises outside the military and as a result was divided, perhaps to a more serious degree than any other governmental institutions of the Soviet Union. There appeared numerous dividing lines and political tendencies within the military. Finally, in August 1991, the top military leaders attempted to intervene to prevent the disintegration of the state, but ultimately only hastened its demise.;The current study focuses on the processes and channels through which the Soviet military became rapidly politicized. To be sure, the politicization of the Soviet military was a consequence of manifold causes. One important cause neglected by scholars, however, is the role of political officers in the Soviet military. This study illustrates how these political officers, directed by the Main Political Administration of the Soviet Army and Navy (the MPA), politicized the Soviet military during the perestroika years, 1985-1991.;The MPA has largely been ignored in the studies of recent changes in the Soviet Union. The lack of attention to the MPA had become so far-reaching that often in military analysis the very identification of an officer as political or professional was abandoned. By revisiting the identity of the political officer--the party apparatchiki within the military institution, this study intends to contribute to the larger study of the nature of party apparatchiki and further to the study of the nature of Soviet power.