The evolution and development of the theory and practice of the operational art at the General Staff Military Academy.
Military Thought › Vol. 16 Nbr. 3-4, July 2007
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The evolution and development of the theory and practice of the operational art at the General Staff Military Academy.
The Operational Art Department at the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) was formed in the 1930s. Its creation, in 1936, was a timely and natural reaction by the country's leadership to the imminent threat of World War II. According to the concept developed by the RKKA General Staff, the department was to become a leading unit at the Academy. Its curriculum included the study of the theory and practice of army operations, the fundamental principles of front operations, military strategy, air operations, and interaction between combined arms and naval formations. After its reorganization, in 1937, the department's efforts were focused on the development of the theory of army and front operations, as well as on training cadre for the top level for command.
Brigade Commander G. S. Isserson, a well known military expert and head of the department (1936-1937), as well as the department faculty, understood that history had allotted too little time for the development of even the most basic matters of the operational art. Therefore, the main priority in the 1930s was given to further development of the theory of in-depth operations, the employment of large motorized and tank formations in army and front offensive and defensive operations, breakthrough of the enemy's position defense under various circumstances of the situation, exploitation of success in an offensive operation, crossing water obstacles, etc. It would be no exaggeration to say that not a single army in the world at the time had such a thoroughly developed and well substantiated theory as the in-depth operation theory. Developed at the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff by V.K. Triandafillov, G.S. Isserson, and others, and expanded and elaborated at the Academy's Operational Art Department, it showed a way out of the "position deadlock" that the military art had reached during World War I. The basic principles of front operations, which were developed at the Operational Art Department in such a timely manner, served as a goo...See the full content of this document
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