Roger R. Reese

In this wide-ranging analysis of how the officer corps of the Russian Red Army evolved, Reese provides a thorough examination of how the nature and values of the Communist Party stunted the development of a professional mentality from the beginning to the end of the Soviet experience. What Reese does particularly well is to indicate the structural impediments that the Soviet new model army started with, seeing as even the hold-over officers from the old Tsarist army often didn't have a deep show more commitment to what Reese would himself consider professional values. This is not to mention the biggest issue, that the interjection of Party politics always warped conventional values of discipline and obligation.

With all that in mind, my thought is that with all these issues the surprise is not that the Soviet officer corps never quite crystallized a professional ethic, but that one could have ever emerged. After all, most armies are a mirror of the society they serve. Further, I wonder if "profession" is quite the word that Reese should be using in regards to his critique of the mindset of the typical Soviet army officer. What really seems to have been lacking is a sense of vocation. show less