Review of "Inside the Soviet Army Today," by Steven J. Zaloga

Review of

Inside the Soviet Army Today, by Steven J. Zaloga ISBN 0850457416


Four out of five stars

This book is primarily a peek inside the acquisition of personnel through conscription, the organization of the Soviet Army at the level of the conscript, how a soldier’s day is commonly organized during peacetime and what the soldiers wear. There is little in the way of battle tactics other than the principle of massive fire in battle. Other than snipers, Soviet soldiers did very little target practice, their battle tactic has changed little from World War II. Spray the enemy with ordinance and rely on numbers rather than accuracy. The argument is that the soldier under fire is unlikely to stop and take careful aim at the enemy. A great deal of text is devoted to the many ethnic groups in the Soviet Army and how is it fundamentally segmented so that non-Russians are discriminated against.

 There are many images of soldiers in the field. The captions of those images generally give a detailed description of specific aspects of their uniform.  There are 12 color centerpieces in the middle that show the standard uniforms of soldiers in many different branches of the Soviet Army.  If your interest is in the basic structure of the Soviet military at the levels of the conscript and in what the soldiers wear, then this is the book for you. If you are interested in battle planning and tactics, then you will have to look elsewhere.