Architect of Soviet Victory in World War II: The Life and Theories of G.S. Isserson

412 Pages·2010·3.1 MB·English

by  Richard W. Harrison

Architect of Soviet Victory
in World War II
This page intentionally left blank
Architect of Soviet Victory
in World War II
The Life and Theories of
G.S. Isserson
RICHARD W. HARRISON
Foreword by David M. Glantz
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Harrison, Richard W., ¡952–
Architect of Soviet victory in World War II :
the life and theories of G.S. Isserson /
Richard W. Harrison ; foreword by David M. Glantz.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-4897-5
softcover : 50# alkaline paper
1. Isserson, G.S.
2. Isserson, G.S.—Political and social views.
3. Intellectuals—Soviet Union—Biography.
4. Soviet Union. Raboche-Krest'ianskaia Krasnaia
Armiia—Officers—Biography.
5. Soviet Union—History—1925–1953—Biography.
6. World War, 1939–1945—Soviet Union.
7. Military planning—Soviet Union—History.
8. Military art and science—Soviet Union—History.
9. Operational art (Military science)—History—20th century.
10. Offensive (Military science)—History—20th century.
I. Title.
DK268.I85H37 2010 940.54'1247092—dc22 [B] 2010004828
British Library cataloguing data are available
©2010 Richard W. Harrison. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Front cover: Division Commander Isserson, ca. ¡939 (courtesy Russian
State Military Archives); Soviet flag, Red Army pin ©20¡0 Shutterstock;
background map shows the opposing sides’ plans for a strategic-level
war game played by the Red Army high command in January ¡94¡
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
For my son, Michael
Acknowledgments
I should like to express my thanks to a great number of people and institu-
tions for the invaluable assistance they rendered me while researching and writing
this book; had it not been for their help, this project would never have seen the
light of day. I am particularly beholden to the late Irena Georgievna Yeremina (nee
Isserson), whose reminiscences of her family were decisive in constructing a more
nuanced portrait of her late father. Others include Col. Nikolai Mikhailovich
Ramanichev and the late Col. Fedor Davydovich Sverdlov, who helped in track-
ing down some of Isserson’s more obscure publications. Maj. Gen. Yurii Yakovle-
vich Kirshin was also more than generous in recounting his various meetings with
Isserson during the latter’s final years. I am also deeply in debt to Col. David M.
Glantz (USA, Ret.), who throughout provided helpful advice. Among the various
institutions I worked in, I would like to salute for particular praise the Archives of
the Federal Security Service and the Russian State Military Archives, both in Mos-
cow. The knowledgeable and courteous employees in these repositories were usu-
ally able to satisfy my research needs with a minimum of red tape. The same is
true of the State Public Historical Library of Russia and the Russian State Library,
also in Moscow, where I spent many productive hours. I am also deeply in debt to
the Military History Institute and the Central Armed Forces Museum, both in
Moscow, where I conducted research several years ago. Thanks are also due to the
Central Archives of the Defense Ministry of the Russian Federation in Podol’sk.
Likewise, I am grateful to the staff of the United States Army Military History Insti-
tute in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, for generously allowing me to use their facilities,
despite the fact that the subject of my research laid well outside its normal purview.
Most of all, I am indebted to my wife, Yelena, for her technical support and infinite
patience while this book was being written.
vi
Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
Note on Transliteration and Place Names  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Foreword by David M. Glantz  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Preface  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1. Youth and Early Military Service  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2. Maturation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3. The Deep Battle  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4. The Deep Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5. The Deep Operation Revealed  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
6. Peregrinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
7. The Purge Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
8. The Last Years of Freedom  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
9. Descent into Hell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
10. Vindication  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
11. The Prodigal’s Return . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
12. Final Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Epilogue  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Chapter Notes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Bibliography  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
vii
Note on Transliteration
and Place Names
No system of transliteration from the Cyrillic alphabet to English is perfect,
and some are worse than others. For this work, I have adopted the transliteration
method employed by the U.S. Library of Congress, with a few notable exceptions.
The latter include those names (e.g., Maxim Gorky, Yalta, etc.), the spelling of
which has become so thoroughly established that to change them would only con-
fuse the reader. Others include those first and last names beginning with the Cyril-
lic letter e and fl (e.g., Yegorov, Yevgenii, Yaroslavskii), as the system does not do
justice to the actual pronunciation of these words. I have elected to transliterate
them, respectively as Ye and Ya, which are closer in sound to the original. These
same letters, when they appear elsewhere in a word, are translated according to the
Library of Congress system.
The correct spelling of place names presents a separate problem, particularly
as many locales changed hands repeatedly during the years covered by this book,
followed by a change in the city’s name. For such cases, I have adopted the method
of introducing the city or town by the name commonly used at the time in the
narrative, followed by its current name in parentheses; for example, Konigsberg
(Kaliningrad).
viii
Foreword
by David M. Glantz
The appearance of Richard W. Harrison’s Architect of Soviet Victory in World War II:
The Life and Theories of G. S. Issersonmarks an important step forward in our understand-
ing of the interwar Red Army. In fact, careful study of the military theoretician’s significant
contributions to military thought applies not only to the Red and Soviet Armies, in gen-
eral, but even to the nascent army of the current Russian Federation as well. For too long,
we in the West have had to make do with accounts of this period often reflecting official
points of view. Now, thanks to Harrison’s detailed study, we are provided with an in-depth
look at the development of the army’s military theory through the works of one of its most
brilliant thinkers—Colonel Georgii Samoilovich Isserson.
For his efforts, Dr. Harrison has marshaled an impressive array of sources, the most
significant of which are Isserson’s own theoretical works, both open and classified. These
works, almost all of which are completely unknown in the West, reveal that, by the mid-
dle of the 1930s, the Red Army possessed a sophisticated theory of waging war at the oper-
ational level through the conduct of deep operations by exploiting operational maneuver,
theories which, when finally implemented in wartime, would stand it is good stead during
the bitter struggle with Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Unfortunately, the Soviet Union’s political
leadership squandered this advantage in the military purges of 1937–38, forcing the army
to relearn these basic principles later at a far more terrible price. And even though this skilled
theorist was not fated to take part in World War II, the seeds he had sown among a gener-
ation of student officers contributed to the eventual victory.
Also highlighted here are Isserson’s equally important, although less well-known, con-
tributions to the Red Army’s tactical development, as expressed in the theory of the deep
battle. Especially revealing to the reader will be his account of the strategic and historical
debates that roiled the army not only during the turbulent interwar years but also in the
Cold War years after Stalin’s death in 1953.
While the focus throughout remains the development of Isserson’s theoretical views,
Harrison also devotes significant time and thought to examining the man behind the ideas—
the new Soviet man—weaving this into the narrative in such a way to lighten the weighty
analysis of profoundly important military thought. Here, the author presents a portrait
of a brilliant but troubled man as he sought to advance his theories during a politically
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