Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-07-07


ly in the civil war against the Whites
"a record which is an open sesams to
the Red army career.
The old Czarist army was charac-
terized by strong caste system.
Soldiers were forbidden bv the regu-
lations to smoke in public, to ride
inside in street cars or to enter res
taurants. They addressed their colonel
as your high well-born- ness" and d
general as your excellency." The
Soviet leaders have endeavored To
make the Red army democratic while
maintaining strict discipline It's SOL
diers are called Red army lists: and
the hated word Officer" has been re-
placed by commander" and every
officer from a general down is simply
addressed as "comrsde commander"
The big spaulettes Of the past are
gone and the only insignia Of rank are
small marks on the collar; for q full
general four diamonds; for a colonel
three oblongs; for a captain four
squares.
Most OF the officers are now drawn
from the working and peasant classes.
They study hard in the various mill
tary schools which have been estsb-
llshed by the Soviet government. but
their training is criticized BY for
elgn experts as being too stereotvped
and rigid consequence of the limit
ed general education with which thew
are admitted to the higher schools
Some l saw in the big hotels of Lem
ingrad and Moscow were sloven1v in
appearance and table manners: others
wore trim uniforms and carried them
selves well.
The Red army staff believes that
the next war will be largely mechant-
cal. Last year Voroshilov stated that
the Red army was the most mech
anlzed in the world. having nearly
elght horsepower of motors per man.
1t has been necessary to create new
types OF troop formations. he said. and
10 transform infantry and cavalry
commanders into tank and aviation
officers.
Aviation Force Huge.
Ihere is no doubt that the Red
Army has one of the largest aviation
forces in the world, with something
like $500 planes in addition to ann
commercial planes owntd bv the gov
eminent. Great advances have been
made recently in bombing and DUR
SUIT planes. The personnel in the
aviation forces is estimated at IS NM.
OF whom 5000 are said to be flyers.
Like attention has been paid 10
tanks. Soviet officials claim that
small tanks have multiplied Is times
IN the last four years; heavy tanks.
8 times. Foreign experts believe
that the total number is now near
1900. We have now both ouantt-
tatlvely and oualitativelv an excellent
artillery" said Voroshilov last year.
and European military men seem in
chned to agree. Prom heavy artillery
70 machine guns, which played such
a dramatic role in the revolution, there
has been a great expansion in equip
ment
The Soviet navy does not amount
to much. Russia Il a landlocked en-
pre- whose main sea frontage il on
The Arctic Ocean, and her chief re-
lance, now as always. IL in her land
FORCES. The naval vessels are little
more than coast patrol, and the
Chief expansion recently has been In
the construction of submarines, I'VE
nave no battleships or airplane car
rlers, Voroshilov told the Commu-
MIST Congress last year. I'VE onlv
want to defend our coasts. and We are
convinced that the light naval forces
and coast defenSes We row have. and
especially our naval aviation and sub
marines can cripple an attacking en-
envy"
Russia Is huge country. two and
a haLf times the size Of the United
| States. How is it to be defended
and against whom? Nature has pro-
Vloed splendid defense on the north
IN the ice-bound Arctic coast. and on
the south in high mountains and
deserts. The danger zones are in the
west, where Poland. an sncent enemy.
and Rumania lie across the border.
and in the Far East. where japan
! dominates Manchuria and thus
thruSts a wedge between Vladivostok
and Eastern Siberia.
Frontier Nearer,
The western frontier was n,rshed
400 miles nearer Moscow BY the World
war, which created an independent
Poland. The new Baltic states of
Llthuania. Latvia and Estonis would
be on the flank of Soviet army at
lacking Poland, Leningrad, with its
100000 population and exps ndin7
industries, is only 20 miles from the
Finnish frontier and Is stratericallv
threatened, as is the new industrial
center at Dnieprostroy, where the
famous dam built by Col. Hugh Cooper
Is located.
AS a whole, however, Russian In
dustry is safer than in the past be-
cause, under the five-year plans. the
heavy industries are being conferred
in the Ural Mountains, 300 miles
inland and beyond the range of air.
plane bombardment.
Asiatic Russia also is being indus
trlallzed. and a great metallurgical
center has been established in the
Kuznetsk coal basin, 1000 miles east
OF the Urals. The second five-year
plan calls for another iron and steel
machine building center in the Far
East. capable eventually Of forming a
war-industrial basis for operation in
that industry.
The two striking features Of the
Red Army which differentiate it from
all others are, first, its political educa-
ton and. second. its relation to the
economic life of the nation. In no
army Of the world Ii so much devoted
effort spent upon the political training
Of the men.
THE Red Army is not only a mill
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