The Structure of Strategic Revolution: Total War and the Roots of the Soviet Warfare State
Schneider's study surveys the theoretical foundations of the Soviet concept of "total war" by analyzing the writings of Russian military theorists, including A.A. Svechin, "the Red Clausewitz," and Boris M. Shaposhnikov, Stalin's national security adviser. He regards the latter, virtually unknown in the West, as "one of the most brilliant military minds of the twentieth century" and describes Shaposhnikov's role in building the Soviet warfare state in the 1930s and '40s. Schneider shows how national security considerations subverted the freedoms of Russian society. His opus is so dense as to be difficult reading, but its wide-ranging arguments will reward the diligence of students of the relationship between state and military. Schneider teaches military theory at the School of Advanced Military Studies in Kansas. Photos.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.