Collapse of the Soviet Military

Rating:
Summary: Honest and Original
Review: How could the huge, powerful Soviet Army have vanished so quietly? William Odom, an American general, takes on this question and in the process of answering it demolishes many of the more smug conclusions drawn from the collapse of the USSR.

Odom writes of Soviet military culture with understanding, knowledge and respect. If there's a failing in the book, it's that Odom spends so little time on Soviet military adventures themselves, focusing instead on the organizational quirks of the military/industrial/ideological complex. He mentions only in passing episodes like the border war between Russia and China along the Amur, and spends only a few pages on the war in Afghanistan.

Odom's conclusion is that the Soviet military, grown sluggish and top-heavy, became the focus of Gorbachev's hatred, and could not stand up to his relentless attacks. Gorbachev comes across, in Odom's account, as an anti-Lenin, as avid in destroying the Soviet system as Lenin was in forging it.. When he managed this destructive feat, Gorbachev was astonished to find that the whole structure fell almost instantly. As Odom concludes, Gorbachev had failed to realize what even the fatuous Nicholas II knew: that the Army has always been the heart of the Russian state.

Thouasands of writers have swarmed over the carcasse of the USSR, most of them interested only in profiting from or gloating over its fall. One of its last ironies is that one of the most respectful, subtle appreciations of its life and death has come from an enemy general.

Rating:
Summary: Valuable -- thorough, lucid, and interesting
Review: I discovered William E. Odom when a lecture of his was shown on BookTV. His talk showed an understanding of the Russian military so informed and thorough that I had to find and read his book. I found the book even more valuable and influential on my thinking than I expected. If I had known anything of William E. Odom's work and reputation, I would have known, as I do now, that his book would be lucid, detailed, and written so that its complex subject becomes clear evn to the amateur. He sets a standard of sound historical vision and attention to fact that all of us can enjoy, admire, and follow.