Ussr

Recruitment and Service.

Liability to compulsory military service is universal from the age of 19 to the 4oth year. Only "workers" are entrusted with the armed defence of the Union, the remainder are subjected to other military employment. Women belonging to the "workers" category can perform voluntary mili tary service in time of peace. In time of war such service can be made compulsory for them. Service is divided into (a) pre paratory military training; (b) service with the colours; (c) Re serve service. Preparatory training begins at the end of the 19th year and lasts for 2 years. Service with the colours is performed either with the regular army, or in mobile territorial formations, or, finally, outside the army proper. Normal service with the regular army is for 5 years, of which the last is spent on furlough. For certain specialists 3 years are spent with the colours, 2 years on furlough. For those required for staff and administrative work, 2 years with the colours, 3 on long leave. About 270,000 of the annual contingent go to the regular army, navy, customs police, etc. For those drafted into territorial mobile formations, 3 months' training are undergone during the first year, and periods of from 5 to 8 months according to the arm of the service spread over the next 4 years, not more than 2 months being done in any one year. Trainings, lasting for one week, can be imposed in intervening years. In 1928 the number undergoing preparation training in the 4,50o training centres for this territorial militia was put at 842,00o. The numbers for regular and territorial military training and for training in duties outside the army (6 months, spread over 5 years) are fixed annually by the Soviets of Labour and Defence. After the 5 years' training comes reserve service in the 1st Line up to the age of 33, and in the 2nd Line up to the age of 4o. Reservists can be called up for a total of 3 months' training during reserve service. Certain exemptions and postponements from service with the colours in the army are allowed for family, religious or educational reasons. Officers are recruited from men in the ranks, to whom special training is given Strength and Organization.—It is clear that the application of such a system of military training to a population numbering nearly 140,000,000 will in course of time produce trained military personnel on a scale unequalled in any other state in the world, but the extent to which use could be made of mobile armies be yond the existing frontiers of the Union of Republics is a matter of conjecture depending largely upon administrative skill, and improvement of communications. The number actually serving continuously in the Red Army and Navy has recently been put at 562,00o, of which number 1oo,000 belong to the "subordinate command personnel." This estimate apparently takes no account of the special political troops, frontier guards, and detachments for special purposes, or of the above-mentioned 842,000 under going preparatory military training at the territorial centres.

The field army is organized in light infantry and cavalry corps and divisions, and in independent cavalry brigades. A light in fantry corps contains 2 divisions of light infantry, 1 group of "heavy" artillery, I "battery" (battalion?) of field engineers and I signal company. A light infantry division contains 3 light in fantry regiments (each of 3 battalions with scouts, signals, a field battery, instructors in engineering and camouflage and a chemical section), I cavalry regiment, 1 group (3 batteries) of light ar tillery, I howitzer group, 1 divisional artillery park, 1 divisional training school for artillery and 1 for the other arms, 1 field com pany of engineers, I signal group and r motor group. A cavalry corps contains 2 cavalry divisions and a signal squadron. A cav alry division contains 2 cavalry brigades, each of 2 regiments, group of horse artillery (3 batteries and ammunition column), training school, r field hospital, r field squadron of engineers and I signal squadron. An independent cavalry brigade includes 3

cavalry regiments, 1 group of 2 batteries (horse-drawn), half a field squadron of engineers and a training school.

No reliable estimate can be formed of the number of the above units which could be put in the field in a mobile army. Unofficial publications estimate the Red Army at 63 divisions of infantry, divisions and 43 brigades of cavalry. Other points of interest in the military organization are that an infantry battalion contains 3 companies of riflemen, each containing 3 combatant sections (many of them armed with automatic rifles) and an administra tive section, and i company of machine-gunners (r 2 machine guns) ; that camouflage companies of engineers contain 4 sections, with a staff ; that there are "technical corps" consisting of arm oured-car troops, railway sections, signal sections, air troops, and chemical warfare troops; and that an Aviachim association was formed in May 1925 (2,000,000 members by December 1926 in 33,00o sections distributed over the country) to deal with air and chemical defence. The association is trying to persuade farmers to use certain chemical products with a view to developing chem ical defence.

Higher Command.

Special interest is attached to the sys tem of higher command, which percolates down to the commands of army formations, whereby precautions are taken to secure and to maintain political control over the Red Army and over all military organizations. (There is a military commissary with every light infantry corps and division, a political inspectorate with every cavalry corps, a military commissary and political sec tion with every cavalry division, and a political section with every independent cavalry brigade.) The supreme military authority is defined as the Assembly of Soviets of the Union, and, failing the Assembly, the central executive committee of the Union. In their hands lie the powers to declare war, to make peace, and to organ ize and to control all the military forces. Under the control of the central executive committee there is a soviet of the people's corn missaries to carry out its decisions. The President of that Soviet also presides over a sort of committee of national defence, called the Soviet for Labour and National Defence, which co-ordinates the activities of all public bodies concerned both with national defence and with economics. Then there is a people's commissar iat for military and naval affairs, which organizes and prepares the forces for war, and issues orders for mobilization. The executive control of the forces is entrusted to yet another authority, the revolutionary military soviet of the Union. The people's corn missary presides. His deputy and the commander-in-chief are ex officio members. The others are elected by the soviet of people's commissaries. The revolutionary military soviet controls all the military and political departments of the army. The commander in-chief, who is appointed and dismissed by the soviet of people's commissaries, is allowed freedom of action in strategical ques tions, but he must report his decisions to the people's commissary and to the revolutionary military soviet. There is a chief of the army staff, with the usual sections, and to him there is attached yet another commissary for war, who is appointed by the revolu tionary military soviet. A political department of that soviet con trols political instruction and administrative policy in the army, and, in that connection, it is interesting to note that nearly as much is spent upon political as upon military training of the army according to the latest figures available (1,992,00o as corn pared with 2,691,000 roubles). There is also a strong supply department, under its own chief.