Soviet Armed Forces

The Soviet Armed Forces were manned through conscription, which had been reduced in 1967 from three to two years (with remaining three years service in naval forces). This system was administered through the thousands of [[Military commissariat]]s (voenkomats) located throughout the Soviet Union. Between January and May of every year, every young Soviet male citizen was required to report to the local voenkomat for assessment for military service, following a summons based on lists from every school and employer in the area. The voenkomat worked to quotas sent out by a department of the General Staff, listing how young men are required by each service and branch of the Armed Forces.{{sfn|Schofield|1991|pages=67–70}} The new conscripts were then picked up by an officer from their future unit and usually sent by train across the country. On arrival, they would begin the Young Soldiers' course, and become part of the system of hazing and domination by an older class of draftees, known as [[dedovshchina]], literally "rule by the grandfathers."

The Soviet Armed Forces were manned through conscription, which had been reduced in 1967 from three to two years (with remaining three years service in naval forces). This system was administered through the thousands of [[Military commissariat]]s (voenkomats) located throughout the Soviet Union. Between January and May of every year, every young Soviet male citizen was required to report to the local voenkomat for assessment for military service, following a summons based on lists from every school and employer in the area. The voenkomat worked to quotas sent out by a department of the General Staff, listing how young men are required by each service and branch of the Armed Forces.{{sfn|Schofield|1991|pages=67–70}} The new conscripts were then picked up by an officer from their future unit and usually sent by train across the country. On arrival, they would begin the Young Soldiers' course, and become part of the system of hazing and domination by an older class of draftees, known as [[dedovshchina]], literally "rule by the grandfathers."

The Soviet Armed Forces worked under a cadre-conscript system, under which most of the professional full-time service members would be officers while most enlisted personnel would be conscript. The "armed forces of the USSR and Warsaw Pact, working to a common Soviet model, [...] relied on young officers to conduct in units [rather than in training depots] all the junior command and training tasks which in many Western armies are done in depots or by regular professional long-service NCOs."Christopher Donnelly, "The Pattern of Military Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe," IISS conference paper, Moscow, March 2001. There were only a very small number of professional [[non-commissioned officers]] (NCOs), as most NCOs were conscripts sent on short coursesSuvorov 1982 gives the figure of six months with a training division. to prepare them for section commanders' and platoon sergeants' positions. These conscript NCOs were supplemented by ''[[praporshchik]]'' warrant officers, positions only reintroduced in 1972, after being abolished in 1917, as part of a movement towards the professionalization of the army.{{sfn|Odom|1998|page=43}} Most institutional knowledge was in the hands of those professional officers while very few possibilities of advancement existed for the enlisted. The ratio of officers to enlisted greater than Western armies as many units were only manned by the cadre of officers in times of peace and were expected to be filled by mobilized former conscripts in times of war.{{Cite book |last=Goldhamer |first=Herbert |title=The Soviet Soldier: Soviet Military Management at the Troop Level |date=September 1975 |publisher=RAND}}

The Soviet Armed Forces worked under a cadre-conscript system, under which most of the professional full-time service members would be officers while most enlisted personnel would be conscript. The "armed forces of the USSR and Warsaw Pact, working to a common Soviet model, [...] relied on young officers to conduct in units [rather than in training depots] all the junior command and training tasks which in many Western armies are done in depots or by regular professional long-service NCOs."Christopher Donnelly, "The Pattern of Military Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe," IISS conference paper, Moscow, March 2001. There were only a very small number of professional [[non-commissioned officers]] (NCOs), as most NCOs were conscripts sent on short coursesSuvorov 1982 gives the figure of six months with a training division. to prepare them for section commanders' and platoon sergeants' positions. These conscript NCOs were supplemented by ''[[praporshchik]]'' warrant officers, positions only reintroduced in 1972, after being abolished in 1917, as part of a movement towards the professionalization of the army.{{sfn|Odom|1998|page=43}} Most institutional knowledge was in the hands of those professional officers while very few possibilities of advancement existed for the enlisted. The ratio of officers to enlisted was greater than Western armies as many units were only manned by the cadre of officers in times of peace and were expected to be filled by mobilized former conscripts in times of war.{{Cite book |last=Goldhamer |first=Herbert |title=The Soviet Soldier: Soviet Military Management at the Troop Level |date=September 1975 |publisher=RAND}}

===Ethnic Composition and Tension===

===Ethnic Composition and Tension===