The Role of the Military in the Soviet Polity

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to examine the role that the military plays as an interest group in Soviet politics. Early studies of the Soviet Union tended to stress the hierarchical nature of political control and the penetration of th entire Soviet society by tbe state and the Communist Party. [1] These studies recognized group conflict only in the form of factional stru8gles at the highes t level of leadership of the Communist Party, and to a small extent in bureaucratic competition among the administrative organs of the state. [2] The Party was regarded as the only interest group and it was considered monolithic; that is, not composed of groups of differing interests and behavior. [3] After the death of Stalin in 1953 the Soviet political system was characterized by increasing interest group activity and group conflict. [4] Political scientists such as Gabriel Almond and James Coleman have suggested that the interest group activity which characterizes all political systems takes place in totalitarian countries in the dominant party of such countries. [5] It is this approach that this thesis will follow. As is the case with all group theory approaches; this approach must be tailored to take into account the political culture, social configutration, and institutional setting of the Soviet Union. [6] [From Introduction]