Sixty years ago the Soviet military theorist Aleksander Svechin gave definition and meaning to the military concept of operational art when he wrote, "Tactics make the steps from which operational leaps are assembled; strategy points out the path." The words and concepts of Svechin and a host of other Soviet military theorists have endured. Focus on achieving combat success at the operational level of war has been the single most unifying quality of Soviet military art and science. Soviet understanding of the nature and importance of operational art in peace and war has been the hallmark of Soviet warfighting, providing a framework for the operations of multimillion man armies, often compensating for tactical failure, and produced a host of great captains and numbers massive strategic victories, which rendered meaningless Western perceptions of Soviet military ineptitude. Whether or not those perceptions were correct, the truth emerged that the Soviets, like the proverbial chessmasters which they often are, were also astute masters of the higher levels of warfare, the operational and strategic levels. This volume surveys Soviet preoccupation with operational art within the essential context of strategy and tactics. It explains the intellectual basis of operational art and the conceptual and semantic framework for operations as they evolved in the critical prewar years and later matured during the trials of the world war. Most importantly, it assesses the legacy of those operational concepts today and in the future. Tangentially, the book sketches out Soviet strategic thought which gave operational art meaning, and details those Soviet tactical methods which provided substance to operations. While examining the degree to which the Soviets have fulfilled the promises of Svechin, the volume ponders the fate of operational art in the nuclear and post-nuclear age as the Soviet Army contemplates the promises and perils of the twenty-first century and reorganizes its forces accordingly.

INCLUDES INDEX.

Foreword / Carl E. Vuono -- Preface / Christopher Donnelly -- The Soviet study of war -- The nature of operational art -- The framework of operations -- The formative years of Soviet operational art: 1917-1941 -- The great patriotic war and the maturation of operational art: 1941-1945 -- Operational art and the revolution in military affairs -- Refinement of the revolution in military affairs -- Perspective on the future. .