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3. Designate:

Clomralde Zernov P.M., Transport Machine Building Deputy Minister, as KB11 Chief with release from his current Ministry duties;

Professor Khariton Yu. B. as KB-11 Chief Designer on jet engine prototype designing and manufacture.

4. Adopt the proposal by Commission composed of Vannikov, Yakovlev, Zavenyagin, Goremykin, Meshik and Khariton on location of KB-11 on the base of Ministry of Agricultural Machine Building Plant No. 550 and adjoining territory.

5. Assume the following as necessary: a) involve USSR Academy of Sciences Institute of Chemical Physics (Director Academician Semenov N. N.) in computations on orders by Laboratory No. 2 (Academician Kurchatov) relating to designing of jet engines, measurements of needed constants, and preparation and conduct of principal jet engine tests;

b) arrange at USSR Academy of Sciences Institute of Chemical Physics development of theoretical issues for nuclear explosion and combustion and their application in engineering.

In this connection transfer all main forces of USSR Academy of Sciences Institute of Chemical Physics to accomplishment of the above tasks.

6. Charge the First Main Directorate of USSR Council of Ministers (Mr. Vannikov) with [responsibility for] material and technical support of KB-11 and USSR Academy of Sciences Institute of Chemical Physics.

7. Entrust Mr. Vannikov with consideration and solution in conjunction with Mr. Zernov of all the issues relating to adjustment of Plant No. 550 for KB-11.

8. Entrust Messrs. Vannikov (convocation), Zernov, Kurchatov, Khariton, Semenov, Pervukhin, Ustinov, and Zavenyagin with consideration of Academician Semenov's proposals on the measures to support the works with which the Institute of Chemical Physics is charged and within 5 days to develop and submit the draft decision on this issue.

Stamp: USSR Council of Ministers General Office Management of USSR Council of Ministers Affairs.

[Source: Archive of the President, Russian

Federation (APRF), Fond 3, Opis 47, Delo 29, Listy 105-106].

Document II: USSR Council of Ministers Resolution of 21 June 1946 on Development of Soviet Atomic Weapons

Keep in cipher

Top Secret (Special dossier) USSR Council of Ministers Resolution No. 1286-525ss/op of 21 June 1946. Kremlin, Moscow

On the plan of promoting the works of Design Bureau No. 11 (KB-11) of USSR Academy of Sciences Laboratory No.2

USSR Council of Ministers ORDERS:

Accept the following proposals submitted by Cdes.Kurchatov, Khariton, Vannikov, ted by Cdes. Kurchatov, Khariton, Vannikov, Pervukhin, and Zernov on the Orders for Design Bureau No. 11 of USSR Academy of Sciences and the plan of promoting the works of the above Bureau:

1. That Design Bureau No. 11 (Messrs. Khariton, Zernov) be charged with:

fueling stated in item la in versions S-1 and S-2, 5 copies for each version, and submit them for testing by 1 September 1947.

3. That the following proposals of Cdes. Kurchatov, Khariton, Vannikov, Pervukhin, and Zernov to conduct the following preparatory works for RDS versions S-1 and S-2 according to the task orders of KB-11, at Ministry of Agricultural Machine Building NII-6, NII-504, KB-47, USSR Academy of Sciences Laboratory No. 2, Ministry of Armaments KB-88, Ministry of Transport Machine Building Kirov Plant KB (Chelyabinsk) and USSR Academy of Sciences Institute of Chemical Physics be accepted:

a) at the Ministry of Agricultural Machine Building Research Institute No. 6 (leader of the works Cde. Zakoshchikov, NII-6 chief):

- development of synchronous spark plug operation principles and design-by 1 October 1946;

- refinement of diesel fuel compound charge elements-by 1 October 1946;

[blocks in formation]

a) development of two versions of "Jet engine [atomic bomb] S” (“RDS” in abbreviated form) under the scientific leadership of the compression rate-by 1 January 1947; of USSR Academy of Sciences Laboratory No.2 (Academician Kurchatov): with heavy fuel utilization (version S-1) and with light fuel utilization (version S-2);

b) submission of the first verified and manufactured S-1 and S-2 versions of RDS, 1 copy of each version, to state tests in stationary conditions: for the version S-1 by 1 January 1948, for the version S-2 by 1 June 1948;

c) submission of the first verified and manufactured S-1 and S-2 aerial design versions of RDS, 1 copy of each version, to state flight tests: for the version S-1 by 1 March 1948, for the version S-2 by 1 January 1949.

2. That to secure accomplishment of the tasks stated in item 1, entrust Design Bureau No. 11 (Cdes. Khariton and Zernov) to be empowered to carry out the following works: a) development of the tactical and technical task orders for versions S-1 and S-2 of the RDS design by 1 July 1946; b) development of the design of the main RDS units in versions S-1 and S-2 by 1 July 1947; c) manufacture of RDS prototypes without

- development of the power supply system-by 1 March 1947.

b) at the Ministry of Agricultural Machine Building Research Institute NO.504 (leader of the works Cde. Rassushin, Chief Designer):

- development of the automatic height controller-by 1 January 1947;

- development of the spark plug power supply system-by 1 October 1946;

c) at the Ministry of Agricultural Machine Building Design Bureau No.47 (leader of the works Cde. Kulakov, Chief Designer):

- development of the RDS fairing and fastening case-by 1 October 1946;

d) at the Ministry of Transport Machine Building Kirov Plant Design, Chelyabinsk (leader of the works Cde. Dukhov, Chief Designer):

- development of the diesel fuel compound charge, fueling technique and automated system devices-by 1 October 1946;

e) at USSR Academy of Sciences Laboratory No. 2 (leader of the works Academician Kurchatov):

- development of the power supply sys

tem-by 1 March 1947;

- refinement of the timing issues as applied to the version S-2-by 1 January 1947;

f) at the Ministry of Armaments Plant No. 38 Design Bureau (leader of the works Cde. Kostin, Chief Designer):

- development of the "gun" designby 1 January 1947;

- refinement of the timing issues-by 1 January 1947;

g) at USSR Academy of Sciences Institute of Chemical Physics Special Sector (the leader of the works Academician Semenov):

- carrying out the theoretical and computational works on the task orders of USSR Academy of Sciences Laboratory No. 2.

That Ministers: of Agricultural Machine Building Cde. Vannikov, of Armaments Cde. Ustinov, of Transport Machine Building Cde. Malyshev, Director of USSR Academy of Sciences Institute of Chemical Physics Academician Semenov, [and] Chief of USSR Academy of Sciences Laboratory No. 2 Academician Kurchatov be empowered to accomplish the works listed in item 3 within the stated dates and monthly report about the progress of works to the Special Committee of USSR Council of Ministers.

4. That Design Bureau No. 11 be authorized to establish the following laboratories within the Design Bureau (on the base of Plant No. 550 of the First Main Directorate of USSR Council of Ministers):

-primarily: Laboratory No. 1 (for fuel), Laboratory No. 2 (X-ray metering), Laboratory No. 3 (for studying strains), Laboratory No. 4 (for studying performance);

-secondarily: Laboratory No. 5 (for physics), Laboratory No. 6 (for plugs), Laboratory No. 7 (for metallurgy and treatment), Laboratory No. 8 (for studying physical and mechanical properties of fuel), Laboratory No. 9 (for quality control of initial materials), Laboratory No. 10 (for prevention of accidents).

That the dates be fixed for spreading the works of the primary laboratories from September to December 1946 and the secondary laboratories from January to June 1947.

5. That the measures be approved on preparation and organization of the works of KB-11 and measures for USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs Building Directorate No.

88 in conformity with Annexes Nos. 1 and 2.

6. That Messrs. Kurchatov, Zernov and Khariton be entrusted with monthly reporting about the progress of works of Design Bureau No. 11 to the Special Committee of USSR Council of Ministers.

Stamp: USSR Council of Ministers General Office Management of USSR Council of Ministers Affairs..

[annexes:]

Top Secret (Special dossier) USSR Council of Ministers Resolution No. 1286-525ss of 21 June 1946. Kremlin, Moscow

Annex No. 1

Measures

on preparation and arrangement of KB-11 works

USSR Council of Ministers ORDERS:

1. That USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs (Cdes. Kruglov and Komarovsky) be empowered to carry out the construction and assembling operations for Design Bureau No. 11 and that be USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs be empowered to complete by forces of Glavpromstroy the construction and assembling operations of the first series by 1 October 1946 and of the second series (all of the operations) by 1 May 1947.

That USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs (Cde. Kruglov) be authorized to establish Building Directorate No. 880 within the Glavpromstroy system to accomplish the above task.

2. That the first series building amount for Design Bureau No. 11 proposed by Cdes. Vannikov, Pervukhin, Kurchatov, Zavenyagin, Khariton, and Zernov, a total of 30 million rubles, and the list of building over the facilities, according to Annex No. 3, be approved and that Cdes. Zernov and Komarovsky be empowered to approve the priorities for building and restoration of the first phase facilities within the above list.

3. That Cde. Volkov V.V. be placed in charge of Deputy Chief of Design Bureau No. 11 of USSR Academy of Sciences Laboratory No. 2 in building and Chief of USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs Building Direc

torate No. 880 and that he be relieved of other work for Ministry of Military and Navy Building.

4. That GSPI-11 of the First Main Directorate of USSR Council of Ministers carry out the design operations on building for Design Bureau No. 11.

5. That the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs be empowered to occupy the area up to 100 square kilometers for Building Directorate No. 880 in the Mordovia State reserve and up to 10 square kilometers of land south of the Balykovo village, Gorky region. That Cde. Rodionov, Chairman of RSFSR Council of Ministers, by agreement with Cdes. Zernov and Komarovsky, be entrusted with determination of the alienation borders of the above lands within ten days.

6. That USSR Minister of Internal Affairs be empowered to carry out the construction and assembly operations for Building No. 880 without approved project and estimated costs. Payment due should be made on the basis of actual expenditures.

7. That Plant No. 550 be transferred to the First Main Directorate of the USSR Council of Ministers from the Ministry of Agricultural Machine Building under Statement of assets and liabilities as of 1 May 1946.

8. That Cdes. Abakumov (convocation), Kruglov, Vannikov, and Zernov be obligated to develop within 2 weeks and approve the safeguard and security system for facility No. 550.

That their direction be reported to Special Committee.

9. That Cdes. Vannikov, Kurchatov, and Zernov be obligated to approve KB-11 staff.

That Cdes. Vannikov, Kurchatov, Zernov, and Komarovsky be charged with submission of the amount of construction and schedule of the construction and assembly operations of the first phase for KB-11 for 1946: no later than on 15 August 1946 to be approved by USSR Council of Minis

ters.

10. That KB-11 be released from recording the staff in financial agencies.

That a total of 25 million rubles of advance allocations be approved for KB-11 for quarters II and III, 1946 for preparatory and building operations, materials, equipment and economy expenditures, including 200 thousand rubles as the person-free fund and 100 thousand rubles for special expendi

tures.

That the USSR Ministry of Finance (Mr. Zernov) be charged with allocation of the above funds to the First Main Directorate of the USSR Council of Ministers.

11. That the wages, salaries, and all types of food-stuffs and goods provision established for USSR Academy of Sciences Laboratory No. 2 be extended to KB-11.

12. That the following be determined: a) salary rates for the workers assigned to work at facility No. 550 should be increased during their stay at facility No. 550 from 75 to 100% and the persons performing multiple tasks of KB-11 should be paid additional salary amounting from 50 to 75% of relevant salary established for workers of KB-11 of Laboratory No. 2;

b) all leading, scientific, engineering, technical, administrative and economic workers of facility No. 550 should be provided on site with three meals a day in norms according to Annex No. 4 and ration according to the letter "A" limit for leading and scientific workers and to the letter "B" limit for other workers.

13. That the USSR Ministry of Trade (Cde. Lyubimov) be charged with:

a) allocation by request of Cde. Zernov of all needed foodstuffs for arrangement of three meals a day for all leading, scientific, engineering-technical, and administrativetechnical workers of facility No. 550 in norms according to Annex No.4 and ration of letter "A" for leading and scientific workers, of letter "B" for other workers;

b) allocation to facility No. 550 beginning from June 1946 of 50 food-stuffs limits 300 rubles each monthly and 50 goods limits 750 each quarterly in addition to those allocated for scientific workers.

14. That 50 personal payments up to 3000 rubles for KB-11 be established.

15. That the following mechanism of provision and funding of KB-11 of USSR Academy of Sciences Laboratory No. 2 be established:

a) all KB-11 provision and funding should be through the First Main Directorate of the USSR Council of Ministers by requests of Cde. Zernov;

b) funding of all KB-11 works should be through the First Main Directorate of the USSR Council of Ministers. The financial accounting for KB-1 should be submitted only personally to Chief of the First Main Directorate. The same person is authorized

to approve estimated costs and actual expenditures for KB-11;

c) authorize Chief of the First Main Directorate of the USSR Council of Ministers and Chief of KB-11 to have a group of workers up to 5 persons at the First Main Directorate of the USSR Council of Ministers for preparation of requests and realization of KB-11 material supply funds.

16. That KB-11 (Cde. Zernov) be empowered to arrange their library at Design bureau which should be later on referred to as Library No. 11.

In order to provide this:

a) charge RSFSR OGIZ (Cde. Yudin) with inclusion of Library No. 11 into the list for receiving of an obligatory paid copy of literature on physics, chemistry, mathematics, and fiction;

b) charge Committee on Cultural and Educational Establishments Affairs of USSR Council of Ministers (Mr. Zuyev) with allocation by 1 August 1946 of literature from the State Stock for Library No. 11 composed of up to 5000 books on physics, chemistry, engineering, and mathematics and organization of a movable technical and fiction library by request of Mr. Zernov;

c) allocate 5000 dollars additionally for years 1946-1947 to the First Main Directorate of USSR Council of Ministers for subscription of books, journals, and magazines for Library No. 11.

17. That Cdes. Kuznetsov A. A. (convocation), Vannikov, Zernov be entrusted with selection of staff for Design Bureau No. 11 within one month.

18. That in July 1946 by direction of the First Main Directorate of the USSR Council of Ministers equipment, instruments and devices according to Annex No. 5 be allocated and shipped, the delivery being in the order established by Resolution of USSR Council of Ministers of 9 April 1946 No. 806-328ss.

19. That materials and equipment to the First Main Directorate of the USSR Council of Ministers, according to Annex No. 6, be allocated at the expense of the First Main Directorate Mobilization Reserve provided for pursuant to USSR Council of Ministers Order of 23 March 1946 No. 3881-rs.

20. That Chief of the First Main Directorate of USSR Council of Ministers (Cde. Vannikov) be charged with:

a) forwarding the equipment, instruments, materials and devices stated in An

nexes Nos. 5 and 6 to secure spreading the first phase works of KB-11;

b) allocation of needed materials and equipment additionally to KB-11 in JuneJuly 1946 from the First Main Directorate

resources.

21. That Cde. Akopov, Minister of Automobile Industry, be charged with shipment of 25 motor vehicles in June 1946 in accordance with the distribution list of Cde. Zernov P.M. from the Mobilization Reserve of the First Main Directorate of the USSR Council of Ministers provided for the Mobilization Reserve pursuant to Order of the USSR Council of Ministers of 23 March 1946 No. 3881-rs, including:

8 motor vehicles ZIS-58 motor vehicles GAZ-AA2 motor vehicles GAZ-517 motor vehicles GAZ-67 and

in July 1946 8 motor vehicles at the expense of the funds "for special expenditures" for the First Main Directorate of the USSR Council of Ministers, including:

2 motor vehicles ZIS-52 motor vehicles ZIS-421 motor vehicle "sanitary" 3 motor vehicles M-11-73.

22. That the First Main Directorate of the USSR Council of Ministers be empowered to have additional fuel expenditures beginning from June 1946: limit-free for three cars; for 12 M-11-73 make cars 800 liters each; for four cars 600 liters each; and for four cars 400 liters each, of these three limit-free cars, four cars 800 liters each and three cars 600 liters each should be at disposal of Cde. Zernov P.M.

23. That the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs (Cde. Kruglov) be obligated to establish telephone communication "HF" with Building No. 860 and KB-11.

24. That the USSR Ministry of Textile Industry (Cde. Sedin) be obligated to deliver the following by the distribution list of Cde. Zernov P.M. in July 1946: 1.2 thousand meters of strips of carpet, 1000 meters of silk cloth; 1000 meters of chevron; 150 meters of woolen cloth at the expense of the funds of the First Main Directorate of USSR Council of Ministers for quarter III, 1946.

25. That Main Directorate of Civil Air Fleet (Mr. Astakhov) be obligated to allot the aircraft SI-47 and two aircraft PO-2 to Cde. Zernov P.M. to make missions by direction of Zernov P.M.

26. That Ministry of Transport (Cde. Kovalev) be obligated to allot one special car to USSR Academy of Sciences Labora

tory No. 2 with the right of coupling to fast, passenger and other trains by requests of Cde. Zernov; the allotment duration should be agreed upon by Cde. Zernov.

27. That the USSR Ministry of Forest Industry (Mr. Saltykov) be obligated to fill the order for furniture at the expense of the market fund for the First Main Directorate of the USSR Council of Ministers by the specification and distribution list of Cde. Zernov P.M. in quarters II and III, 1946, the sum total amounting to 800 thousand rubles, including 400 thousand rubles for individual suites, with delivery amount being 100 thousand rubles in the 2nd quarter and 700 thousand rubles in the 3d quarter.

28. That for the workers of Design Bureau No. 11 and Building No. 880 the dwelling space occupied by them and their families by the time of their going to work at Building No. 880 and KB-11 of USSR Academy of Sciences Laboratory No. 2 be reserved for them.

29. That the USSR Ministry of Foreign Trade (Cde. Mikoyan) be obligated to search for the possibility to deliver one precision drilling machine No. 3 or No. 4 (for KB11), irrespective of its primary purpose, as a part of previous orders to the First Main Directorate of the USSR Council of Ministers in 1946.

Stamp: I. Stalin, Chairman of USSR
Council of Ministers.
Protocol Division Ya. Chadayev, Man-
ager of USSR Council of Office Ministers
Affairs.

[Source: APRF, F. 3, Op. 47, D. 29, LI. 169178.]

[* Annex 4 of the USSR Council of Ministers Resolution of 21 June 1946 is not printed due to space limitations, but is available from CWIHP ed.]

1 The full text of the State Defense Committee resolution on the establishment of the Special Committee is published in Cold War International History Project Bulletin 6/7 (Winter 1995/1996), 269-70.

2 For an English translation of this decree, see CWIHP Bulletin 5 (Spring 1995), 57.

KHRUSHCHEV'S 1960 TROOP CUT: NEW RUSSIAN EVIDENCE

by Vladislav M. Zubok

On 12 January 1960, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, Nikita S. Khrushchev, announced the most radical reduction in the level of Soviet military troops since 1924: the army was to be reduced by one-third in three years; several branches of military aviation and navy were to be drastically cut or even altogether abolished; and instead, the strategic missile forces were to become the backbone of the armed forces.

Analysts and scholars have long agreed that, unlike previous cuts designed to impress the West with the Soviets' "peace-loving" nature, this move was principally Khrushchev's radical attempt to replace the concept of a huge land army, which was in the foundation of the Soviet military buildup, with a technological force to ensure means of "retaliation." At the core of this idea was Khrushchev's desire to save resources for large-scale social and economic programs. But only recently have documents emerged to show how this remarkable initiative was born.

In autumn 1995, the Moscow archive containing the post-1952 records of the CC CPSU, the Storage Center for Contemporary Documentation (TsKhSD), released transcripts of CC CPSU Plenums for the period 19411966 as well as supplementary material, often analogous to "special files" [osobaya papki], batches of highly important secret documents describing the rationale and preparations for crucial Politburo decisions. (CC CPSU Plenums and related materials for the period 1967-1991 have also reportedly been declassified by the Russian declassification commission, but as of late 1996 they had not yet been opened for scholarly research at TsKhSD.)

One document discovered in this newly-available collection at TsKhSD, and printed below, was Khrushchev's secret memorandum of 8 December 1959 to the CC CPSU Presidium (i.e.,

Politburo) proposing the radical and unilateral disarmament measures which would become visible to the world the following month. At the time, the Soviet leader was riding a crest of domestic and international authority achieved as a result of his widely-hailed trip to the United States and summit with U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower in September 1959. Even a testy meeting with Mao Zedong and the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing in early October, which indicated a wider than ever split between the leaderships of the two communist giants, could not dampen Khrushchev's optimism and desire to capitalize on what he saw as his political momentum. The disarmament initiative was a hallmark's of Khrushchev authority: as the unchallenged leader of the CPSU (since his victory over the "anti-party" faction in June 1957), he was determined to redefine in breathtaking fashion the parameters of Soviet security doctrine and military make-up.

The memorandum, found the supplementary file to the December 1959 CC CPSU Plenum, is clearly a draft, bearing all the traces of improvisation; probably Khrushchev dictated the text during a holiday on the Black Sea; some corrections and insertions are typed into it, and the phraseology in the Russian original is often awkward and unpolished, replete with colloquial "Khrushchevisms." What is unusual is the absence of a "final" version, which apparently did not exist, perhaps because Khrushchev did not want bureaucratic agencies, including the Ministry of Defense and the KGB, to elaborate or modify his arguments. He must have intended to keep it as it was: exclusively his personal initiative. Was this a case of the late authoritarian Khrushchev paying lip service to "party democracy," but actually taking no heed of his colleagues and party-state structures? Rather, in this case the authoritarianism was enlightened: Khrushchev knew that his proposal had to be imposed from the top and passed quickly, otherwise it would be resisted and bog down.

The documents reproduced below illuminate the process by which Khrushchev's proposal became official

Soviet policy. On 14 December 1959, six days after his memorandum was drafted, it was approved by the Presidium; four days later, on December 18, a conference of the military elite convened to work out practical measures to implement the proposal; and eight days after that, on December 26, the Plenum rubber-stamped it. Despite Khrushchev's strong position, he could not help worrying about the political fallout of such a radical revamping, which constituted a de facto replacing of the Soviet military machine; hence the memorandum's rather long and (for Khrushchev) elaborate argument. It is interesting that Khrushchev regarded his initiative as a direct follow-up to his proposal on General and Complete Disarmament which he made to the U.N. General Assembly on 18 September 1959. He presented his initiative to his colleagues as a means to boost the level of discussion at the specially-appointed United Nations "Committee of Ten" countries, set up to study disarmament questions, which was scheduled to start its deliberations in February 1960. The memorandum Khrushchev as a convert of the nuclear revolution; he was convinced that no power could threaten a Soviet Union armed with nuclear missiles. In the same breath the Soviet leader poses as an exuberant romantic and bluffer, this time not before the outside world, but in front of his own, much less informed colleagues. Most important, he boldly but falsely claims that "we are in an excellent position with [regard to] missile-building" and that the USSR has already set in motion assembly lines capable of serial production of “an assortment of rockets to serve any military purpose." In fact, as was known to the tiny group of military and missile designers who reported directly to Khrushchev as the head of the Defense Council, the production of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) had not yet begun and there were only four unwieldy R-7s on a launching pad near Plesetsk in northern Russia. The first test of the next-generation ICBM of the Yangel firm was still nine months away.

reveals

At the core of Khrushchev's reasoning was his belief that from then on

the Cold War would be decided by the outcome of economic competition between the United States and Soviet Union. With the great optimism characteristic of the times, he explained to the Politburo members that if the West did not reciprocate to Soviet cuts, so much worse for it, since the burden of military budgets would drag its economies down. And the romantic mies down. And the romantic Khrushchev firmly believed that once "workers, but also peasants, petit bourgeois elements," saw the USSR's determination to disarm, they would shed their anti-Soviet fears and move “to neutral positions, and then would develop sympathies toward our country." Thus, Khrushchev repeated the disarmament dictum of the Soviet diplomacy of the 1920s and early 1930s, but, unlike his predecessors, did not intend to use it merely as a smoke-screen for Soviet build-up, but, on the contrary, as a rationale for a unilateral build-down.

The point where Khrushchev's imagination reached record-breaking heights was in plotting an army of the future. On one hand he was primarily moved by his conviction that the construction of communism would require maximum military demobilization. He was attracted by the reforms of the 1920s carried out by Mikhail Frunze, when more of the Red Army conscripts would be trained not in "the cadre army" but in territorial militia formations; this, in his mind, could keep young manpower in local economies instead of diverting it to unproductive military drills. He even spoke of keeping officers simultaneously in military schools and industrial jobs!

On the other hand, Khrushchev had no patience with or respect for the professional military. He lacked experience with military reform, but specifics did not bother him. Like many crucial turns in Soviet foreign policy in 1958-62, this disarmament initiative sprung fullblown from his mind. This is made clear by his own admission that he still needed to discuss the proposal with the Defense Ministry and General Staff, Defense Ministry and General Staff, including how deep the proposed cuts should be ("perhaps a million or a million and half") and how quickly they should be carried out ("no more than

two years"). This perception, incidentally, was disastrously unrealistic and contradicted Khrushchev's avowed concern with the future of demobilized officers. What also catches the eye is Khrushchev's groping for a way to marry somehow the idea of rapid deployment with territorial forces, but without creating what one might call today a "rapid deployment force." He was careful to avoid the worrisome prospect of entrusting the country's security to an elite highly mobile force, a potential carrier of "Bonapartism.”

The great disarmament initiative was as bold as it was ill-conceived: It was not part of comprehensive military reform. Khrushchev sacrificed quality for quantity, eager to ram down the throat of the reluctant military his enthusiasm for strategic missiles and determination to have a "no-frills” land army. There is still no available record of the conference with top military officials on December 18; but the signs of sharp disagreement and even protest were visible. Around that time Khrushchev and Defense Minister Rodion Malinovsky authorized a discussion in the new top secret publication Military Thought on a new military doctrine, with obvious intention to let off steam. The amount of steam was to be great indeed: in the period of several months after Khrushchev's announcement of the cuts, 250,000 Soviet officers were forced into premature retirement, many without adequate compensation, housing, or retraining. (For more on the tensions between Khrushchev and the Soviet military caused by such actions, see the forthcoming CWIHP Working Paper by Matthew A. Evangelista.)

The military were not the only group "ambushed" by Khrushchev's initiative. So were the party and state elites, many of whom later recalled this episode as "a hare-brained scheme" of Nikita Sergeevich. Also Khrushchev did not bother to ask for advice from other members of the Warsaw Treaty Organization: even the leadership of the GDR, the strategically vital country whose existence totally depended on the support of Soviet troops, was caught by surprise by Khrushchev's disarmament

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