ABSTRACT
The new Red Army disposing of its mechanised brigades, motorised troops, modernised artillery and expanding chemical warfare arm, still existed under the old Fnmze system of a small cadre force and
territorial reserves. In all, the Fnmze scheme had served the Red Army well during a troubled period. To a stable organisational form had been added the advantage of introducing the initial modifications needed to fit in varying technical changes. It had been a successful compromise with the facts of a grim economic situation, when the Red Army had been almost strangled with purse-strings. But at once it had been apparent that the system would not work very easily for technical units, not to mention aviation on any large scale. Well-suited to a large infantry mass, which could be broken down more successfully into a small cadre force and a large part-time training scheme, the technical revolution rendered it obsolete and inefficient. Nor could such a small cadre force properly carry out the defence duties comlected with two long and difficult frontiers. It was not surprising that during the crises in the Far East the military command had been forced to follow dutifully, if not always willingly, in the path trodden out by Stalin and his diplomats. The props of the security of Rapallo had been rudely knocked away in the west, and it might be that the Red Army would have to face the Reichswehr not in the training camps but in war.
