ABSTRACT
The Party leaderships in Communist countries continue to worry about how to deal with an increasingly technical military. Modern technology, according to Roman Kolkowicz, creates a demand on the part of its practitioners for increased autonomy. Self-criticism in the Polish armed forces, as in most other Communist armed forces, has never been popular. Although Party representatives consider it a prerequisite for Party control, the military fears that it will endanger military efficiency. The Party organization in the East German armed forces extended down to the regimental level. The East Germans also introduced structural changes in the Party organization. One of the first was the establishment of Party groups. The Party leadership appears to have decided that the basic organization at the regimental level was not sufficiently effective to control Party members. The East German Party leadership also made important changes in its part-time ideological courses for officers.
