ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION Few nations have suffered more from the effects of war and armed struggle than has the Soviet Union and its historical ancestor, the great Russian state. The realities of geographical location and the existence of neighbors whose strength or weakness made them either potential threats to Russia's existence or potential victims of Russian expansionism contributed to that long history of armed struggle. The immense size of Russia's population and land area produced conflicts of vast scope and often epic proportions. Frustrations born of long and bitter wars produced on the part of the would-be invaders and the Russians alike a combat ferocity seldom matched in other wars. The impact of these ferocious struggles reinforced a natural Russian penchant for the study of war.