ABSTRACT
The period from the end of World War II through the death of Stalin in 1953 was characterized by stagnation in Soviet military thinking. The development of Soviet military doctrine during the 1960s can be divided into two main periods: the period from Khrushchev's initial enunciation of his strategic doctrine in January 1960 to his ouster in 1964, and the Brezhnev-Kosygin period of doctrinal development to 1970. The declaration of Soviet strategic doctrine by Khrushchev on January 14, 1960, in addition to those made by then Defense Minister Malinovskiy on January 14 and 19 of the same year, placed its main emphasis on the decisiveness of nuclear weapons in a future war. The debacles suffered by Soviet arms, training, and tactics, most notably in Afghanistan and Operation Desert Storm, have caused the senior Soviet military leadership to undergo their own agonizing reappraisal of their own theory and doctrine.
