ABSTRACT
During the years of the civil war, the leaders of the Red Army had established a draconian discipline, and such a discipline has been maintained down to the present day. Indeed, the whole plan, which was in part the outcome of war panic, is predominantly concerned with the development of an armaments industry which shall make Russia independent of imports of war material. Regardless of revolutionary dogma, the Soviet State, when the civil war came to an end, made no attempt to do away with the standing army, but, instead, retained the system of universal compulsory service. One matter in which army life in Russia differs from that of all other nations is the strict political supervision of the Red Army effected through the People's Commissariat for War. In the domain of the armaments industry, the Soviet State makes very vigorous efforts, and acts perhaps more purposively than in any other field.
