ABSTRACT
Soviet military history serves three functions: the objective historical; the scientific-pedagogical, and as a medium for surrogate discussions of present policy issues. Soviet experience in Second World War is particularly instructive with respect to potential military and political scenarios that might face Soviet leaders in the future. Throughout the entire postwar period at every stage of evolution of Soviet military doctrine the Great Patriotic War has remained the only concrete experience to which Soviet military experts could turn in search of practical answers to the issues facing them. An excellent illustration of continuing importance of military history and in particular the history of Great Patriotic War is offered in the two editions of the history of the Voroshilov General Staff Academy entitled Akademiya general’nogo shtaba and published in 1976 and 1987. A major event in the history of the General Staff Academy was a lecture given at the academy by Chief of the General Staff Marshal Sokolovskii in August 1959.
