ABSTRACT
Perhaps no other institution in Soviet life illustrates better than the Soviet armed forces the inherent problems of multinationalism for Soviet policy. Operating under the principle of universal conscription, in theory all young Soviet men are required to serve in some branch of the armed forces, usually when they are between the ages of 17 and 25. By any reckoning, creating a fighting force from this melange of different peoples, many with conflicting national pasts and enduring traditions, is daunting assignment. As in so many areas of Soviet life, the factor auguring the most far-reaching and dramatic change in the Soviet armed forces is demographic evolution. Most institutions in which ethnicity plays a key role probably would find demographic change of this magnitude and speed hard to assimilate. Non-Slavs without a sound knowledge of the Russian language are unlikely to receive advanced technical training of any kind. For same reason, most are excluded from advanced infantry, artillery, and communications training.
