ABSTRACT
The USSR Defense Ministry was part of a huge bureaucracy and cannot be understood without a knowledge of how that bureaucracy functioned within the larger Soviet policymaking system. Soviet policies were made and implemented through a dual party-Government structure. The 1936 Stalin constitution included a provision allowing each of the Soviet Union's 15 republics to raise and maintain its own military forces. From 1959 to late 1991, the USSR Armed Forces consisted of five services: the Strategic Rocket Forces (SRF), the Ground Forces, Air Defense Forces (PVO), Air Forces, and Navy. In November 1991, the SRF, the missile early warning system, the space monitoring and ABM defense systems, and the directorate of the chief of space systems were merged to form a Strategic Deterrence Force. The military policy process became far more decentralized, involving a host of new institutions and players. Gorbachev's political reforms also led to significant changes in how national security policy was made.
