ABSTRACT
The tumultuous First Five Year Plan period was a time of tremendous innovation in the Soviet Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA). Stalin's mandate of technological progress for the Soviet state as a whole gave RKKA a considerable latitude to experiment with new combat theories, design and borrow new weapons technologies, and create new defense industries—in essence, to forge a new and modern army. Stalin certainly had input in military affairs, but there is little evidence that he managed the military singlehandedly or intervened to the point of significant disruption and delay before 1935. Mikhail Tukhachevsky's entrepreneurial prowess is evident in his ability to exploit many of the unusual features of the Stalinist environment: Stalin's industrialization mandates, Russia's technological backwardness, the importance of Bolshevik spirit and the salient role of Marxist-Leninist ideology, and the use of foreign expertise and designs.
