ABSTRACT
At the beginning of this period the principles of the Soviet State’s military policy were determined by the fact that the Civil War of 1918–20 had ended in decisive victory for the Red Army. It seemed that the system of political and strategic leadership of the Soviet Armed forces, formed during the Civil War, had proved its efficiency, but at the same time it became quite clear that numerous formations of the Red Army were not able to match this because of the poor financial and material resources which the Soviet state could allocate to satisfy defence needs. The massive reduction in the size of the Army and Navy during the first months after the Civil War was not accompanied by measures for the preservation of their combat readiness. This resulted in a serious loss of combat capacity, a decrease in discipline and in some cases loss of command and control.
