Stalin doesn't purge the military?

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Yuri,

I specifically wrote that "15,743 is also around 15% of the Soviet officers you posted existed in 1936." This is correct, in so far as it goes.

Without knowing exactly how you calculate your 3% it is difficult to know how right it is. If you are dividing 15,743 into the total number of officers who passed through the expanding army over 1936-41, it might be quite accurate. But it doesn't show that the damage due to the purges largely occurred higher up the army, amongst some of the most highly trained and experienced officers. On the other hand, this might have allowed for the accelerated promotion of their more modern minded juniors better suited to contemporary warfare (though one suspects this may mostly be due to the massive expansion of the army over this same period).

Either way, the bulk of the Red Army officer corps of 1941, while tough minded, does not seem to have been particularly professionally competent. (But then, who else had looked particularly good against the German Army over 1939-41?).

Cheers,

Sid.