The Communists

From the July Lalkar: Soviet preparations for a new war, contrary to the assertions of bourgeois detractors of the USSR and Stalin, began at the end of the 1920s. During the 1930s, the share of national defence in the budget rose from 10 to 25 percent. The Red Army’s strength grew from under a million to more than four million. By 1939, the Soviet Union had the largest and most extensively equipped army in the world and was annually producing 10,000 planes, 3,000 tanks, 17,000 artillery pieces and 114,000 machine guns. Russian military strategist Boris Shaposhnikov believed, like Carl von Clausewitz before him, that war was a continuation of politics and, therefore, that the war’s goals and overall direction were the prerogative of the political leadership. While the general staff needed to grasp the interrelations of domestic, foreign and military affairs, the political leadership needed a good grasp of matters military. https://thecommunists.org/2026/07/01/news/history/stalins-library-geoffrey-roberts-resume-book-review-pt9/