"Soviet Doctrine Primer" Topic

Is there a good primer on Soviet attack doctrine? I'm talking about something along the lines of an Osprey. 75-100 pages with pictures.

I have a few DoD downloads but they are *heavy* going….

My bible for this stuff is "weapons and tactics of the Soviet army"
link

Its wicked expensive there, but it comes up cheaper sort of frequently. I got mine for 30 bucks by being patient.

Lots of diagrams and gamer-relevant tables and it goes into both organization, tactics and equipment.

Try this….
PDF link

It's cheaper than Weapons & Tactics

I have uploaded chapter 5 of my copy of the 1991 British field manual on Soviet tactics.

link

Awesome, thanks Tac Error!

@Battler:

I have that one too. I'm looking for the cliff notes version….

@Tac Error:

Thank, I'll give that a look.

FM 100-2-1 The Soviet Army Operations and Tactics. PDF link

Spearhead of the Offensive: The Soviet Conduct of Tactical Manoeuvre by Glantz is very good, if you like his staff college style. It covers WW2 as well as part of the background history.

Not quite sure what you mean by cliff notes but there's a cut-down version called the OPFOR Battle book ST 100-7.

It's 156 pages.

There's a few pdfs of it out there but a link that works is:
PDF link

B

Hello, Extra Crispy!

What level (company, battalion, division, corps)?

To put it in a nutshell:
I have somehow brought this link. Here – a short extract from the Soviet instructions. In Russian, but Google Translator nice to deal with it.
link

Thanks for all the links everyone, very interesting.

Found some detailed stuff that I've been looking for for ages.

Cliff notes version based on my understanding, and actually reading all those manuals some years ago;
1. Set objective for advance
2. Allocate fire support assets with pre planned fire missions.
3. Form advance guard.
4. Throw reconnaissance units out in front of advance.
5. Break up support battalion by companies and assign to main arm battalions
6. Advance in echelons, triangular formation, keeping to march column as much as possible.
7. If/when resistance is encountered, commander on site determines if can be over run or to bypass. Bypass preferred. If can be overrun,form into battle line (approx 1 minute) and advance full speed on enemy positions (approx 3 minutes) and engage at point blank range. Platoons coordinate fires on single targets. Second echelon will pass through and continue the advance or bypass.
8. Continue until you reach the Atlantic.

Something to keep in mind, the Soviets weren't built to smash the NATO armies, they would corral them into pockets, cut them off, and when they were hungry and tired from lack of supply the b and c divisions would surround them and assault. Main Soviet units would bypass and get into your supply lines and staging areas. The rate of advance must be maintained at all times!