MILITARY THOUGHT (USSR): THE TRAINING OF SCIENTIFIC PERSONNEL IN THE SOVIET ARMED FORCES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP10-00105R000100370001-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 19
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 18, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 9, 1974
• Content Type: MEMO

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Intelligence Information Special Report
DATE 9 April 1974
50X1-HUM
SUBJECT
MILITARY THOUGHT (USSR): The Training of Scientific and
Scientific-Pedagogic Personnel in the Ministry of
Defense of the USSR 50X1-HUM
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The Training of Scientific and Scientific-Pedagogic
Personnel in the Ministry of De Tense of the USSR
Y
General-Leytenant A. Sinitsa and
General-Mayor P. Yegorov
The training of scientific and scientific-pedagogic
personnel is the most important function of the higher
military educational institutions (VVUZ) and the scientific-
research institutions (NIU) of the Ministry of Defense. The
quantity and quality of scientific personnel, and the work
of the VVUZ and NIU in training them, determine both the
present and the future of Soviet military science, the
structure of higher military education, the improvement of
the training process, and the education of the highly
qualified officer personnel needed by the army and navy. It
also determines the combat readiness of our armed forces.
Absolute figures on the number of skilled scientific
workers in our VVUZ and NIU show that in the training of
scientific and scientific-pedagogic personnel significant
progress has been made. In only the last five years* the
number of scientific workers with doctor of sciences and
candidate of sciences degrees has nearly doubled and has
reached several thousand, including 776 doctors of sciences.
If these figures are examined from the point of view of the
rate of increase in the number of people with advanced
degrees, they turn out to be above the average achieved in
the country as a whole.
* Figures here and hereafter are as of 1 January 1970.
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Great influence on the development of training of
scientific and scientific-pedagogic personnel was exerted by
the decrees of the Central Committee of the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union and of the Council of Vinisters of the
USSR No. 536 (1961), No. 441 (1962), No. 1164 (1967), and
others, and also the corresponding decisions of the Minister
of Defense of the USSR set forth in his orders Nos. 280,
111, 151, 324, and 020, published in various years beginning
in 1961. They made possible a significant improvement in
the system of training scientific personnel in the armed
forces, an expansion of opportunities for doing graduate
work (adyunktura), and the creation of conditions in the
VVUZ and NIU favorable to an increase of the level of
scientific qualification of the professorial-teaching staff
and of scientific workers.
The scientists are distributed in the following manner,
according to the work for which they are earmarked. The
great majority (about 62 percent) are concentrated in VVU?,
where they do a great deal of pedagogic and scientific work.
Of the entire professorial-teaching staff and scientific
workers in the laboratories of the VVUZ, 38 percent hold
doctor of sciences and candidate of sciences degrees, while
of the total number of positions that should be filled by
people with advanced degrees and academic ranks, almost 80
percent hold such degrees.
About 20 percent of those with doctor of sciences and
candidate of sciences degrees work in the NIL of the
Ministry of Defense. They make up slightly more than 18
percent of all the scientific workers, and about 40 percent
of the number of scientific workers who are supposed to have
advanced degrees.
The rest of the people with advanced degrees (about 18
percent) work in the central apparatus of the Ministry of
Defense, on staffs and in other organizations, or in
military chairs (kafedra) of civilian higher educatic'
institutions in the national economy. 50X1-HUM
The following figures attest to the high caliber of the
scientific and scientific-pedagogic personnel: among them
are eleven members or corresponding members of academies of
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sciences, 460 professors, and more than 4,000 assistant
professors.
These are the absolute figures. They show that the
average number of people with advanced degrees in the VVUZ
and NIU is rather high and makes it possible to conduct
successfully scientific-pedagogic and research activity,
maintain military science at the level of modern require-
ments, and develop it along all lines. A comparative
analysis enables us to conclude that in the matter of
candidates of sciences we are not behind the leading higher
educational institutions of the country, and in the matter
of doctors of sciences, with the exception of the academies,
we are only slightly behind. Whereas in the country as a
whole more than one-third of all teachers at higher educa-
tional institutions have advanced degrees, in our VVU7 the
figure is 42 percent, i.e., two out of every five teachers
have advanced degrees.
This does not mean, however, that in the supply of
scientific and scientific-pedagogic personnel everything is
sat15 ac Ory ilnfnrtunately there
are Stl S~1QrtCQ mgs,
of which the following should be mentioned first.
In the first place, and this has been observed for many
years, the increase in the number of -gr-iantifir and
hol ers--candidateG of ar-iQrr?~~_ mho at present constitu e
9~ Q pPr~Pnt of al peoplQ wi a~~, rived r eqrees . T3Me
number of dQ[`tnrs of sci enceS i i nr?reasi ng at an extremely
slow pace; they mike ,~ n1y Z____percen_t of the to al. This
quantity cannot satisfy even the most modest goal: to have
doctors of sciences heading chairs of academies and higher
military schools with a 5-year training program. At the
present time, the VVUZ contain a total of 1,214 chairs,
while doctors of sciences number only 606. Furthermore, not
all the doctors of sciences are in the abovementioned posts.
Thus, in the example just given, only 277 chairs are headed
by doctors of sciences, while 725 chairs are headed by
candidates of sciences or assistant professors, and 212 50X1-HUM
chair heads have no advanced degrees or academic ranks at
all.
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Meanwhile, the absence in the chairs of leading
specialists who are doctors of sciences lowers the quality
of training of scientific and scientific-pedagogic per-
sonnel. Many years of practice show that doctors of
sciences and candidates of sciences most often are developed
when working together with outstanding scientists in quali-
fied scientific collectives. Unfortunately, collectives are
not born by themselves; they must be developed. And this
requires outstanding specialists who, in turn, must be
trained. A sort of closed circle develops, which many VVUZ
cannot break out of for dozens of years. Success is
achieved only by those VVUZ and NIL} that use and combine
organizational, scientific, methodological, and other
capabilities in training scientific and scientific-
pedagogic personnel.
Of great importance in overcoming the lag in training
doctors of sciences is long-term planning based on realistic
calculations and capabilities, and also the correct use of
the positions of senior scientific workers of the
scientific- research departments of the VVUZ to which
teachers are assigned to complete work on their doctoral
dissertations. Many examples bear this out eloquently. For
example, in a Leningrad higher engineering school, in two
positions of senior scientific workers, six doctors of
sciences were trained in the last six years.
In the second place, the scientific-research personnel
are distributed extremely unevenly among the VVUZ. The
great majority of people with advanced degrees (up to 70
percent) are concentrated in the military academies. About
28 percent of the doctors of sciences and candidates of
sciences are in the higher military schools with a 5-year
training program and only two percent in the higher military
schools with a 4-year training program.
A definite polarity in the provision of scientific-
pedagogic personnel has been observed among the academies as
well. For example, in the A. F. Mozhayskiy Military
Engineering Academy, the N. Ye. Zhukovskiy Air Force
Engineering Academy, the F. E. Dzerzhinskiy Military
Engineering Academy, and certain others, almost all of the
professorial-teaching staff have advanced degrees, including
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60-75 doctors of sciences. But in the Air Defense (PVO)
Command Academy there are only 76 people who are candidates
of sciences, and not a single doctor of sciences.
The unevenness in the distribution of doctors of
sciences and candidates of sciences among the VVUZ has
developed as a result of a number of factors--the role and
purpose of the educational institution, the amount of time
it has been in existence, its physical location, and also
because the rapid growth of higher education that has
occurred in recent years in the Ministry of Defense has not
been matched by an equally rapid growth in the number of
highly qualified teachers. To a certain extent, the
geographical location of educational institutions also is a
factor. Calculations show that up to 70 percent of our
people with advanced degrees are concentrated in VVUZ
(mainly in academies) of Moscow and Leningrad. The
situation in the VVUZ of Kiev, Minsk, and Kharkov with
regard to scientific personnel is relatively good. However,
the remaining military educational institutions scattered
throughout the country, often in small towns, have only
slightly more than 2 percent of the people with advanced
degrees.
It is quite obvious that this kind of inequality in the
distribution of people with advanced degrees must not be
allowed to continue for long. The problem of raising the
scientific level and the pedagogic qualification of the
professorial teaching staff of the VVUZ located in the more
remote areas (especially the higher military educational
institutions with a 4-year training program), and also in
other VVUZ with a shortage of people with advanced degrees,
takes on urgent importance. The resolution of this problem
requires a centralized distribution of young people with
advanced degrees and the training of graduate students
(adyunkt) in accordance with their particular assignment.
In the third place, the distribution of people with
advanced degrees by sciences and branches of sciences does
not fully meet the requirements for them. 50X1-HUM
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50X1-HUM
In recent years there has been a noticeable increase in
the training of doctors and candidates of technical
sciences, who now constitute about 60 percent of the total
number of people with advanced degrees. In other sciences,
particularly military and social sciences, the training of
people for advanced degrees has not been on as significant a
scale. But meanwhile the need for these specialists is
great, especially for doctors of sciences. This is obvious
from the following calculation. For example, in order for
chairs in operational-tactical disciplines to be headed by
people with advanced degrees of the highest level of
qualification (a requirement of a higher school), at least
120 doctors of military sciences are needed. However, we
have only 61, and they are concentrated in three or four
academies. In chairs of social disciplines the need for
doctors of sciences is even more clear-cut. If we consider
only the chairs of social sciences in military academies and
higher military schools with a 5-year training program,
about 80 doctors of philosophical, economic, and historical
sciences would be needed. However, there are only 18, of
whom ten are with the V. I. Lenin Military-Political
Academy. A similar gap is to be seen in the military
historical and pedagogical sciences.
The training of people with advanced degrees in the
sciences indicated, especially doctors of sciences, has been
lagging primarily because the matter is not receiving proper
attention in the VVUZ and NIU, while in certain places it
has been allowed to drift. And often the initiative in
choosing the topic for the dissertation is left to the
aspirants (soiskatel) themselves. In addition, the choice
of research topics and the selection of doctoral candidates
has become highly complex. As a result, candidates of
military sciences are reluctant to do their doctoral disser-
tations on a military topic. The elimination of these
defects, and also the implementation of sound planning, will
help the VVUZ and the NIU improve the training of people for
advanced degrees in military sciences, military historical
sciences, philosophical sciences, and other sciences. 50X1-HUM
In the fourth place, the percentage of people with
advanced degrees who have reached pension age is still high.
As of 1 January of this year, 39.7 percent of all doctors of
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50X1-HUM
sciences and 15.6 percent of all candidates of sciences were
over 50. With the implementation of the Law on Universal
Military Service, we must assume that this percentage will
decrease from year to year.
However, the age pattern among holders of advanced
degrees will continue to affect the supply of scientific and
scientific-pedagogic personnel of VVUZ and NIU in the
future. Also, since, in contrast to civilian higher
educational institutions and NIU, where degrees are earned
at a younger age (because they receive their higher educa-
tion earlier) and people work until they are well up in age,
military-scientific personnel are governed by stricter age
qualifications.
Average statistical data show that in the army people
most often become candidates of sciences at about the age of
40--in military and social sciences between 42 and 45--and
doctors of sciences between 45 and 53. But while a holder
of an advanced degree of this age could work for a rela-
tively long period in civilian life, in the armed forces his
productivity is limited in time.
One way to lower the average age of scientific-
pedagogic personnel would be to start officers in graduate
work immediately upon graduation from the VVUZ, and also by
planning the training of scientists by means of aspirant
work (soiskatelstvo). The new statute dealing with the
training of scientific and scientific-pedagogic personnel,
contained in Order No. 110 of 1969 of the Minister of
Defense, should facilitate this process.
The training of scientific-pedagogic personnel in the
Ministry of Defense is conducted along two lines: graduate
work (civilian graduate work), both on-campus and by 50X1-HUM
correspondence, and aspirant work.
The most effective form of training to produce young
holders of advanced degrees (candidates of sciences) is on-
campus graduate work, which can produce up to 450 candidates
of sciences a year. In 1970 assignment-oriented graduate
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50X1-HUM
work, a variety of on-campus graduate work, will be
organizationally formalized. It is designed to train
scientific and scientific-pedagogic personnel for more
remote VVUZ and those that have been newly created, which
are not training these personnel on their own.
The graduate work programs of the oldest military
academies (F. E. Dzerzhinskiy, A. F. Mozhayskiy, N. Ye.
Zhukovskiy, the Naval Academy, and certain others) have all
the capabilities required to become assignment-oriented (by
50 percent) and to assume the training of candidates of
sciences for related VVUZ.
A weak point in on-campus graduate work is its
scattering among VVUZ unable to provide qualified direction.
For example, eight higher naval schools have 6 to 10
graduate students each, but only two schools (M. V. Frunze
and F. E. Dzerzhinskiy) are able to provide them with
scientific directors. At the same time, the Naval Academy,
with great capabilities in this area (50 doctors of sciences
work there), trains graduate students only for its own use.
The splitting up of graduate work in the branches of
the armed forces cannot be considered justified or rational
either from the point of view of scientific direction or the
organization of the graduate student training itself. It
also contradicts the trends in the training of scientific
personnel in the country, in accordance with which the
leading higher educational institutions of the various
ministries have large graduate work programs (400-600
people), and where special departments, in addition to the
chairs, are involved in the training.
On the whole the qualified scientific-pedagogic
personnel trained by higher educational institution
on-campus graduate work are, in the opinions expressed by
the chairs and the administration of the higher educational
institutions, the best portion of the professorial-teaching
staff. The leading role is unquestionably played by the 50X1-HUM
academies, where more than 70 percent of all graduate
students do their work. To accomplish this, they have
adequately qualified direction (67 percent of all doctors of
sciences are concentrated in the academies), and a good
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50X1-HUM
experimental and materiel base. It is precisely for this
reason that the academies should become the basic centers of
the assignment-oriented training of scientific-pedagogic
personnel for all related higher schools. Here it is
necessary, first of all, to put an end to the practice of
scattering graduate work among VVUZs unable to provide
qualified direction, and the commanding officers to whom the
VVUZ and NIU are subordinated must take control over the
distribution of young students who are finishing up their
graduate work.
Graduate work by correspondence is not as effective as
it should be, and is not fully justifying its purpose. In
theory it is supposed to produce 150 candidates of sciences
a year. However, in reality about 30 to 40 defend their
dissertations. As a rule, 50 percent of the graduate
students are from the troops and no increase in the number
of teachers for the VVUZ normally results from it. There-
fore, the VVUZ have no interest in it. For this reason, it
continually operates below capacity (by 20 to 30 percent),
holds no competitive examination for admission, and as a
result the number of those who successfully complete it for
various VVUZ varies between 20 and 30 percent and is
sometimes lower. Thus in the Higher Engineering-Technical
Red Banner School in Leningrad, the latest figures show the
output efficiency in the graduate work correspondence
program running at only 4 percent. The example of the F. E.
Dzerzhinskiy Military Engineering Academy shows how
irresponsibly certain VVUZ approach the problem of filling
the graduate work correspondence program: of the 80
graduate students admitted in 1965-66, only 12 have so far
successfully defended their dissertations and 49 were
dismissed during the course of their studies.
Such a low output by the graduate work correspondence
program is due first of all to the absence of interest in it
on the part of the VVUZs, weak control over the selection of
candidates, the assignment of inadequately qualified
scientific directors, and difficulties in organizing the
experiment. Also of great importance is the fact that in
the VVUZ no real communications h?vP hPPn stab i She W1j50X1 HUM
the troops and institutions where the graduate students
work, and the activity of the graduate work correspondence
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program is not properly controlled. Eliminating the lack of
interest in the graduate work correspondence program on
the part of the VVUZ would undoubtedly raise the quality of
the training of graduate work correspondence students. It
would also be advisable to curtail some graduate work
programs that chronically operate below capacity.
A completely different situation prevails in the
graduate work correspondence program in scientific-research
institutes. There it enjoys great popularity. As a rule,
50 to 60 percent of the graduate students complete the
program on schedule (with the defense of the dissertations),
with the rest somewhat later. The effectiveness of the
graduate work correspondence program in the NIU is due to
the fact that it is made up primarily of scientific workers
in the NIU itself, and the dissertation topics are part of
planned scientific-research work being done by these workers
in the course of their main work. And the privileges which
military graduate work correspondence students receive by
law are an added stimulus.
As irant work is the most widespread form of training
se' -pedagogic personnel usedby hP n~r~~ and NTt,3
outside the graduate work program. Each year it produces
about 60 percent of the candidates of sciences and almost
100 percent of the doctors of sciences. Aspirants are the
most successful in defending their dissertations, more
experienced compared to graduate students, most often come
up with their topics on their own initiative, and achieve
great results in research.
But this form of training scientific-pedagogic
personnel has not received sufficient attention until
recently. In many VVUZ the aspirants remained in the
background, were listed for years in the training plans for
scientific-pedagogic personnel, and shifted from one to the
other. Scientific directors were not allocated to them (an
exception was made only for outside aspirants), not all had
the benefit of a study leave (tvorcheskiy otpusk), and quite
a few aspirants among teachers and scientific workers were
listed in the plans only in case a claim should be put in
for them by the VVUZ or NIU command. 50X1-HUM
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Careful planning of aspirant work was not actually done
anywhere before; long-term or annual plans were, as a rule,
either understated or overstated. For example, the Military
Academy of Rear Services and Transportation planned to turn
out 57 doctors of sciences for the 5-year period between
1968 and 1972. However, seeing that they had greatly
overreached themselves, they cut the figure to 25, and then
it too proved to be unrealistic. Often the fields of the
topics of the dissertations do not coincide with the
specialization of scientific-pedagogic orientation of the
VVUZ. For example, in the M. V. Frunze Higher Naval School,
of 11 doctors of sciences listed in the plans only one was
in naval sciences.
Aspirant work is essentially the only form of training
the most highly qualified holders of advanced degrees--
doctors of sciences. Each year an average of 70 to 80
people become doctors of sciences. This is not a small
number, but certain difficulties exist in distributing them
properly among the branches of sciences. (As has already
been mentioned, not enough doctors of sciences are being
produced in military and social specialties.) The planned
training of doctors of sciences would be greatly enhanced by
correct use of the positions of senior scientific workers
introduced into the VVUZ by directive of the General Staff
D-31, dated 30 June 1969. The awarding to the Ministry of
Defense of 65 positions provides the opportunity, in
accordance with the conditions of assigning doctoral
candidates to them, to have 30 doctors of sciences annually
in the branches of sciences we need.
In order to raise the role of aspirant work and improve
the direction of this form of training people for advanced
degrees in accordance with Order No. 110 (1969) of the
Minister of Defense, the planned training of scientific and
scientific-pedagogic personnel in the VVUZ and NIU through
aspirant work is being introduced; for this, the commanders-
in-chief and the appropriate commanding officers to which
the VVUZ and NIU are subordinated, will determine the number
of aspirants and attach them to the VVU2 and NIU for a
period of five years, in order for them to pass their 50X1 HUM
candidate examinations and work on their dissertations.
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One of the most important factors in the training of
people for advanced degrees is the quality of the disser-
tation. This is understandable. For the dissertation is
the culmination of all the research done by the graduate
student and the aspirant and the main indicator of the
capacity of the young candidate for an advanced degree for
scientific thought. This is why the requirements of the
dissertation are so extremely rigorous: the content must be
timely and useful, and the method of research and
generalization of facts must be highly scientific work.
However, along with good, high-quality work containing
profound theoretical generalizations and practical recom-
mendations, we also come across poor research that does not
measure up to scientific requirements for research. There
are cases where in dissertations topics are elaborated on
that present nothing of significant interest either for
science or for practical use or, even worse, that "discover"
something that was already discovered long ago. Nor have we
completely eliminated from the practice of training
scientific-pedagogic personnel such phenomena as: a
dissertation is prepared for dissertation's sake--in order
to obtain a candidate of sciences degree; secondary and
useless problems are solved; and time and government
resources are wasted.
Can
practical
example,
we expect great scientific results, let alone
significance, from such a dissertation as, for
"The Military-Theoretical Views of Clausewitz"
(a
doctoral
dissertation)?
Often we come across topics of doctoral dissertations
devoted to isolated particular matters which by content and
significance cannot be the basis for aspiring to a degree of
doctor of sciences. For example, "Combat Operations of
Troops in the Arctic", "Problems of Combat Against Tanks",
"The Use of Training Equipment in the System of Combat
Training of Pilots", and others.
Then, on the other hand, there are cases where the
topics of candidate dissertations are too broad and can be
worked out only by an experienced holder of an advanced 50X1-HUM
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degree or even a scientific collective (specifically, "Rear
Support of Troops in Local Wars").
However, the primary evil causing a lowering of the
quality of scientific works is the shallowness of the
topics. This literally corrodes some lines of scientific
work. Such dissertations don't need defending but extensive
criticism.
It cannot be said that our VVUZ and NIU are not
striving for relevant, high-quality topics for disser-
tations, as well as for useful, truly scientific, research.
The effort is being made and is bringing positive results.
A glance at the future dissertation topics (problems) at the
M. V. Frunze Military Academy has left a good impression.
There is no doubt as to their relevance. They are worked
out in good time in the chairs and are periodically
corrected and discussed in the council of the academy.
Therefore, they reflect the very latest problems raised by
military science and by the actual work of building the
armed forces.
It is particularly important that future dissertation
topics be worked out by the main staffs of the branches of
the armed forces, by the staffs of commanders and chiefs of
arms of the branches, and by the main and central direc-
torates for all VVUZ and NIU under their jurisdiction.
Thus, duplication is eliminated and scientific research
proceeds on its proper course.
Unfortunately, future topics are not being worked out
everywhere at such a level. Moreover there are cases where
the topics and detailed plans for doctoral dissertations are
not approved by the commanding officers who are supposed to
do so. All this unquestionably sets the stage for the
appearance of useless topics, not relevant to the problems
of the modern development of science nor to the practical
conduct of military affairs. 50X1-HUM
The final stage in the training of scientific and
scientific-pedagogical personnel is, of course, the defense
of the dissertation. Here it is recognized that the main
role is played by the academic councils of the WUZ and NIU.
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Page 17 of 20 Pages
In accepting dissertations (published works, discoveries and
inventions) for defense, they thereby make an appraisal of
the results of scientific research and give young candidates
for an advanced degree a permit to enter the field of
science.
At the present time all military academies, as well as
many higher schools with a 5-year training program and
scientific-research institutes, have academic councils. As
of today there are 109 councils in all, including 53
councils of VVUZ and NIU and 39 of departments and sections.
Last year, in accordance with Order No. 324 of 1968 of
the Minister of Defense, the council compositions and the
lists of the specializations for which the councils of the
academies were authorized to hear defenses of dissertations
were reexamined. Now the overwhelming majority of the
councils are staffed in strict accordance with the
requirements of the "Instructions on the Procedure for
Awarding Advanced Degrees and Conferring Academic Ranks".
For the examination of dissertations in individual
disciplines (specializations) of sciences, 17 specialized
councils were set up.
But not everything has been done as yet. The problem
is to complete the work begun in reexamining the list of
specializations of the councils, and also to proceed more
boldly in shifting to specialized councils. Some councils
continue to retain too broad a range of specializations,
others (for example, the council of the R. Ya. Malinovskiy
Military Academy for Armored Troops), accept, in addition,
dissertations in various sciences: both military and
technical. In councils of such composition difficulties in
providing a quorum of specialists inevitably arise, which,
in the final analysis, lead to a reduction in the
rigorousness and the requirements for quality in the
scientific research under examination.
In the work of many councils, various kinds of laxity
have been tolerated, both in judging the dissertation topics
and during the actual defense of the dissertations them-
selves. Often, in place of a determination of scienta50X'1-HuM
and practical significance of a work, how well it lends
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Page 18 of 20 Pages
itself to a dissertation is made the basis, i.e., its
potential for getting a sought-after advanced degree after
one has worked out the particular topic. The nomination of
the official opponents at the dissertation, and the ad-
dresses for the distribution of the synopsis of the
dissertation are often suggested by the aspirants them-
selves. The defense of dissertations in most cases is not
accompanied by any scientific discussion. Exchanges of
opinions are uncommon. For example, in the Air Defense
(PVO) Military Command Academy, during the two-year period
1967-68, at twelve dissertation defenses not a single
aspirant challenged any erroneous judgments made by their
opponents or other speakers. The practice of compromise
between the aspirant and the opponents, which has
established itself in the work of the academy council,
indicates the lack of principle in the defense, and does not
benefit the author of the dissertation, the council, or
military science as a whole.
It should be pointed out that this kind of opposition
to a dissertation is typical not only of the Air Defense
Military Command Academy, but also is to be seen in the
councils of other VVUZ. There are quite a number of
"kindhearted" opponents who are always ready to give a
favorable critique, and extol the work and the author of the
dissertation at the same time.
In addition, many procedures are violated in the work
of the councils. For example, at the meeting of the council
of the M. V. Frunze Military Academy on 12 June 1969,
chaired by General-Leytenant V. I. Tarasov, Doctor of
Military Sciences, P. G. Myasoyedov and Doctor of Technical
Sciences I. Ya. Ostratenko were absent. However, they were
listed on the roster as having attended and having partici-
pated in the "voting". It turns out that both their
signatures and the voting ballots had been collected by the
secretary the evening before.
There continue to be cases where needed specialists
among council members are absent, as well as outside members
of the council, i. e., scientists and specialists from other
organizations and institutions. 50X1-HUM
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All these violations, naturally, lead to laxity on the
part of the council toward the authors of the dissertations,
and also to a lowering of the quality of scientific
research.
The situation that has developed in the training of
scientific and scientific-pedagogic personnel in our VVUZ
and NIU permits us to draw the following conclusions.
In the first place, higher military educational
institutions (military academies and higher military schools
with a 5-year training program), as well as scientific-
research institutions, have on hand a sufficient number of
people with advanced degrees to permit successful
scientific-pedagogic and research work, and to maintain
military science on a level compatible with modern
requirements and to develop it along all lines. It is
necessary to raise the role and responsibility of the
councils in the approval of dissertation topics, in
accepting a dissertation for defense, and in the course of
the defense itself. The council must also exercise greater
care in the approval of official opponents and an opponent
organization.
Higher military schools with a 4-year training program
have an inadequate number of people with advanced degrees.
Most of these VVUZ are new and located in remote areas at a
considerable distance from large scientific centers, and
they will not be able in the near future to solve the prob-
lem of training scientific-pedagogic personnel on their own.
They will need help in this.
In the second place according to presently established
tradition, the capability for training 700 to 800 candidates
of sciences and up to 70 doctors of ciences a year should
be considered sufficient not only to replace the losses of
people with advanced degrees but also to increase the
overall number by 10 to 15 percent annually.
50X1-HUM
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The effect of the new Law on Universal Military Service
is creating temporary difficulties for the VVUZ, since for
the next two or three years they will have to release to the
reserve, on the basis of age, a somewhat greater than usual
number of experienced people with advanced degrees, espe-
cially doctors of sciences. However, with correct organiza-
tion of the training of scientific and scientific-pedagogic
personnel, and advantageous use of all capabilities in the
VVUZ and NIU, this problem should not affect the quality of
the training process or the development of military science.
In the third place, in order to further improve the
training of scientific and scientific-pedagogic personnel,
and to eliminate existing defects, order No. 110 (1969) of
the Minister of Defense puts into effect a new statute
concerning the training of scientific-pedagogic personnel in
the ministry of Defense of the USSR. It takes into account
all of the most important aspects of the training of
scientific-pedagogic personnel and lays foundations for the
elimination of many of the shortcomings and shady aspects
mentioned above which still occur.
Unfortunately, this undertaking has not been properly
understood in the branches of the armed forces and in the
arms of the branches. The solution of this problem requires
urgent and careful planning of measures for training
scientific personnel in the branches of the armed forces and
arms of the branches, a careful and well thought-out
approach on the part of the VVUZ, NIU, and chairs, and
skilful coordination on the part of the Chief Directorate of
Military Educational Institutions.
The full text of this report and of others in this
series is stored on magnetic tape for computer text
searching in CIA/CRS/DSB. For access call Extension 5434 and
ask for the Yogi File. 50X1-HUM
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