Was It The The Nazis Who Taught The Soviets All That There Is To Know About Counter Insurgency?

Soviet tanks in Budapest, Hungary in 1956. Radio Free Europe broadcasts encouraged the Hungarians to battle on in the false understanding that they would receive reinforcements from the West. Photo from Videofact.

Counterinsurgency: The Brutal But Effective Russian Approach -- Foreign Policy

I've spent the last several days at the Naval War College, which hosted a big summary conference on counterinsurgency practices.

One of the most interesting presentations was by Harvard's Mark Kramer, who took issue with the assertion made in the American military's counterinsurgency manual that each side in a COIN fight is vying to be perceived as legitimate by the population. The Russians, he said, in several campaigns both at home and aboard have strived not for legitimacy, but simply for control. And in each instance their operations were notably brutal but also quite effective.

Read more ....

My Comment: I think I can add a bit more to this discussion. During the Russian campaign in Afghanistan in the 1980s, my father (a former Soviet officer in the Second World War) remarked on numerous occasions that the Soviet approach towards counter insurgency in Afghanistan was all wrong.

Years later I asked him how did he know .... his answer was that he and other officers (during the Second World War) were educated on numerous occasions on how effective the Nazis (through their special SS units) were in anti-partisan operations and tactics (we call it coin today) against Soviet citizens in occupied territories. As Soviet officers they were taught that German 'coin' tactics were terribly effective, and that in the event of being cut off from the Soviet Army, they would .... as partisans .... must be made aware of what the Germans were capable of.

As he put it .... when he and his fellow soldiers started to liberate occupied territories, partisan units were far and few between. He quickly learned the reason why very quickly .... the SS were successful through torture, intelligence, informers, intimidation, murder, and wholesale slaughter of communities to subjugate and pacify the population. And as my father put it bluntly .... they were very pacified.

Learning from the best .... he believes that the Soviets then copied and started to use these same tactics against future rebellious populations and territories. What is worse, is that they taught other communist movements around the world these same tactics and procedures. This is probably one of the many reasons why the Communists were successful in crushing dissent in China, Indo-China, and Cuba.

On a side note, my father also remarked that at the beginning of the Indo-China war, the French Foreign legion had no difficulty in defeating the communists and supporters of Ho Chi Min. It was when Paris found out that much of the officer corp of the French Foreign Legion were ex SS German officers ..... the political scandal that then erupted resulted in all German officers being purged. A few months later, the slow and grinding road to defeat started for the French in Vietnam .... and the Americans 20 years later.

2nd Comment: Hmmm .... this posting has got me thinking. How far back in time does counter insurgency thinking and strategy goes .... the British? The Vikings? The Romans? I smell a good paper or book here.