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Further Reading

General Staff

Organizational changes in 2004 appear to have subordinated these directorates to the Ministry of Defense, relegating the General Staff to a studies and analysis function. Subsequent to this re-organization, much of the description of the organization and function of the General Staff's directorates applies to those same directorates as they function under the Minister of Defense.

The Main Directorate of the General Staff was created in Russia in 1863. In 1865 this directorate became part of the Main Staff that was subordinate to the Defense Minister. In 1905, after the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, Nicholas II, attempting to restructure the military command system on the German model, established the position of Chief of the General Staff. Originally the Chief of the General Staff reported directly to the czar and enjoyed equal rights with the Minister of Defense. For this reason the Main Directorate of the General Staff was pulled out of the structure of the Main Staff that reported to the Defense Minister and was made subordinate to the Chief of the General Staff.

By the time of the Great Patriotic War the Soviet General Staff had eight directorates: operational; intelligence; organizational; military reports; mobilization; logistics; recruitment; and, military-topographical. It also had three departments: fortified areas; military-historical; and, personnel. In the war years the functions of the General Staff expanded significantly, particularly in issues of military production.

The General Staff was a major link in the centralization of the Russian national command authority. It provided staff support and acted as the executive agency for the Supreme High Command. The forces in various theaters reported through it to the Supreme High Command and the Supreme CINC. Contrary to the United States tradition of military authority derived strictly from the civilian sector, Russian General Staff officers exercised command authority in their own right.

The tasks and functions of the Russian General Staff were defined in the 11 November 1998 publication of President Boris Yeltsin's Decree No. 1357, "Issues of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation," together with the "General Staff of the Armed Forces Rules and Regulations"

The Chief of the General Staff held much more substantive levers in the system of military command than did the Defense Minister. It was namely the General Staff that was charged with: "ensuring the development of the command system of the Armed Forces" (Part III, Section 6, Paragraph 13); planning and organizing activity for developing the command structure and the country's communications system, taking defense needs into account; using automated command systems; organizing communication and coordination with other troops, military units and bodies; managing the development of communications systems and automated command systems within the Armed Forces (Para. 14); carrying out reconnaissance activities in the interests of defense and security (Para. 17); developing and carrying out measures related to maintaining information security, command and control, and communications, as well as monitoring their performance (Para. 31), and so forth.

The General Staff of the armed forces of the Russian Federation was the central organ of the Arms Forces Administration and the basic organ of operational management of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, which achieved coordination the activities of organs and troops of the federal boundary service of the Russian Federation, internal troops of the RF Ministry of Internal Affairs, railroad troops of the Russian Federation, troops of the Federal Agency for Government Communications and Information with the President of the Russian Federation, troops of civil defense, technical-engineering and roadbuilding military formations of the Russian Federation, Russian Federal Foreign Intelligence Service, organs of the federal security service, federal organs of government connection and information, federal organs of state protection, federal organ of the guarantee of mobilization preparation of the organs of the power of the state of the Russian Federation on the accomplishment of mission in the region of defense.