1945-1955 - Training
Comments on the organizational concept of civil defense between 1945 and 1955 would be incomplete without some attention to the birth and rise of DOSAAF, the paramilitary organization with responsibility for Civil Defense training of the entire population. Paramilitary organizations had always handled Civil Defense training, beginning in 1927 with OSOAVIAKHIM. In September 1951, DOSAAF succeeded OSOAVIAKHIM as the "Volunteer Society for Cooperation with the Army, Air Force, and Navy" with Colonel General Vasiliy I. Kuznetsov as its head.
Kuznetsov's leadership of DOSAAF was uneventful and he was replaced in 1953 by Lt. Gen. Nikolay F. Gritchin, a former World War II antiaircraft artillery officer. This appointment caused various analysts to note that there may have been increasing emphasis on the cooperation of civil and air defense at this time because of Gritchin's background. In any event, Gritchin initiated a successful campaign to urge new KOMSOMOL recruits into DOSAAF and to integrate DOSAAF with the trade unions and their various enterprises. In July 1954, a plenary session of the Central Committee of DOSAAF was held, emphasizing its roles and calling for a sports competition which would measure such abilities as marksmanship, grenade throwing, and PVKho (antiair and antichemical defense) to be held the next month.
The PVKho section of DOSAAF retained the main responsibility for supervision of civil defense training, beginning with the study circles which originated prior to the formation of DOSAAF. Members of these circles who passed various civil defense examinations were awarded the badge of "Ready for Antiair and Antichemical Defense." In 1948, the stated goal of the mass training program was the preparation of 4 to 5 million persons a year to qualify for the badge. The Soviet press placed considerable emphasis on this program, evidenced in a Pravda item noting that in 1951, 21,434 persons from Tadzhik SSR were trained and received the badge and that the number of such trainees was growing "yearly by the hundreds of thousands."
These various reports made civil defense and DOSAAF progress look effective, at least on paper. The three civil defense manuals of 1952, in particular the "Handbook for Exercises," reaped praises of civil defense excellence on "heroic people contributing to Civil Defense during the Great Patriotic War" and to DOSAAF and its work. The contents of the manual included sections on means of attack against the rear and antiaircraft defense, protection against bombs and their consequences, protection against gases, and rules of conduct for the population in antiaircraft defense. However, the outlined procedures did not demonstrate that the Soviets had achieved any profundity in civil defense that could not be achieved in any other country subject to aerial attack. Surprisingly enough, they lacked any significant reference to atomic or thermonuclear warfare and its consequences, a matter which seemingly should have been assuming more importance as the Cold War was taking shape.
One of the few references to atomic weapons appeared in the Soviet press in 1947, before OSOAVIAKHIM was disbanded: "The present program of civil defense includes the training and protection of the population against atomic air raids. OSOAVIAKHIM aims only at the discipline of the people; the preparation of such defenses as 'insulation layers' is being left to the scientists. At present, sham maneuvers are held for those people in strategic areas who would have to be moved away rapidly, and personnel are being trained in the detection of radioactivity. The training is similar to that for chemical warfare."
Whether this statement indicated that the press was merely naive or was printing what it was authorized to print is unknown. As a propaganda move, it could have been intended to reassure the population regarding any knowledge they might possess of nuclear threat. The mention of "scientists" handling problems related to civil defense indicates that the Soviets may have been awaiting technological developments in shelter capabilities before either publicizing a problem they could not yet counter or making any massive changes in the existing system.
Guards Colonel General P. A. Belov became the new commander of DOSAAF in 1955 and perhaps initiated the first drive for better cooperation between the military and the civil defense organs when he stressed the need to use demobilized reserve officers and soldiers for leadership and instruction in areas of civil defense. Eventually, not reserve but high-ranking active duty officers became a part of the directorate. Various sources have mentioned that, after 1955, civil defense was endorsed by the Soviet leadership.
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