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Building a Red Navy: communist activism and military authority in the Baltic Fleet, 1918-1940
Author(s)
Date Issued
2022-05
Date Available
2021-09-24T14:21:08Z
Abstract
This article examines the activities of the Soviet military-political organs in the Baltic Fleet. It shows that the web of party institutions transformed the Fleet into a space of political and social activism that had little to do with the strictly military aspects of government policy. Such activism was nevertheless unfailingly promoted even as it became clear that it compromised core elements of military efficiency such as discipline and well-defined chains of command. This argument has implications for our broader understanding of the nature of the Soviet state. It indicates that once the Bolsheviks’ revolutionary ideology had become institutionalised in the state via the ubiquitous presence of party organs, pragmatic retreats for organisational efficiency became exceptionally difficult to implement.
Sponsorship
European Commission
Type of Material
Journal Article
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Journal
Contemporary European History
Volume
31
Issue
2
Start Page
214
End Page
226
Language
English
Status of Item
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0960-7773
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
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