Early Soviet COIN Experience in Central Asia

[marct]

Hi Beelzebubalicious,

I skimmed through this paper at lunch and enjoyed it, especially given that I'm living in a former soviet republic (ukraine). Some interesting examples of social engineering. I'd like to see what Marc T has to say given his recent paper addressing the subject (10 questions).

Well, I just read it through and, if it were handed in for a social science course, I would give it a C+/B-. Where, I kept asking myself, is the freakin' data? Where is the model for social engineering? I don't really have a problem with descriptive papers, which is what this is, but if you want to talk about comparative effects of hard and soft power and their influences on social and cultural engineering, you really do need both a mode and data.

You can argue and poke holes into what the British and Americans have done, but I can't swallow this from what I understand of Soviet attitudes, beliefs and methods. From what I've heard and seen, it was a systematic effort to wipe clean the subject society and replace it with the communist system (that they could then control). It was done with extreme brutality and with every effective means. Frankly, I don't see a lot of parallels with the current American and British efforts.

Oh, the parallels are there but the relative scale is different. The focus on social engineering of an end state, along with the threat of hard power if that end state isn't "acceptable", is a key parallel - you could just replace "communism" with "democracy". The key differences, at least as I see it, are twofold. First, which the author notes, the Russians controlled the area before their civil war and were not about to give it up while Iraq and Afghanistan are not viewed (at least rhetorically) as part of "the West".

Second, and the author doesn't mention this, is that the Soviets were an insurgency with a highly developed political theory and pragmatics (cf. Lenin's military writings). During a fair amount of the time the paper covers, the civil war was still on, but there is no mention at all of any effects of campaigns by the legitimate government (i.e. the White Russians). Given the military campaigns underway and the importance of tha region as a transhipment point for White Russian troops, if find this more than somewhat disturbing.

Of course, from a Russian perspective, and I can't claim to understand this, it may appear that the Soviet occupation and counter-insurgency efforts were, in fact, just the Russian equivalents of other counter-insurgency efforts or occupations. It just doesn't work with me.

One thing about the Russian national character (and I usually don't like such generalizations, but this one actually fits), is that they have a deep seated cultural fear / hatred of "eastern / Islamic hordes" that goes back, at least, to the time of Gengis Khan (say, roughly, 1130 or so). The visciousness of their COIN efforts (or conquest, take your pick) stem, in part, from this fear.