Morning Wallace !
Soviet Culture ? Now there's a good one

I need to make a trip to the Estonian archives anyway and will make some inquiries. I do however doubt there will be much RE Iran, but definitely a lot regarding both Soviet and German campaigns. Here's the link, but keep in mind the English version is still under development and may not, in content mirror the Russian and Estonian language sections.

http://www.eha.ee/english/english.htm

Speaking from experience in both Africa and now Estonia, CA teams spend a lot of time with their Psyop counterparts developing anything from basic local customs to deeply rooted cultural taste, moralities and yes, even local taboos. You often wonder, are we actually going to get something from all that ?

In a way we did.
Although the U.S. was not preparing for a war against Zaire, the information gathered 6 years prior, would strangely turn up later with a Delta team dispatched to the Embassy following the second civil war. One of the senior NCOs expressed appreciation for having just a little edge over his potential enemies.

Tom was a keen in his observations and estimates (it was his job). Cultural aspects in his reporting would eventually save lives across two borders. Not only U.S. Military lives, but various unwitting Disaster Groupies and Africans.

In sum, I doubt such limited cultural information from "multiple sources" would be sufficient for a Commander to plan his large-scale war strategies, but it would obviously be useful to those smaller operational units that cannot rely on the Cavalry when the sierra hits the fan.

Regards, Stan