Editing Military doctrine (section)

===Russia and the Soviet Union===
{{Further|Military doctrine of Russia}}
The Soviet meaning of military doctrine was very different from U.S. military usage of the term. Soviet Minister of Defence Marshal [[Andrei Grechko]] defined it in 1975 as "a system of views on the nature of war and methods of waging it, and on the preparation of the country and army for war, officially adopted in a given state and its armed forces".{{cn|date=February 2023}}

In Soviet times, theorists emphasised both the political and "military-technical" sides of military doctrine, while from the Soviet point of view, Westerners ignored the political side. However, the political side of Soviet military doctrine, Western commentators Harriet F Scott and William Scott said, "best explained Soviet moves in the international arena".<ref>Scott and Scott, 1979, pp. 37, 59</ref>

Soviet (and contemporary Russian) doctrine emphasizes [[Combined arms|combined-arms]] warfare as well as [[Operation (military)|operational]] warfare. It emphasizes the initiation of military hostilities at a time, date, and location of its choosing on terms of its choosing and the extensive preparation of the battlespace for operations.{{cn|date=February 2023}}

Former Soviet/Russian doctrine sacrifices tactical flexibility and adaptability for strategic and operational flexibility and adaptability; tactical personnel are trained as relatively inflexible executors of specific, detailed orders, while the operational-strategic level of Russian military doctrine is where most innovation takes place.{{cn|date=February 2023}}

The Soviet response to problems of nuclear strategy began with classified publications. However, by 1962, with the publication in the [[Marshal of the Soviet Union]] [[Vasily Sokolovsky]]'s volume, ''Military Strategy'', the Soviets laid out their officially endorsed thoughts on the matter, and their ideas on how to cope with nuclear conflict.{{vague|date=February 2012}}