OSR Contribution to NIE 11-14-68, Soviet and East European General Purpose Forces, CIA/DI/OSR, October 1968.

OP F4R ET
of Training Command Personnel and of Increasing
the Combat Readiness of Border Military District
Staffs," as follows:
The demand for full mobilization of
various large units within the shortest
time is especially important for the
formation of border military districts,
because the speed of buildup of first-
echelon troop strength, consisting of a
limited number of divisions of increased
combat readiness, will depend on the period
required for fully mobilizing large units
and units of reduced strength, from which,
as a rule, the second echelons and re-
serves of armies will be created.
and
Thus, in the peacetime composition
of troops of a military district there
are line divisions (of increased combat
readiness) and divisions of reduced
strength. The field command of an army,
army units, and Front units are also kept
at reduced strength.
In the book Military Strategy, General
Sokolovskiy identified three categories in terms of
strength but associated only two categories with
initial operations:
Some of the ground force units and
formations designated to conduct initial
operations and stationed in the border
district ...are maintained in peacetime
at a strength adequate to permit the
execution of the main tasks of the initial
period of the war. Another portion of these
forces has a short mobilization period,
enabling them to participate in the initial
operations; and finally, a certain portion
is kept at reduced strength in peacetime."
Most of the Soviet writings, when
taken alone, are ambiguous in some particulars. For
example, the terms "cadre" and "reduced strength"
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