The Basic Principles of Operational Art and Tactics: A Soviet View

The Basic Principles of Operational Art and Tactics was translated and published under the auspices of the United States Air Force. The original Russian edition was published by the Military Publishing House of the Ministry of Defense in the USSR.

According to Soviet military theorists, operational art and tactics are two of the three components of military art. The third is strategy. Operational art is the connecting link between strategy and tactics, and is called on to work out the theory and practice of preparing and conducting contemporary operations. This book, focusing on operational art and tactics, does not deal with either doctrine, which represents the official Soviet view of the nature of a future war, or strategy, since the most important aspect of strategy is policy. In U.S. terms the book treats operations, tactics, laws of war and laws of armed conflict.

The author, Colonel Vasiliy Yefisovich Savkin, has served on the faculty of the Frunze Military Academy. As a candidate of Military Science he has written several military affairs articles and authored at least two earlier books.