Red Militarism

Red Militarism, a term coined in the early years of Soviet Russia during the debate about the future organization of armed force in a socialist society, became a renewed charge after the USSR invasion into Afghanistan at the end of 1979. This article aims to give an overview of the debate about Red Militarism from the beginnings up to most recent writings. In the USSR, the debate terminated when Trotsky left the country, and was briefly revived in the thirties when Stalin used the issue to denounce and purge the Red Army. The theoretical underpinnings of this debate are evaluated and used to consider more recent manifestations of Red Militarism. The ideological split between the Communist Parties of the Soviet Union and China has led, inter alia, to mutual accusations of militarism. The Soviet charges of 'Social Militarism' in China are scrutinized in order to understand how Soviet analysts of today conceptualize and measure Red Militarism. The conclusion is that definitions of this kind are also applicable to the Soviet Union itself. Leftist Juntas in a number of Third World countries are also examined by a variety of authors with respect to the question whether their proclaimed socialism fits into any attitude which ought to be labelled militarism. The conclusions suggested by more elaborated studies are that the militarism phenomenon is also in its socialist variation a more coherent development than usually imagined. In the more advanced systems of 'real socialism', notably the USSR, the explanation for the rise of the phenomenon is heavily linked with the assessment of these states being ruled by bureaucratic elites. According to the specifics of this interpretation, the question about the expansionist and imperialist nature of Red Militarism is answered in a negative way.