T. Greer notes on Twitter that there's some things Ivan really, really wants kept under wraps. Nuclear missile codes? Nope. The Spetsnaz targeting maps? Wrong! Suppressed evidence of Vladimir Putin's rumored past as a Bolshoi ballerina? Wrong again! Rather, the Russian want to keep under wraps a 80+-year old article from an obscure Soviet military journal: "G. Isserson wrote "Fundamentals of Deep Operation" for the Red Army in 1934. It is so important to Russian mil that it is still classified!"
This is totally ridiculous. There is nothing about Deep Operations, Georgii Isserson, or Operational Art in general that David Glantz, Harold Orenstein, Chris Bellamy, Jacob Kipp, or John Erickson has not already memorized by heart. If I were a gambling man I'd wager that David Glantz brought back G. Isserson from the great beyond to autograph Glantz's personal copy of "Fundamentals of Deep Operation" and wrestle polar bears in Siberia.
On a more serious note, it appears from a cursory Google search that an unclassified copy of this article may be available in the open source in America---making the Russian attempt to hide it doubly hilarious.
What would be the purpose of keeping this article under wraps? While Americans will have easy access to it, the Russians will still undoubtedly have a harder time getting a copy.
Posted by: Laura Donovan | August 17, 2010 at 11:15 AM
This encapsulates it best: http://twitter.com/timothythompson/status/21414161767
Posted by: A.E. | August 17, 2010 at 03:12 PM
Reminds me of the Wikileaks debacle. US military personnel will be punished if they download the data onto their computers, but the general public can download it all they want.
Posted by: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=11811251 | August 18, 2010 at 04:12 AM
Well, at least the Rooskies have it worse heh heh
Posted by: A.E. | August 18, 2010 at 01:59 PM