Strengthening Soviet Defense Capability, 1920s–1930s: Mobilization Arrangements in Kalmykia

Introduction. The article introduces newly discovered documents from Kalmykia’s National Archive and the State Archive of Russia (supplemented with other historical sources) to continue insights into pre-army training and conscription among the Kalmyks from the perspective of strengthening Soviet defense capability in pre-war years. Goals. The paper seeks to analyze mobilization arrangements to have aimed at increasing the country’s defense potentials on the basis of a mixed army recruitment system (professional and territorial principles) — in the period prior to the transition to a regular commissioned staff system. Results. The work shows the mid-1930s witnessed a completion of the military reforms to have introduced a mixed army recruitment system. Over two thousand ethnic Kalmyks were conscripted into the Red Army to undergo military, political, physical training — and become professional soldiers qualified enough to defend Motherland. Somewhat seven thousand enlistment-age residents of Kalmykia received paramilitary training (foundations of military science, weapons handling) and joined the country’s military manpower pool. Still, by the mid-1930s, the Soviet Government faced a severe necessity to take additional measures to ensure national security. First of all, they needed a regular professional army with increased numbers of forces, high efficiency standards, combat and mobilization readiness, officers with expertise in new weapons and contemporary combat tactics. That required another radical military reform — a transition from the mixed professional-militia system to the one based on compulsory military service of Soviet citizens. 

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