Chapter 228 Marshal Ogarkov

Frunze Military Academy, the cradle of senior Soviet officers.

This is a well-known military academy, which is known as the "Four Major Military Academies" in the world along with the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the UK, the Military Academy at West Point in the United States, and the Ecole Military Saint-Cyr in France. In the early days of its establishment, it trained talented commanders such as P.E. Debenko, E.I. Kovtyuk, B.D. Kovshov, I.C. Kudyakov, I.F. Fedko, B.I. Chapayev and others.

Now, most of the senior commanders of the Soviet Army are alumni here. At the same time, many senior generals are willing to come back here to teach, and they take it as an honor.

Surrounded by pine and cypress trees, the large auditorium in the center of the college is several decades old, with mottled walls. Inside the auditorium, students are sitting upright, listening to the explanation of a teacher in the front.

The teacher had hair combed back and slightly curled, a broad face, and a high nose, with obvious Slavic features.

The auditorium was packed with people, and there were even people standing in the back. Not only students from the academy, but also many faculty members were listening to the lecture.

The reason is simple: the person who is giving a speech in front is wearing the epaulettes of a marshal!

In the Soviet Union, marshals were rare, and there were even fewer marshals who could come to the Frunze Military Academy to give lectures. Therefore, most of the students and teachers in the academy, and even the academy leaders, came here to listen to the lectures as long as they did not have classes.

The Soviet marshal who was giving a speech was Nikolai Vasilyevich Ogarkov, who was promoted to marshal this year.

Born in 1917, this old Bolshevik joined the Soviet Army in 1938 and participated in World War II. During the Great Patriotic War, he served in the army. He served as the chief engineer of the regiment of the 17th Infantry Division when fighting in the Western Front. In 1941, he served as a senior engineer in the Engineering Department of the Karelian Front. Later, he served as the chief engineer of the 61st Brigade of the Marine Corps. In December 1942, he served as the deputy chief of staff of the 32nd Army Engineering Corps. In 1943, he served as the director of the Operations Department of the Front Engineering Corps. In May 1944, he served as the chief engineer of the 122nd Infantry Division. In November, he was transferred to the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts in the south with the troops. In the battles in the Arctic, Lake Balaton and Budapest, he was good at supporting the army's combat engineering work and showed profound knowledge of military engineering.

It can be seen that the main experience of this Soviet marshal was in logistics. After the war, he first served in the engineering corps of the Carpathian Military District, and then transferred to the Far East Army. After completing further studies at the Voroshilov General Staff Military Academy in 1959, he served as the commander of the 20th Guards Motorized Rifle Division in the German Group. In 1961, he served as the Chief of Staff of the Belarusian Military District, and in December 1965, he served as the Commander of the Volga Military District. In 1968, he served as the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces.

His greatest contribution at that time was to establish the Soviet Strategic Deception Bureau. He also managed and directed hundreds of military newspapers and periodicals such as Red Star, Soviet Union, Standard Bearer, and Weapons and Equipment. His mission was to deceive NATO, hiding what he had and publicizing what he hadn't.

In later generations, only Director Zhang could be compared with him.

Because of his various outstanding contributions, he became Deputy Minister of Defense and Chairman of the Technical Committee in 1974. In 1977, he served as First Deputy Minister of Defense and Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Army, and was promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union.

This is a man with a legendary experience. Although he has become a marshal and has reached the peak of his personal qualifications, he has begun to go downhill. Because of different opinions, he has been repeatedly ostracized.

"In the 1960s and 1970s, the U.S. military's E-2 early warning aircraft and other electronic warfare aircraft were put into use one after another. The use of these aircraft effectively provided air warning, and electronic jammers would also cause great trouble to the enemy. In March 1972, the U.S. military used 15 laser-guided bombs to blow up the Qinghua Bridge in Vietnam, which had not been hit by more than 700 aircraft and about 12,000 tons of bombs before." At this time, Marshal Ogarkov above was giving a speech to the future commanders of the Red Empire: "What does all this mean? New science and technology will bring about changes in our army!" "Just last year, American military theorist Tom Rona first proposed the concept of "information warfare." Ladies and gentlemen, does anyone know what information warfare is?" Ogarkov looked at the hundreds of students in the auditorium and the leaders in the front row. Now, the theory he proposed is the most novel.

The entire hall was silent.

As an academy for training future Soviet military commanders, various new theories are allowed here. However, most students and instructors still believe in the Soviet theory of great depth, which is the bible of the Soviet army.

Soviet military strategists formed this theory based on the experience of the First World War and the Civil War, emphasizing assault and pursuit while taking into account counterattack. This theory also guided the Soviet Union to victory in the Second World War. The Soviet Union had vast land and large mechanized troops, and this theory was very consistent with the Soviet reality.

Now, what about information warfare? What is information warfare? I'm afraid no one present knows.

Ogarkov looked at the people listening to the lecture with disappointment. He knew that there would still be many difficulties if he wanted to promote modern military theories and lead the latest trends in military thought.

The Soviet Union needs reform, not only in domestic politics and economy, but also in military! Only by seeing the advanced technology of the West and catching up can it avoid being left behind by the West! The Soviet army, seemingly huge, is actually lagging behind!

Just then, he saw a young officer below, raising his hand.

"Okay, comrade who raised his hand, please speak." Ogarkov was delighted.

"Information warfare is a struggle to seize and maintain information control. It also refers to a series of combat activities carried out by the hostile parties on the battlefield to gain the right to obtain, control and use information by exploiting and destroying the enemy's information system and protecting their own." The young officer said: "In combat, information is a crucial factor. For example, when we are engaged in a tank battle, if we know the precise location of each of our tanks and the location of the enemy's tanks, we can command the battle more conveniently, send target instructions to each tank, and strike the enemy more accurately, so that we can gain absolute initiative on the battlefield. This is the advantage of having information."