Russian “Principles of Victory in Combat” and MCDP-1 Warfighting

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In 2018, Russia’s most senior military officers published a short manual entitled, The Principles of Victory in Combat (Osnovy pobedy v boiu).2 The manual offered guidance to battlefield commanders on the key ideas that should shape their thinking and actions in combat. The authors – the Chief of the General Staff, the Chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff, the Deputy Chief of the General Staff, and the head of the expert-analytic department of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff – discuss more than a dozen principles that are critical for achieving tactical and operational success in modern warfare. The impetus for this manual arose from lessons learned in the Syrian conflict, which, if applied appropriately, could remedy the fact that “[Russian] exercises conducted in the military districts revealed a number of problematic issues in the training of commanders and staffs at the tactical level”. In the manual, Russia’s top generals were concerned that many Russian commanders rely on classical templates ignoring situational factors, take actions that are straightforward and predictable, are too slow and passive for modern enemies, and avoid risk in decision making.