Warsaw Pact Journal Digital Archive

Unique Cold War-era Soviet military journal.

Coalition strategy and operations are the main subject of the unique, highly secret and Soviet-led military-theoretical journal Informatsionnyi sbornik shtaba obedinennykh vooruzhennykh sil gosudarstv-uchastnikov Varshavskogo dogovora, known colloquially as “ShOVS” (Информационный сборник штаба объединенных вооруженных сил государств-участников Варшавского договора, Information Herald of the Staff of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact Member-States). Throughout its existence this publication played a major role in coordinating military doctrine, strategy and operational art among the Warsaw Pact members. During this time, it was virtually the only publication in which officers from all Pact countries actively contributed their analyses and essays. Of special interest to researchers and military historians is the history of military planning and operations, particularly in a coalition setting, since it provides important insights into the military culture and education of these countries.

This Russian-language journal was published biannually during the last two decades of the Warsaw Pact’s existence. It was edited by concurrent Warsaw Pact Chiefs of Staff Generals S.M. Shtemenko (1970–1976), A.I. Gribkov (1976–1989) and V.N. Lobov, until it ceased publication in 1990 with the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact itself.

The complete archive of Informatsionnyi sbornik contains unique and revealing articles, written by high-ranking Warsaw Pact officers on such topics as:

• Nuclear and Missile Weapons
• Procurement and Use of New Technologies
• Arms Control and War Prevention
• Joint Operational/Tactical Training and Exercises
• Analysis of Foreign Military Developments
• Problems of Command and Control, Logistics and Planning

The Warsaw Pact Journal Digital Archive contains the complete run of Informatsionnyi sbornik, comprising all 40 issues and over 1,000 articles. The archive features full page-level digitization and complete original graphics. The archive has searchable text, and is cross-searchable with numerous other Infoteka digital resources.