On the General's Bass Notes

Abstract

Of all the consequences of the collapse of the Soviet empire, the most unpleasant of course is the disintegration of the army. In literally an instant, it became superfluous as regards the execution of the only function of any army, namely, defending the country, for the simple reason that the state that had created it had sunk into oblivion. Demoralized, deprived of the very purpose of its existence, and incapable even of safeguarding the weapons entrusted to it, it is steadily turning into a free arsenal, where localists and bandit formations, pure and simple, are helping themselves.