The Soviet military concept of operational art and the associated theories such as 'war of annihilation', 'deep battle' deep operations', have fascinated Western observers for more than four decades. However, more often than not the Soviet government has frustrated Western onlookers by hiding their military-theoretical work behind a veil of secrecy. Here that veil is torn away to reveal these imaginative Soviet military theories in the words of those who created them in peacetime and applied them in war. This collection of texts has been taken from formerly classified material in the official Red Army General Staff journal 'Military Thought'. The results are two volumes of great scope based on archival evidence. They stand as a compulsory reference point for anyone with an interest in the operational endeavours of the Soviet Army from the 1920's onward.