MILITARY THOUGHT (USSR): THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SCREENING OF SPECIALISTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP10-00105R000201820001-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 22, 1976
• Content Type: MEMO

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
Next 2 Page(s) In Document Denied
Q
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
Intelligence Information Special Report 50X1-HUM
Page 3 of 12 Pages
50X1-HUM
DATE 22 April 1976
50X1-HUM
MILITARY THOU~'I' (USSR): The Psychological Screening
of Specialists
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
Page 4 of 12 Pages
The Psychological Screening of Specialists
Y
General-Leytenant of Tank Troops I. Petrov
The article "The Universal r~.ilitary Service Law and the r4anning of the
Armed Forces" by General-Leytenant A. Rudakov, published in the Collection
of Articles of the Journal ' ~litary Thou~htt~, No. 1 (83) for 19 ,raises
a question of national importance. It discusses the training of young
persons for military service and the further improvement of the fighting
efficiency of cadres and of all army and navy personnel. The correct
accomplishment of these tasks constitutes an important factor in ensuring a
high level of combat readiness and combat effectiveness in the Armed
Forces. In support of the author's belief that an exchange of opinions on
the questions raised is useful, let us focus on one of them: the problem of
the psychological screening of specialists.
Comrade Rudakov observes that only men with special command and
engineer training are able to control subunits that have complex equipment.
This is absolutely correct. At the same time, we would like to add that it
is also necessary to give both officers and the persons they command
appropriate psychological training.
It is generally known that psychological traits are not developed in
an instant. They evolve and develop, in essence, during all stages of a
person's life and activities under the formative influence of many factors
-- economic, political, social, ideological, etc. A youth who has been
drafted into the army already possesses definite traits, among them
psychological traits. hen determining the place of a young man in the
overall military structure it is highly necessary that these psychological
traits be weighed just as carefully as others. The workers of the military
commissariats, commanders, and political workers of the military units are
required to actively participate in psychological screening.
Military schools play a large role in developing the psychological
traits of servicemen. But are the scientifically based criteria of
psychological screening always used when admitting cadets? As is shown in
practice, not always. Meanwhile, an extended study of the graduates of the
schools and an analysis of the training of cadets and of the subsequent
service of graduates enable us to conclude that principally those youth;soxi-HUM
who were prepared for the choice of the officer profession not only by
their general education, but psychologically as well, successfully master
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
Page S of 12 Pases
50X1-HUM
the full program and become full-fledged commanders. Unfortunately, many
young men entering a school have an extremely superficial understanding of
their chosen profession and of the nature of the demands that are now made
of a career officer.* The following data corroborate this:
Indications
Number of graduating students
(as a percent of those questioned)
Understanding of present-day
year of 1964
year of 1965
professional military
activity:
a) more or less complete
9.0
16.2
b) far from complete,
fragmentary, in many
respects vague, lacking
sufficient awareness of
the specific nature of
the officer profession,
its difficulties and
demands
91.0
83.8
Total
100.0
100.0
*N. A. Shangin, The Psycholo ical Pre aration of Senior Students of
Secondary Schools for the n orme C oice ~ t e Pro esslon o 0 lcer ir.
the Soviet Armed Forces, ynopsis of thesis, Yaroslavl. 1969.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
Page 6 of 12 PaaPs
50X1-HUM
It is precisely insufficient moral and psychological readiness to
master a complex military profession, which entails overcoming many
obstacles, that as a rule gives rise to a ne ative attitude toward this
profession quite soon after entry into a hig er military e ucational
institution. Because youths who wish to become officers lack the deep,
inner motivation to dedicate themselves to their chosen work and
inadequately comprehend the consequences of the step they are taking, some
cadets become desirous of leaving the military school. A careful analysis
of such occurrences (although they are not frequent) shows that they
complicate and considerably impede the development of young command
personnel. Therefore, the psychological preparation of youths for
professional military activity constitutes one o e most imwortant
prerequisites to t e reliable replenishment of the officer corps under
present- ay con itions.
The article of General-Leytenant Rudakov brings to our attention the
manning of those troops i.n wTic-Ti service "entails increased emotional,
physical, and psychological burdens". It is pointed out that the desire to
serve with such troops in peacetime must be considered a manifestation of
great patriotism. The author recommends that these factors be taken into
consideration in manning.
The accuracy of this observation certainly is beyond doubt. However,
data from military psychology indicate that motivation, even when very
strong, is far from enough to ensure success in mastering any given
profession. A person who has expressed a desire to serve in a selected
branch of the Armed Forces or branch arm must possess the necessary
capabilities and specific psychological characteristics. This requirement
becomes especially urgent when service involves critical situations, where
psychological pressure is increased, and a person making a decision may,
out of inadequate psychological endurance, endanger his own personal safety
and materiel of considerable value.
One must also not fail to consider this factor, which directly affects
the combat readiness and combat effectiveness of a unit or a subunit. A
soldier deals with enormous forces of energy and speeds. This is true not
only of missiles, but also of conventional types of weapons, and calls for
fast reactions. For example, a one-eighth-second delay in the reaction of
a pilot can cause an aircraft to deviate from its course by S00 meters; if
a radar operator sends out data on the target after three or four fixes
(instead of one or two), the target will already be outside the zone -'SOxi-HUM
which it can be destroyed.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
Page 7 osoxi-HUMes
Many examples demonstrate that not only subjective desire but also the
objective capabilities of a person are important. Let us take the work of
an antitank guided missile operator. Although operator-commanders of combat
vehicles undergo the same theoretical and practical training in the
training subunits, they are not all equally equipped to carry out their
duties. Thus, in the interesting article by Lieutenant Colonel A.
Mittelman* it was established that 35 percent of the operator-commanders
who arrived in a unit, all of whom were motivated, were not able to cope
with their duties.
An operator usually carries out his combat task within 22 to 25
seconds. The time limit, the complex, fluid, and dangerous nature of the
situation, and the great responsibility creates an overload of a
nervous-emotional nature in him. There afters are cases of operators who,
after doing well in a training session, display confusion and an inability
to act in,a so-called stress situation during afield firing. This is
because they are handicapped by emotional instability, delayed reactions,
etc.
Comrade Mittelman correctly observes that in a number of antitank
guided missile training subuunits the necessary effort to detect these
traits in trainees is not made.
And this situation does not exist in these subunits alone. When I
participated in the psychological screening of applicants fora flight
school, I was a witness to psychological traumas, the ruin of the noblest
of plans. It was sometimes necessary to screen out persons who had firmly
resolved to become military pilots, but who did not possess the required
psychological traits. For example, applicant S, was eager to come to the
school, did excellently on his tests, and successfully passed the medical
board tests. Nevertheless, he was weak in some psychological traits that
are highly essential to a pilot. The psychological board wrote in its
description of S.: "Inadequate grounds for recommendation." However the
credentials board, taking into consideration the excellent evaluations and
the assertions of the applicant that he would be able to master the flying
profession, disregarded the findings of the psychologists. Within a year
cadet S, was dismissed for lack of flying proficiency, even though he had
good work habits and sound theoretical knowledge. Several other comrades
found themselves in a similar position. Prior to the introduction of
psychological screening, they constituted up to 15 percent of those in
aviation.
*Collection of Articles of the Journal '"~tilita Herald" No. 78 1968.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
Page 8 of 12 Paves
50X1-HUM
If in the future we take only the motivation of the applicant into
consideration, ignoring his capabilities and psychological characteristics,
we will inflict psychological trauma. upon many young patriots and we will
not ensure that our units and schools are filled with high-caliber
personnel.
Present-day military equipment makes much greater psychological
demands of a person, and substantially increases the burden on the
intellect, the emotions, and the will.
It is perfectly clear that unless soldiers have acquired great
moral-political and psychological endurance and possess emotional stability
and a strong will, we cannot count on success in a modern battle. The
level we have achieved in the means and methods of conducting combat
actions enhances the importance of the screening and distribution of
servicemen among the branches and branch arms, and forces us to take into
consideration the tasks of each formation, large unit, unit, and ship, and
to recognize the impact of the so-called "psychological factor".
Thus, the correct accomplishment of combat training tasks to a
considerable degree depends on the assessment of the psychological traits
of the men which makes it ossi e to train specialists within a shorter
erio o time, to re uce material expenditures, and to decrease the number
of accents an dssasters.
Therefore, in order to master a military specialty and the ability to
function successfully in battle, a person must possess not only good
health, but also the necessary psychological traits.
In view of this, we believe it advisable to supplement combat training
programs, which, as we know, set forth only general, undifferentiated
requirements as to the personal traits of specialists, with appropriate
provisions.
In this connection, we point out that professional screening cannot be
limited to just medical indices. Now it no longer suffices for us to be
guided by the merest anthropometric* and chronometric information, just as
we must not-rely only on the purely empirical "adjustment" of existing
arrangements and systems to the capabilities of the specialist. The
determination as to the suitability of a person for any given specialty
must be based not only on biological (state of health, muscular strength,
height, weight), social, and moral-political indices, but also on
*Anthro ometrv -one of the research methods used in anthropology,
consisting o the various measurements of the human body.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
Page 9 of 12 Pages
50X1-HUM
psychological personality characteristics, an inadequate knowledge of which
impedes the training of a specialist. It was persons who turned out to be
unsuited to a given type of activity who caused the turnover in personnel
and lowered the combat readiness of units, ships, and subunits. Ignorance
of the scientific bases for manning has led and is leading to the
inefficient expenditure of forces, materiel and time on training.
At the present time this problem is beginning to receive more
attention. Scientific publications and research papers have appeared, and
work is in progress to develop screening methods. Commanders, political
workers, psychologists, engineers, and physicians are participating in this
work. Research findings have made it possible to identify several of the
features of the interaction of the specialist with equipment and armament,
and to improve screening conditions and training and work processes. The
use of special screening in aviation made it possible to reduce failures
for lack of flying proficiency from 15 to 4.5 percent.
Errors in research should also be noted. The psychological structure
of the work of military specialists is not always studied, and when it is
studied, it is done without the supervision of psychologists and,
consequently, superficially. The departure from the specific, practical
point of view impedes the development of scientifically based psychograms
and psychological screening methods. Not the least is the magnifying of
the inborn biological factor: in research this inevitably leads, in
essence, to a disregard for the social aspect of the work of a soldier and
to the underrating of psychology as a science. In addition, at times
research is primarily limited to the examination of the work of the
operator.
Of course, the operator constitutes a specific factor in the
"man-machine" equation that does not resemble any of the others. In
connection with this, a question arises as to the study of the intellectual
and emotional-volitional aspects of the operator. Unfortunately, however,
in the majority of works whenever the psychological traits required of a
soldier by a specialty are discussed, invariably specified in the majority
of cases are: good concentration, powers of observation, quickness of
orientation, quick-wittedness, and strength of will, i.e. the best
psychological traits for a person in general, regardless of the nature of
his basic activities. To enumerate these traits is not to solve the basic
problem, which is to _.de:~.tify tre particular trait that determines success
in an undertaking, and which constitutes the task of research. Only if 50X1-HUM
there is a comprehensive, scientific approach can we determine the reason
why it becomes difficult or1ripossible to carry out a task. To find those
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
Page 10 5oxi'-HUiD?iages
specific features of general traits that apply to a particular specialty is
the duty and mission of the scientist and the researcher.
It is extremely desirable that commanders participate more actively in
the study of the psychological structure of the work of the specialist. In
this regard the initiative of Lieutenant Colonel A. Mittelman is
outstanding .
While training antitank guided missile operators, he decided to
investigate the difficulties he encountered and to turn to psychologists
for help. All the professionally important personal traits of an operator
were divided into two groups. Those that are developed or learned during a
specific course of training were put in the first group, and personal
traits which are more conservative and develop slowly were put in the
second group. They succeeded in singling out distinctive psychological and
personal traits in the work of an operator.
This approach to the problems of training and manning helped to
improve combat training and to make the unit one of the highest ranking in
the district.
Clearly, it hardly is worthwhile to attempt to make a specialist out
of a draftee without taking his psychological characteristics into
consideration. Therefore, the urgent task of a person doing research on
psychological screening is to scientifically determine the arrangement of
those psychological traits that best promote the training of specialists
and that determine the success of their work.
It is advisable to examine the psychological characteristics of the
activity of the specialists in relation to the totality of the reflection
and control of the procedural and the personal (not to limit oneself to
studying only reactions to irritants). The study of a military specialty
is not limited to the analysis of unrelated traits. The analysis of
professionally important traits is followed by their synthesis; all aspects
and ramifications of phenomena should be scrutinized.
The integrated study of the personality in the work process is of
particular importance when specific questions are raised as to the
suitability of a soldier for a specialty and the development of his
qualifications. The researcher must know the psychological conditions of
work, for other~ti~ise he will not be able to explain what caused a given
condition in a person. Since the psychological traits displayed by 50X1-HUM
soldier depend on technical and organizational work conditions, any
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
Page 11 of 12 Pa es
50X1-HU~
psychological research of a type of work entails a reasonably complete and
detailed description of the conditions under which it was carried out.
On the basis of the information obtained, a psychological description
of the specialty (profession), its psychogram, is composed. The psychogram
of a military specialist includes only those essential psychological
processes and characteristics of a soldier that constitute apart of his
professiogram. In this case we can recommend the structure suggested by
Colonel V. N. Lunkov.* Any given type of specialist work is characterized
by a definite correlation within it of different types of skills.
Conventionally they are divided into: motor skills -- used to quickly and
correctly carry out the actions and operations involved in the handling of
weapons and combat equipment; sensory skills, which provide unerring
orientation in the surrounding environment and assure the monitoring of
ones actions; and mental skills -- used to quickly and accurately analyze
information perceive an arrive at a decision.
It is essential to recognize that although each of the enumerated
skills exists in the work of any specialist, the ratio and combination of
them are not identical; they depend on the specific features of the actions
and functions of the soldier. This leaves an imprint both on the study of
the work of specialists and on the content and methods of screening and
training army and navy persors!el.
In order to better ensure the manning of the armed forces when the Law
on Universal Military Service is applied, it is necessary to more
efficiently organize, with the help of military psychologists, the
scientific research and practical work involved in psychological screening
and to experimentally verify the importance of the traits and requirements
revealed. A prediction of the psychological features of an activity must
be complete, reliable, structured, and of use in determining what
difficulties and erroneous actions will most probably occur. The
arrangement of psychological traits for a given specialty will serve as a
basis for working out a set o proce ures to be used in psychological
screening.
*V. N. Lunkov, The Improvement of the Forms and r~?ethods of Training Soviet
Soldiers Durin t e ew to e o eve o ment o t e rme orces, Pu is ed
by the I~iilitary Political Aca e i n V. I L
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3
Page 12 of 12 Pages
50X1-HUM
It is advisable to begin the working out of any test with a thorough
psychological analysis of that which is to be studied. Included in the test
should be tasks the purpose of which is to identify the characteristics
required in the specialist. Of course, in order to conduct such complex
work one needs a profound knowledge of psychology, military matters, and
combat training methods as well as a firm mastery of the mechanics of
statistics. The final stage consists of implementing the sets of
procedures for the psychological screening of specialists in the armed
forces.
The value of the above method of studying the psychological activities
of the specialist and of screening consists of its practical orientation.
The introduction of psychological screening in the troops will create
conditions more favorable to the training of military specialists. This
type of screening, as has already been pointed out, will shorten the
training period, reduce the expenditure of means, and decrease the number
of psychologically caused mishaps, accidents, and disasters. Consideration
of the psychological factor will promote the training of qualified,
psychologically stable soldiers who are dedicated to our country.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/12 :CIA-RDP10-001058000201820001-3