The aim of Soviet military operations is the destruction of the enemy. This destruction is to be accomplished by developing tactical into operational and subsequently strategic success. Like most arts, this rather simple objective belies the technical difficulties of structure and execution. With significant changes in the past few years, the Soviet armed forces have exhibited a surprising degree of flexibility and innovations in their force structure and fighting doctrine. In particular, the identification of the operational maneuver group (OMG) has been the focus of great speculation in the Western press. While some articles have acknowledged Soviet mobile group operations of World War II, most have failed to present a full appreciation for the basis that mobile group operations represent to current Soviet military planners on OMGs. Concurrent with Western writings on the OMG, Soviet military publications, in a characteristically direct usage of their historical studies, are defining the lessons of mobile group operations for applicability to OMGs. ; Published in Parameters, Journal of the U.S. Army War College, v16 n2 p58-69, 1986.