The Red Army was the pioneer of modern special forces. In the 1930s, it fielded the world's largest paratrooper force, conducting futuristic experiments in mass air landing and developing the "deep battle" concept. From these troubled and often difficult roots sprang the modern Soviet shock troops: paratroopers of the elite VDV, army Spetsnaz, KGB secret assassination teams.

Yet little is known about Russia's main elite combat forces; only recently, with the declassification of Soviet documents, have many of their missions been publicly disclosed. Herein military historian Steven J. Zaloga fills this gap in the history of elite forces.

.

Inside the Blue Berets looks at the origins of the Russian shock troops. It provides an exciting description of the harrowing Russian airborne assaults of World War II and the combat uses of these troops in the Cold War years as they took on an important new role as "imperial storm troopers" - the infantry that enforced Soviet power, first in Hungary and later in Czechoslovakia. By then paratroopers had become a true elite, with the best and brightest of the Red Army competing for the prized blue beret.

1. In the 1980s, the VDV became trapped in the quagmire of Afghanistan. Bloodied and weary after ten years of brutal fighting, the paratroopers returned home and were immediately ordered to don their flak jackets and control the civil turmoil resulting from perestroika. Inside the Blue Berets offers the first lucid description of the murky situation that surrounded the breakup of the USSR.

Today, the Blue Berets remain Russia's primary elite combat force and are likely to figure prominently in headlines over the next decade. Zaloga concludes by examining the emerging role of the new Russian special forces components and the role they will play in their own republics, and around the world.