Perhaps no military establishment in the world has focused more heavily on operating interceptors, ground-based radars, and surface to air missile systems than Russia. The two-volume set recently published by Krzysztof Dabrowski explains the long gestational process that has produced a modern Russian surface to air missile based defense force that is one of the world's best. You can read my review here.
Since the Second World War ended it has been popular to present the Soviet Union as an overwhelming economic and military colossus that was essentially undefeatable by 1942 if not earlier in the war. The groundwork for this belief was laid by German officers who after the war sought to cast blame for their own failures of leadership. American military leaders then latched onto these aguments. Doubtlessly this occured in part as a response to the Cold War era Communist threat.
