Political Commissar

Propaganda image of a Soviet political commissar of the 220th Infantry Regiment calling soldiers to an assault, Eastern Front, Ukraine, 12 July 1942. Probably A. G. Yeremenko, Company political officer of the 220th Rifle Regiment, 4th Rifle Division, killed in action in 1942.

In the military, a political commissar or political officer (or politruk, a portmanteau from Russian: политический руководитель, “political leader”, “political official”), is a supervisory officer responsible for the political education (ideology) and organization of the unit they are assigned to, and intended to ensure civilian control of the military.

The function first appeared as commissaire politique (political commissioner) or représentant en mission (representative on mission) in the French Revolutionary Army during the Revolution (1789–99). It also existed, with interruptions, in the Soviet Red Army from 1918 to 1942, as well as in the armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1943 to 1945. The function remains in use in China’s People’s Liberation Army.

Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc

An early kind of political commissars arose already during the February Revolution 1917 as the Ispolkom issued the controversial Order no 1. As the Bolsheviks came to power through the October Revolution 1917, and as the Russian Civil War began, Trotsky who then gradually established the Red Army, imposed the formal political officers. These were almost invariably tasked to make sure the Communist Party of the respective country could count on the loyalty of the Army. Although there was a huge difference between the February Revolution and the October Revolution, their leaders both feared a counter-revolution, and both regarded the military officers as the most likely counter-revolutionary threat.

In the Soviet Union

The political commissar is often associated with the Soviet Union (1922–91), where the Cheka introduced them to the military forces to ensure the government’s political control. The chief reason was because the newly created Red revolutionary military units were associated with different, often conflicting political parties, and there were so many leftist political parties and movements at that time, who despite differing doctrines supported the bolshevik seizure of power. They all had party members and sympathizers among the military, and tried to use that to benefit their viewpoint. The Left SRs and the Anarchists were among such hard-nosed competitors, who were popular among the lower ranks no less than bolsheviks, contesting them quite frequently. The Bolsheviks saw this as a matter of life and death during the ongoing civil war against the White movement. To gain permanent control over the entire military, they introduced the com­mis­sarship. After the SRs were left behind, the forces loyal to them split off from the Red Army to create the Green armies, and guerrilla war soon erupted in the countryside along with civil war. The commissars’ task was to prevent the warfighters, both commanding officers and troops, from tending towards the rivalrous political authorities. There were many examples of defiance and outspoken disobedience, when the troops killed or banished their commissars and switched sides, going Green.] After the bolsheviks eliminated all their rivals and became the one and only political entity in the country, creating a one-party dictatorship.

In the Red Army and the Soviet Army, the political commissar (Russian: комиссар; komissar) existed, by name, only during the 1918–24, 1937–40, and 1941–42 periods; not every Red Army political officer was a commissar. The political commissar held military rank equaling that of the unit commander to whom he was attached; moreover, the commissar also had the military authority to countermand the unit commander’s orders when required. In the periods of the Red Army’s history when political officers were militarily subordinate to unit commanders, the position of political commissar did not exist.

The political supervision of the Russian military was effected by the political commissar, who was introduced to every unit and formation, from company- to division-level, including the navy. Revolutionary Military Councils (or Revvoyen­soviets, RVS) were established at army-, front-, fleet-, and flotilla-level, comprising at least three members—commander and two political workers. The political workers were de-nominated “members of the RVS”, not “commissars”, despite being official political commissars.

In 1919, the title politruk (Russian: политрук, from политический руководитель, political leader) was assigned to political officers at company level. Despite being official political commissars, they were not addressed as “commissar”. Beginning in 1925, the politico-military doctrinal course towards edinonachalie (Russian: единоначалие, single command) was established, and the political commissar, as a military institution, was gradually abolished. The introduction of edinonachalie was twofold, either the military commander joined the Communist Party and became his unit’s political officer, or a pompolit (Russian: помполит, assistant commander for political work) officer was commissioned sub-ordinate to him. Earlier, in 1924, the RVSs were renamed as Military Councils, such high-level political officers were known as ChVS (Chlen Voennogo Soveta, Member of the Military Council), they were abolished in 1934.

On 10 May 1937 the political commissar was rein-stated to the Red Army, and Military Councils were created. These events derived from the political purges that began in the Soviet armed forces. Again, in August 1940, the political commissars was abolished, yet the Military Councils continued throughout the German-Soviet War (1941–45), and afterwards. Below army level, the edinonachalie (single command) system was restored. In July 1941, consequent to the Red Army’s defeats at war’s start, the position of political commissar reappeared. The commissar had an influential role as a “second commander” within the military units during this time. Their ranks and insignia generally paralleled those of officers. When this proved less-than-effective, General Konev asked Stalin to subordinate the political officer to commanding officers: the commissars’ work was refocused to morale-related functions. The term “commissar” itself was formally abolished in August 1942, and at the company- and regiment-level, the pompolit officer was replaced with the zampolit (deputy for political matters). Though no longer known by the original “commissar” title, political officers were retained by all the Soviet Armed Forces, e.g., Army, Navy, Air Force, Strategic Missile Troops, et al, until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Nazi Germany

From December 1943 until the defeat of Nazi Germany, the German armed forces created a network of political instructors to maintain National Socialist indoctrination of the Wehrmacht. The officers, called National-sozialistische Führungs­offiziere (NSFO; “National Socialist Leadership Officers”), drawn from convinced officers and approved by Martin Bormann, head of the Nazi Party Chancellery, to instill ideological conviction and reinforce combat morale through training lessons and teaching. They had no direct influence on combat decisions as had the political commissar in the Soviet Army. At the end of 1944 more than 1,100 full-time and about 47,000 part-time instructors had been trained under the overall control of General Hermann Reinecke, commander of the National Socialist leadership staff at the OKW.

The NSFO Chiefs of Staff of the Service Branches were:

Army: Generaloberst Ferdinand Schörner (until 15 May 1944), then General der Gebirgstruppe Georg Ritter von Hengl

Navy: Vizeadmiral Friedrich Hüffmeier (until 21 June 1944), then Konteradmiral Erich Alfred Bruening

Air Force: Generaloberst Bruno Loerzer

SS: SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS Ernst Fick

Brigade commissar Leonid Brezhnev (right) giving a Communist Party membership card to a soldier, 1942.

 

Russian political commissar in leather coat at the German-Soviet military parade in Brest-Litovsk, Poland, 22 September 1939.

Soviet political commissar captured by soldiers of the 16th Army in Vištytis, Lithuania, June 1941.

German officers interrogate the same captured Soviet political commissar as shown in the previous photo. June 1941.

Captured Soviet commissar, Heeresgruppe Süd, Ukraine, August 1941. The red star on the Russian’s sleeve denotes him as a commissar. He’s wearing the collar insignia of a Senior Battalion Commissar, equivalent to the rank of Colonel. He’s also wearing a highly unusual medal for a political commissar, a commemorative “XX Years of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army” medal that means he served with the Red Army since at least 1921. Very few political commissars were career officers, and even fewer could boast 20 years of service after Stalin’s purges.

Brigade political commissar Sovkov awarding a soldier with the Bravery Award. Northwestern Front, 1942.

Political Commissar of the 29th Yugoslav Partisan Division decorates its youngest fighter. March 1945.

People’s Commissar of Defense of the USSR Kliment Voroshilov.