Questions about Soviet Commissars

[Chuck D.]

Its my understanding that a Soviet commissar was a Communist party official assigned to a military unit to teach party principles and policies and to ensure party loyalty. Did they have any other duties? Were they assigned to the Police and KGB as well? What was their rank equivalent? Were there different levels of commissars as far as their ranking and importance? Thanks in advance for any information.

Chuck

[DougD]

rank

The rank of commissars looked almost the same as that for regular red army officers, but with different names and slightly different insignia.

1935-42 rank was both collar and cuff; cuff rank was a system of chevrons, etc. For commissars, the cuff rank was always the star with hammer and sickle ( shown in another thread), regardless of the commissars rank.

The collar followed the same pattern as regular officers, but with black piping, not gold.

An example would be for Brigade commissars and Brigade Commanders. The BCommissar would have the hammer and sickle sleeve insignia, one diamond on each black piped collar tab; the BCommander has the same diamond on his colalr tabs, but his tabs were piped in gold. Also, his sleeve insignia would be a gold shevron on each sleeve. If he was promoted to Division Commander he would get both another chevron on each sleeve, as well as another diamond on each colalr tab; the commiassar, if he were promoted, would get another diamond on the collar, but cuffs would stay the same.

DougD

[NavyFCO]

Commissars did vary in rank and/or importance. Each unit had a Commissar - from the Regiment all the way up to the Army, Corps or Front. The rank structure was esentially the same as that of their Army counterparts, going up into the general officer category. Both the Navy and Air Force also had commissars, I can't answer for the Militsia (or MVD?) or KGB, though I'm sure they had something similar.

Commissars varied in their duties. There were some on staffs (the larger commissars had staffs that varied in size depending on their job - the staff of a Front commissar would have dozens of direct-reports in it) and others were the single commissar for a unit. I've owned groups to commissars that were tasked soley with "political agitation" (e.g. giving speeches to the troops) and others I owned I had to check the fact that the person was really a commissar, as the citations were for them leading troops in combat!

Many commissars came into the job having been actual "line" fighters previously, but somehow either got the special education to be a commissar or were too old to be directly in combat - many commissars were veterans of the Revolution, even during WW2.

Conversely, some commissars fought with the troops. General Dragunsky, in his book, mentions the commissar for his tank unit that was killed in action leading a tank attack. A friend of mine has an award group to a commissar who became a regimental commander mid way through the War!

Hope that helps you out a bit.

Dave

[Kozlov]

Do you mean "commissar" or do you mean "political officer"?

I noticed you said KGB rather than NKVD so maybe you mean post-WW2...

Dual control (ie all military decisions needing political approval) and elimination of the Commissar system happened in 1943 I think. A lot of this had to do with the idea of all heroes being given Party membership and a general dilluting of the CPSU. There was also a radical purge of the CPSU membership at the same time.

Postwar and "cold war" the political officers served more of a "welfare officer" role - yes conducting agitation and politcal instruction, but more than that.

One thing you have to get out of your mind is the idea that any political officer ever tried to force anyone to join the Party....

[Chuck D.]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for all of the information. I have a much better understanding of the whole commissar system now. To be honest, I had no idea the system was that pervasive.

DougD: What type of headgear did they wear? The same as whatever unit they were attached to?

Kozlov: I did mean "commissar", and mispoke when I said "KGB". However, your reply brings to mind another question: Would you please enlighten me about the basics of being a "political officer" ?

Chuck

[DougD]

Headgear

Chuck,

Yes, the headgear would be the same for Commissars and regular line officers. No special Commissar headgear.

DougD

[Kozlov]

The best and easiest demonstration of a political officer in action is to look at the film K19, note how the political officer tends for the welfare of the men as well as showing them propaganda films (I love his commentary on that film hehe).

Its probably a bit cheezy of me to suggest a hollywood film as a reference, but there are a lot of good cultural undertones to that film - maybe someone more native to Russian culture could confirm that to me, but thats how it seems to me!

[Rick Research]

Career snapshots from awards--

"Good" commissar:

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ight=Commissar

"Bad" commissar:

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ght=Pechegorov

[Chuck D.]

Rick,

Interesting reading, thanks for posting the links.

Chuck