Commissar

For the 1967 film, seeCommissar (film).

Commissar(or sometimesKommissar) is anEnglishtransliteration of theRussianкомиссáр(komissar), which means 'commissary'. In English, the transliterationcommissaroften refers specifically to thepolitical commissarsofSovietand Eastern-bloc armies or to the people's commissars (effectivelygovernment ministers), while administrative officers are calledcommissaries.

The Russian word комисса́р, from Frenchcommissaire,was used in Russia for both political and administrative officials. The title has been used in theSoviet Unionand inRussiasince the time of the emperorPeter the Great(r. 1682–1725).

History

In the 18th and 19th centuries in the Russian armykommissars,thenkrigs-komissars(fromGerman:Krieg'war') were officials in charge of supply for the armed forces (see Rus.Генерал-кригскомиссар).

Russianpolitical commissarin leather coat at theGerman-Soviet military parade in Brest-Litovskon September 22, 1939.

Commissaries were used during theProvisional Government(March–July 1917) for regional heads of administration, but the term commissar is associated with a number ofChekaand military functions inBolshevikand Soviet government military forces during theRussian Civil War(theWhite Armywidely used the collective term "bolsheviks and commissars" for their opponents) and with the later termsPeople's Commissar(ornarkom) for government ministers andpolitical commissarin the military.

Variants

People's Commissar

A People's Commissar (informally abbreviatednarkom) was a government official serving in aCouncil of People's Commissars.This title was first used by theRussian SFSR(out of dislike for the tsarist and bourgeois termminister) and then copied among the many Soviet and Bolshevik-controlled states in theRussian Civil War.

The government departments headed by a People's Commissar were calledPeople's Commissariat(informally abbreviated narkomat).

People's Commissars and People's Commissariats were renamed Ministers and Ministries in 1946 by a decree of theSupreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.

Political commissar

Main article:Political commissar § Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc

In theRed Army,apolitical commissarwas a high-ranking functionary at a military headquarters who held coequal rank and authority with the military commander of the unit. TheBolshevik Partyestablished political commissars in 1918 to control and improve morale in the military forces. Commissars were in charge of communist political propaganda and indoctrinating the public with communist ideology. From 1917 the Bolshevik administration, like the Provisional Government before it, relied on experienced (ex-Tsarist) army-officers whose loyalty it distrusted.Trotskysummarised the solution to the issue: "We took a military specialist and we put on his right hand and on his left a commissar [...]." During the early stages of the usage of commissars, no military order might be issued which did not have the prior approval of both the commander and the commissar.

Many lower-level political officers never received the same military training as commanding officers. Prior to becoming a commissar an individual had to be registered as a communist for a minimum of three years and had to attend specific political institutions, many of which never offered any military-oriented training.

Following the problems encounteredin 1941with dual commanders in units, commissars and other political officers were removed from direct command-roles. Political officers were then more directly tasked with morale- and regulation-based goals. A political officer's classification changed to the form of a "Deputy for Political Matters" in 1942. The specific position of "Commissar" itself survived only atregimentalandfront levels,where the Commissars formed the Military Councils with their corresponding military commanders.

Other Communist-bloc militaries also adopted systems of using political commissars. Mulvenon and Yang (2002) report that the role of the political commissar in thePeople's Liberation Army(PLA) of China has become one resembling that of anHRspecialist.

Military commissar

Thevoenkom(Russian:военком), translated aswar commissar,is the head of amilitary commissariat— a regional office thatconscriptsmen for military service, executes plans for militarymobilizationand maintains records on military reserves.

NKVD

Until the late 1930s, thePeople's MilitsiyaandInternal Troopsof theNKVDhad no personal ranks, and used many various position-ranks instead. In 1935, the Militsiya created a special system of personal ranks that was a blend of standard military ranks and position-ranks; this system was largely reused by the newly createdMain Directorate of State Security(GUGB) in their rank structure, although they had Commissar-style ranks for top officers in place of Militsiya-styleinspectoranddirector.

From 1943, the Militsiya switched to a new rank system and insignia introduced in theSoviet Army.Instead of General ranks, top officers usedCommissar of Militsiya3rd, 2nd, and 1st rank, even though they used army-standard Major General, Lieutenant General and Colonel General shoulder boards. These Commissar ranks were replaced by corresponding General ranks in 1975.

The GUGB also switched to military-style ranks and insignia in 1945, although they replaced Commissar-style ranks with General officer ranks right away.

Similar terms

Commissar is linked to titles in a variety of languages, such ascommissaryin English,commissairein French,Kommissarin German, and komisszár (or népbiztos; archaic: csendbiztos) in Hungarian.

The termcommissarywas used by theBritishandU.S. militaryto denote an officer in charge of supplying an army with provisions and equipment (andCommissariat).

A similar term in French describes the equivalent of the rank ofMajorboth in the army of theAncien Régimeand theFrench Revolution.Such officials were notmilitary officersbut reported back to the political authorities: the king and theNational Assembly (French Revolution),respectively.

Various historical German states have used an equivalent title,Reichskommissar(a compound ofReichand the GermanKommissar), for several administrators who held responsibility over a territory or area of government.

See also

• Commissar Order