Commissar
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Commissar (or sometimes Kommissar) is an English transliteration of the Russian комиссáр (komissar), which means 'commissary'. In English, the transliteration commissar often refers specifically to the political commissars of Soviet and Eastern-bloc armies or to the people's commissars (effectively government ministers), while administrative officers are called commissaries.
The Russian word комисса́р, from French commissaire, was used in Russia for both political and administrative officials. The title has been used in the Soviet Union and in Russia since the time of the emperor Peter the Great (r. 1682–1725).
History
In the 18th and 19th centuries in the Russian army kommissars, then krigs-komissars (from German: Krieg 'war') were officials in charge of supply for the armed forces (see Rus. Генерал-кригскомиссар).[1]
Commissaries were used during the
Variants
People's Commissar
A People's Commissar (informally abbreviated narkom) was a government official serving in a
The government departments headed by a People's Commissar were called People's Commissariat (informally abbreviated narkomat).
People's Commissars and People's Commissariats were renamed Ministers and Ministries in 1946 by a decree of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.
Political commissar
In the
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 encountered
Other Communist-bloc militaries also adopted systems of using political commissars. Mulvenon and Yang (2002) report that the role of the political commissar in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China has become one resembling that of an HR specialist.[3]
Military commissar
The voenkom (Russian: военком), translated as
NKVD
Until the late 1930s, the
From 1943, the Militsiya switched to a new rank system and insignia introduced in the Soviet Army. Instead of General ranks, top officers used Commissar of Militsiya 3rd, 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 as commissary in English, commissaire in French, Kommissar in German, and komisszár (or népbiztos; archaic: csendbiztos) in Hungarian.
The term
A similar term in French describes the equivalent of the rank of
Various historical German states have used an equivalent title, Reichskommissar (a compound of Reich and the German Kommissar), for several administrators who held responsibility over a territory or area of government.
See also
References
- ^ "Полное собрание законов Российской империи: поиск". nlr.ru. Retrieved 2022-04-18.
- ^
ISBN 9780861510030. Retrieved 2013-10-16.
We took a military specialist and we put on his right hand and on his left a commissar — who was in those days something different from what he is today.
- ^
Mulvenon, James C.; Yang, Andrew N. D., eds. (2002). The People's Liberation Army as Organization. Volume 182 of Conference proceedings (Rand Corporation). Vol. V 1.0, Volume 1. Rand. p. 483. ISBN 9780833033031. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
Some analysts of the PLA believe that professional performance is increasingly important, and that the political commissar's job is increasingly that of a personnel manager and 'human resources' specialist, rather than ideological policeman