Commissars, political officers, and in later times of Soviet power, deputy commanders for political affairs, these are all widely known names of the positions of a certain part of the political composition of the Red Army, and then the Soviet Army, who were responsible, first of all, for the political and moral state of soldiers and commanders, and since 1943, soldiers and officers of the Armed Forces of the USSR.
For many who are interested in the history of our Fatherland and not only, the question involuntarily arises, why was this organization needed at all, which for a long time was part of a whole separate structure in all law enforcement agencies of the then Soviet state? In what states, besides ours, was the institution of commissars introduced? Or is Russia the only country in the world where there was such an experience? It turns out no, not the only one.
It is known from world history that Russia was far from the first country in the world where the institute of commissars was introduced in the army, Italy was the “homeland of the commissar”, it was there, in the Apennines, already in the distant 16th century in the armies of the Italian republics, which were formed mainly from mercenaries , invented and introduced commissars who were supposed to control the loyalty of the troops and commanders to the employers of these armies, so that the troops would not run away, but would fulfill their duties in waging war in full, for which they were paid.
Subsequently, commissars were introduced in other states, as a rule, during revolutions or civil wars, in particular, in France during the French Revolution, this is when the Jacobin government sent its best representatives as commissars to the revolutionary troops, formed a revolutionary tribunal in which they ruled mostly Jacobin commissars, ruthlessly cracking down, as they then believed, with traitors, cowards and generals who were preparing the defeat of the republican troops.
In the Western Hemisphere, the young American army also had its own commissars, so in the early 19th century, during the Revolutionary War, American commissars controlled the loyalty of commanders military units fighting on the side of the American colonists, and also monitored the political and moral state of the personnel.
The Bolsheviks, having begun to create the Red Army in 1918, were forced to immediately say goodbye to revolutionary romanticism and a slogan like “All people are brothers”, since the enemies surrounded the young country of the Soviets with a continuous ring of fronts, whether the new government would stand or fall within a few weeks, everything depended, whether the Bolsheviks will be able to create a combat-ready army in a short time or not, but how to create it without officer cadres?
The then leaders of the young Soviet state made the only but right decision at that time, it was to call for military service former tsarist officers and generals, tens or even hundreds of thousands of whom at that time were sitting at home observing neutrality.It is known that by the end of the war in the Russian army there were about 276 thousand officers in total, of which by this time 13 thousand were still in captivity, and 21-27 thousand, due to the severity of injuries, could not return to duty. (S. Volkov “Tragedy Russian officers") http://rusk.ru/vst.php?idar=321706#g01 .
The main initiator of attracting military experts to the service of the revolution was considered the "black albatross of the revolution" L. Trotsky, they called up officers to serve in the workers' and peasants' army both on a voluntary basis and on a voluntary-compulsory basis, often leaving their relatives and friends on the pledge of loyalty. Thus, thanks to the vigorous measures taken by the Soviet government, military experts soon began to make up about 75% of the command staff of the Red Army, this is a huge figure, but not all of them were reliable people of the Soviet government, many of them harbored anger and often betrayed Soviet power, going over to the side of the White Guards during the Civil War, they sometimes went over together with their units, and even entire military units. To prevent such cases, the Bolsheviks decided to use military experts mainly as narrow specialists, taking all their activities under strict control of the institution of commissars specially created for this purpose.
As a rule, people who were loyal to the Soviet government were appointed to the commissars, many of them were from among the cadre revolutionaries who went underground, tsarist prisons and hard labor. main function commissars had supervision on their part of the command, they needed to constantly monitor the activities of military experts from among the former officers, for how planned fighting and most importantly, the morale of the former nobleman officer, so that he does not run away to the whites, and even along with a map on which all the details of the upcoming military operation were depicted, or worse, he did not deceive his battalion, or even the regiment, to the enemies, it happened and such.
The second task of the commissioner was political educational work, i.e. the commissars had to convince the commanders and the Red Army that the Red Army had been given fair and necessary goals and tasks for the people. The activities of the commissars were managed by the All-Russian Bureau of Military Commissars, in 1919 it was renamed the political department (then - the department) of the Revolutionary Military Council, and in 1922 - the political department of the Red Army (PURKKA) http://www.otvoyna.ru/statya72. htm.
Starting from 1919, in addition to commissars, so-called “political leaders” appeared in the Red Army - political commissars, this is how commissars began to be called in grassroots military units in companies and platoons. A political officer is a junior commander, deputy commander for political affairs.
Creation institute of commissioners at the stage of the Civil War, it was a necessary measure, and on the whole it justified itself, moreover, it played a decisive role in strengthening the combat capability of the army and its discipline. But it was precisely from the time of the Civil War that, in addition to the heroic past, the title of commissar was also associated among part of the people with hunger, food requisitions, suppression of riots and peasant uprisings, it was a formidable title of commissar, formidable and terrible, the commissars did not give mercy to their enemies and the enemies did not spare them either .
Shortly after the end of the civil war, during the military reform of the 20s, there was a huge reduction in the Red Army, most of the combat units were disbanded in connection with which on March 2, 1925, on the basis of a decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, in those remaining units commanded by commanders -Communists who had experience in party political leadership, unity of command was introduced, that is, the position of commissar was abolished. Thus, the commander became fully responsible for all aspects of the activities of the troops, performing the functions of a commissar, but received an assistant for political affairs. In other military units, where the commander was not a member of the CPSU (b), the position of commissar was still retained.
In 1935, the system of military ranks was restored in the Red Army, and for political workers special ranks were introduced: “junior political instructor”, “political instructor” and “senior political instructor”, corresponding to the military ranks of “lieutenant”, “senior lieutenant” and “captain”, respectively. The title of "battalion commissar" corresponded to the general military rank of major, "regimental commissar" - colonel, "divisional commissar" - divisional commander.
Soon the formidable 1937 came, due to the aggravation of the next round of the class struggle in the country, in order to have more complete control over the army on May 10, 1937, the institution of military commissars was again introduced in all military units, from the regiment and above, in headquarters, departments and institutions. The military commissar or political officer was the representative of the party in the unit entrusted to him, endowed with great confidence and bearing full responsibility along with the commander for the combat capability of the unit, the political and moral education of fighters and commanders.
The seriousness and importance of this position is also confirmed by excerpts from the first full-fledged charter of the Red Army UVS-37, so according to this charter military commissar of the regiment:
Art. 47. Along with the commander, he is the direct head of the entire personnel of the unit and bears full responsibility for the political and moral state of the unit, for the performance of military duty and the conduct of military discipline by all personnel of the unit from top to bottom, for combat and mobilization readiness, for the state of armament and military economy of the regiment.
article 48. The military commissar of the regiment is obliged:
1) to protect the regiment from the penetration and appearance of spies, saboteurs, wreckers and other enemies of the people, immediately and decisively suppressing any actions that could harm the Red Army;
or political leader of a company (squadron, battery)
Art.59.Along with the company commander, he is the direct head of all personnel of the company and is responsible for the political and moral state and combat training of the company, military discipline, for the economy, combat readiness of the company and for maintaining military secrets.
article 60. The political head of the company is obliged:
3) to strengthen military discipline and combat training of the company, personally be a model of Bolshevik vigilance and protect the company from the penetration of spies, saboteurs, wreckers and other enemies of the people;
(Charter of the Internal Service of the Red Army (UVS-37). Military Publishing House, 1938. It was put into effect by order of the NPO of the USSR No. 260 of December 21, 1937. instead of the Provisional Charter of the Internal Service of the Red Army in 1924.)
Then, after only three years, the leapfrog with the commissars continued, from August 12, 1940, the institution of military commissars was once again canceled, this time at the urgent request of Marshal, who took office as People's Commissar of Defense Soviet Union S. K. Timoshenko. Who, with figures in his hands, proved that over 70% of political workers did not have not only a military education, but even an ordinary military training. The new people's commissar rightly remarked " Two chiefs - one commander, and the second supervising him - blurred the responsibility for the execution of a combat mission - it became unclear which of them was specifically responsible for the defeat?
From the truncated institution of "commissariat" there were only deputy commanders for political affairs. Thus, the function of supervision over the command and command staff of the Red Army was again abolished in the army, and only the function of educational work was left. The then Chief Commissar of the Red Army, Lev Mehlis, was completely upset, since his department had lost many important powers, and this was unacceptable for Mehlis, but soon the head of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army made up for lost time, the harsh and bloody year 1941 came.
In difficult conditions initial period Great Patriotic War, when a massive surrender of commanders was observed, on July 16, 1941, they again returned to the system of military commissars in the Red Army, who were endowed with the same control functions as in 1918-1925. Now they were already subordinate to the main political department of the Red Army.
Chief Commissar of the Red Army Mehlis began his work to strengthen discipline in the troops by saturating them with communist volunteers and political workers, at the same time discipline was strengthened through arrests and executions on the spot, Mehlis almost personally caught cowards and alarmists in the rear of the army, and those of them who bore the title of a communist, Komsomol member or was a political worker, he demanded that they immediately be tried by a military tribunal in the first place. In the understanding of Mekhlis, if a political worker is in the rear during the battle, then he deserves nothing but a bullet for this. These were terrible times, full of uncertainty, fear and despair, so being a political worker in the troops under the command of Mehlis during that period of the war was mortally dangerous. It was later, after the Crimean defeat, having fallen into disgrace with Stalin, Lev Zakharovich finally calmed down in the modest position of a member of the Armed Forces in one of the combined arms armies.
Mass heroism on the battlefields, along with their fighters, was shown by many political workers, many of them really were an example for their subordinates. Yes, there is nothing to hide here, there was a lot of negativity, and the commissioner could show cowardice, weakness and cowardice, since they were all ordinary Soviet people and not some kind of superhuman. Yes, not everyone could, like the political instructor Sintsov shown in Simonov's book The Living and the Dead, roam the German rear with commissar stars on their sleeves, since the German order not to take commissars and political officers prisoner and shoot them on the spot was strictly carried out by the Germans.
However, the vast majority of political workers behaved with dignity in battles on the battlefields of World War II. For exampleamong the 11,603 Heroes of the Soviet Union awarded this title during the Great Patriotic War, there were 211 political workers. According to other sources, among the political workers who were awarded the title of Hero of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War, members of the Military Councils of the fronts, fleets, armies, heads of political departments of the armies, there were 7 people, and all political workers who received the title of Hero of the USSR, starting from the head of the political department of the division (deputy division commander on the political side) and ending with the deputy political officers of the companies - a total of 342, including sergeants and privates who performed these positions - 41 people. (http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki)
In autumn 1942 the Institutemilitary commissars was again liquidated and this time completely, allegedly then General Konev, in a conversation with Stalin, raised the question of liquidating the institution of military commissars in the Red Army, arguing that this institution is not needed now. The main thing that is now needed in the army, he argued, is unity of command. Konev said: “Why do I need a commissar when I myself was one! I need an assistant, a deputy for political work in the army, so that I can be calm about this area of work, and I can handle the rest anyway. The command staff has proved its devotion to the Motherland and does not need additional control, and in the institute of military commissars there is an element of distrust in our command cadres.
According to Chief Air Marshal Golovanov, Konev's words made an impression on Stalin, and he began to seek opinions on this issue. Most of the military leaders supported Konev, and by decision of the Politburo, the institute of commissars in the army was abolished.
Thus, the experience of the Red Army and the armies of other countries showed that the institution of commissars was usually introduced in the case when the supreme political power did not trust the commanding staff of the army, the commissars in this case performed the functions of supervising the commanders, in addition, they also had the task of political propaganda among the personnel of the units. If during the years of the civil war this institution almost fully justified the tasks assigned to it, then during the years of the Great Patriotic War they were forced to abandon it, since there was simply no reason to control ourselves.
In the photo: Junior political officer Aleksey Eremenko raises the fighters to the attack. This is perhaps the most famous photo of the Great Patriotic War, on a par with which is perhaps the photograph of the Banner of Victory over the Reichstag. A. Eremenko died a few seconds after the picture was taken.
“We had to introduce an institution that our opponents did not need, the institution of political commissars,” one of the leaders of the RVSR concluded in March 1919. The need for this institution was caused by the recruitment of the so-called. "military specialists" - officers of the tsarist army. According to the apt expression of the researcher, the introduction of the institution of military specialists caused, in turn, the introduction of the institution of political commissars.
How did relations develop between commissars and commanders who were forced to work side by side in the conditions of the civil war?
From the very beginning, it was assumed that the institution of political commissars under the command structure would be temporary, and the transition to one-man command would gradually take place in the regular Red Army. The introduction of the post of commissar was based on distrust, even hostility of the Bolsheviks and the Soviet government towards former officers.
Thus, it was noted that commissars were assigned to military experts to prevent harm, and for greater certainty, two political committees were assigned to one military specialist at once, thus forming a military council - a collective body of military control,“so beloved trio”, in the words of M.D. Bonch-Bruevich.
In April 1918, the "Regulations on military commissars and members of military councils" were issued, which guided the Red Army until the end of the civil war. The relationship between commander and commissar was determined as follows.
1. The participation of the commissar in all the actions of the military specialist was supposed, expressed in the fastening of all papers with his signature. The order, signed by the military leader and one of the commissars, acquired real power and was mandatory for execution, followed by a military commissar (political committee).
2. The military area was given under the responsibility of the commander, the commissar was not responsible for their expediency.
3. It was forbidden to cancel suspicious orders of an operational nature to the commissioner, it was necessary to report suspicions to higher authorities.
4. In case of non-execution of orders, the commissioner was subject to court.
Thus, the “Regulations” revealed, and even then not completely, the control functions of political commissars and weakly spelled out the relationship with the command staff. This led to conflicts.
Initially, one of the first commissars I.T. Smilga, the commissars did not trust military specialists and were ready "in case he decides to cheat on us, shoot him in the ear."In turn, military experts, dissatisfied with the assignment of "two archangels" to them, did not believe in the ability of the Bolsheviks to build new army. In the initial period of the civil war, there were many cases of betrayal of command (including senior) staff, which only increased the distrust of some commissars in military experts. Literally in the first days of Soviet power, a purge of the military ministry was carried out, designed to remove specialists who did not recognize the power of political commissars.
Yu. Trifonov, the son of the political commissar of the Civil War, artistically described the attitude of the commissars towards military specialists, former officers: “Colonels! Horrible dream commissioners. How to look into someone else's soul? How to guess whether it was honest, out of sincere impulse, or out of deep reflection, they decided to rip up shoulder straps and slap helmets with a star on them, or is it a diabolical long-range calculation? And there is no time to study and look closely.”
At the First All-Russian Congress of Military Commissars, in his speech, Trotsky outlined the duties of commanders - purely technical and moral and political. The ideal type of leader is a person who combines both of these sides, which, he says, is unfortunately extremely rare. Hence the need for political commissars.
The political commissars themselves did not always clearly understand their control functions, there were cases of literal implementation of this provision. Thus, Vatsetis complained in a letter to Lenin in April 1919: “... Tactlessness in relation to the persons of the General Staff is noticed on the part of those commissars who are assigned to them, the selection of which is not always given due attention. Among the commissars, unfortunately, there are few intelligent people who are able to understand the mood and the environment over which they have to control, and control often turns into importunate pestering. Such commissars are a great evil in practical and specialized work, but, unfortunately, there are many such commissars. According to the recollection of one of the participants in the civil war, their commissar was with the commander all the time, relentlessly following him, which also led to conflicts. M. Tukhachevsky always considered the institution of commissars "an abnormal growth on the neck of the army, preventing it from moving its head."
He also opposed the division of army management into military and political parts, confident that both of these functions should be concentrated in one hand. Already in the middle of 1919, it was noted that "relationships between commissars and specialists developed purely practically."
In an effort to overcome the inconsistency of the "Regulations", some of the commissars, who were later classified as "military opposition", demanded the expansion of their rights, permission to participate in resolving operational issues, indicating that in war conditions they could not be limited tocontrol functions only.
But the Soviet government did not welcome such ambitions of the commissars, requiring them only to control the political reliability of military experts, L. Trotsky, chairman of the RVSR, was especially categorical. He demanded the execution of commissars for betraying officers, pointing out: “If the commander defected, the commissar is to blame. ... He must know his command staff and follow him. In particular, such a reaction followed the betrayal of some of the officers on the Southern Front in 1918. He was categorically against the expansion of the rights of commissars. The commissars, by definition of Trotsky, stood above the commanders, controlling his every step, watching his actions. The commanders were obliged to obey the revolutionary military councils. However, sometimes the signing of operational orders by the commissar is regarded by researchers as participation in solving operational issues.
Confrontational relations developed not only between the commanders-military experts and commissars, but also between commissars and partisan commanders. For example, Makhno "had an ironic negative attitude towards his political committee," according to the memoirs of Antonov-Ovseenko, tense relations developed between the political committee and the regiment commander Grigoriev, Mironov also had aversion to the commissars.
At the same time, one can cite memories of the beneficial influence of commissars on commanders, to which Special attention Soviet historiography. Kavtaradze argued that the commissars helped military specialists understand the goals and objectives of the revolutionary army, and thanks to their influence, military specialists developed a socialist consciousness. “Military commissars, exercising control over the activities of military experts, helped many of them break with their past and honestly serve in the ranks of the Red Army,” said Kuzmin, a Soviet researcher of the Red Fleet.
In post-Soviet Russia, the institution of political commissars attached to commanders is assessed differently. By introducing the institution of political commissars, the Bolshevik Party entrusted decision-making on military issues to party functionaries, and not to military specialists.
Responsibility for the betrayal and sabotage of military specialists fell on the commissars, which caused tense relations between commanders and commissars, who mutually did not trust each other. The military commissar was responsible for the trustworthiness of military leaders and the entire command staff. It is known that the commissars sought to maintain the authority of the commander.
The political commissars themselves were divided into two groups: the first group advocated the supremacy of the commissars, the Bolsheviks occupying all leading positions, they were characterized by an active rejection of military specialists; the second group - supporters of providing a well-knowninitiatives to military specialists, the use of their experience and the imposition of responsibility on them.
During the war, the government repeatedly accused the commissars of lack of energy and, fearing betrayal, demanded that the command and commissar staff be replaced or, in order to rectify the situation among the military experts, improve the composition of the commissars and strengthen political work in the army.
In October 1918, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic responded to a telegram from the military commissar Semashko to the commander of the Southern Front, containing a threat of arrest. The RVSR found it necessary to recall that the commander is a member of the RVS of the Southern Front and is appointed by the RVSR, therefore Semashkodoes not have the right to threaten and interfere with the commander, for which you can lose the position of commissar, all claims should be sent to the authority.
During the years of the civil war, some of the political commissars really switched to team work, for example, K.E. Voroshilov, A.Ya. Parkhomenko, Ya.F. Fabricius. Basically, they were nominated from such people, whom Tukhachevsky called "commissioners-semi-commanders", alluding to their mastery of military knowledge while working with military specialists.
We can agree with the conclusion of the researcher Ganin, who noted that "the relationship between commanders and commissars acquired a personal character, in which there were both conflicts and confrontations, and sympathy."
Yu.S. Luzgin
POLITRUKI AND COMMISSIONERS OF THE RKKA (1935-1943)The theme of the uniform and insignia of the political composition of the Red Army.
The topic welcomes original military photos of political officers and commissars.In 1935, special ranks for political workers were introduced: "junior political instructor", "political instructor" and "senior political instructor", corresponding to the general military ranks "lieutenant", "senior lieutenant" and "captain". Senior political workers had special ranks with the word "commissar": "battalion commissar" (major), "regimental commissar" (colonel), "divisional commissar" (commissar) and so on.
In 1938, by the decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Order No. 19 of 01.25.38, NPOs introduced the positions of deputy and assistant political instructors of units (platoon level), who played a significant role in the education of personnel. Pompolitruks had to wear four triangles, like the foreman, but have commissar stars on their sleeves. Military personnel with incomplete or complete secondary education, regardless of the length of service, who were members or candidate members of the Komsomol and the CPSU (b) were appointed to the position of deputy political instructor. The Red Army soldiers holding the position of political fighters were mostly non-partisan, so they could not spread this practice everywhere. First of all, due to the fact that among the junior command staff there were almost no members of the CPSU (b) or Komsomol members, and there was no one to fill these positions.
At the beginning of 1941, 1,500 communists were sent to political work by local party organizations, and on June 17, the Central Committee decided to mobilize another 3,700 communists for this purpose. On the eve of the war, political workers were trained by more than 60 military-political schools and courses. Thus, at the beginning of 1941, compared with the previous year, the number of political workers studying in colleges, schools and courses increased by 30-35%.
At the same time, the educational level of political workers remained rather low, and the institute of military commissars was again abolished at the urgent request of Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Timoshenko, who took office as People's Commissar of Defense. People's Commissar Timoshenko said: "There is still a lot of formalism and bureaucracy in party political work."
In October 1942, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the institute of commissars was replaced by the institute of deputy commanders for political affairs (deputy political officers). At the same time, the positions of members of the Military Councils of the fronts and armies were preserved. 120 thousand political workers were transferred to command positions, three thousand were sent to the newly created SMERSH Main Directorate of Counterintelligence under the USSR People's Commissariat of Defense.
To abolish the institute of Stalin's military commissars was partly forced by the huge shortage of commanders, which was created after the defeats and setbacks of the initial period of the war. For example, only in the encirclement near Kyiv in the summer of 1941, the Red Army lost about 60,000 command personnel. According to some sources, the institution of military commissars was also abolished at the insistence of many military leaders. For example, in the fall of 1942, Konev, in a conversation with Stalin, raised the issue of eliminating the institution of military commissars in the Red Army, arguing that this institution is not needed now. The main thing that is now needed in the army, he argued, is unity of command. According to Chief Air Marshal Golovanov, Konev's words were supported by the majority of military leaders, and by decision of the Politburo, the institution of commissars in the army was abolished.
The political officers did not have commissar powers, their functions were limited to political work among the personnel. Organizationally, the political officer did not occupy a special position, being considered one of the deputy commanders and fully subordinate to him. After the replacement of posts, the commissars of units and formations automatically became political commissars. For those of them who had military ranks political staff, combined arms military ranks were assigned (as a rule, according to the position held at the time of recertification, usually one step lower than the regular rank of the corresponding commander). For some time, political officers continued to be unofficially called "commissars", but over time this habit died out.
On March 29, 1943, the order of the NPO "On the establishment of a mandatory minimum of military knowledge for political workers of the Red Army" was issued.
In total, during the war, about 150 thousand political workers were "transferred" to team work.
100 years ago, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a Decree on the establishment of volost, district, provincial and district commissariats for military affairs.
Basically, thanks to the vigorous activity of military commissars in post-revolutionary Russia, the Red Army was formed. Having adopted the experience of the French Jacobins and using the knowledge of the officers of Tsarist Russia, the Bolshevik government managed to create a unique command system that quickly established political work and propaganda in the army and made a significant contribution to the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. The history of Soviet commissars is in the material RT.
Commissars of the French Revolution
The institute of commissars was established during the Great French Revolution, an example of which the Bolsheviks sometimes deliberately imitated. When the revolutionary Jacobin radicals came to power in France, they merged the volunteer units with the regiments of the old royal army. The Jacobins had no doubts about the loyalty of the revolutionary volunteers, but these soldiers had no military experience. The troops of the old regime fought skillfully, but many supporters of the king served there, so the Jacobins did not trust them.
During the revolutionary terror of 1793-1794, the commissioners of the Convention were sent to the united military units to cleanse the army of suspicious elements. They had the widest powers in resolving personnel issues and in controlling the reliability of the army.
“When revolutionary events take place in a society, people are often at a loss and have little understanding of what is happening,” military historian Boris Yulin said in an interview with RT. "The task of the commissars since the French Revolution has been simple - to explain to the army the position of the political leadership."
Creation of the Red Army
The Bolsheviks knew about the experience of the Jacobins, so they began to use it as soon as they faced the need for their own military development. But initially the communists did not plan to create regular army. In full accordance with the Marxist ideology, it was assumed that after the triumph of the revolution, such an institution of the old society as the army would disappear, and the armed people would come to replace it.
The Bolsheviks even tried to follow the concepts of their teachers. All the experiments of the autumn of 1917 - winter of 1918 with the detachments of the workers' guards were nothing more than an attempt to put the doctrine of the armed people into practice.
Group photo of the command staff of one of the units of the Red Army during the Civil War © Museum and Educational Center of Spiritual Culture Krasnoyarsk Territory"Kasyanovsky house"
However, practice quickly showed that unorganized and untrained volunteers, deprived of professional command, inevitably lost to any troops based on more or less regular principles.
Then, on January 28, 1918, a decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On the organization of the workers' and peasants' Red Army" appeared. But there was not yet a word about commissars in this decree. They arose a little later, and their appearance was directly related to the specifics of the creation of the Red Army.
Control and propaganda
In 1918, as throughout the Civil War, the Soviet government did not have its own command personnel. Their training was established later, but for obvious reasons, the Soviet Union was able to fully provide the Red Army with commanders of "proletarian origin" only by the 1930s. Therefore, the involvement of officers of the Russian Imperial Army in the service of the Bolsheviks became inevitable.
After the demobilization of the army, many officers were left without a livelihood, and since these people only knew how to fight, it was difficult for them to find themselves in a peaceful life.
So the economic methods of recruiting worked very well.
In addition, apoliticality was traditionally planted in the Russian officer corps, so it did not matter for some of the officers whether to serve the emperor, the white generals or the Bolsheviks. According to modern researchers S. Volkov and A. Ganin, from 60 thousand to 100 thousand officers of the old army served the Bolsheviks during the Civil War.
Of course, the influx of such a significant politically alien element into the Red Army led to the need for the most careful control. The Bolshevik government openly doubted the loyalty of the commanding staff, and among the conscripts from the people, often poorly educated, it was necessary to form certain images and stereotypes in order for them to turn into fanatical fighters for the cause of communism.
“The institute of commissars had two tasks: firstly, to control commanders - both “former” and, possibly, revolutionary-minded, but politically alien non-party, anarchists, socialist-revolutionaries. Secondly, the Bolsheviks appreciated the importance of political work and propaganda from their own experience and were not going to, having gained full power in the country and the army, stop fighting to retain it, ”military observer Ilya Kramnik said in an interview with RT.
Unlimited Powers
To solve this problem People's Commissar on military affairs, L. Trotsky signed the Regulations on military commissars, members of the Military Councils, published on April 6, 1918. This document stated: “The military commissar is the direct political body Soviet power under the army... The commissars are appointed from the ranks of impeccable revolutionaries, capable of remaining the embodiment of revolutionary duty in the most critical moments and in the most difficult circumstances. The personality of the commissar is inviolable ... The military commissar sees to it that the army does not become isolated from the entire Soviet system and that individual military institutions do not become centers of conspiracy or instruments of struggle against the workers and peasants. And two days later, on April 8, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a Decree on the creation of military commissariats.
V. Chapaev, commander of the 2nd Nikolaevsky Soviet regiment I. Kutyakov, battalion commander I. Bubenets and commissar A. Semennikov, 1918 © e-mordovia.ru
“If you want to understand how a commissar worked during the Civil War, read Furmanov's novel Chapaev. In it, he quite accurately described his work as a divisional commissar, - Boris Yulin explained. “Unlike later political workers, the commissars of the Civil War era had the opportunity to even cancel the decision of the commander of a military unit.”
The commissars were entrusted with the political control of the army. Fearing conspiracies and rebellions among the troops, the Soviet military leadership made the commanders of military units dependent on the political leadership. A unique system was created that had no analogues even in the era of the Jacobin terror.
The commander (officer ranks were abolished as symbols of the old regime) had the right only to plan military operations and command in battle, and even here the commissar could intervene if he believed that a counter-revolutionary order had been given to the Red Army.
The rest of the time, all actions of the unit commander had to be agreed with the commissar.
Of course, such broad powers sometimes gave rise to no less serious abuses. A participant in the Civil War, A. Boyarchikov, in his memoirs, describes the incident that occurred in the 1st Cavalry Corps: “A strange man appeared at the army headquarters from the political department of the front headquarters. He presented documents according to which our army commissar Karpov was removed from his post and recalled to the political department of the front, and this strange type was appointed commissar instead. The new “commissar” immediately started a rumor around the headquarters that Army Commander Mironov would soon be removed from his post and arrested for his connection with Makhno ... Then the new “commissar” came to our car, where the cipher department of the headquarters of the 2nd Cavalry Army was located, and kicked us ... out of the car, and ordered the fireproof box with ciphers to be thrown into the garbage pit ... A few hours later we learned that the new "commissar" was an impostor with forged documents and that he was under arrest in a special department.
The introduction of unity of command
The omnipotence of the commissars was one of the manifestations of the emergency characteristic of the first years of Soviet power. Therefore, as soon as the need for such radical measures disappeared, the commissars were abandoned. In 1924, after the end of the Civil War, a commission on unity of command was created under the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR. Opening the meeting of the commission, M. Landa, deputy head of the political department of the Red Army, bluntly stated that it was necessary "to make specific proposals for the elimination of" ugliness "in matters of unity of command." That is, the Bolsheviks themselves recognized the institution of commissars as temporary and inconsistent with the functions of the regular army.
Parade on Red Square, 1925 RIA Novosti
As a result, on March 2, 1925, the order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR "On the implementation of unity of command" was issued. The commissars, of course, remained, but lost some of their rights, turning into political assistants to the commander. But the rank of commissar was returned to the Red Army twice more.
Each time it happened at the most critical moments in history. The first restoration took place at the height of the Great Terror, on August 15, 1937. Stalin was afraid of the Bonapartism of the top military leadership, so the commissar again became equal to the commander: “The military commissar, together with the commander, is obliged to protect the entrusted to him military unit... from the penetration and appearance in it of enemies of the people, spies, saboteurs, pests, stopping immediately and decisively any actions that could harm the Red Army.
In 1940, Stalin, confident that after the purge of officers, the army had again become loyal to him personally, allowed him to return to one-man command.
On July 16, 1941, when the Red Army, defeated in the border battles, was rapidly retreating, the commissars returned to ensure the unquestioning execution of the orders of the command. This time, the task of the commissars was different: to ensure "full responsibility for the performance of the military unit of the combat mission, for its steadfastness in battle and unshakable readiness to fight to the last drop of blood with the enemies of our Motherland and to defend every inch of Soviet land with honor."
During the Great Patriotic War, the task of the commissars changed - there was no need to track down conspiracies, but it was necessary to fight German propaganda, which was highly professional and had a very strong influence on people's minds.
“As the course of the war showed, the commissars coped with this during the most difficult period of hostilities,” Boris Yulin explained.
Member of the Military Council of the 29th Army, Brigadier Commissar Nikolai Nikiforovich Savkov presents the medal "For Courage" to a Red Army soldier who distinguished himself in battle. Northwestern Front 1942 RIA Novosti
“In the Great Patriotic War and in subsequent decades, the role of commissars, especially after they became political officers, is closer to the modern functionality of educational work than to the political control of the army,” Ilya Kramnik added.
On October 9, 1942, although heavy battles for Stalingrad and the Caucasus were still going on, it became clear to the leadership of the USSR that the crisis in the army had been overcome, therefore, the system of total political control was no longer needed - the soldiers themselves were burning with the desire to fight the Germans and win. Therefore, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR abolished the commissars - now for good. Unity of command in the army was restored. Commissars in the USSR turned into political workers, whose duties were to educate the fighters and organize their leisure.
Representatives of the Communist Party in the armed forces in 1918-1942. (with breaks).
The position of military commissars arose in the Red Army during the Civil War, when in the spring of 1918 former officers of the tsarist army ("military experts") began to join its ranks. In fact, the principle was introduced when the leadership of a unit or formation was carried out by two people at once - the commander and the commissar. After the end of the Civil War, the transition to the principle of unity of command began, when the leadership of the troops is carried out by one commander, who bears full responsibility for the orders given. During the period of mass repressions, in May 1937, the institution of military commissars was temporarily revived and existed until 1940. With the outbreak of World War II, on July 16, 1941, by decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee and by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the position of military commissars was reintroduced in regiments, divisions, corps and in military schools. At the same time, the position of political instructors was introduced in companies, batteries and squadrons. In July-September 1941, the institutions of military commissars and political officers were established in the Navy, in battalions, divisions, divisional headquarters, and partisan formations. The military commissars, together with the commanders, bore full responsibility for the "life and combat activity units and formations, for their stamina in battle. As in the years of the Civil War, their duties included implementing the policy of the party, monitoring the ideological moods of soldiers and commanders, educating personnel in the spirit of patriotism, loyalty to the oath, taking care of the material support of personnel, etc. However, unlike during the Civil War in 1941, the commissars were not empowered to control the official activities of the command staff. In a combat situation, the military, mainly commissars, showed their best side. If the situation required it, they were in the most dangerous areas of the battles. In the first months of the war, they often had to deal with the suppression of panic and defeatism, using not only calls, but also severe penalties. At the grassroots level, political instructors strove not to leave the soldier's environment and do everything in their power to instill confidence in the fighters in moral superiority over the enemy. They saw their main task in showing by personal example how to fight the enemy. At the same time, the commissars performed the functions of monitoring the moods of soldiers and officers and carried out the party ideology. By the autumn of 1942, in connection with the strengthening of party organizations in the army, the growth of the professionalism of officers and the need to increase the authority of the command staff of the Red Army, it was decided to abandon the post of military commissars and political officers. In this regard, on October 9, 1942, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a decree "On the establishment of complete unity of command and the abolition of the institution of military commissars in the Red Army." On October 13, 1942, unity of command was also introduced in the Navy. Thus, combat commanders became responsible for all aspects of the life and activities of the troops. It is noteworthy that this decision was made at one of the most critical moments of the war - during the street fighting in Stalingrad, which testified to trust in combat commanders and emphasized the high status of the officer corps of the Red Army. In subdivisions, units and formations of the Red Army, the institution of deputy commanders for political affairs was simultaneously introduced. With regard to political workers, military ranks common to all commanders were established. In October 1942, the institution of commissars was also abolished in partisan formations, but in the conditions of fighting behind enemy lines, this measure turned out to be premature. After repeated appeals to the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement and a special order from the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in January 1943, the positions of commissars in partisan formations were abandoned and remained until full release Soviet territory from occupation.
Historical sources:
CPSU on the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union. Documentation. 1917-1968. M., 1969;
Party and political work in the Red Army. Documentation. M., 1961-64.
