Political commissar

Commissars appeared in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, when the Bolsheviks gave command to former tsarist officers and wanted to keep them under control; a commander's orders needed the commissar's countersignature. The politruk, or political leader, ran propaganda and ideological training in a company. The post was curtailed and restored several times, including in 1937, during the Great Purge, and in July 1941, after the defeats of the first weeks of the war with Germany.

A decree of 9 October 1942 introduced full single command, and commissars were replaced by deputy commanders for political affairs. The German Commissar Order of 6 June 1941 required captured political commissars to be shot without trial; thousands were killed. In 1920 the political commissar of the South-Western Front, advancing on Lwów, was Joseph Stalin.