In the military, a political commissar or political officer (or politruk, a portmanteau word from Russian: политический руководитель, romanized: politicheskiy rukovoditel; transl. political leader or political instructor) is a supervisory officer responsible for the political education (ideology) and organization of the unit to which they are assigned, with the intention of ensuring political control of the military.

The function first appeared as commissaire politique (political commissioner) or représentant en mission (representative on mission) in the French Revolutionary Army during the French Revolution (1789–1799).^[1] Political commissars were heavily used within the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). They also existed, with interruptions, in the Soviet Red Army from 1918 to 1942, as well as in the armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1943 to 1945 as Nationalsozialistische Führungsoffiziere (national socialist leadership officers).

The function remains in use in China's People's Liberation Army, Taiwan's Republic of China Army, and Vietnam's People's Army. In fiction, The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy features the murder of the eponymous Soviet submarine’s political officer (Zampolit) as the incident that sets Captain Ramius’ long-planned defection scheme in motion.

China

People's Republic of China

The position of political commissar (Chinese: 政治委员) existed in the Chinese Red Army since the Sanwan Reorganization of 1927 (Chinese: 三湾改编), which established military organizations at various levels with Chinese Communist Party committees. The practice was formalized with the principle of the "Party commands the gun" (Chinese: 党指挥枪) at the Gutian Conference of 1929. Red Army was part of the Communist revolution forces; thus Mao Zedong had constantly emphasized its role in both combat and political missions. The political commissioners were tasked to teach communist ideologies to internal members of the Red Army, as well as propaganda tasks targeting the enemy by showing the Red Army as a righteous force.^[2]

In the People's Liberation Army (PLA), each level of the command has a dual-command structure, with a military organ and a Party organ. This collective leadership is held between the military commander (Chinese: 军事主官) and political commander (Chinese: 政治主官, i.e. the political commissar).^[3] The political commissar is always a uniformed military officer with both tactical and political training and Chinese Communist Party cadre. In the past, this position has been used to give civilian party officials some experience with the military.^[4]

Usually, the operational command organ has the military commander as the highest decision maker, while the political commissar serves as the second-in-command. As the deputy, political commissar are largely responsible for administrative tasks such as public relations, unit welfare, mental health, morale, and political education.^[4][3] The Party organs are chaired by the political commissar, with the military commanders serving as the deputy secretaries. This framework ensures that both military and political officers can collectively design the goals and tasks of their respective units.^[2]

The role of the political commissar is not universal across different branches of the PLA. In the Ground Forces, the political commissar is often second-in-command, while the military officer is responsible for the operation. Whereas in the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), the political commissar and the Party committee are the supreme decision-makers, while military works are delegated to the operational commander as the second-in-command.^[2]

Republic of China

The position of political commissar (Chinese: 政戰官, literal translation "Political Warfare Officer") also existed in the Republic of China Army of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Chiang Ching-kuo, appointed as Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) director of Secret Police in 1950, was educated in the Soviet Union, and initiated Soviet style military organization in the Republic of China Armed Forces, reorganizing and Sovietizing the political officer corps, surveillance, and Kuomintang party activities were propagated throughout the military. Opposed to this was Sun Li-jen, who was educated at the American Virginia Military Institute.^[5] Chiang Ching-kuo then arrested Sun Li-jen, charging him of conspiring with the American Central Intelligence Agency of plotting to overthrow Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang. Sun was placed under house arrest in 1955.^[6][7]

Today, political commissars belong to the Political Warfare Bureau (Chinese: 政治作戰局) and are still responsible for the planning and supervision of the political operations of the Republic of China Army where they are involved in psychological warfare, preparing propaganda for external consumption, along with providing counseling, psychological warfare training and processing news for the Taiwanese military.^[8]

Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc

An early kind of political commissar was established during the February Revolution 1917 as the Ispolkom issued the controversial Order no 1.^[9] As the Bolsheviks came to power through the October Revolution of November 1917, and as the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922 began, Leon Trotsky gradually established the Red Army and set up the role of political officers. They were tasked with making sure that communist parties could count on the loyalty of armed forces. Although there was a huge difference between the February Revolution and the October Revolution, their leaders in each case feared a counter-revolution, and both regarded the military officers as the most likely counter-revolutionary threat.^[10][11]

Later commissars in the Eastern bloc could exercise broader roles in social engineering.^[12]

In the Soviet Union

In the Red Army (1918–1946) and the Soviet Army (1946–1991), the political commissar (Russian: комиссар, romanized: komissar) existed, by name, only during the 1918–1924, 1937–1940, and 1941–1942 periods; not every Red Army political officer was a commissar. The political commissar held military rank equaling the unit commander to whom he was attached; moreover, the commissar also had the military authority to countermand the unit-commander's orders at any time. During the other periods of the Red Army's history political officers were militarily subordinate to unit commanders, and the position of political commissar did not exist.

The political supervision of the Russian military was effected by the political commissar, who was present in every unit and formation, from company- to division-level, including in the navy. Revolutionary Military Councils (or Revvoyensoviets, RVS) were established at army-, front-, fleet-, and flotilla-level, comprising at least three members—the commander and two political workers. The political workers were denominated "members of the RVS", not "commissars", despite their position as official political commissars.

In 1919, the title politruk (Russian: политрук, from политический руководитель, political leader) was assigned to political officers at company level. Despite their position as official political commissars, they were not addressed as "commissar". Beginning in 1925, the politico-military doctrinal course toward edinonachalie (Russian: единоначалие, single command) was established, and the political commissar, as a military institution, faded. The introduction of edinonachalie was two-fold, either the military commander joined the Communist Party and became his own unit's political officer, or a pompolit (Russian: помполит, assistant commander for political work) officer was commissioned sub-ordinate to him. Earlier, in 1924, the RVSs were renamed as Military Councils, such high-level political officers were known as ChVS (Chlen Voennogo Soveta, Member of the Military Council); they were abolished in 1934.

On 10 May 1937, the role of political commissar was reinstated in the Red Army, and Military Councils were set up. These derived from the political purges in the Soviet armed forces. Again, in August 1940, the office of political commissars was abolished, yet the Military Councils continued throughout the German-Soviet War (1941–1945), and after. Below army level, the edinonachalie (single-command) system was restored. In July 1941, consequent to the Red Army's defeats at the war's start, the position of political commissar reappeared. The commissars had an influential role as "second commanders" within the military units during this time. Their rank and insignia generally paralleled those of officers. Because this proved ineffective, General Konev asked Stalin to subordinate the political officer to commanding officers: the commissars' work was re-focused to morale-related functions. The term "commissar" was abolished in August 1942, and at the company- and regiment-level, the pompolit officer was replaced with the zampolit (deputy for political matters). Although no longer known by the original "commissar" title, political officers were retained by all the Soviet Armed Forces, e.g., Army, Navy, Air Force, Strategic Missile Troops, et al, until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Red Army rank designations

• Armeysky komissar 1-go ranga (Army Commissar 1st rank)
• Armeysky komissar 2-go ranga (Army Commissar 2nd rank)
• Korpusnoy komissar (Commissar of the corps)
• Divizionny komissar (Commissar of the division)
• Brigadny komissar (Commissar of the brigade)
• Polkovoy komissar (Commissar of the regiment)
• Starshi batalonny komissar (Senior commissar of the battalion)
• Batalonny komissar (Commissar of the battalion)
• Starshy politruk (Senior politleader)
• Politruk (Politleader)
• Mladshy politruk (Junior politleader)

Eastern Bloc armies

After World War II, other Eastern Bloc armies also used political officers patterned on the Soviet model. For example, East Germany's National People's Army used Politoffiziere as the unit commander's deputy responsible for political education. During the Korean War, the Korean People's Army commissars were known as "Cultural Sections" or "Political Sections".^[13]