Political Administration of the Red Army

Supreme Soviet USSR, On the Organization of the Organs of Political Propaganda and the Introduction of the Institution of Military Commissars into the Worker-Peasant Red Army. July 16, 1941

 

Original Source: Vedomosti Verkhovnogo Soveta SSSR, No. 33 (1941).

The war which was thrust upon us has fundamentally changed the conditions of work in the Red Army. It has broadened the scope of political work in our Army and has made it imperative that our political workers do not limit their work to propaganda but take upon themselves responsibility for military work at the front as well.

On the other hand the war has also complicated the work of regiment and division commanders, and demands, therefore, that the political workers render all possible aid to the regiment and division commanders not only in the sphere of political work but in the sphere of the military as well.

All these new factors in the task of the political workers, connected with the transition from peace to war time, call for increasing the role and the responsibility of the political workers, just as took place during the Civil War against foreign military intervention.

In connection with this, and in accordance with the wishes of the State Committee of Defense and the Chief Commands, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR decrees:

1. To reorganize the administration and divisions of political propaganda into the Political Administration and Political Divisions of the Workers’- Peasants’ Red Army.

2. To introduce into all regiments and divisions, staffs, military schools and establishments of the Red Army, the institution of Military Commissars, and into companies, batteries and squadrons, the institution of Political Instructors.

3. To ratify the Order concerning military commissars in regiments and divisions of the Workers ‘Peasants’ Red Army.

President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR M. Kalinin
Secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR A. Gorkin
Ratified by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR

The Order concerning the Military Commissars of the Worker-Peasant Red Army

1. The institution of military commissars is established in all regiments, divisions, staffs, military schools and institutions of the Red Army at the front as well as in the rear.

2. A military commissar is a representative of the Party and the Government in the Red Army, who equally with the commander carries full responsibility for the fulfillment of all military tasks by the fighting unit, for its steadfastness in combat and its unwavering readiness to fight to the last drop of blood against the enemy of our country and to defend honorably every inch of Soviet soil.

3. A military commissar is a moral leader of his unit (or larger body), the prime defender of its material and spiritual interests. “If a commander of a regiment represents the head of a regiment, then a commissar should be the father and the soul of his regiment.” (Stalin)

4. A military commissar is obliged to render every conceivable aid to the commander who carries out honorably and unstintingly all fighting tasks, to strengthen his authority as a commander, and to exercise rigid control over the fulfillment of all orders issued by the high command.

Source: The American Review on the Soviet Union. Vol. I, No. 4 (October – November, 1941), pp. 59-60.

 

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