Commissars Converted into Political Deputies
On Strengthening Unity of Command in the Red Army and the Navy. August 12, 1940
Original Source: Vedomosti Verkhovnogo Soveta SSSR, No. 38 (1942).
In connection with the fact that the institution of commissars has already fulfilled its basic tasks, and that the commanding cadres of the Red Army and the Navy have in recent years gained greatly .in strength, and also for the purpose of realizing, in units and commands, full unity of command and further increase of the authority of the commander - who is the absolute director of troops, bearing full responsibility also for political work in the units -the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR decrees:
The Statute on Military Commissars of the Worker-Peasant Red Army, issued by the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, 15 August 1937, No. 105/1387, shall be abolished.
The institution of deputy commander for political affairs shall be introduced into commands (corps, divisions, brigades), units, fleets, subdivisions, institutions of military education, and installations of the Red Army and the Navy.
The Military Councils of districts, army groups, and armies shall be obliged to exercise daily active supervision over the political work in corps, divisions, and brigades.
Source: Harold J. Berman and Miroslav Kerner, ed., Documents on Soviet Military Law and Administration (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1955), p. 15.