Military ranks of the Soviet Union
The military ranks of the Soviet Union were those introduced after the October Revolution of 1917. At that time the Imperial Russian Table of Ranks was abolished, as were the privileges of the pre-Soviet Russian nobility.
Immediately after the Revolution, personal military ranks were abandoned in favour of a system of positional ranks, which were acronyms of the full position names. For example, KomKor was an acronym of Corps Commander, KomDiv was an acronym of Division Commander, KomBrig stood for Brigade Commander, KomBat stood for Battalion Commander, and so forth. These acronyms have survived as informal position names to the present day.
Personal ranks were reintroduced in 1935, and general officer ranks were restored in May 1940. Although they underwent some modifications, the ranks were based on those of the Russian Empire. Modified Imperial-style rank insignia were reintroduced in 1943.
The Soviet ranks ceased to be used after the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, although the military ranks and insignia of the modern Russian Federation and Ukraine have been largely adopted from the Soviet system.
The Red Army abolished all personal officer and general ranks, retaining only personal positions. Thus, a komvzvoda (platoon commander) was a position for an officer who would typically hold a junior lieutenant or lieutenant rank, {transl|ru|komroty} (company commander) was equivalent of captain, kombat (battalion commander) was an equivalent of major, and kompolka was an equivalent of lieutenant colonel or colonel.
Even though traditional personal ranks for Red Army officers were re-established in 1935, general ranks were not introduced until 1940, probably because they were associated with the White Army movement. So, in 1935–1940 the personal rank system in the Red Army consisted of the following General-grade ranks:
When the Marshal of the Soviet Union was introduced later in 1935, it became the highest rank in the Red Army, extending an already complex rank system.
However, when personal General ranks were introduced in 1940, the updated rank system did not feature a Brigadier-grade rank, mirroring a situation in the Russian Imperial Russian army where the Brigadier rank ceased to exist in the early 19th century. Most of the officers holding the kombrig rank were demoted to Colonels, and only a few were promoted to major general.
Another peculiarity of this new system was the absence of a full General rank, which until the 19th century was called General-en-Chef in the Russian Imperial army, and then was renamed General of the Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery. Curiously, the initial draft of the new rank system submitted by People's Commissar of Defence Marshal Voroshilov was more in line with Russian military tradition. In a memorandum submitted on 17 March 1940 to the Politburo and Sovnarkom, Voroshilov made the following proposal:[5]
However, in the final document, the two komandarm ranks were replaced with Colonel General and General of the Army, with the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union on top of them. In the end, the number of General-grade ranks did not reduce at all even with the abolition of the Brigadier-grade kombrig rank, contrary to the initial proposal by Voroshilov.
After the introduction of this new system, most existing kombrigs were ranked as colonel, although some were ranked as general; existing komdivs were mostly ranked as major general, komcors and Army Commanders 2nd rank was mostly ranked Lieutenant General, and Army Commanders 1st rank were ranked as Colonel General or General of the Army (a notable exception is Georgy Zhukov who was promoted to General of the Army directly from komcor rank). Later in 1943, the ranks of Marshal and Chief Marshal of a service branch were introduced in aviation, artillery, communications troops, and armored troops; both equivalent to General of the Army.
The final personal rank structure (for the Army and the Air Force) was thus as follows:
Eventually, the Soviet system of general ranks included commonplace Major General, Lieutenant General, however, the position between Lieutenant General and General of the Army was occupied by the Colonel General, which in the Soviet system is the equivalent of a full General rank in other nations.
This unusual rank structure makes rank comparisons difficult; Marshal of the Soviet Union is arguably not the equivalent to NATO five-star general ranks such as British Field Marshal or American General of the Army, but is instead an honorary rank analogous to the Marshal of France, although without associated state functions.
In the Soviet Navy before 1935 the ranks were personal positions. Since that year the general officer rank structure became as follows:
From 1940, the rank structure for high officers of the Navy became:
In 1943, the rank structure slightly changed into the final rank formation which remained until the dissolution of the Navy in 1991 with more changes in 1955 and 1962:
Ranks in the shore services mirrored the changes in the Red Army save that Colonel-General became the highest rank for troops in those services.
The Russian Navy still uses this, except that Marshal of the Russian Federation is the highest rank of precedence, and the rank below that, Admiral of the Fleet, is the highest deck rank for officers.