Political officer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Political officer (also Politkommissar or Politruk ) was a military service in the armed forces of real socialist states with a political mandate. It was his job to ensure the political education of the soldiers in accordance with the Marxist-Leninist party doctrine . In doing so, he made sure that the officers and soldiers always acted as a “ socialist personality ” and represented a “clear class standpoint ”.

In addition to the regular and compulsory political lessons for soldiers, political officers ensured in regular management meetings that the party line was also represented in the officer corps of socialist armies and implemented accordingly.

In some armies and at certain time periods, the commanders could not make decisions without the consent of the political officer.

history

The institution of the political commissioner comes from the Russian civil war . In the Red Army , created in 1918 , many former tsarist officers were entrusted with command functions, on whose loyalty the Soviet power did not necessarily want to rely. The Political Commissar should monitor these commanders and, if necessary, prevent treason . At the same time he was responsible for political work and the education of the soldiers. Class -conscious workers, mainly communists , but also left-wing social revolutionaries until the summer of 1918, were appointed as political commissars .

In addition, the Political Commissar was responsible for youth, agitation, culture and sports work in the staffs, units and units.

After the end of the Second World War , the institution of the Political Commissar was also introduced into the Warsaw Pact armies . It still exists in the Chinese People's Liberation Army to this day .

Political Commissars in the Soviet Union

Every unit of the Red Army up to the battalion level was assigned a political commissar who had the authority to revoke orders from commanders that violated the principles of the CPSU . On the one hand, this reduced military efficiency, which, among other things, had catastrophic consequences for the Red Army soldiers in the winter war of 1939/40, but on the other hand it ensured the army's political reliability vis-à-vis the party. At company level there were no commissioners, but political leaders ( Politruk from Russian политический руководитель ).

The Red Army political officers were divided into two categories:

  1. as political leader in a company, squadron or an equivalent unit of the armed forces of the Soviet Union, who were appointed from the ranks of the CPSU to instruct the members of the army in terms of the politics of the party. The service was introduced in 1919 by order of the Revolutionary War Council of the Russian SFSR . It existed from 1919 to 1924, from 1937 to 1940 and July 1941 to October 1942.
  2. as the rank of political commissars of all branches of the armed forces of the Soviet Union from 1935 to 1942, which corresponded to the rank of first lieutenant .

At higher management levels, prominent members of the CPSU served as members of the military council during the German-Soviet War to ensure the party's influence on the army. So were z. B. Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev , Nikita Sergejewitsch Khrushchev and Andrei Alexandrowitsch Schdanow members of the Military Council of Fronts and Armies .

In the war against the Soviet Union , the commissioner order to liquidate the political commissioners was in effect in the German armed forces from June 6, 1941 . Even after this order was formally suspended on May 6, 1942, many political commissars were deliberately murdered in the concentration camps .

On submarines and warships of the Soviet Navy , the political officer, together with the commanding officer, had the keys to the launching devices of the nuclear weapons and was therefore responsible for them.

Political Commissars in the Spanish Civil War

During the Spanish Civil War , political commissars played an important role , especially in the International Brigades . The writer Kurt Stern was temporarily political commissioner of the XI. International Brigade , Gustav Regulator exercised this function in the XII. International Brigade. The political commissars, often appointed by the communists, often functioned as an extension of the Soviet Union and were responsible for cleansing operations on Spanish soil. One of the most famous political commissars in the Spanish Civil War was Hans Beimler , who belonged to the Thälmann battalion .

Political officers in the GDR

The political officers of the GDR had no right of objection to orders from the respective commander. However, according to an internal service regulation of the KVP [DV-10/3, 1953], they were initially "the direct superior of the entire workforce" of the unit in which they were deployed. They were therefore subordinate to the Chief of Political Administration and were therefore subject to a chain of command that was parallel to the actual chain of command. Because of persistent problems and uncertainties about competencies between party organs, political organs and the actual military leaders, there were soon several changes and shifts of influence and dependencies ["On the role of the party in the NVA"; January 14, 1958; “Regulations for the work of the NVA's political organs”, June 1958; Internal sales regulation February 1959].

In the GDR, political officers were trained as an additional course until 1983. The future political officer was first trained as a troop officer at one of the officers' colleges. This was followed by at least one year as an officer (mostly as a platoon leader). Only then began a 10-month training at the Military Political College (MPHS) "Wilhelm Pieck" in Berlin-Grünau.

From September 1, 1983, training to become a political officer took place in a four-year direct study course at one of the NVA's officers' colleges (OHS) . After graduation (appointment to lieutenant and award of the degree of social scientist ), the political officer was deployed as deputy to the commander for political work or as a full-time FDJ secretary in the battalion.

Prominent examples of former GDR political officers and officers' students working in high positions in Germany today are Holger Hövelmann , former Interior Minister of Saxony-Anhalt (2006-2011) and Karsten Neumann, the former state data protection officer for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . The former political officer Sven Hüber sued the author Roman Grafe and several print media in 2005 and 2006 , which reported on his work as a political officer. The Berlin Court of Appeal decided on March 19, 2007 that he could “not assert his claim to anonymity in view of his repeated appearances in public with lectures and film reports”.

Others

At the end of 1943, the function of National Socialist command officer was introduced in the Wehrmacht , with different powers, but with similar objectives.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Leon Trotsky: How the Revolution Armed, on the Internet: http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1918/military/ch02.htm
  2. ↑ Felix Römer: The commissioner order. Wehrmacht and Nazi crimes on the Eastern Front 1941/42. F. Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn 2008, 666 pages. ISBN 978-3-506-76595-6 .
  3. ↑ Stalins has the left "cleaned up" in Spain too , Süddeutsche Zeitung, July 20, 2016;
    Myths about the International Brigades New research on the Spanish Civil War
  4. ↑ Renate Oschlies: “Ex-political officer does not want to be named. GDR border guards complain against author and publisher ”. In: Berliner Zeitung , December 9, 2005.
  5. ↑ Patrick Conley: "Ex-border officer has no right to an undisturbed career" . In: Südthüringer Zeitung , March 20, 2007.