Political commissar

They also existed, with interruptions, in the Soviet Red Army from 1918 to 1991, as well as in the armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1943 to 1945 as Nationalsozialistische Führungsoffiziere (national socialist leadership officers).

Red Army was part of the Communist revolution forces; thus Mao Zedong had constantly emphasized its role in both combat and political missions.

Whereas in the 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.

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.

[6][7] An early kind of political commissar was established during the February Revolution 1917 as the Ispolkom issued the controversial Order no 1.

[8] 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.

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.

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.

In July 1941, consequent to the Red Army's defeats at the war's start, the position of political commissar reappeared.

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).

For example, East Germany's National People's Army used Politoffiziere as the unit commander's deputy responsible for political education.