Кеңес Одағы әскери шендерінің тарихы

Ranks introduced after the October Revolution

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 early Red Army abandoned the institution of a professional officer corps as a "heritage of tsarism" in the course of the Revolution. In particular, the Bolsheviks condemned the use of the word "officer" and used the word "commander" instead. The Red Army abandoned epaulettes and ranks, using purely functional titles such as "Division Commander", "Corps Commander", and similar titles. In 1924 it supplemented this system with "service categories", from K 1 (lowest) to K 14 (highest). The service categories essentially operated as ranks in disguise: they indicated the experience and qualifications of a commander. The insignia now denoted the category, not the position of a commander. However, one still had to use functional titles to address commanders, which could become as awkward as "comrade deputy head of staff of corps". If one did not know a commander's position, one used one of the possible positions for example: "Regiment Commander" for K 9. This rank system stayed on for a decade.

On September 22, 1935, the Red Army abandoned service categories and introduced personal ranks. These ranks, however, used a unique mix of functional titles and traditional ranks. For example, the ranks included "Lieutenant" and "Comdiv" (Комдив, Division Commander). Further complications ensued from the functional and categorical ranks for political officers (e. g., "Brigade Commissar", "Army Commissar 2nd Rank"), for technical corps (e. g., "Engineer 3rd Rank", "Division Engineer"), for administrative, medical and other non combatant branches. Rank insignia then used both upside down chevrons on the sleeve and collar marks. The rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was also introduced.

On May 7, 1940, further modifications to the system took place. The ranks of "General" or "Admiral" replaced the senior functional ranks of Combrig, Comdiv, Comcor, Comandarm; the other senior functional ranks ("Division Commissar", "Division Engineer", etc.) remained unaffected. The Arm or Service distinctions remained (e. g. General of Cavalry, Marshal of Armoured Troops). On November 2, 1940, the system underwent further modification with the abolition of functional ranks for NCOs and the reintroduction of the Podpolkovnik (sub colonel) rank. For the most part the new system restored that used by the Imperial Russian Army after its participation in World War I. In early 1942 all the functional ranks in technical and administrative corps became regularized ranks (e. g., "Engineer Major", "Engineer Colonel", "Captain Intendant Service", etc.). On October 9, 1942, the authorities abolished the system of military commissars, together with the commissar ranks, and they were completely integrated into the regular officer corps. The functional ranks remained only in the medical, veterinary, and legislative corps, and Private became the basic rank for the enlisted and NCOs.

In early 1943 a unification of the system saw the abolition of all the remaining functional ranks. The word "officer" became officially endorsed, together with the epaulettes that superseded the previous rank insignia, styled like the Imperial Russian Army before, and Marshal and Chief Marshal ranks created for the various arms and branch commands of the Red Army and the Red Army Air Forces save for the infantry (even through the Artillery branch was the first to have one in 1942) with all Marshal and Chief Marshal ranks being equal to General of the Army. The ranks and insignia of 1943 did not change much until the last days of the USSR; the contemporary Russian Ground Forces uses largely the same system. The old functional ranks of Combat (Battalion or Battery Commander), Combrig (Brigade Commander) and Comdiv (Division Commander) continue in informal use. After the war, the rank of Generalissimus of the Soviet Union was proposed to Joseph Stalin in his role as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, however, he refused the proposal of the rank several times. The rank insignia featured the USSR arms above a large Marshal's Star surrounded by a wreath.

1963 saw all Starshina insignia in the Army and Air Force change to their final design. In 1970 all Starshinas became full time senior non commissioned officers and enlisted personnel and the new NCO rank of Praporshchik became a Warrant Officer rank, with a new rank of Senior Praporshchik created for senior rank holders later in 1981. And in 1974, Generals of the Army had one star on their shoulder epaulets rather than four with surrounding wreaths. The final rank structure from these reforms stayed well until the Union's dissolution and is the basis for the current ranks of the Russian Ground Forces. These ranks also became the basic ranks for the Soviet Air Forces in 1918 and the Soviet Air Defense Forces (from 1932 to 1949 part of the Soviet Air Force and the Red Army, 1949 independent branch, and from 1954 a full service arm of the Soviet Armed Forces), and from 1991 onward became the basis for the present ranks of the Russian Air Force (including the Air Defense Forces from 1998 onward) and from 2001, the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces (Formerly the Space Forces). The only exceptions were the use of the ranks of Marshal of Aviation and Chief Marshal of Aviation, which replaced the rank of General of the Army until the latter became the highest officer rank in 1993.

In 1918, the Soviet Navy was raised from the pro Bolshevik sailors and officers of the Imperial Russian Navy as the Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet by a decree by the Soviet Council of People's Commissars. The ranks and rates were, just like in their counterparts in the Army, personal positions for officers, Petty Officers, and seaman rates. The former officers of the IRN who joined the ranks of this new navy retained their ranks with the abbreviation "b." meaning "former" while the new officers were addressed by their positional ranks. They stayed that way until 1925 when new ranks and rates were created. The rank insignia for the 1918–25 ranks were on the sleeve and cuff. Most of the officer ranks were revived in 1935, save for the high ranking officers, and the new PO rank of Squad Commander. The PO rank of Starshina was retained, however. In 1939 all flag officer ranks were reinstated and Midshipman became the highest enlisted rating in the Navy, and in the course of the Great Patriotic War, all Redfleetmen became Seamen in another rank change. In 1943 all naval rank insignia became uniform in the fleet and ground forces. Uniquely, the ranks of the Soviet Naval Infantry, Soviet Naval Aviation, and the other ground services remained army styled similar to their Red Army counterparts but the rank insignia became uniform. The Admiral of the Fleet rank was also created by then. The rank insignia was now also seen on epaulettes: black on duty dresses and dark blue and gold on all full and ceremonial dresses for the fleet forces, with air force blue borders for the aviation branch and red borders for the coastal defense and naval infantry branch. In 1952 the senior enlisted rating's insignia (until 1972, Midshipman and from then on, Chief Ship Petty Officer) changed to its final design. 1955 saw the renaming of the Admiral of the Fleet rank into that of Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union and was now equivalent to that of a Marshal of the Soviet Union. The shoulder insignia for fleet admirals and all officers' sleeve insignia changed in the following decade as the Admiral of the Fleet rank was revived, now between Admirals and Admirals of the Fleet of the Soviet Union. 1972 saw Midshipmen's status raised to warrant officers with Chief Ship Petty Officers replacing their former roles as the highest enlisted ratings.

The Soviet ranks and insignia (post 1943) are based on the ranks of Imperial Russia, which influenced the rank systems in imperial Japan, Thailand, Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria. While the first three later took their course of development, the Bulgarians remain under the influence of the Russian and the (post )Soviet tradition until recently. The rank systems in the pro Soviet states of Mongolia and Tuva developed under the Soviet influence, following the pattern change in 1943. The Soviet influence on the rank and insignia of other countries reached the apex after WW2 when most countries of East Europe changed their traditional insignia to the Soviet design. Yugoslavia abandoned the Soviet style insignia in 1951, following the breakaway from Stalin's block; other countries quickly reverted to previous designs shortly after Stalin's death (1956–1958). Only Poland and East Germany remained loyal to the pre war uniform and ranks style out of the Warsaw block countries. Albania kept the Soviet based system until 1966 when ranks and insignia were abolished completely. Romania retained the Soviet based system of ranks until the 1989 revolution. Outside the Warsaw Alliance, the Soviet system of ranks and insignia influenced those in the following countries: China (before 1958 and after 1988), East Turkestan (unrecognized, part of China), North Korea, Vietnam (with stripes horizontal rather than vertical), Laos (senior officers have a thick stripe instead of two thin stripes), Kampuchea (1979–1993), Afghanistan (senior officers have horizontal stripes instead of vertical), South Yemen (1985–1990), Mongolia, and Cuba (the latter two countries slightly changed designs in the post Soviet times, but the Soviet patterns are still easy to recognize). In Africa, pro Soviet regimes in Burkina Faso (under Thomas Sankara) and Mozambique (under Samora Machel) used Soviet style insignia but abandoned them when political trends changed. Currently, Congo, Ethiopia, and Eritrea still retain the Soviet based system of ranks with slightly changed designs (officers have horizontal stripes rather than vertical). Post Soviet countries mostly retained the Soviet based system of ranks and insignia, except for the Baltic States (they restored their pre Soviet rank systems), Azerbaijan (which wanted to make its uniforms and ranks prominently different from Armenian), Georgia, and Ukraine (Soviet style designs were used before 2003 and 2016 in both Georgia and Ukraine respectively).