Instructions for the Regimental Commissar, November 24, 1919

Source: Tom 17

ORDER
to the Armies of the Southern Front
of November 24, 1919

No. 1836

The present instructions were drafted in August of this year by a special conference of senior political workers of the Western Front under the direction of the member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Western Front, Comrade Stalin.

INSTRUCTIONS
for the Regimental Commissar in Active Units

I. General Provisions

A. Official Position of the Regimental Commissar

1. In the chain of command, the regimental commissar is subordinate to the brigade commissar.

a) In the order of subordination, the regimental commissar is obligated to report to the brigade commissar, and where one exists, to the commissar of the combat sector, on everything occurring in the regiment, daily and weekly, in the prescribed format.

2. The battalion commissars are subordinate to the regimental commissar.

a) The regimental commissar, through the Party workers subordinate to him in the battalions, companies, and other sub-units of the regiment, must receive daily and weekly reports in the prescribed format.

B. Relations of the Regimental Commissar to the Command Staff

1. The regimental commissar must:
a) observe the entire command staff, beginning with the platoon commander;
b) on the basis of his observations, compile assessments of the entire command staff with regard to both military and political qualities.

Such assessments the regimental commissar forwards to the brigade commissar, with a copy to the Political Department of the division.

Note: The regimental commissar must treat the command staff in a strictly businesslike manner, with full reserve, without any familiarity, but also without hostility.

C. Relation of the Regimental Commissar to His Unit

1. The regimental commissar is the political and moral leader of his regiment, the foremost defender of its material and spiritual interests. If the regimental commander is the head of the regiment, then the commissar must be its father and soul.

D. Relations of the Regimental Commissar to the Party Cell

1. The regimental commissar is the representative of the RCP in the regiment. As such, in his relations with the Party cell, he is obligated to be guided strictly by the instructions of the CC of the Party on Party cells.

2. The regimental commissar must under no circumstances permit any encroachment by the Party cell upon the sphere of his official powers.

E. Relations of the Regimental Commissar to the Population and Civilian Authorities

1. The regimental commissar must ensure that, in the eyes of the local population and authorities, the unit entrusted to him serves as a model of revolutionary discipline and a pillar of the order established by the workers' and peasants' dictatorship.

2. The regimental commissar must see to it that the civilian authorities in the combat sector unconditionally comply with the demands of military necessity and the orders of the military authorities.

3. The commissar must ensure that the Red Army soldiers of the unit entrusted to him, in peacetime conditions, strictly and unswervingly comply with the directives of the local authorities.

II. Work of the Regimental Commissar

A. Military-Operational Sphere

1. The regimental commissar is obligated to use his presence in the regiment for the most thorough study and mastery of all knowledge and skills connected with military affairs. He must be abreast of all orders without exception, both received by and issued from the regiment. The commissar cannot be merely an appendage to the regimental commander, a mere keeper of the seal, or a passive observer of the work of military specialists. He must involve himself in all affairs of the regiment without exception, participate in the development of all orders of the regimental commander without exception, while leaving the decisive word to the commander on questions of a purely operational character.

2. Participating in all activities of the regimental commander, the regimental commissar together with him receives reports and dispatches, develops and countersigns orders, and monitors their exact and timely execution. Only orders signed by the commissar have force. Thoughtfully grasping the meaning of each order, the regimental commissar by his signature gives, as it were, a guarantee that the order not only does not pursue counter-revolutionary goals but also does not threaten any harm to the cause of the military defense of workers' and peasants' Russia. If the regimental commissar disagrees with an order, summary, or report, he must, without delaying them, immediately after signing, forward his motivated dissenting opinion to the brigade commissar.

3. If the regimental commissar is firmly convinced that an order being issued constitutes an act of treason, he must detain the order, arrest the commander who issued it, and appoint a temporary replacement. In the absence of a suitable person, the commissar is obligated to assume command himself, immediately reporting the matter to the brigade commissar. The commissar assumes full responsibility for these measures.

4. Bearing in mind that orders are written to be carried out, not discussed, and that an army without discipline turns into a rabble, the regimental commissar is obligated to be a living example of unconditional submission to military-service discipline. In the event of a breach of discipline in the regiment, he must ensure that the guilty are subjected to unfailing punishment in strict accordance with the requirements of the disciplinary code.

5. The regimental commissar is obligated to visit as frequently as possible the battalions, companies, outposts, and detachments of his regiment, monitoring the guarding of the regiment's boundaries, demanding unsleeping vigilance from the sentries, and systematically verifying the exact and conscientious performance of their duties.

6. In strict accordance with the special instructions on reconnaissance, the regimental commissar must take all measures for its most effective organization.

7. When the entire regiment or a significant part of it is conducting combat operations, the regimental commissar, without losing communication with the headquarters, is obligated to monitor the course of military operations, paying particular attention to the work of communications. In especially dangerous places and at the most critical moments of battle, the regimental commissar is obligated by his presence and the example of personal courage to sustain the fighting spirit of the units and to facilitate the exact and proper execution of orders -- when necessary, leading the unit into the attack, halting those who flee, and taking the most resolute measures to restore order. For the successful execution of all these tasks, the commissar may transfer part of his powers to a deputy appointed by him.

8. With the same personal presence and example of his own valor, the regimental commissar is obligated to contribute to the successful fulfillment of combat tasks also in cases where they are carried out by separate component parts of the regiment; in these conditions, too, he must not lose communication with the headquarters.

9. Fully supporting fire discipline, the regimental commissar must absolutely not permit disorderly and aimless shooting. At the same time, he is obligated to take every convenient opportunity to remind and explain to the riflemen the necessity of the most sparing expenditure of ammunition.

10. In moments of successful action by the regiment, when prisoners, deserters, and trophies come into its possession, the regimental commissar is obligated to ensure humane treatment of prisoners, absolutely not permitting their humiliation or robbery, facilitating as far as possible their feeding and earliest dispatch to the rear, after taking inventory and personally interrogating them. As for deserters, by no means leaving them in the regiment's units, the regimental commissar, after personal interrogation, immediately sends them to the brigade. Only in exceptional cases and under his own responsibility may the commissar release deserters back, for the purpose of inducing enemy units or groups to come over to our side.

11. The duty of the regimental commissar is to ensure that combat trophies and booty -- such as military equipment, supply trains, artillery, livestock, provisions, goods of all kinds, and so forth -- are immediately placed under guard and dispatched to the rear under the strictest protection. The commissar may retain from these trophies only items of extreme necessity and immediate consumption.

12. In the struggle against desertion, guided by the precise directives of the relevant instructions, the regimental commissar must display the highest degree of energy. He must pay particular attention to the work of the commandant's detachment, to the selection of its personnel, and to their training. Monitoring the most exact possible accounting of deserters from his unit, the commissar is obligated to forward information about them regularly through the chain of command.

13. In cases of mass flight during a retreat, the regimental commissar must see to the organization of blocking posts and detachments, taking the most resolute measures to restore discipline.

14. During a retreat, the commissar is obligated to ensure that the commandant of the combat sector takes the most resolute measures for the earliest evacuation from the threatened area of all surplus live and dead inventory and grain reserves from the population, acting by revolutionary methods in organized coordination with the local poor.

15. When necessary, facilitating the resolute and military-revolutionary implementation of evacuation orders, destruction of structures, requisition of transport, and so forth, the regimental commissar is obligated to protect, as far as possible, the interests of the laboring masses.

16. Throughout the entire duration of battle, the regimental commissar is obligated to ensure that:
a) the commandant's detachment actually guards the regiment's combat sector;
b) the commandant's detachment is under no circumstances thrown into battle as a "stopgap."

To this end, the commissar is obligated to monitor the availability in the commandant's detachment of sufficient armament, equipment, and combat training.

17. The regimental commissar must monitor the proper functioning of the medical-sanitary apparatus in battle, absolutely not permitting the wounded to be left without timely assistance, and even less permitting the risk of their falling into enemy hands. In the event of a shortage of transport for evacuating the wounded, the commissar is obligated to resort to the requisition of peasant carts from the population, paying for the carts so requisitioned.

B. Administrative-Economic Sphere

1. The regimental commissar is obligated to ensure that the supply of the regiment with all types of provisions is carried out in full, without delay, and by equitable distribution, for which purpose he must monitor:
a) the exact accounting of combatants and mouths to feed;
b) the proper bookkeeping of the regiment's economic section;
c) the proper preparation and timely submission of requisition forms;
d) the proper compilation of equipment lists, paying particular attention to the timely disbursement of monetary allowances;
e) requiring every Red Army soldier to have a service booklet, monitoring its proper maintenance. For the absence of a booklet or its improper maintenance, the guilty party is to be held accountable.

2. If the supply apparatus cannot be put in order by ordinary measures of oversight and influence, the regimental commissar is obligated to immediately apply to the brigade commissar for a factual audit. In extreme cases, the commissar conducts such an audit himself, with the participation of the economic control council.

3. In the area of economic work, the regimental commissar must rely on the control-economic council, and to this end must not only promote its establishment in the regiment but also strive in every way to raise its initiative within the bounds of the rules established by the relevant instructions.

4. In cases of extreme necessity, when there is no food or forage, the regimental commissar, not permitting unauthorized actions by the regiment's units, is obligated under his personal responsibility to supply the regiment with everything necessary through procurement and requisitions, using the regiment's economic funds.

Note: In the event of insufficient cash, the commissar may issue a requisition receipt, immediately reporting this through the chain of command.

5. The regimental commissar must strive to ensure that the regiment always has a food reserve of not less than five days.

6. Periodically, especially after combat operations, the regimental commissar conducts a review of the regiment's actual strength, so that there are no dead souls in the lists; alongside this, a review of regimental property and armament must be conducted so that the demands submitted for both correspond exactly to the regiment's actual needs, while surpluses and unregistered weapons are recorded in a separate account.

7. The commissar is obligated to ensure that the regiment always has the necessary accessories and materials for cleaning and oiling weapons.

8. All unserviceable or surplus weapons must be immediately turned in to the appropriate artillery transport and ammunition depots.

9. Spent shell casings, both rifle and artillery, must be most carefully collected and forwarded to the artillery transport and ammunition depots.

10. The regimental commissar is obligated to monitor the proper expenditure and condition of the regiment's funds, personally participating in the inspection of the cash box.

11. Upon discovering abuses and major irregularities in the economic section, the regimental commissar is obligated to hold the guilty parties accountable.

12. In the event that the economic section is located far from the headquarters, the regimental commissar is granted the right to appoint one member of the economic control council as his deputy for economic affairs.

13. The regimental commissar monitors the appropriateness of all reassignments and appointments in the regiment. Simultaneously, the commissar ensures that reports on all outstanding cases -- both commendations and offenses -- are submitted through the chain of command.

C. Political and Cultural-Educational Work

1. As the representative of the RCP in the regiment, the commissar is obligated to organize Party cells and comrades' courts in all units of the regiment, to instruct their work, to monitor their productivity, and to ensure the exact correspondence of their activity to the instructions of the RCP.

2. Proceeding from the principle that a Party member must be an example of revolutionary duty, energy, and discipline, the regimental commissar must demand that the Communists of the unit entrusted to him, both in peacetime and in combat, be at the forefront in everything and in all things. At the same time, no privileges or special treatment whatsoever must be permitted for Communists.

3. In his own personal life and, in particular, in his outward appearance, the regimental commissar must be an example of compliance with all requirements of the regulations.

4. The regimental commissar is obligated to have exact information about the class composition of the unit entrusted to him.

5. The regimental commissar is obligated to monitor all manifestations of counter-revolutionary, anti-Soviet, anti-Communist, and anti-Semitic propaganda and agitation, taking measures against persons noticed in such activities and reporting them through the chain of command.

6. When necessary, to combat the aforementioned phenomena, the regimental commissar establishes covert surveillance.

7. The regimental commissar is obligated to carry out without fail all directives of the Political Department of the division, as expressed in the relevant orders and instructions. Upon arriving at the location of the Political Department, the regimental commissar is obligated to report there to establish contact, notifying them each time of his arrival and departure.

8. Firmly bearing in mind that an army is stronger the more politically conscious it is, the regimental commissar is obligated to do everything possible for the enlightenment of his unit. To this end, the commissar must ensure that in the schedule of drill exercises, a definite time is allotted for political literacy classes. In the absence of another Party worker, the commissar himself is obligated to conduct these classes.

9. Every period of rest for the units must be used by the regimental commissar to enliven political and cultural-educational work, reporting on this to the Political Department of the division.

10. In combat conditions, meetings and assemblies are absolutely prohibited.

11. The regimental commissar is obligated to personally examine and resolve on the spot all arising misunderstandings; only in especially important cases does he turn to the chain of command for guidance and assistance.

12. In territories cleared of the enemy, the commissar must assist in the organization of Soviet power.

13. In the area of cultural-educational work, the duty of the regimental commissar is to instruct, control, and direct this activity.

14. Promoting in every way the organization in the units entrusted to him of cultural-educational commissions, Red Army clubs, reading rooms, libraries, literacy schools, theatrical, sports, and musical circles, public reading of newspapers -- the regimental commissar verifies the financial records of all these organizations and signs the requisitions issued by them.

15. In accordance with the decree on the mandatory education of illiterates, the regimental commissar monitors their exact registration and instruction.

16. The proper supply of literature to the regiment requires the particular attention of the commissar.

17. Upon arriving in a populated center, the regimental commissar is obligated to immediately establish contact with the Party Committee, the Department of Public Education, or the Agitation-Education Section of the Military Commissariat.

18. By all means, the regimental commissar is obligated to promote the involvement of the unit entrusted to him in general political life, facilitating Red Army soldiers' access to public meetings, demonstrations, and celebrations.

19. Every significant event in both domestic and foreign political life must be explained and elucidated by the regimental commissar to the Red Army masses.

20. During a retreat, the regimental commissar takes measures for the organized distribution of agitational literature to the population and toward the enemy.

Publication of the Political Department of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front. 1919.